Nation Building 101

Basic Nation Building 101: With Jacob

Anyone is welcome to PM me if you have any questions, or you can post here. I can generally prove to you without a doubt why my method is better. With years of experience on bob and three nations later, I've seen and done it all. There are strategy's that have been tested and proven through the ions, so I would like to pass them on to you.

Table of Contents:
Population Happiness
Government Positions
Government Types
Religion
Tax Rate
Infrastructure & Infra Jumps
Improvements
Technology
Wonders
Back Collecting - Making the most out of your nation
Labor Camp Swapping - Improving your back collecting!
Military, DefCon and Threat Level

Population Happiness:

Here on Planet Bob, Keeping your people happy directly correlates to how much money they will make +1 Happiness = +2.00 Citizen income, so at that point if your tax rate is where it should be at 28% you should make 0.56$ per happiness point/per citizen.

Population happiness should always be a goal.

Government Types:

If you want a low effort approach, I recommend Monarchy, It provides good overall bonus’ to your nation.

It’s not always best to choose the government position that makes your people happy. Each position offers individual bonus’. For example the Capitalist government position will reduce your bills the most and give you the infrastructure cost reduction bonus, If you are back collecting and are willing to switch I would recommend using Capitalist 19 days out of the 20 and monarchy on the day you collect your taxes.

Religion:
Choosing the right religion gives you +1 Pop Happiness. It's an easy free point, below are the events to help you pick the right one when your people decide they want a different religion.

None - Perhaps they do not desire a religion.
Mixed - There is no dominant religion among your population at this time but instead a variety of various teachings and followings.
Baha'i faith - They desire a modern middle eastern religion that focuses on monotheism.
Buddhism - They desire a national religion but do not care to worship a supreme deity. or They desire to follow a religion that seeks freedom from greed, hatred and delusion, and enlightenment through realizing the Four Noble Truths and following the Eightfold Path.
Christianity - The majority of your people desire a religion that worships a divine savior. or They desire a monotheistic system of beliefs and practices based on the Old Testament and the teachings of Jesus Christ as embodied in the New Testament.
Confucianism - They desire a Far Eastern philosophical religion emphasizing love for humanity, high value given to learning and to devotion to family and ancestors, peace, justice, and respect for traditional culture.
Hinduism - They believe in reincarnation and karma and desire a religion that supports this philosophy.
Islam - They wish to worship a supreme being called Allah and follow the teaching of a prophet recorded in their sacred text called the Quran.
Jainism - They are primarily non-materialistic and wish for a national religion that supports atheism and that teaches that every single living thing is an individual and eternal soul, called Jiva, which is responsible for its own actions.
Judaism - They desire a religion that follows divine scriptures. or They desire a religion that follows divine scriptures with ethical principles embodied chiefly in the Torah and in the Talmud.
Norse - They wish to follow an ancient religion followed by Germanic tribes living in Nordic countries under pre-Christian period.
Shinto - They believe that god is present in all walks of life, both in living and non-living things.
Sikhism - They desire a belief system which blends Hindu traditions with Islamic monotheistic traditions, the belief in one God and the teachings of the Ten Gurus.
Taoism - They do not believe in a single god but instead believe in oneness and freedom from personal desires.
Voodoo - They believe in the conjuring of dead spirits and desire a national religion that supports this.


Tax Rate:

Even if it makes your people a little unhappy, Adjusting your tax rate to 28% will always make you more money.

Infrastructure and Infra Jumps:

Infrastructure is the key to building a successful nation. Infrastructure is buildings and roads it allows your nation to welcome more people and produce an income. Obviously infrastructure takes money to upkeep though, and it will also be your largest bill.

Infra Jumps are upkeep increases at different thresholds of infra levels…



Infra Jump - Infra Upkeep Cost
20-99.99 = 0.04 X Infra Level + 20
100-199.99 = 0.05 X Infra Level + 20
200-299.99 = 0.06 X Infra Level + 20
300-499.99 = 0.07 X Infra Level + 20
500-699.99 = 0.08 X Infra Level + 20
700-999.99 = 0.09 X Infra Level + 20
1000-1999.99 = 0.11 X Infra Level + 20
2000-2999.99 = 0.13 X Infra Level + 20
3000-3999.99 = 0.15 X Infra Level + 20
4000-4999.99 = 0.17 X Infra Level + 20
5000-7999.99 = 0.1725 X Infra Level + 20
8000-14999.99 = 0.175 X Infra Level + 20
15000-????? = 0.1755 X Infra Level + 20
Creds to Kingdom of Royalty for infrajump/increase stats.

Why are infra jumps important you may ask? Well Its for this reason. You should always buy infra up to the next infra jump, because of those pesky upkeep cost increases. You want to buy up to the very tipy top of the next increase without peaking it. So you get the most money out of the bills you pay every day, without having to pay 10-20% more just because you have 1-500 extra levels of infra. It isnt worth it folks! Tie Infra jumps in with a back collect and you can make some mean money!

Improvements:

Harbor, Foreign Ministry, *Factory, Factory, Factory, Factory, Factory, Stadium, Stadium, Bank, Stadium, Bank, Stadium, Bank, Stadium, Bank, Bank, Clinic, Clinic, Hospital, Clinic, Clinic, Clinic, School, School, School, University, University, School, School, **Labor Camp, Labor Camp, Labor Camp, Labor Camp, Labor Camp, Police Headquarters, Police Headquarters, Police Headquarters, Police Headquarters, Police Headquarters, Intelligence Agency, Intelligence Agency, Intelligence Agency, Intelligence Agency, Intelligence Agency, Church, Church, Church, Church, Church, ***Border Walls
*If selling tech buy factories first, they will reduce infra purchase costs by 40% and stretch your money much further!
**If at 3K infra you can begin labor camp swapping, Check Back Collecting for more info. NEVER HAVE LABOR CAMPS IF YOU ARE COLLECTING DAILY! IT WILL KILL YOUR ECONOMY!
*** Big balancing act, I will write more on this later

Technology:

1-3999.99 Infra: Max Tech = 100, You should be selling tech. Even if you have 5 deals only buy 100 tech.
4999.99 infra: Start buying Tech. 1-2 deals every ten days
8499.99 infra <: Should be buying tech with all of their aid slots, unless banking for TCSS

Nations under the 4K infra jump should not buy more than 100 tech at a time. During this time it is much more prudent to focus on infrastructure and building your nation’s economy. While I would recommend stopping the sale of tech at 2999.99 with tech deals being at the best rates yet you may as well continue selling to 3999.99 when your nation starts producing more money. Nations tech selling please see our tech selling guide for more information on the subject.

As a general rule you want AT LEAST 2:1 Infra:tech. Your overall goal should be to have 1:1 Infra:tech. Tech is hard to destroy and will stay with your nation through nuclear destruction while you're infra will melt away. Consider buying tech as an investment in your nation’s future as well as supporting TCSS and encouraging new nations to grow!

Wonders:
Start buying wonders when you hit 2999.99 Infra, You can only buy one a month so watch your counter and buy the next one as soon as possible. They’re expensive but incredibly worth it. That means keeping in mind the amount of money you need to spend without compromising your warchest.

Economic:
This build will help you push your nations economy to the max. With this program the Federal Reserve will help you greatly if you can afford it. The two extra banks give you 14% bonus income and thats huge to a large nation, If your citizen income is at 300$ = 42$ bonus, It really pays for itself quickly.

Stock Market, Social Security System, Interstate System, Manhattan Project **Disaster Relief Agency Great Monument, Strategic Defense Initiative, Great University (If you have 2500+ Tech) or Great Temple, Federal Reserve, Central Intelligence Agency,

Balanced:
Stock Market,  Manhattan Project, Social Security System, Interstate System, **Disaster Relief Agency Great Monument, Strategic Defense Initiative, Great University (If you have 2500+ Tech) or Great Temple, Pentagon, Federal Reserve, Central Intelligence Agency

Military:
The Point of this Build is to establish your nation with specific bonuses to your economy to help you buy as much tech as possible while still being able to make infra jumps. You will still make plenty of money but also have great battle bonus'. With this build the Weapons Research complex should be bought ASAP.

Stock Market,  Manhattan Project, Social Security System, Strategic Defense Initiative, Interstate System, Pentagon, **Disaster Relief Agency Great Monument, Great University (If you have 2500+ Tech) or Great Temple, Central Intelligence Agency, Federal Reserve,


*Interchangeable order
**Buying tech becomes a priority

Start buying wonders when you hit 2999.99 Infra, You can only buy one a month so watch your counter and buy the next one as soon as possible. They’re expensive but incredibly worth it.



Back Collecting:

Back collecting is a game changer in Cyber Nations, It requires a little extra patience but really pays off in the end. Its the premise that you can go 20 days without collecting taxes or paying bills. Basically the idea is that you can worry about minimizing your bills 19/20 of the days. On the 20th day you want to maximize your population happiness and in turn income.

Let's say you are at 999.99 Infra. You do a back collect for 20 days and collect your tech deal money etc. By the end of the 20 day back collect you should have enough money to get to 1999.99 infra, or make another "infra jump". Now the reason we pay bills for 19 days straight without collect is. Because the game will pay us for 20 days worth of taxes @ 1999.99 infra even if we paid the bills for the 999.99 the first 19 days before buying up on day 20. This method will always make you more money and is used across Planet Bob.

Day
Action


1
Pay bills (take tech deals on small nations, buy labor camps large nations (3K+ infra)


2
Pay bills
With this method the idea is to keep
3
Pay Bills
Bills at the lowest possible point
4
Pay Bills
So that you can make the most money possible
5
Pay Bills
On day 20. Your collection will be larger than if you had collected any day.
6
Pay Bills


7
Pay Bills


8
Pay Bills


9
Pay bills


10
Pay Bills (Send tech)


11
Pay Bills


12
Pay Bills


13
Pay Bills


14
Pay Bills


15
Pay Bills


16
Pay Bills


17
Pay Bills


18
Pay Bills


19
Pay Bills


20
Pay Bills > Swap labor camps, find new tech deals > Buy Infrastructure (MAKE SURE TO HAVE FACTORIES!) > Buy improvements/1000 citizens > Collect ( You can even delete factories and add economic improvements, make sure it will turn a profit as they're all expensive)


Labor Camp Swapping:

At 2999.99 your infra bills start becoming rather large. Now labor camps are great for reducing infrastructure bills but, forced labor doesn’t really benefit your peoples income (reduces population happiness -1). If you have 5 Labor camps that quickly becomes -5 Population happiness which equates to -10.00 citizen income which also means -2.50 in taxes collected per citizen. Now much like infra jumping at the end of a back collect, labor camp swapping allows you to further widen your bills to collection ratio. This is why you should never collect your taxes while you have labor camps, just sit around for 19 days paying bills with your labor camps.

Now while those are the negatives of the Labor Camp, Lets get to the benefits. -10% Infrastructure upkeep per Labor Camp, That allows you to literally cut your most expensive bill in half with 5 of these wonderful improvements. So even if you can’t afford an infrastructure jump this back collect you will still make 25% more money.

Now Labor Camps are kinda pricey at 150K each, thats why it’s important to back collect for 19 days, then sell them and replace them with banks or a cheap economic improvement you have sitting around. Personally I like to do it with banks or Police headquarters. Sometimes if I intend on not buying infrastructure for a while I will swap my factories out, thats a bit more pricey and you should do the math or just stick to your cheapest economic improvement.



Military, DefCon, and Threat Level:

While I know having a large standing Army sounds like a good idea, in Cyber Nations it takes a few clicks and seconds to have your army at full force. You dont want to spend money keeping up tanks, aircraft and soldiers you don’t need to right?

To keep your citizens happy I recommend have 20-25% of your working citizens as soldiers. Use a calculator and take your working citizens * .21 to get a good number. If you go to low though, be careful you can self anarchy. This will send your nation into turmoil for a few days.

DefCon -

There are only two important DefCon levels in Cyber nations. DefCon 5, the peace time level. Boosts happiness while reducing effectiveness of your soldiers. DefCon 1, is very useful during war time, it gives you bonus’ to troop effectiveness, it also reduces happiness and mil upkeep costs though.

DEFCON 5 - Normal peacetime military readiness. (+2 happiness, +20% initial soldier cost, 76% soldier efficiency, tank, navy, aircraft strength in battle)
DEFCON 4 - Normal military readiness, increased intelligence and strengthened security measures. (+1 happiness, +10% initial soldier cost, 81% soldier efficiency, tank, navy, aircraft strength in battle)
DEFCON 3 - Increased military readiness above normal readiness. (+0 happiness, +0% initial soldier cost, 86% soldier efficiency, tank, navy, aircraft strength in battle)
DEFCON 2 - Increased military readiness, but less than maximum readiness. (-1 happiness, -10% initial soldier cost, 93% soldier efficiency, tank, navy, aircraft strength in battle)
DEFCON 1 - Maximum military readiness. (-2 happiness, -20% initial soldier cost, 100% soldier efficiency, tank, navy, aircraft strength in battle)

Threat Level -

Yet again your peacetime threat level should be low. While this makes spy attacks easier on your nation it gives you the happiness bonus you are looking for. Once again when you go to war you want to change your threat level to Severe.

Low (-0.0 population happiness, 75% counter intelligence readiness)
Guarded (-0.5 population happiness, 90% counter intelligence readiness)
Elevated (-1.0 population happiness, 100% counter intelligence readiness)
High - (-1.5 population happiness, 110% counter intelligence readiness)
Severe - (-2.0 population happiness, 125% counter intelligence readiness)