About the project
Below is the beta completed and still being developed version for a war and technology system, aiming for some order in a sea of chaos. The system aims to set some standards of technology and military for our nations as determined by our NationStates nation strength. It takes in account, for now, three figures: your economy, your defence status, and your nation's population. It is always open to editing, however this must have logical and popular backup. As it is still beta, more things shall follow, but this is a standard version for those who wish to use it.
Upkeep
By having purchased technology, you must also afford to pay an upkeep for it. The upkeep is 10 Industrial Credits for each unit you have, and 20 Industrial Credits for each technology. To determine your Industrial Credits, please see below.
You can also buy standard units as reserve rather than active military. For as long as those units stay in reserve, they cost you about one-half the standard upkeep cost (i.e. 6 IC per unit, rather than 10). Once they are activated to be used in role-playing (as reserves cannot really fight unless activated) the cost increases to 10 IC, as normal. Compulsory military service in your NS reduces these costs by 2 IC.
Reserve units are of slightly lower quality than active military, but they are still far better than militia. All units can be put in reserve, but they can never exceed one-half the total number of active units of their type, rounded down (ie up to 50 reserve infantry for a nation with 100 infantry brigades). The only exception is Militia: you can have as many militia reserves as you can afford (not exceeding logical limits due to your population), without purchasing any militia units.
Only the following units can be put in reserve: Militia, Motorised Infantry, Mechanised Infantry, Armour, Artillery, Airborne, Fighter, Ground attack, Transport, Bomber, Patrol vessel, Corvette, Frigate, Destroyer, Cruiser and Transport ship.
Industrial Credits: a Nation's military and economic power
| QUOTE |
| (Population x 3 + 250) x (Economic Multiplier) x (Defence Multiplier) |
This is the standard formula for determining our IC's. Below it will be further explained, piece by piece. It is designed in a manner to give even a tiny and weak nation the ability to possess a basic defence and/or policing force for itself. Naturally, the bigger and larger a nation is, the more it can afford.
Population: This is your NationStates figure, without any zeros.
Economic Multiplier: Choose your economic multiplier from the list below, depending on your NationStates Economy.
Defence Multiplier: Similarly, choose your defence multiplier.
Economic MultipliersFrightening = 2,2
All-Consuming = 2,1
Powerhouse = 2,0
Thriving = 1,9
Very Strong = 1,8
Strong = 1,7
Good = 1,6
Fair = 1,5
Reasonable = 1,3
Developing = 1,1
Weak = 0,9
Struggling = 0,8
Basket case = 0,4
Imploded = 0,2
Defence MultipliersRuled by Dept of Defence = 3,5
Mostly devoted to defence = 2,8
Mainly concerned with defence = 2,2
Defence juggled with other issues = 1,7
Defence subordinate to other issues = 1,2
No mention of defence = 0,8
If you don't want to spend any tax money on the army = 0,5
Almost no money on defence = 0,4
For instance, using the data for The --Soviet Union-- on 2 May 2006, my country has the following Industrial Credits:| QUOTE |
| (4.887 x 3 + 250) x 2,2 x 1,7 = 55.767 IC |
Dontexistland, a 5-million nation with no mention of defence and imploded economy, gets the following figures:
| QUOTE |
| (5 x 3 + 250) x 0,2 x 0,4 = 21,2 = 21 IC |
And Superdupertinyland, a 5-million nation with Frightening economy and ruled by the Department of Defence:
| QUOTE |
| (5 x 3 + 250) x 2,2 x 3,5 = 2.040,5 = 2.041 IC |
You may voluntarily reduce your statistics, but not increase them unless using the frames of peace- and war-time economies (see below). The outcome will most certainly give you a value realistic and credible enough to use under the 10% rule; for instance, my nation has the standard, 4.178.000-personnel Soviet military, like in real life, including in it just over 1 million non-combat personnel, purely used for construction and other such purposes. If you get fractions, always round up or down normally: for instance, 4,1 becomes 4, 7,39 becomes 7, and 8,98 becomes 9.
New addition as of 1 June 2007:War-time and Peace-time Economies
What is a war-time and a peace-time economy? Something that might or might not differ from your current economies. They are different types of economies for different types of features: a peace-time economy is usually characterised by more attention to the economy and civil issues than the military, a war-time economy is the other way around. War-time economies are undertaken during total war, whereas peace-time economies are undertaken when there is no threat of war.
Switching economies
Switching economies takes time or it takes no time at all, depending on your economy type. Centrally-planned economies (with no private sector) can make such switches very quickly, whereas market economies (with a private sector) need more time for that feature to take effect. This is because of the type of the market: when a single entity, the government, is controlling the entire economy, it is pretty easy to direct it to the section it needs. Centrally-planned economies have thus an advantage over capitalist economies at those regards, however the fact that they usually have lower volumes too (and thus lower ratings) this means that in the long term, the capitalists are balanced out.
A typical centrally planned economy needs one role-playing week to switch, as seen below. A typical capitalist economy needs two role-playing weeks.
What is the effect of switching economic types during the game?
Each time you take a step towards a war economy, you give up one economic rating to get one defence rating. Switching a single rating occurs within the amount of time determined by your economy (see above.) You have to roleplay the effects of your new economy and defence spending within realistic frames, just as you have to roleplay your standard ones.
This, of course, favours nations with a strong economy as they can afford more spending (economic reductions). If you have an imploded economy there is nothing you can do to bolster your defence rating (but if your defence rating is high enough you can reduce it for a couple of economic levels. As such it offers good RP possibilities even for economically weak countries.)
Warning! Assuming this does change your ratings everywhere. See the examples to see what I mean. Notice the ratings in bold.
Below are two examples reflecting how the change can be beneficial to your IC count; of course, you can only switch one or two levels. The examples below, however, assume the governments aim for full defence spending (total war.)Example: Country A has juggled defence spending and frightening economy. It can, within three weeks (as it is a centrally planned economy and needs only one week to switch an economic level for a defence level) lower its economy from 'Frightening' to 'Thriving' and increase its budget for defence from 'juggled' to 'ruled by the Dept. of Defence.'
This changes Country A IC's from 82.325 to 146.380 once the change is in full effect (assuming stagnant population.) Old calculation: (7254x3+250)*2,2*1,7. New calculation: (7254x3+250)*1,9*3,5.
Example: Country B, a market economy of Frightening volume and no mention of defence can decrease its economy to 'Strong' to get a 'Ruled by the Dept. of Defence' rating in ten weeks.
This changes Country B IC's from 18.048 to 35.878 once the change is in full effect (assuming stagnant population.) Old calculation: (3333x3+250)*2,2*0,8. New calculation: (3333x3+250)*1,7*3,5.
Likewise, switching to a peace-time economy is the opposite effect: reduce your defence spending rating to get more economic ratings.
Long-term effects
Long-term effects can vary and must be reflected in your RP. Retaining a war economy for too long (especially if your new economic rating is very low, ie equal to or lower than 'Reasonable') there will be discomfort by the people, including possible riots or protests. In the long term, it might even mean a coup! The opposite, for peace-time economies, applies. The people will generally be happier, but the military will be uncomfortable, which also leaves a coup and protests possible.
Activating
To activate such effects, just make a news post about this. Do not forget to add an OOC Notice at the bottom, stating your current stats and your eventual aim, and during what period, or it will have no effect. Lastly, don't forget to add a notice at the TOP of your calculating warsheet and state the same: real stats and augmented stats!
Note: If you have unchanged stats from your nationstate, ie neither activated peacetime or wartime economy, assume your economy is 'peacetime' during peace and 'wartime' during war.
You can use this especially-made spreadsheet for easier calculations! Click here to download (45 Kb Microsoft Excel Sheet/XLS file.) Chapter 1: Units
Note: Some units may have technological prerequisites, which means they need to be purchased before the units are, to give you access to them.
Ground forces
All ground forces come in brigades of 2500 military personnel each, including all combat and backup troops unless noted otherwise. Their other equipment is not listed due to country-per-country differences.
Militia (2 IC): Most capable in home areas and using guerilla tactics, militia brigades are almost always untrained citizens who take up arms to defend their homeland. Militia have always poor quality, but they might have high morale if they are fighting for a cause they understand and tend to support.
Motorised Infantry (4 IC): An infantry brigade excels in urban and mountain warfare, and is also adept at hit-and-run, guerilla tactics. These are usually motorised with trucks, at the player's decision.
Mechanised Infantry (6 IC): One mechanised infantry brigade is an infantry brigade mounted on vehicles like APC's and IFV's. This enables this formation to be effective in mobility warfare, and has excellent firepower.
Airborne (8 IC): An airborne brigade. It is lightly armed and very swift to deploy, outmanoeuvring any other ground formation, except SpecOps, in their deployment speed. They might be deployed from helicopters, transport aircraft, and so on. Airborne can be mechanised; this is rare, however, with the USSR having been the only real-world country to do it. Regardless of whether they are mechanised or not, they are softer than other infantry.
Armour (8 IC): One tank/armour brigade, with excellent firepower. Effective in low hills and flatland, where tanks are most mobile. Although with occasional exceptions, they tend to be weak in territories like dense forests and cities or mountains as they are hulking targets over there.
Artillery (8 IC): This brigade fights from a distance. It can be equipped with any artillery piece such as towed guns, self-propelled weapons, or even MLRS, and can be considered to include air defences too. It is adept at destroying enemy concentrations, cities, and almost anything, however it is weak if it directly is confronted by enemy units, so it is best used as a support weapon.
Special Forces (10 IC): A special operations brigade, special forces so to say. This category includes Soviet Spetsnaz and Osnaz, British SAS, and so on. It is good for covert missions, sabotage, etc; its value is questionable in actual warfare, however, as the more expendable infantry units can do the same job at a lower cost.
Air forces
Air forces, coming in squadrons of 400 personnel and 30 aircraft, are generally used as support. Helicopters are not yet included as per se, but can be considered 'free' or parts of Ground attack or Transport squadrons.
Fighter (10 IC): Basic aircraft, superior air combatant that can also occasionally strike ground targets, even though it is not designed to do so. It excels against any other kind of aircraft, from helicopters to strategic bombers.
Ground attack (12 IC): A ground attack squadron can be considered light bombers that provide close air support. Generally like fighters, these aircraft offer ground support: they take out tanks, ground-based installations, enemy units, and so on. They can be armed to combat other aircraft, but they are not designed for this purpose, hence it can be problematic.
AWACS (30 IC): An AWACS squadron consists of 'flying radar' aircraft. This increases the performance of all your forces in a region they operate and offers you intelligence about the enemy. Also, you need not deploy ground-based radars when you operate AWACS, though this can be problematic, depending on your enemy's tactics. AWACS cannot fight.
Tanker (30 IC): Tanker squadrons can carry fuel over massive distances, or even refuel your aircraft (provided they are designed to do so) in-flight to enhance their operational range. Tankers cannot fight.
Transport (12 IC): Transport squadrons can transfer equipment or personnel over great distances, as well as perform Airborne force deployments. Transports cannot fight.
Bomber (20 IC): Although expensive, bombers excel at destroying surface enemies. It has greater range than fighters and fighter-bombers and also better strike capability, but it is unprotected against other aircraft.
Strategic bomber (30 IC): The perfect weapon for massive bombing campaigns, strategic bombers are unmatched in payload and range by any other fighting aircraft, while only a select few transports, tankers and AWACS can match them in their operational range. A strategic bomber aircraft has intercontinental range, meaning it can strike enemies even in another continent and return if able. It cannot attack other aircraft, making it a pumped-up, just-as-vulnerable bomber.
Navy forces
Navy forces represent a single ship each time mentioned. Unless noted otherwise, they include helicopters where available, depending on their real-life class. The average personnel per ship, based on calculations, should be about 440 sailors, however take note that this might vary from country to country.
Patrol vessel (6 IC): Patrol vessels are not suitable for deep sea. Lighter and faster than Corvettes, they are also smaller and more agile, carrying less weapons. These are generally used for rapid watching of the coasts, but specific variants can be proven lethal to a few larger ships, depending on their armament. Patrol boats are divided in two categories: gunboats and missile boats.
Corvette (8 IC): Corvettes are designed to operate close to shore, as well as at sea. These ships can defend a country's assets and interests far away from its own shores, with sophisticated weapons and surveillance equipment. As they are smaller than frigates and destroyers but larger than patrol vessels, they can be a useful and agile mean to counter ships around their size without mobilizing larger ships, or even countering targets larger ships might be incapable of reaching.
Frigate (10 IC): Especially useful in anti-submarine warfare and air defence. Often general-purpose.
Destroyer (10 IC): This ship specialises in anti-submarine and anti-surface warfare.
Cruiser (14 IC): Good against surface and ground-based targets, it can also provide decent air defence. It is an excellent all-round ship of considerable size and excellent fire-power that render it a worthy opponent against about everything. Although it truly comes to specialize in only one out of the three fields it covers, and few classes do cover all of the aforementioned fields, or more than one of them.
Helicarrier (24 IC): Similar to a small aircraft carrier, this small and light vessel is a cruiser variant designed to exclusively carry self-defence weapons, as well as 20 anti-submarine helicopters or vertical take-off and landing air superiority fighters.
Heavy cruiser (20 IC): A more heavily armed version of the cruiser, the heavy cruiser excels in doing the same things, albeit it being bulkier and thus easier to hit. The main difference is that heavy cruisers are always nuclear-powered; this class includes the most heavily armed ships in the world, the Russian 'Kirov' class, which is often dubbed 'Battle cruiser'. A heavy cruiser, depending on its class, can prove to be the bane of enemy formations, when carefully paired with other ships, though many see these as unnecessarily large vessels that belong to another era. Requires nuclear technology.
Battleship (30 IC): Old and still armed with heavy guns, a battleship would normally be considered a waste of money; for most navies, it really is. Still, the goliaths of the past carry some missiles, making them ships that specialise in amphibious warfare support, while having some decent anti-surface capabilities.
Aircraft carrier (40 IC): An aircraft carrier is a good choice for nations that want to project their power abroad. This ship carries 45 aircraft of several types (fighters, ground attack and helicopters). Aircraft carriers specialise almost exclusively in air support and can do little, by themselves, against other naval vessels; their aircraft, however, can. Specific classes, like the Soviet/Russian 'Kuznetsov' class, may carry series of weapons, though this is rare and considered an overkill; these ships are fitting the description 'aircraft-carrying cruisers' better.
Supercarrier (60 IC): Largest carrier classes, similar to the Soviet 'Ulyanovsk' and American 'Nimitz' classes. Supercarriers specialise almost exclusively in air support and can do little, by themselves, against other naval vessels; their aircraft, however, can. It has 90 fighters, ground attack aircraft and helicopters. It might be occasionally carrying series of conventional weapons like aircraft carriers. Requires nuclear technology.
Attack submarine, diesel-powered (SSK) (12 IC): Diesel-powered attack submarine, designed to hunt other ships and submarines; its role is mainly coastal defence.
Attack submarine, nuclear-powered (SSN) (18 IC): Powerful silent hunter, adept at destroying all sorts of ships and submarines with little or no signs of presence. Nuclear attack submarines can operate very far from home, making them an excellent offensive weapon. Requires nuclear technology.
Guided missile submarine (SSGN) (22 IC): Adept at attacking ground targets, groups of ships, and can defend itself against submarines. The first guided missile submarines were used by the Soviet Union to deter American aircraft carriers in the Cold War; indeed, these submarines are intended as ship-killers and to provide fire support from big distances and should not be used for conventional naval warfare. Requires nuclear technology.
Ballistic missile submarine (SSBN) (120 IC): Only massive countries can afford an SSBN. This submarine can attack enemy cities tens of thousands of kilometres away. For statistical purposes, each SSBN is considered to carry 20 nuclear-tipped missiles that can take 10 strategic nuclear warheads each. This ship is actually a superweapon, not a conventional weapon; keep it away from enemy hunter-killers! Requires nuclear technology, nuclear weapons, space programme and space research programme.
Transport ship (14 IC): Light transport, can transport up to half a brigade with their equipment.
Amphibious assault ship (30 IC): Heavy transport, can transport up to two brigades with their equipment and provide them with air cover; amphibious assault ships are effectively helicarriers with troop quarters rather than self-defence weapons.
Superweapons
Superweapons are weapons of mass destruction, so far two units existing: the ICBM silo and the mobile ICBM, able to be armed with nuclear, biological or chemical weapons (usually the first), or simply conventional ones (all other require the appropriate technologies seperately). Each of the unit below has personnel circa at the size of one brigade (2500 men and/or women.)
ICBM Silo (50 IC): Facilities used to operate and launch ICBM missiles, to strike in another nation's homeland. Can accommodate 10 missiles. Requires Space programme and Space research programme technology to gain access to the missiles.
Mobile ICBM Launcher (60 IC): ICBM mobile launch pad, more expensive than bases but harder to detect. Can accommodate 10 missiles. May be vehicle or train. Requires Space programme and Space research programme technology to gain access to the missiles.
Strategic Nuclear Warhead: (1 IC): This is nothing short of a single strategic nuclear warhead that normally does not require upkeep. Each missile can take up to 10 of these; bomber and strategic bomber squadrons can take up to 30 each, or 1 in each aircraft. If you own more nuclear warheads than your missiles can deliver (calculate: (# of ICBM silos + # of ICBM launchers) x 100 + # of SSBN x 200) you need to pay upkeep equal to 1 IC for each warhead. Nuclear warheads can only be used by ICBM silos, ICBM launchers, ballistic missile submarines, bombers and strategic bombers. Requires nuclear technology and nuclear weapons.
Chapter 2: Technologies
Technologies let you build things, this simple, or simply improve your nation somehow. Unless noted otherwise, each technology can be purchased once. Technologies often have prerequisites for other technologies.
Satellite network (40 IC): Grants a civilian satellite network of 30 satellites. Can only own two at a time. Requires space programme.
Military satellites (60 IC): Grants a military satellite network of 30 satellites. Can only own one at a time. Requires satellite network and space programme.
Space programme (60 IC): Grants space programme, with ability to send satellites to space.
Space research programme (140 IC): Allows you to send manned vessels to space and build ICBM missiles. Requires space programme, satellite network and military satellites.
Nuclear technology (70 IC): Grants civilian nuclear technology; requires access to uranium and sufficient funding. Allows you to build nuclear reactors and nuclear-powered vessels.
Nuclear weapons (130 IC): Grants nuclear weapons technology (access to build tactical and strategic nuclear warheads). Requires Nuclear Technology.
Biological weapons (160 IC): Grants biological weapons; requires extensive medicine research and many other tough prerequisites.
Chemical weapons (100 IC): Grants chemical weapons technology.
