MAD Academy

The stronger the members, the stronger the alliance. This class will teach you how to grow your nation in the most efficient way possible, and thus more ably contribute to the defense of the whole. Of course, part of the fun of Cybernations is figuring it all out yourself, so don’t read further if you prefer to do things the old fashioned way.

Cliff’s Notes Version:

• Infrastructure, Infrastructure, Infrastructure.
  
• Too much land makes you weak. Really.
  
• Trading = Free Money.

Chapter 1: The REAL Strength Of Nations
Despite what you see in the “Nation Strength” field of your national profile, real nation strength derives almost entirely from one thing: the buying power of your nation - your per capita taxed income multiplied by your civilian population. Everything you do in the game should be focused on maximizing that number, because with one exception, nothing else matters.

That one exception is technology. Most features of the game are only important to the extent that they influence your buying power, but technology is a whole different issue. A single modern soldier with a machine gun could wipe out an entire Colonial-era army. You cannot fall behind on tech or your armies will be useless, no matter their size.

Of course, you can’t buy a lot of technology without a strong economy, so increasing your buying power must always remain your primary focus, with technology a distant second.

One last but important note on nation strength: Your “official” strength as determined by the Cybernations formula (which includes land and size of military) determines which nations you may go to war with. You can only fight wars with countries between 50%-200% of your official nation strength. This is important, because if your official nation strength is exaggerated by, say, a lot of land, then you open yourself up to attack by nations that are in “reality” much more than 200% stronger than you, and even nations which are officially your lessers may be able to defeat you. On the other hand, if you keep your land area and military small, then your “real” nation strength will be higher than your “official” strength, and you may be more powerful than nations which read as significantly stronger than you.

Chapter 2: The Set-Up
From here on this document focuses on how to most efficiently increase your buying power and technology. The choices you make setting up your nation affect your buying power directly, so it’s important to set up correctly.

1. Under “My Government Position” you are asked a series of questions. Sometimes your answer doesn’t matter, but for three of the questions, it does.
   • For the second question – the one about nuclear power – your answer should depend on whether or not uranium is one of the resources you have access to (either naturally or via trade). If you DO have access to uranium, you should select the second option (allows you to use nuclear for power but not bombs) because it will improve your citizen’s per capita income. If you do NOT have access to uranium, select the first option (opposing all nuclear) because it will improve your environment, which in turn improves your income. If you are trying to build a nuclear bomb then all bets are off, but you must be in the top 5% of all the countries in the world to do that.
     
   • For the third question – about drug trafficking – select the second or third options. The first option (leaders too high) hurts your environment, which lowers your income.
     
   • For the fifth question – about immigration – select the second or third options. Just as in question three, the first option will hurt your environment.
   
   
2. For “National Religion” you should ALWAYS simply select whichever religion your population asks for. Doing so improves your people’s happiness, which improves their incomes. Your cybercitizens will not go to cyberhell if you choose a heathen religion, nor will your cyberatheists feel oppressed under any circumstances. Just give your population what it asks for.
   
3. National Government, however, is NOT like Religion. Contrary to popular opinion there are real effects in the game for each government type which can have a profound effect on your nation’s economy. These effects are available here. 95% of the time you should set your government to Monarchy, because Monarchy reduces the cost of infrastructure and improves your population’s happiness even if it is not the government they ask for. The only time you should ever set your government to something besides Monarchy is if your population asks for Revolutionary. Revolutionary is similar to Monarchy, but has a negative effect on environment. However, the bonus you get for giving your population the government they ask for is worth that minor environmental hit, so in this one and only case, it is worth it to pick something other than Monarchy.
   
4. Unless your nation is very small, a tax rate of 28% will virtually always give you the best results. You will get a message saying your population is unhappy about high taxes, but ignore it. Your tax rate should NEVER be set below 20%.

Chapter 3: Infrastructure
Infrastructure makes your population bigger. It’s like buying new citizens. There is NOTHING you can do in the game that will have a more profound impact on the strength of your nation than buying lots of infrastructure. Except in special circumstances, infra purchases should make up the bulk of your spending.

The cost of infrastructure, however, goes up every time you buy it, so it is important that you always buy the largest amount possible, which is 10 units per transaction. If you are a very small nation it is worth it to spend all your post-bills income on infrastructure even if what you get is less than 10 units, but once you get to the point where you can afford to buy 10 in one day, NEVER EVER buy less than 10 at any single time again. If you can afford it, buy multiple packets of 10 every day.

Finally, the cost to maintain infrastructure goes up dramatically every time you cross a 1,000 unit threshold. It increases so much, in fact, that you will almost certainly make less money post-bills with 1,001 infrastructure than with 999. Because of this, you should save up just before crossing those thresholds and buy at least 100 units of infrastructure (10 packages of 10 or more) all at once, so your population takes a big enough sudden jump to offset the increased maintenance costs.

Chapter 4: Trade
Every resource you have access to has an effect on something in the game. Some resources decrease the cost of infrastructure, others make your population happier, others make it easier to build your military, etc etc. Trading in Cybernations is like FREE MONEY. You should ALWAYS use every trade slot available to you. Never ever leave one open.

The specific resources you trade for are up to you and the needs of your nation, but generally speaking the following 7 are considered the best: fish, wheat, lumber, marble, iron, aluminum, water. All resources give you something, but the more of those 7 that you have, the better off your economy will be most of the time.

Bonus resources are just like regular resources, but you can’t trade for them directly. You only get them by combining regular resources. Everyone should have beer and construction, as they are excellent bonuses and getting them requires resources everyone should have access to anyway. Beyond that, what bonuses you go after, if any, should depend on what regular trades you have going for you already.

Chapter 5: Technology and Tech Trading
As mentioned in Chapter 1, technology is one of the more important aspects of the game. Buying technology has a profound effect on your national economy until you get to level 10, at which time its effect becomes more subtle. However, the more tech you have, the happier your population will become, the better your soldiers will perform, and the more advanced the weaponry you can buy. As soon as you can afford to do it, you should get your tech level above 10. After that continue buying regularly, but you can afford to concentrate less on it.

Like infrastructure, the cost of tech increases every time you buy it, so it’s important to always buy in chunks as large as you can afford. Small nations should save up for a few days and buy several units at once, rather than nickel-and-diming fractions of units together.

Unlike infrastructure, however, technology can be given from one nation to another via foreign aid. This makes something called tech trading possible, whereby a small nation saves up money for several days in order to buy a large amount of technology, and then “sells” that tech to a larger nation for more money than the smaller nation spent researching it, but for far less than larger nation would have had to spend to research that same amount. Like regular trading, tech trading is a true “win-win” situation, and everyone should do it if they are able, as either buyers, sellers, or both. A common tech deal is 50 units for $1,000,000.

Chapter 6: Land
I know I know; land is cool. Looking at that map of your nation and seeing it cover a huge territory brings smiles to your face. But being big doesn’t make you powerful, and can in fact hurt, as described in the last paragraph of Chapter 1.

You should only buy enough land to keep your population from becoming unhappy due to crowded living conditions. As long as your population density is lower than 50, you will be fine (and with certain resources you can go even higher than that). Your population density should NEVER be lower than 35. Low density is a waste, exaggerates your strength making you prone to defeat in war, and makes you a tempting target for rogue nations looking to capture land. Sprawl is bad in real life, and it is in the game as well.

Finally, like infrastructure and tech, the cost of land goes up the more times you buy it, so you should always buy the most you can afford, up to the max of 20 miles per transaction. There is never any reason to ever buy more than 20 miles in a day.

Chapter 7: Improvements
For every 1,000 civilian citizens in your nation, you may buy 1 improvement. Improvements are expensive, but like infrastructure should be thought of as investments. The better ones will have an immediate pay-off.

The first improvement you should buy is the Harbor. Harbors open up a 5th trading slot, and as mentioned in Chapter 4, trading equals free money.

After the Harbor, you should generally buy Factories, which decrease the cost of infrastructure, and Banks and Stadiums, which increase your population’s income. If your per capita income is below about $100 per day then it is better to buy Stadiums. If your per cap income is above that, then it is better to buy Banks.

Chapter 8: Military

• Your army doubles as your civilian police force, so you should NEVER allow your defending army to fall below 20% the size of your civilian population. An inadequate defending army will throw your population into riot and anarchy, drastically affecting your ability to collect taxes. Note the difference between “defending” army and “total” army. Troops that you have sent abroad do not count towards the 20% police requirement.
  
• Not counting a nuclear attack, cruise missiles do the most damage to your enemy at the least cost, and should always be your first purchase and first attack during war. You can only launch 2 missiles against a single enemy per day, however, so don’t buy 20 missiles and then find yourself unable to supply your ground forces.
  
• Tanks are expensive to maintain, so you should not have very many of them unless you are at war. Once you go to war, however, your armies will not perform well without large tank divisions, so tanks should be your second wartime purchase (after two cruise missiles).
  
• Air attacks do not generally cause much damage unless you have fairly advanced planes. If all you can afford are level 1 or 2 planes, it’s not worth the cost to build and maintain an air force, unless you are at war and your opponent is bombing you with planes and you need fighters to stop him.
  
• Lowering your defcon level makes soldiers less expensive to buy and makes your armies perform better in battle, but at the cost of lower population happiness, which in turn lowers your buying power, which makes everything except military equipment more expensive. Unless you are actively engaged in a war your defcon level should be 5.

Chapter 8: Leftovers

• +1 population happiness = +$2 citizen income.
  
• The Cybernations Wiki is an excellent source of information, as well as a good place to flush out your nation’s background (if you are the imaginative sort).
  
• There are big alliances and there are little alliances. For goodness sake, don’t piss off any of the big ones!
  
• Not all alliances are friendly alliances. Rogues can get together and form alliances too, so beware. Most alliances want peace, but some look for excuses to go to war.
  
• The “Donation Offer” button allows you to give real-life money to the people who run Cybernations in exchange for in-game cash, land area, infrastructure and technology. You can only make one donation per month, but if you are just starting out or are behind because of a war, it’s a good way to very quickly increase your nation strength.

Congratulations! If you have read this far, you may consider yourself a graduate of the MAD Academy. Go class of ’07!