OVERVIEW

N-Day is an opportunity for nations to come together and exchange nuclear weapons in a fiery Armageddon of mutually assured destruction.

To Participate

1. Once registration opens, you can create or join a Faction. Nations outside a Faction can't attack or be attacked. You can join a Faction when you're ready and leave when you're not (to stay safe).

2. When the event begins, nations will be assigned a random Specialty and begin to accumulate Production. You will now be able to spend Production, fire nukes and deploy shields.

3. Watch your nation automatically generate Production at a rate of 1 every 2 minutes. Use it to build Nukes and Shield.

4. Launch Nukes at other nations and use Shield to shoot down Nukes that are launched at you.
   

Tactics

The simplest way to play N-Day is to join whichever Faction seems most fun and start targeting Nukes at its enemies while shooting down anything incoming. Your Faction page's icon bar shows everything you need to know, including who's targeting anyone in your Faction, and who your fellow Faction members are targeting.

Attacking: Step by Step

1. On your Production screen, spend some of your Production to build Nukes. These go into your Stockpile.

2. On another nation's Nuke page, click/tap the TARGET button and select the number of Nukes to use.

3. Once Targeted, it takes 10 minutes for your Nukes to reach a READY state (3 for Intel Specialists). Note that your Targeted page is public: All nations can see who is targeting whom.

4. When your Targeted Nukes are ready, click/tap LAUNCH.

5. Your Nukes are now categorized as Launches for you and Incoming for your target. Launched Nukes take 3-5 minutes to reach their target. When they do, they earn Strikes for you and inflict Radiation on the target, which reduces their rate of Production. This also earns Score for your Faction and reduces the enemy Faction's Score.

Defending: Step by Step

1. On the Production screen, spend Production to build Shield.

2. Find Launched Nukes to destroy. Your top priority is any Incoming Nukes launched at you. Secondarily, you may wish to target Incoming Nukes on anyone in your Faction (see your Faction's Incoming page), and also keep an eye on Targeted Nukes that may threaten you or your Faction in the near future.

3. Click/tap DESTROY to deploy 1 Shield per Nuke.

Strategy

Strategically, it may be wise to avoid attacks on nations or Factions until you are confident of obliterating them, since this eliminates the possibility of counter-attack. Smaller-scale attacks, which damage but don't destroy an enemy, can lead to an escalating series of grudge-related nuclear exchanges.

On the other hand, targeting an enemy can be an effective warning. And it takes Nukes 10 minutes to be ready to launch, so you can't leave it too late.

Scoring

Each Nuke that reaches a target causes Radiation damage, which reduces the target's rate of Production generation and counts as a Strike for the attacker.

A Faction's Score is Strikes minus Radiation.

Duration

N-Day lasts for 24 hours, after which point, an Arms Control Agreement means that no Nukes can be launched. (In-flight nukes can still land, however.)

The "winner" is the Faction with the highest score; if, that is, nuclear war can be said to have a winner. Which we say it can. It's the Faction with the highest score.

FACTIONS

Once registration opens, Factions can be founded by a Regional Officer of any region. Any and all Regional Officers of that region can update the Faction's official text to issue instructions to Faction members.

Factions can be made open to all members, or restricted to the region's members only.

You can leave your Faction, which is a good way to stay safe if you're signing off for the night. However, you can only do this if you're not engaged with the enemy! That means:

• You must not have any nukes targeted or launched at another nation; and

• No nukes can be targeted or incoming on you.

Note that in practice, this can make it challenging to leave a Faction, since you may be frequently targeted.

While outside a Faction, you cannot be targeted, and do not generate any Production.

Before joining, it's worth making sure a Faction isn't currently under mass bombardment.

SPECIALTIES

Nations are randomly assigned a specialty.

Military Specialists build Nukes faster: They receive 50% more Nukes when converting Production.

Strategic Specialists build Shield faster: They receive 50% more Shield when converting Production.

Economic Specialists can accumulate more Production: Their production cap is four times larger than the other specialties.

Intel Specialists can finalize targets faster: Their targetted nukes reach READY in 3 minutes instead of 10. They have no Production advantages.

PRODUCTION
Non-WA nations automatically generate Production at a rate of 1 Production per 2 minutes, up to a maximum of 50 (200 for Econ Specialists).
WA nations automatically generate Production at a rate of 10 Production per 2 minutes, up to a maximum of 150 (600 for Econ Specialists).

Production can be spent on Nukes or Shield.

WA NATIONS
World Assembly members will accumulate Production 10x faster than non-WA members, and have their Production limits increased by 3x.
It is allowed to switch WA membership to receive this benefit for different nations, but (as per regular site rules) you are only allowed to have one nation in the WA at a time.
Keep in mind that if your Production is over the non-WA limit when you resign membership on a nation, the Production on that nation will decrease down to the limit (i.e. if you resign with 75 Production on a non-Econ nation, the Production will drop to 50).

We ask that you refrain from switching WA for N-Day purposes more than once every two minutes. You will not be punished for this, but it is against the spirit of this change to the event mechanics.

NUKES

Nukes are purchased with Production, kept in stockpile until ready, then targeted and launched at an enemy nation.

Launched Nukes take 3-5 minutes to reach their target. While in-flight, they can be shot down by any nation using Shield. If they're not, each Nuke generates 1% of Radiation in the target and earns 1 Strike for the attacker.

SHIELD

Shield can be used to knock out Launched Nukes. You can shoot down any in-flight Nukes regardless of who they are aimed at.

Locate in-flight Nukes under Launches or Incoming, and use the DESTROY button to eliminate them at a rate of 1 Shield per Nuke.

It is possible to waste Shield if multiple nations deploy Shield simultaneously to knock out the same Nukes.

TARGETING

Target a nation by viewing their Nuke page and clicking/tapping TARGET. You may then select how many Nukes to target from your Stockpile.

It takes a short time for a Targeted Nuke to reach a READY state, after which it may be launched. This is normally 10 minutes, but Intel Specialists are faster, finalizing targets in only 3 minutes.

If not launched after 1 hour, Targeted Nukes automatically return to your Stockpile.

RADIATION

Radiation is generated in a nation when it is struck by a Nuke.

Radiation proportionately reduces a nation's Production generation rate. For example, 20% Radiation reduces Production generation by 20%.

When a nation is 100% Radiated, it is destroyed and no longer able to launch any Nukes nor use any Shield.

Radiation is irreversible.

You can leave a Faction when irradiated, but this does not affect your Faction's score.

SCORE

A Faction's score measures strikes and radiation that occurred while those nations were a member. It is unaffected by nations joining or leaving the Faction.

GLOSSARY

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 How to Take Part (and Prepare!) 
Potato Alliance N-Day Guide

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U S E F U L   L I N K S :
News Page | N-Day Discord | Your Nukes | Our Faction | Potato Alliance RMB | Member Regions

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G U I D E S :
What is N-Day? [The Basics] | Ground Rules [Must Read] | How to Help (and Prepare!) | The Strategy | Useful Technology + Tools

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Basic Information

N-Day is an annual event in NS that pits regional factions against each other in a simulated nuclear war. This year we are joining with many of our ally and friend regions into a joint faction called Potato Alliance. (It's named after the unofficial mascot of Spiritus, the potato!). Whether you are a newcomer or a nuclear veteran, reading and understanding what to do will prepare you for the event and help you both survive and work effectively with your regionmates and our allies.

Before the event begins:

• Familiarize yourself with the contents of this guide, the Ground Rules, our Strategy, and Testlandia's guide N-Day: What You Need to Know— all of which are linked to in the header of this dispatch. This guide will focus primarily on how our faction organizes and how we fight effectively, while Testlandia's focuses on the basics of how the simulation works and how to navigate the controls. Understanding both is essential to success.

• Join the Potato Command, our joint N-Day command Discord server. We will be coordinating from there. Coordination is the essence of success in this event, so regardless of your feelings about Discord, the importance of using it (even if only for the event) cannot be overstressed.

• What to do with puppets: Puppets (additional accounts besides your main one) are greatly helpful during N-Day and many more experienced or more involved players have large sets that they use. If you have any puppets, you can and should use them for N-Day. The more nations generating production for our faction, the better. No need to move puppets between regions to join our faction— you can join a faction from any region.
  Consider taking a look at the Useful Technology + Tools page if you're using puppets. We've listed there several puppet management addons and scripts to make it easier to manage lots of nations. If you have such an add-on already, make sure it has all your puppets' information correct so there will be no problems once the nukes start flying.

Once the event has started:

• Join our region’s faction: this faction will be called Potato Alliance, and a link will be provided to it in the header of this dispatch. Directions to it, once it is made, will also be available in the Discord and on the RMB of the The Potato Alliance region.

• Begin production: What you produce most efficiently, and what role you take in a faction depends on what sort specialty your nation has:

  • If you are a Military Specialist: in the first few hours, create shields (even though this is not your special advantage). Then, when commanders give the order (which will be posted on the Faction page and on the Discord server), you may begin stockpiling nukes. Listen for fire orders from Command. When you get a fire order, target nations which are actively deploying nukes first. Do not launch more nukes at a nation then are needed to bring it to 100% radiation (you get some leeway on this since controls are clunky, but know that it is a potential waste).

  • If you are a Strategic Specialist: Begin producing shields. Watch the faction page for incoming nukes and prepare to intercept them. Shout out in the Discord if there are too many nukes being targeted for you to intercept them all. Be cautious that you are intercepting incoming rather then outgoing nukes. Additionally, if you see nukes being targeted at regions we are allied with, report it to Command, and you may be asked to intercept them as well.

  • If you are an Economic Specialist: Begin stockpiling production. Unless told otherwise your role is exactly the same as that of a Strategic Specialist, but you may need to help offensively as well, so you should keep up to date on what's needed and familiarize yourself with the instructions for each role.

• Check the faction page: Our faction page will have a mini-World Factbook Entry at the top stating vital information, including our current targets, our allies and current do-not-targets, and any special instructions from the Potato Generals. Make sure to keep up-to-date on this as it will change.

• Coordinate with your factionmates: Coordination is the determining factor in how successful a faction is and how effective you are at contributing to your faction’s success. Sharing information with our factionmates is the best way for us all to know what we should be doing, what others are doing and what we need to be prepared for. While you are online and actively launching or shielding, make sure you are on the Discord, telling others what you are doing. It is extremely important that you do this.

  The only reason you should not join the Discord is if there is a technical issue with you connecting to the service. If so, you can still follow along on the Regional Message Board of The Potato Alliance. However, you may find yourself excluded from much of the action because response times over the RMB simply aren't quick enough.