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by The Glitterfox Matriarchy of Ghostfox. . 1,981 reads.

Osiris Newbie Guide

Hello, and welcome to one of the most powerful and most dominant regions in the game: Osiris. NationStates is a surprisingly in depth game for such a simple concept. It sometimes takes months, maybe even years before a new player gets fully up to speed. If you're new to NationStates you probably have a lot of questions, and that's why I'm here to help you! Well, not physically... but in like spirit. You know. Like I wrote this guide so I'm spiritually guiding you throu-

Nevermind. :P

Anywho, we're going to break the guide up into sections to help organize and keep things clear:

WHAT ARE ALL THESE FANCY BUTTONS?
-This section talks about nation management, the basics of the World Assembly, and how the game works at the nation level.

WHO ARE ALL THESE OTHER PEOPLE?
-This section talks about regions, how they're classified, and how they fit into the NS world.

WHAT ARE ALL THESE FANCY WORDS?
-This is essentially a lexicon of nationstates slang. So you'll soon understand how to purge the userite menace and shun the cosmopolitan fenda armchairs!

WHAT ARE ALL THESE FANCY BUTTONS?

This is a particularly common question, phrased in a variety of ways and asked in a variety of broken internet slang. The good news is that we've figured out what most of the buttons do and are going to impart our knowledge to you, esteemed reader. But first let's stick to a few concepts.

First, you now are the ruler of a nation. Congratulations! Unfortunately, it's not all cake and glitter and eventually you're going to have a few problems arise. These problems take the form of issues- periodic decisions that you can make to affect the nature of your nation. They appear a few times every day as multiple choice questions, and every decision directly changes your nation's stats. Do you want a horrifyingly dangerous dictatorship? Take away all of your citizen's freedoms! Do you want an unusually large cheese exporting statistic? You'll... probably have to do a bit more than just clicking random answers, honestly. Also, if you figure this out, let me know. <3

You can check out your nation and the often humorous nuts and bolts of it by clicking through your stats.

You can also message other nations by "telegramming" them, which sort've functions like email. I'm sure you've already found the telegram feature though, because the moment you created your nation you were likely flooded with a bunch of recruitment messages. Don't worry- you can block them from showing up your inbox. Just do this:

Now, I'm sure you've explored a little bit (or else how did you find this guide!?) and you might have noticed a button that says World Assembly. The World Assembly, known as the WA, is a lot like the United Nations in that it is an organization of nations that meet to propose and vote upon world legislation. Except it's not like the UN because we almost got sued for that. There are two parts to it: The General Assembly and the Security Council. The General Assembly passes general legislation. These laws automatically go into place and its assumed your nation follows them, so you don't have to really do anything when they pass. It's sorta like roleplay legislation, if you get me. The Security Council *does* have gameside effects, but only three possible types of legislation can pass through it. Commendations (gold stars for nations), Condemnations (whatever imagery signifies bad nations. Face tattoos? I don't know), and Liberations (password removal that's usually used to help defend raided regions).

If this seems appealing to you, you can join the World Assembly and take part in the votes! All you gotta do is apply for the world assembly and use the email link they send you to join. Ending your membership in the WA is as easy as pressing the "Resign" button. Now, a very important rule of this site is that a player may only have ONE SINGLE WA NATION AT A TIME. That's not just one WA per email account, either. They have tricksy ways of figuring out if you're using multiple WA nations, or "multying", so don't do it! Good advice is to use a single email account in case you ever plan on changing your world assembly membership around, like raiders and defenders often do (we'll get to that in a bit). If you only use one email address, the site itself will block you from ever multying.

The next single most important thing you do if you join the WA is endorsing our Pharaoh, Altino, and all of the regional guardians! What's a region, you say? :o

WHO ARE ALL THESE OTHER PEOPLE?

Well I'm glad you asked! It's almost like you don't have any autonomy and were fated to ask that question because I'm writing this guide and I dictate the flow of it! What luck!

Regions are onsite and offsite communities of nations that group together for a variety of reasons. You can create your own region, join someone else's region, or stick around in this one (you should totes do the last one). What region you decide to participate in *greatly affects* your NationStates experience, so feel free to ask one of us more experienced players a bit about the different regions and what they have to offer. Regions give a more in depth government experience, places to roleplay, and often an easy way of getting involved in Raiding and Defending. Typically they will have an offsite forum dedicated to the regional government and as a place to create player activity and a discord server for quick communication. I suggest that you join both of any region you're a part of, *and* keep an eye on the Regional Message Board if you want to stay 100% up to date on the region you're in.

It's my advice that new players stick around an already developed region early on in their nationstates experience *before* going off and trying to create their own. NationStates is an intricate game that has a ton of history and a few community enforced rules that, as a new player, you might not know about. Experience is integral to creating a successful region, and so is knowing a thing or two about the other regions in the game.

What about those weirdos who keep screaming "Purge the userites!" you say? Well, they're talking about a pretty major division in how regions are organized- and a pretty major division in interregional politics as well. Regions are divided into two basic categories: Game Created Regions and User Created Regions. Game Created Regions, or GCRs are regions that were created by the NationStates peeps as either spawn regions (Feeders), respawn regions (Sinkers), The Rejected Realms, and these eyesores called Warzones. We don't really talk about the Warzones... Anywho, the GCRs are heavily populated and have a high concentration of veteran players. Often within the GCRs you get a very good look at what we call Gameplay, an abstract word describing... a lot of things. R/D, GCR interactions, interregional relations.... you get the picture. If you're searching for an intense political game, a very easy way into Raiding and Defending, or the ability to support some of the most powerful regions in the game, GCRs are for you.

User Created Regions are the opposite: not fun at all.

Just kidding.

They are different, in that they are created by a "Regional Founder" who then is able to set the region up however they like. There are many different themes, government systems, r/d leanings, and motifs, as the only thing that really restricts the Founder is their imagination. And the onsite rules. Please follow all of the onsite rules.

WHAT ARE ALL THESE FANCY WORDS?

By now I'm sure you've heard me say a few things that sounded made up. Well.... they are! But I didn't make them up, someone did a long time ago. It just so happens that the term stuck, and over the years we've developed a special sort of slang for NS. Here's a good bit of it, so that you don't get confused when people are talking:

GCR- Game Created Region, like Osiris
UCR- User Created Region, like Caer Sidi
Feeder- Where your nation spawns at
Sinker- Where your nation respawns at if you revive it after it ceases to exist
CTE- Cease to Exist. What happens if you don't log into your nation for a while
WA- The World Assembly, where you get your world legislation on
WAD- World Assembly Delegate. A position within the region that has the most World Assembly endorsements and is able to do fancy stuff.
Endo- World Assembly Endorsement
WFE- World Factbook Entry. The box with the text that tells you about the region you're looking at.
R/D- Raiding and Defending. The "military" part of Nationstates.
Raiding/Raider/Invader- Someone who uses the WA to take over regions for a variety of reasons.
Defending/Defender/Fenda- Someone who tries to stop the above person.
Feederite- Someone from a Feeder. (It's more complicated than this but this is a good baseline)
Sinkerite- Someone from a Sinker (Ditto)
Userite- Someone from a UCR. Used as a slur by some people.
Puppet- Another nation you control for various purposes.
GP- Gameplay. The part of this game where the regions interact with each other and everyone is angry.

OKAY ARE YOU DONE YET

Almost. ;-;

If you become a citizen, there should be a fancy welcome message in your inbox at some point from our wonderful Anabelle. It goes over a bit more of the Osiris specific information for new players. Read it, and then come join us in our discord server to hang out and learn more about the game.

Some General Advice:

-Being involved in the region as a Citizen is the best way to make the most of your time in Osiris. Only citizens can hold government jobs, vote on legislation that actually changes how our region operates, be a part of most of our activities, and join our military. These are super important, and will change your game from a dumb browser game into an actual experience.

-Learning the game in a GCR gives you a natural advantage if you ever decide to create your own region. Why's this? Well you learn the government and structure of regions, and you learn how to keep a community active and safe. These are super important to learn, and will make a huge difference between a 10 nation region that dies in a month and something that actually turns into a real community. You might even find that you like the GCRs and just stay! That's definitely what we advise....

-Endorse our WAD, Anabelle I, to keep the region safe. You might not understand why yet, but it is a very important part of this game! Do it or we'll steal your socks!

The big, pretty flag at the top was done by Imkitopia. She's wonderful at pretty much everything art.

The Glitterfox Matriarchy of Ghostfox

Edited:

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