- TNP Nation
- Kranostav
- Discord
- Tlomz
Hello all!
I hope everyone has had a wonderful New Years, as I have been with family and friends getting a chance to celebrate (safely of course), thus me being slightly late to the party. Nevertheless, lets get into it.
It's really astounding just how quickly my first term as delegate went. To be honest I have learned quite a lot in these first four months and have gained invaluable experience for how to handle and execute my future plans should you choose me to lead The North Pacific for an additional term. Keeping with this, I intend to keep the platform more focused on what was achieved and where we are building because of those achievements. Going forward I will increasing Delegate reports to give more accurate updates, especially when projects run long or plans change in favor of better concepts and ideas.
To begin, I would like to give a recap of what has occurred outside of our wonderful ministries in this last term.
Event Days
This term we participated in both of NS’s major in-game events, N-Day and Z-Day. As many of you who participated and were able to observe first hand, these were smashing successes with action packed experiences and great endings. This year, as a nuclear winter descended upon us, we ran along-side the Potato Alliance as we worked to combat the Horsemen of the Apocalypse. The Potato Alliance was targeted very early in the event and bursted down quickly, however not killed. This would be a fatal mistake by our enemies, as over the remainder of the first night leading into morning we began rebuilding and biding our time. Before long we grew were protected by our shield stock and could use a mix of guerrilla warfare and larger coordinated strikes to begin the long process of recouping our deficit. This proved to be an extremely effective tactic as by late afternoon EST we had regained a top 10 position. This momentum leading into the end allowed us to temporarily grab first place in the final hour of the event before finishing in second, marking the largest comeback by any faction in N-Day history.
Just one month later, we faced a zombie apocalypse like none we had seen before. Unlike previous years, a mysterious force, convinced that the zombie apocalypse was nothing more than a hoax, threw multiple obstacles in our way. This included items such as resetting our national selection of "Researching a Cure" which rendered puppet masters quite cross, and randomly opening our regional borders in the middle of the night. Thanks to a very dedicated surgeon general staff, and perhaps some rather unique sleep schedules, we were able to overcome these extra challenges. As we closed in on the final hours of the event, our infected numbers began to dwindle with us fully eliminating them every single tick before spawning back in. Upon entering the final tick, we had no zombies remaining however due to a game error that opened the region before the event had actually ended, we were not credited with the coveted "Most Survivors + No Zombies" status. Regardless of the disappointment at the end, this was the best TNP has ever done in Z-Day and I look forward to getting another shot next year, reusing some of the tactics we used this year.
Disclosures
Over the previous few terms, the executive staff discord disclosures have been a recurring point of contention and rightfully so, as transparency is an important pillar of governance in our region. Therefore I'm very pleased to report that the four-year backlogged disclosures have begun rolling out and will continue over the coming days as we are near total completion. This has been my most involved and demanding project of this term, and while I am excited that they will be completed, it is a shame it ever made it to this point to begin with. Going forward I will be personally putting forth as well as supporting others who put forth legislation on this topic to help prevent what has occurred over the last four years from ever occurring again. For a more specific breakdown on this topic, you can find it here.
WADP Expansion
In just the last week, we have rolled out an expanded WADP program (Please upvote if you haven't already!) that allows all regions in NS to utilize our endotarting service. This is a huge step forward for all the regions who otherwise have no organized way to endotart and check other endorsement statistics. In an effort to ensure this tool is not abused by entities who oppose us, we have prevented the tool from working for regions on the Civil Defense Siren and regions who have violated our Recruitment Policy. If regions would like access who are on the latter list, they will need to reach out to our MoFA for evaluation of their ability to regain access. On the contrary, fascists will never have access. Not enough thanks can be given to r3n for all of the work they have done on this project, from modifying the original TNP Endotarting service for accommodation of all regions to handling the implementation as we began rollout of the new service.
In continuation, quite a lot has been accomplished on the Ministry side. Following is a break down of some of the major accomplishments and where I plan to go from here.
Defense:
Over the last term, we have achieved a great amount of activity that is largely based in cooperative operations with other military regions. These have been instrumental to increasing our relations with other military orgs and gaining new and unique experiences during our shared ops. Additionally, as stated in the Midterm Address, our updating effort has been completed and is now for continuous improvement as necessary. Further, the Exempted Regions List has been updated with previous errors corrected and finally given a dedicated thread for official record.
Going forward...
- Major focus on increasing daily activities by utilizing ops lead locally
- Over the last term, joint-ops with many different Military orgs has been a great activity that has given us plenty to do while garnering new experiences. It has gained us great relationships with these orgs that we will be able to utilize well into the future.
- These local ops will provide a wider variety of activities to help stimulate new players and keep soldiers interested. This will not only help train up our soldiers for proper updating but also give our force more chances to plan and lead ops.
- Focus on experience and knowledge of our local force
- Joint-ops are fantastic as they provide a great amount of experience in group environments where comms can become muddied up very quickly. This instills discipline and a commitment to focus as any singular soldier jumping early could ruin the op.
- The focus on the daily activity will combine our already acquired experience in joint ops with that gained from taking charge in planning and leads ops. Creating a very well rounded military that can perform optimally.
World Assembly:
During the last term, we have achieved new highs in author production, with our own ministry leadership producing more than ever before. This has been greatly complimented with new programs assisting both veteran authors (Accelerator Program) and players brand new to the WA. Additionally, the execution of IFVs and communication on votes has been consistently top notch with our introduction of a new IFV-voting discord channel for ministry opinion on how our IFVs should be written.
Going forward...
- Major priority is ensuring the Accelerator and Mentorship programs stay alive
- Previous sponsorship programs have a nasty habit of dying off due to a general lack of support or usage
- By providing constant support and promotion they need, we can ensure survival so future and past programs alike can take advantage of it.
- Heroes of the Northgetting a jumpstart via integration with the sponsorship programs
- This will give players an opportunity to get involved in SC based projects that have major implications locally
- This goes hand in hand with injecting life to the program while dually sparking additional interest in our sponsorship programs for high profile authors here in TNP
Foreign Affairs:
In the last term, we officially introduced the FA committee program to assist assigned diplomats and ensure activity and distributions continued on time at a normal pace. This has been largely successful in ensuring each diplomat has a dedicated individual they can go to for questions and someone to hold them accountable for their position. The UCR Outreach program has much of its internal work already done and will be looking for a launch in the first month of next term, largely being pushed back due to the gross amount of work requires by the disclosures.
Going Forward...
- Utilization of the FA Committee program for Gameplay engagement
- By having additional oversight to ensure our distributions are completed, we can also use this to ensure embassy updates occur consistently
- The committee program has created leaders who ambassadors look up to and are very familiar with the current workings of our MoFA. They will be great representatives to have active on both the GP forum and discord as they are a step above the current working knowledge base of the SDs who take on a more advisory role.
- Roll out of the UCR Outreach Program
- "Haven't you been talking about this for quite some time now?" Yes. Yes I have. It is no excuse, however my other work this term, largely including my work on disclosures, has consumed lots of my time to be able to roll this our earlier. This has gone from a mere concept, to an working idea, to now near release as I have put in work on my own time to bring this to fruition.
- "What has changed from my initial idea?" Quite a lot actually. Some of the key points include giving additional life to ministries like Radio by doing interviews with member leadership, discovering new partners for festivals and cultural exchanges, discovering defense partners we can run joint ops with and assist in training of regions who might otherwise not be able to defend themselves or run raids.
Home Affairs:
Over the last term, we have had a great focus on smooth and efficient performance and that is exactly what has occurred. Lists production and execution has run on time and this sort level of production is exactly what needs to be continued into future terms. Recruitment has been a central focus and will continue to be as we have many ministries in dire need of additional staffing. Additionally, the Mentorship program has been updated and received support it needs to continue to be successful as well as the Discord Welcome Wagon coming into existence.
Going forward....
- Home Affairs is not solely defined by their lists, support must be kept up for items such as the Mentorship Program and Discord Welcome Wagon
- The Mentorship program is an essential way to acquire new talent and have new players learn more about our region, it must be kept updated and supported to continue its healthy and effective existence. This can be combined with an education concept I will later discuss in Culture.
- The Discord Welcome Wagon is a great concept that can use some tweaking to function much like the Mentorship program but pick it up on discord where it lets off.
- Continue the efficient list production and ensure all lists are claimed and executed
- Somewhat literal here. Recruitment is only as effective as the ministry performing it. We need to be on our best game to ensure we can give life to the other ministries by bringing new members in.
Culture:
During the term, we hosted a fantastic RP Symposium that was a huge success and bode very well for similar events going forward. That being said, the the Roleplay Reel has been abandoned. The roleplay community doesn't want it and the symposium is a much better platform all things considered. Theme-Thursdays have been a consistent producer of engagement that we can grow on. While not many will occur next term, Holidays will take a front seat in the future to better engage with not only our TNP community but the greater NS community.
Going forward...
- Symposiums being used for cultural and RP engagement
- The RP symposium is a great example of what we can do and where we can build with symposiums, and I am excited to use these in future cases with our RP and cultural partners
- These can also be used to discuss and teach history of not only TNP but also allied regions and educate participants.
- Creation of programs to focus on citizen education
- Do you know who the first 3 delegates of TNP were? Or how our constitution and legal code have developed over time? No? Didn't think so. There is a distinct lack of programs existing that cater to teaching our citizenry about our past, both good and bad.
- By creating a program that not only creates a collection of documents that teach our history but also actively teaching it via the use of Radio, we can bring a substantial base of knowledge to our citizenry and cater to all different types of learners to ensure everyone is included.
Communications:
In the last term, this ministry has shown a knack for consistency in production with TNS and TNL being produced on schedule for monthly and bimonthly releases respectively. Polaris has a solid structure and a great concept that can be taken to a new level in the coming term. We have begun work addressing new projects for TNPU and those will be executed in the coming term.
Going forward...
- Polaris support and maintenance
- Polaris is the brainchild of @BMWSurfer which unfortunately was sidelined due to TNS and TNL scheduling taking a priority. As we move into next term there will be an effort to give more attention to develop this fantastic program without sacrificing quality elsewhere.
- TNPU activity
- In combination with the previously stated TNPU Anthology creations to help serve education purposes, we plan to add an Welcome Packet to utilize guides created by Radio and other pieces of information to ensure our incoming Executive Staffers have all the information they need to succeed.
- Future work with culture in education and symposiums will also be key to bringing activity back to TNPU. We have a fantastic staff that is waiting to be put to work, lets do it.
Radio:
Over the last term, we achieved our production goals and procured a great amount of content with more concepts and future recordings to come. As per official policies, show summaries will be discontinued to save on the amount of work required. Where improvement needs to occur is schedule consistency and this lands fundamentally at a staffing issue. Radio can be a niche ministry that requires different knowledge and more non-NS based skills than other ministries. This is going to require rethinking the way we do recruitment for radio to ensure its consistent activity going into the future.
Going forward...
- Recruit, recruit, recruit
- We need staff and we need them badly. Radio is a new ministry and its formative years influence heavily on its future success. As stated previously, this includes traditional recruitment via promotion of our programs and the use of HA, as well as targeted attempts at people who show a knack for writing, audio recording, and editing.
- Additional Content Opportunities
- Whether it be new FA opportunities to interview allied and UCR leaders, culture with educational content, and Comms with TNPU content... Radio will have a plethora of opportunities to create new shows on their own time and in a format where they do not need a rigid schedule to execute and produce.
Cards:
In kicking off it's inaugural term, the Ministry of Cards has had a fantastic start with the on-time rollout of its groundbreaking new program, the Cards Rewards Program. Multiple rewardable activities have now been added for each ministry to reward all the hard work our staffers do and as the programs develops we hope to expand with more activities to help promote activity for ministries that need it.
Going forward...
- Season 3 Implications
- While we are unsure of when exactly Season 3 will come, there are quite a few major items that need to be considered.
- Promotional events will be a major item to get people excited for the release of the new season. Giveaways, creation of IRL cards, card design contests are all on the table as we prepare for the impending release.
- Our card economy needs to adapt to the changes that come with season three. To give a quick rundown, all cards from previous seasons lose priority in package openings and therefore become even rarer. This means that a lower quality card from Season 1 might very well be more valuable than a higher quality card freshly released in the current season. Our reward values must be changed accordingly.
- While we are unsure of when exactly Season 3 will come, there are quite a few major items that need to be considered.
- Cards Engagement
- We will look to host a festival type event that will include members of other regional cards organizations in order to promote participation in cards and share ideas, farming methods, and general information with other regions. This will also give us a chance to show off the awesome collection and programs we have created in relation to cards here at TNP.
- A new program is on the horizon
- Another major project that will have benefits comparable to the Cards Rewards Program is coming, with more information on this will come as we progress into next term from ministry leadership.
As you can see above, a great amount of work has been completed this term, with a large portion of that work done to set up continued success in terms going forward. This back-end work might not be very flashy or public, but it is necessary for success. With so much completed so far, we have created a very strong base to jump into next term with.
Thank you for taking the time to read through this. I hope I have covered concerns or questions you might have and earned your vote without talking your ear off. I am traditionally a player of less words and information in greater density, therefore the above is a summary very worth reading.
If you have any additional questions or comments I would be more than happy to hear them. Please feel free to reach out via discord (Tlomz#1590), in-game (Kranostav), or in a reply below.
All the best and Happy New Year,
Last edited:
