Post by Kardas on Apr 16, 2013 10:24:05 GMT -5
Lemme start with an explanation in case you missed this year's April Fools.
1. Background
The 2013 April Fool's prank in NationStates was that of a multiverse-wide zombie invasion (aka Nationstates Z, or Z-day). Basically, there was this infection-thing that began turning your people into zombies. Nations attained a 'zombie control' page, which showed the progress of the invasion, tracking the amount of zombies, living and killed citizens. Players had three ways to react to the zombies:
- Use military force to eliminate your nation's infected.
- Research a cure for the regions.
- Export the zombies to neighboring nations
As the day went on, the zombification levels not only increased, but the death counts too.
Depending on choices made and how quickly people responded to the events, regions were affected in remarkably different ways. The worst of these regions had all their living converted, with some deaths. Others managed to successfully deploy a cure and stay relatively safe. Other regions, like Trav Khar were still in the thick of it, where zombies outnumbered the living, trying to get a cure out, and with a massive death count.
2. The Point of this thread
Basically, utter chaos in some places, in others not so much. The regions either stood together, or fell together. Almost like some sort of game-wide prisoner's dilemma. In any case, the prank was well received. Then, Max Barry posted this:
So basically, this thread is so Trav Khar is not caught off guard again. So we have a plan.
3. How it worked
Out of curiosity, I checked the zipfile on Z-day, and while most of it was just logs of the day, the readme file was pretty interesting. I'll post it here.
So, what I gathered from this file about our three options was this.
Military option: Basically, I didn't read anything about nations with a higher Defense budget being better at this, so I assume Defense budgets do not factor in here. Becomes less effective as the amount of living decreases. Kind of the 'save your own skin option'. You try to keep things under control in your nation, while neglecting the region.
Cure option: Becomes less effective as the amount of living decreases. Because more people got infected as the day as the day went on, this works best at the start, when you've got a lot of people left. It also means that the bigger nations contribute the most to a cure, provided they're researching it. This is the 'community option'. You risk disaster in your nation, but provided enough people research the cure quickly enough, you get the best outcome- a zombie-free region.
Export option: Becomes more effective as the amount of living decreases. Coz you get more zombies. Basically, the 'troll' option.
4. Recommendations/The Plan
Knowing all that, here's what I think should work as a plan.
For those who are online when the zombie invasion starts: Everyone drop everything and research the cure option. This goes double for the bigger nations.
For those who log in late: The cure option is still recommended, but given the amount of unadressed zombies, there's no shame in picking the military option. I'd say that the military option is a feasible choice once the number of zombies outnumber the living in your nation.
Those who export: Eject I say!
Once we the cure status says 'distributing to infected: By now, the urgency of the cure option has worn off, so researching the military option should be fine. Note that TK never got this far so this is one point where I'm less sure.
If we're super-desperate: Temporarily move to a 'success story' region, where the cure is deployed and infected are zero. The Hammers of Pink Floyd did this during Z-day and got rid of all his zomibes.
Other options: Maybe password protection if we're facing a big problem with exporter nations?
5. When?
Basically, this thing could strike anytime! And doesn't that just scare? But still, we have an estimation of when it might happen again: Halloween. Yearly. So we can look forward to that one.
Because I was offline when Z-day started, I don't remember precisely what time it began, but I do know that about 12 hours had passed when I logged in some time past midday here. Also, I remember the NS shareholder thing (April Fools 2012) started at 1am for me (GMT+1), so I'm pretty sure that the zombie invasion will commence at midnight, GMT. Judging from a screenshot that I took at the start of the shareholder event, the April Fools lasted about 33 hours.
6. Other stuff
Other relevant stuff here.
I got this off the forums: (http://forum.nationstates.net/viewtopic.php?f=33&t=233777)
Cure stages
Anyway, that's what I just drew up. Comments are highly appreciated, suggestions even more!
Also, credits to Neo Nibu & Seattile for the ideas on the RMB
1. Background
The 2013 April Fool's prank in NationStates was that of a multiverse-wide zombie invasion (aka Nationstates Z, or Z-day). Basically, there was this infection-thing that began turning your people into zombies. Nations attained a 'zombie control' page, which showed the progress of the invasion, tracking the amount of zombies, living and killed citizens. Players had three ways to react to the zombies:
- Use military force to eliminate your nation's infected.
- Research a cure for the regions.
- Export the zombies to neighboring nations
As the day went on, the zombification levels not only increased, but the death counts too.
Depending on choices made and how quickly people responded to the events, regions were affected in remarkably different ways. The worst of these regions had all their living converted, with some deaths. Others managed to successfully deploy a cure and stay relatively safe. Other regions, like Trav Khar were still in the thick of it, where zombies outnumbered the living, trying to get a cure out, and with a massive death count.
2. The Point of this thread
Basically, utter chaos in some places, in others not so much. The regions either stood together, or fell together. Almost like some sort of game-wide prisoner's dilemma. In any case, the prank was well received. Then, Max Barry posted this:
Should we do this again? I'm just putting it out there. Because this time, it would actually be practical to run a Z-Day on a regular basis... say, annually for Halloween. I think we would need to ramp up the potency of zombie exporters, since everybody would be better prepared for the apocalypse. But it could be done.
So basically, this thread is so Trav Khar is not caught off guard again. So we have a plan.
3. How it worked
Out of curiosity, I checked the zipfile on Z-day, and while most of it was just logs of the day, the readme file was pretty interesting. I'll post it here.
NationStates Z-Day 2013
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This file contains a log of the "Z-Day" event on NationStates.net.
It lists every nation in every region at hourly intervals as the
"infection" spread.
General format:
1st line : The name of the region and its stats at the beginning of this round.
2nd line : ---------------------------------------------------------
3rd line : The name of a resident nation and its stats at the beginning of this round.
4th line : The number of zombies gained/lost during this round, plus the action (exterminate/research/export) taken, if any
(3rd/4th lines repeat for each resident region)
2nd Final: ---------------------------------------------------------
Final Lin: The name of the region and its stats at the end of this round.
Key:
"POP": The nation's normal population. This number was not modified
during Z-Day, but would rise when the nation experienced normal
population growth during a regular daily update. Measured in
millions.
"ZOM": The number of zombies in the nation (in millions).
"Z%" : The percentage of the nation's normal population (POP) that
was zombies.
"DEAD":The number of dead people in the nation (in millions).
"D%" : The percentage of the nation's normal population (POP) that
was dead.
SURVIVORS: This number is not recorded, but can be calculated as
SURVIVORS = POP - ZOM - DEAD.
"CURE":The number of "cure points" that the nation had accumulated.
Nations gained 1 cure point per million survivors per round
that they had the "Research Cure" option activated.
"C%" : Not really a meaningful percentage, but displays the
accumulated cure points for that nation as a percentage of its
normal population.
"EXP": The number of "export points" that the region has, where a
nation generates 1 export point per million zombies per round
that it has the "Export Zombies" option activated.
"E%" : Not really a meaningful percentage, but displays the
accumulated zombie points for a region as a percentage of its
normal population.
Unlabeled number: The final number at the end of a region's row is its
Contagion level. This number determined how much the number of
zombies in resident nations would grow (or shrink) by each round.
Regions commenced with a Contagion level of 13. It could rise
or fall depending on three factors:
(a) the Z% of the region
(b) the C% of the region
(c) the E% of the region
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This file contains a log of the "Z-Day" event on NationStates.net.
It lists every nation in every region at hourly intervals as the
"infection" spread.
General format:
1st line : The name of the region and its stats at the beginning of this round.
2nd line : ---------------------------------------------------------
3rd line : The name of a resident nation and its stats at the beginning of this round.
4th line : The number of zombies gained/lost during this round, plus the action (exterminate/research/export) taken, if any
(3rd/4th lines repeat for each resident region)
2nd Final: ---------------------------------------------------------
Final Lin: The name of the region and its stats at the end of this round.
Key:
"POP": The nation's normal population. This number was not modified
during Z-Day, but would rise when the nation experienced normal
population growth during a regular daily update. Measured in
millions.
"ZOM": The number of zombies in the nation (in millions).
"Z%" : The percentage of the nation's normal population (POP) that
was zombies.
"DEAD":The number of dead people in the nation (in millions).
"D%" : The percentage of the nation's normal population (POP) that
was dead.
SURVIVORS: This number is not recorded, but can be calculated as
SURVIVORS = POP - ZOM - DEAD.
"CURE":The number of "cure points" that the nation had accumulated.
Nations gained 1 cure point per million survivors per round
that they had the "Research Cure" option activated.
"C%" : Not really a meaningful percentage, but displays the
accumulated cure points for that nation as a percentage of its
normal population.
"EXP": The number of "export points" that the region has, where a
nation generates 1 export point per million zombies per round
that it has the "Export Zombies" option activated.
"E%" : Not really a meaningful percentage, but displays the
accumulated zombie points for a region as a percentage of its
normal population.
Unlabeled number: The final number at the end of a region's row is its
Contagion level. This number determined how much the number of
zombies in resident nations would grow (or shrink) by each round.
Regions commenced with a Contagion level of 13. It could rise
or fall depending on three factors:
(a) the Z% of the region
(b) the C% of the region
(c) the E% of the region
So, what I gathered from this file about our three options was this.
Military option: Basically, I didn't read anything about nations with a higher Defense budget being better at this, so I assume Defense budgets do not factor in here. Becomes less effective as the amount of living decreases. Kind of the 'save your own skin option'. You try to keep things under control in your nation, while neglecting the region.
Cure option: Becomes less effective as the amount of living decreases. Because more people got infected as the day as the day went on, this works best at the start, when you've got a lot of people left. It also means that the bigger nations contribute the most to a cure, provided they're researching it. This is the 'community option'. You risk disaster in your nation, but provided enough people research the cure quickly enough, you get the best outcome- a zombie-free region.
Export option: Becomes more effective as the amount of living decreases. Coz you get more zombies. Basically, the 'troll' option.
4. Recommendations/The Plan
Knowing all that, here's what I think should work as a plan.
For those who are online when the zombie invasion starts: Everyone drop everything and research the cure option. This goes double for the bigger nations.
For those who log in late: The cure option is still recommended, but given the amount of unadressed zombies, there's no shame in picking the military option. I'd say that the military option is a feasible choice once the number of zombies outnumber the living in your nation.
Those who export: Eject I say!
Once we the cure status says 'distributing to infected: By now, the urgency of the cure option has worn off, so researching the military option should be fine. Note that TK never got this far so this is one point where I'm less sure.
If we're super-desperate: Temporarily move to a 'success story' region, where the cure is deployed and infected are zero. The Hammers of Pink Floyd did this during Z-day and got rid of all his zomibes.
Other options: Maybe password protection if we're facing a big problem with exporter nations?
5. When?
Basically, this thing could strike anytime! And doesn't that just scare? But still, we have an estimation of when it might happen again: Halloween. Yearly. So we can look forward to that one.
Because I was offline when Z-day started, I don't remember precisely what time it began, but I do know that about 12 hours had passed when I logged in some time past midday here. Also, I remember the NS shareholder thing (April Fools 2012) started at 1am for me (GMT+1), so I'm pretty sure that the zombie invasion will commence at midnight, GMT. Judging from a screenshot that I took at the start of the shareholder event, the April Fools lasted about 33 hours.
6. Other stuff
Other relevant stuff here.
I got this off the forums: (http://forum.nationstates.net/viewtopic.php?f=33&t=233777)
Cure stages
1) Research begun
2) Some early promising results
3) Potential antibodies discovered
4) Live prototypes developed
5) Developed; some distribution issues
6) Partially deployed
7) Distributing to infected
2) Some early promising results
3) Potential antibodies discovered
4) Live prototypes developed
5) Developed; some distribution issues
6) Partially deployed
7) Distributing to infected
Anyway, that's what I just drew up. Comments are highly appreciated, suggestions even more!
Also, credits to Neo Nibu & Seattile for the ideas on the RMB
