QUEBECSHIRE: The League's Preparation for the Frontier/Stronghold Update






The League's Preparation for the Frontier/Stronghold Update
Quebecshire Contributes Another Region's Perspective to the EBC's Frontier/Stronghold Coverage

Written by Quebecshire, Edited by Pland Adanna



“Frontiers and Strongholds” (F/S) came up on the game fast. Despite some fluctuation between expected release dates ranging from April 10th to April 14th, NationStates administrators released the update on April 18th, much to the surprise of some players. The release culminated a couple weeks of 50 players testing it on “NationStates 3” to make sure the code was ready for full launch.

With a change that has the potential to flip the world of gameplay on its head, an unprecedented shift that changes the fabric of nation-founding that has existed since the start of the game, how have regions been preparing?

My region(s), The League & Concord, are probably among the most well-known regions in terms of perceived readiness for F/S. Our preparations started out in minor ways, such as negotiating the Ampëz–Weisshaupt Compact (with The Order of the Grey Wardens) and Treaty of Morya (with Europeia) to include territorial protections beyond our “main” regions. At this point we had no firm plans, but wanted to have the opportunity to seamlessly shift any potential plans into our foreign affairs portfolio.

In May 2022, nearly a year ago, things picked up at a massive pace. When the founder of Confederacy of Layem was deleted, their community quickly moved to the region of Concord expecting an imminent invasion by Antifa. Their settlement was short-lived, with their Founder being declared delete-on-site less than 24 hours later, opening Concord to invasion as well. In short, The League’s military (LDF) led a brief invasion that peaked at over 150 endorsements, and Concord was passworded with a single remaining nation in a matter of a few days.

For nearly a month, Concord sat with a single nation, functionally as a trophy/tribute region owned by the LDF. Around this time, we were negotiating the Ekrina-Catan Accords with The Rejected Realms, discussing potential plans for F/S and how these plans would fit into our final agreement. This development motivated a more in-depth discussion within our government where we attempted to decide what we actually wanted out of the update, if anything. We settled on desiring a Frontier region, and spent some time debating a name until Ikania, one of our government advisors, suggested Concord be used for this purpose. It was perfect: easy to theme, already a region in our control, a recognizable and good name. All of the pieces fit together, and we got to work planning its usage and designing a flag. Shortly thereafter, we officially published our rough plan for the region and began building it up.

In its earlier months, Concord was pretty unremarkable. We spent some time slowly working to increase Mechanocracy’s (Spode Humbled Minions) endorsement numbers, and eventually incorporating Concord into regional law. As part of reorganizing some broader recruitment efforts, the region began taking off around August 2022. From that point, Concord began growing quickly in population and World Assembly endorsements, and we also picked up a strong group of active members who joined the game directly through Concord.

With Concord in an increasingly strong position, integrated into our laws and as an equal part in our dual-region community, preparations for F/S became more explicit. In December 2022, the Domestic Security Bureau was established with the appointment of two Vice Delegates for Concord. For all intents and purposes, this is our equivalent of Europeia’s Regional Security Council, or the game-created regions’ Security/Guardian systems.

Prior to the update, Concord stood with 189 WA Delegate endorsements (the 17th most in the world). Some of those (roughly 30) have been relocated for military operations, but, even so, that leaves Concord with over 160 endorsements. With a developed security system and strong recruitment apparatus, all things considered, I’d say we’re pretty prepared for the road ahead. The next few months will see a lot of chaos and overturn, but we’re hoping to play it right and keep Concord on the right track as one of the earlier and stronger Frontiers.

 
Great article! I wasn't familiar with the history of Concord, so this was very informative.
 
Interesting to get a glimpse behind the scenes of how The League became The League & Concord!
 
It's great to see a guest author at the EBC, and very insightful to read about the development of Concord! Thanks!
 
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