A Look at The North Pacific's Frontier Act
Game-Created Regions Brace for Frontier/Stronghold Update
Written by Sanjurika
Magicality City, The North Pacific - As regions prepare for the Frontier/Stronghold update, of particular interest is how Game Created Regions (GCRs) respond to this shift. Unlike User-Created Regions (UCRs) like Europeia, GCRs are guaranteed to lose roughly half of the newly-spawned nations they got before the update. The North Pacific (TNP) is a particularly unique example because of its extremely high endorsement count and its lack of a set endorsement cap. I decided to take a look at TNP to get an idea of how they are reacting to this impending change.
However, this proved to be a greater challenge than I anticipated, as TNP law prohibits non-citizens from viewing the debate for the bill. The Regional Assembly (TNP’s law-making body) is automatically open to all citizens. As a result of this particular open method of law-making, some higher security bills are discussed within the Private Halls of the Regional Assembly. In order to get a peak at the contents of the Frontier Act in discussion (without breaking any laws), I reached out to Speaker Skaraborg.
The Frontier Act essentially allows for the creation of additional regions (called territories) under the jurisdiction of The North Pacific government. The law does not stipulate whether or not these territories have to be Frontiers or Strongholds. The law also establishes the position of “Frontier Delegate” and “Frontier Vice Delegate”, essentially the highest endorsement holders in each territory. These position-holders are chosen by the Delegate, subject to confirmation by the Regional Assembly. Anyone can propose the creation of a new territory, and the new territory may propose a charter, subject to Regional Assembly approval. Frontier Delegates and Vice Delegates hold many of the same powers within their territories that main Delegates and Vice Delegates do.
According to Speaker Skaraborg, the main discussion within the Private Halls was less about whether the bill was necessary, but around the minutiae of the text. They stated: “No matter what approach we choose, it’s always important to be prepared and have something to build on” seemed to be the general consensus. The reality that their spawn rates would drop severely also seemed to be on everyone's mind during the debate period: “The biggest change and challenge in my opinion for TNP will be the fact that our spawn rates will drop by half," the Speaker explained. "We will need to adapt to those new circumstances and a couple of others too.”
Interestingly enough, although the role of Frontier Delegates and territories has been codified, their role in TNP culture and governance is not immediately clear what role they will play in TNP culture and governance. The law leaves the actual role and places of territories rather vague. Skaraborg predicts that “[Frontier Delegates would have] very little individual power and would just act as an “ambassador” or “governor” for the region.” Essentially acting only as a vessel to increase spawn rates and funneling nations into TNP. It's important to note however that although this is certainly a possibility, the law leaves things very open.
I also had the opportunity to reach out to the author of the bill, Pallaith (Ghost). When asked about the vision of the bill and whether it remained intact throughout the whole process, he answered in the affirmative, saying “The vision has remained intact I would say. The process of debating the bill forced me to make some concrete decisions as to how managing the territories would work, because originally I wanted to leave it very open-ended to allow us a chance to see how they took shape and allow us to inform the law by [the] experience of the players in the territories. But we can still do that even with the specifics we have, and I think it does kind of outline an ‘ideal’ path for them that wouldn’t have been there before the debate”. There was also a distinct effort to make a distinction between “territories” and “colonies”. In Ghost’s words, “Since this is TNP, and democracy is important and we’re so generous with rights, it was obvious that these territories would need to have full rights. From there I figured we would just make them automatic citizens, like classic territories from history, as opposed to say, colonies that were subservient and lacking in many crucial rights”.
The bill went to vote on April 5, 2023, and became law five days later. The final vote was 37 votes in support and 8 abstentions. No one voted against the bill, allowing it to meet the three-quarters majority support required for the bill to become law.
