Instructions

[Please note: these instructions are a work in progress. At the moment they include a basic overview of the most important functionality. If you feel that there is something left out, other than the gory details of the model, please feel free to post something in the appropriate thread in the forums, so that I can add more detail in that area.]

Revised: 04/28/06

1. Overview

   So, what is Got Nation? It is a socio-economic governmental simulation. Run that by me again. In simpler terms, Got Nation is a game of sorts that puts you at the reins of a national government. You have control over the various items that actual governments work with. You can adjust the tax rate, prime rate and allocate your budget.

   Now you might say, that’s not all that governments control, and you would be right. You don’t get to make laws directly, but you can simulate the making of laws through your budget policy. After all, laws are really nothing more than paper until they are actually implemented, and to implement a law you need to spend money in the appropriate area (for example: you make a law that makes it illegal to drive cars in city limits, to implement this you would increase you spending on Law and Order as well as Transportation). So, the bottom line is that it is up to you to interpret your budget settings once you’ve set them (or in reverse, decide what your legislative actions are and interpret that as budget settings).

   There is no official winning or losing. The closest you can come is to set you own goals and actually achieve them. The site does award certain badges to nations that achieve certain high or low values, but more as an acknowledgement of a difficult achievement than as prizes for ‘winning.’

2. Details

   The simulation can be a bit overwhelming at first glance, so I have created this set of instructions to ease those initial moments. What follows are some details on each segment of the site and the basics of management of you nation.

   For the impatient read the first paragraph in each section, you will get the basics, additional details follow.

3. Registration

   Before you can manage a nation you need to create one. Enter the details, select a government type and economy type [note: this only determines your initial settings, it does not lock you into these types, you are free to call your nation what you want and alter the nature of your nation regardless of these initial settings]

   Your nation name is unique to your nation, and cannot be changed after registration.

4. Site Menu

   Located in the left panel of the site, this menu helps you navigate the site and various screens that help in the management of your nation.

5. Regions

   The nations in Got Nation are divided into various regions. Regions have a flavor determined by the region leader (either the creator of the region or the longest standing active member of the region if the creator leaves the region). All nations begin in the default region, but may move to any unlocked region.

   Locked regions are closed to new member nations unless the region leader approves entrance.

1. List

   The region list is an ordered list of the available regions in Got Nation with a brief description, count of nations and link to the region display.

   Selecting the region display will take you to a more detailed view of the region.

2. Display

   The region display offers a more detailed view of the region. This includes region details and flavor as well as a tabular list of the nations in the region and some national details. The region display also offers a message board for members of the region and a listing of the most recent events for the region (nations new to the region or leaving the region, there may also be some 'color' events that offer role play opportunity or at least a little entertainment value).

   Each nation name in the table is a link to that nation’s details.

3. Miscellaneous

   Region leaders are allowed to change various region settings as well as lock or unlock the region to new members.

6. Nations

   While regions are an important part of Got Nation, the nation is the real focus. You run or ruin the nation through a variety of setting designed to ease you from incompetent leader elected because of your looks or daddy's name, to omnipotent uber-economist who has earned the respect of peers and populous.

1. List

   The nation list is an ordered list of the available nations in Got Nation with a brief description and link to the nation display.

   Selecting a nation name from the list will take you to a more detailed view of that nation.

2. Display

   This is the nerve center of your nation; it offers everything you need to gauge the status of your nation.

   1. Nation

      A variety of customizable items referencing basic information about your nation and its character: Name, Region, Flag, Motto, Description, etc.
      
      Your nation Name is permanent. Your Region can be changed by going to the Region List and creating a new region or by selecting a region to view from the list and clicking the Move to this Region link. Most of the other items are customizable through the Profile page.
      
      The Last Actions box displays any updates to your budget and other adjustable factors that have been posted during the most recent update (note: updates happen once per day, in what I hope is the least active time of day).
      
      Awards are earned for a variety of things such as significantly helping Got Nation through aid in coding, defining the model, or responding to an open call for input with acceptable input, or by placing your nation in a 'Top' list in Got Nation's Hall of Fame. A variety of awards are available with more added as time goes on.
      
      

   2. Social Status

      A set of factors that help you the nation's leader gauge how
   you are doing in your people's eyes.
   
   Happiness is a measure of the effect your policies are having on the mood of the people; you might look on this as your approval rating. Unlike some games, you will never be deposed or removed from office for a low happiness factor. However, there are negative aspects to a low happiness factor.  The following factors impact happiness, some more than others: Healthcare, Welfare, Spirituality, Education, Transportation, Urban Development, Culture, Trade, Environment, Research, Foreign Affairs, Unemployment, Treasury, Taxation, Tax rate and Media.
   
   Rights is a measure of your nation's observance of the basic rights of your people (for example: their say in how the government is run, or how the budget is used). You are free to suppress your people as much as you choose, but like other factors there are negative impacts of a low Rights value. The following factors, listed in no particular order, affect your Rights value:  Education, Law and Order, Judicial, Labor, Welfare, Healthcare, Transportation, Equality, Defense, Taxation and Media.
   
   Freedom is a measure of your people's ability to do what they want (worship whomever or whatever, voice their opinions without fear or censure). The key influences on Freedom are: Education, Spirituality, Equality, Judicial, Law and Order, Labor and, of course, Media.
   
   Stability is a measure of the ordered running of your nation, it has a direct bearing on the confidence of your people and lenders in your nation's running. The only thing that impacts stability is the number of changes you make to your budget. Continuous changes will lead to a negative stability factor, while limited activity will help to raise your stability.
   
   Efficiency is a measure of your government's level of graft and ability to get things done with a limited amount of waste. The key factors in influencing your efficiency are: Administration, Fiscal Administration and Taxation.
    

   3. Economic Status

      GDP, or Gross Domestic Product is a measure of how much your nation produces. The official formula is:
           GDP = Consumption + Government Expenditures + Investment + Exports – Imports
      
      Unemployment shows the percentage of your working population that is currently out of work and thus not factored into your production figures. Unemployment is influenced by the following factors: Education, Labor, Defense, Industry and Tax rate
      
      Inflation is effectively a result of too much money and not enough to spend it on, and it creates a reduced consumption capability. The following factors influence inflation: Prime rate.
      
      Treasury is accumulated budget net as described below. The time frame for each update is
          One Day Real Time = One Week Game Time
      So 1/52 of your Budget Net is applied each update.
      
      Budget is effectively how much money your nation's government is spending on all of the projects it deems necessary (as reflected in your budget settings). The various factors that influence your total budget are: Tax rate, Healthcare, Welfare, Rights and Freedom.
      
      Budget Net is your deficit or surplus.
      
      Officially, the Budget Net = Budget Income (i.e. tax income) - Budget Outgo (i.e. what you spend)
      
      This means that a positive budget net means you are getting more than you are spending, whereas a negative means you are spending more than you get. Now, as to whether either is good or bad ... like many things in the model this is pretty much a subjective call, weighing the good versus the bad in your opinion. The ideal is to exactly balance income with outgo. Anything else will tend to hurt various aspects of your economy over time (of course, that might be acceptable to you in exchange for a surplus in your treasury).
      
      Net Trade is your exports minus your imports. Ideally, because of its effect on your GDP, you would prefer to maintain a positive net trade value.
      
      Imports is a measure of how much your nation is importing in the way of products produced outside your borders. This is generally a result of demand from your populous for additional products and is influenced by: Happiness, Rights, Freedom, Inflation and Trade. [This value may be revised.]
      
      Exports is a measure of how much of your national production is being exported to other nations. This value is influenced by: Happiness, Rights, Freedom, Inflation and Trade. [This value may be revised.]
      
      Prime Rate to your stability and treasury (that means it isn't completely under your control).
      
      Here are the basics
      - if your treasury is negative your prime rate will rise
      - if your stability is negative your prime rate will rise
      - if your treasury is positive your prime rate will drop
      - if your stability is positive your prime rate will drop
      
      You still have influence in that the bump from your adjusting the prime rate is in increments of .25, whereas the bump for treasury or stability is as a percentage of .1 increments (for example, a stability of 5.00 will drop your prime rate by .1 * .05, or a treasury that is -25% of your total budget will increase your prime rate by .1 * .25).
      
      As you can see that means that it would take a pretty screwed up treasury or stability to outpace your input prime rate adjustments. The idea here is that interest rates rise or fall based upon the estimation of your ability to pay off loans (big debt or low stability is bad in that respect).
      
      Tax Rate is the amount of your population's disposable income your government takes to support 'necessary' spending on social and economic issues. Again, this is a balancing act, as high tax rates will tend to depress your population's will to work.
      
   
    

   4. Graphs

      These are graphic representations of certain aspects of your nation
      
      History is a line graph that displays social, economic and budgetary history of your nation (up to about 6 months). It is possible to set a default display in your national profile to be displayed when you first show this display. It is also possible to alter the display by checking or clearing the various elements below the graph.
      
      
   Budget is a pie chart display of the allocation of total budget across your budget settings. On the left of the pie chart is a table showing the various budget item percentages and the total money allocated to each item.
    

3. Profile

   This is where you get the chance to customize you nation, providing description, motto, flag, etc.
   
   Most of the fields are pretty self-explanatory, however, a couple there are a couple of noteworthy items:
   1) The Generate Signature Image checkbox will generate an image with your current data suitable for use as a banner or signature block the HTML code to use it looks like this:
   
   <a href='http://www.gotnation.com/nationdisplay.php?natname=yournation'><img src='http://www.gotnation.com/images/sigs/yournation.jpg'></a>
   
   The BBCODE to use it as a forum signature looks like this:
   
   [url=http://www.gotnation.com/nationdisplay.php?natname=yournation][img] http://www.gotnation.com/images/sigs/yournation.jpg[/img][/url]
   
   You will need to substitute you nation name for 'yournation' in each of the above (replacing any Spaces ' ' with Underscores '_'. Also, once the box is checked your signature image will update each night to your most current values.
   
   2) The Detailed Nation Display checkbox adds additional values to your view of nations in the Social and Economic details. You should probably leave this unchecked if you are not sure what the values mean, or just want a slimmer display for smaller screens.
    

4. Advisors

   The advisor screen is the first level of nation management. It is designed to aid the newbie by allowing you to select an advisor to manage your budget settings for you. Select an advisor from the list that seems to be in tune with your personal preference/positions. He or she will then manage the adjustment of your budget for you.

   Be warned advisors will manage things as they see fit, so be sure to read and understand the advisor’s biography before selecting one. The default advisor has no platform of his own and will not do anything that you have not instructed him to do.

5. Issues

   Issues are the second level of nation management. They allow you to select a set of issues that you wish to use to build your platform.

6. Platform

   Your platform is composed of your selected issues as well as a pro/con stance and rank them in order of importance to you the nation leader. The issues you select and your stance and ranking will then be compiled into a composite platform. This platform will then be used to adjust your budget settings.

   Be aware that issues often affect various areas of your budget at different levels. It is possible to multiple issues may cancel each other out if you do not spend a little time understanding what the issues do.

   Issue settings carry more weight than advisors when compiling your platform, but do not eliminate the advisor’s input to your platform. To avoid advisor input, you should select the default advisor.

7. Budget Settings

   This is the ultimate level of national management. This is where you get you hands dirty posting changes directly to the various budget areas. This screen allows you to add or subtract points from a budget setting. Submitting your changes will post them as actions for implementation in a future update.

   Budget settings are a range value from 0 to N (where N is some large constant) that will be compiled into a total and used to determine the percentage of your budget spent in a certain area. Adjusting a budget area to zero will ensure that nothing will be spent in that area. [Note: this means that a single point in one area with all others set to zero will result in 100% of your budget allocated to that single area.]

7. Instructions

   You're here already, but these are the basics of what you need to know to work with the site and your nation.

8. Forums

   The community. This is where those that want to interact with other nations, or understand the Got Nation model go. If you are new to the site, I strongly suggest that you join the forum. New nations are welcome, and you just might find an older, benevolent nation to take you under their wing and explain some of the intricacies of the model.

9. FAQ

   Common questions and answers

1. Appendix - Factors

   Factors	Happiness	Rights	Freedom	Government Efficiency	Worker Enthusiasm	Consumer Confidence	Imports Exports	Unemployment	Inflation	Production	Consumption
   Admin				X
   Welfare	X	X
   Healthcare	X	X
   Education	X	X	X					X
   Spirituality	X		X
   Defense		X						X
   Law		X	X
   Trade	X						X
   Transportation	X	X
   Environment	X
   Social Equality		X	X
   Fiscal Admin				X
   Industry								X		X	X
   Judicial		X	X
   Research	X
   Labor		X	X					X
   Urban Dev	X
   Taxation	X			X
   Agriculture
   Media	X	X	X
   Culture	X
   Foreign Affairs	X
   Emergency
   Interest
   Surplus