How to start a nation with any WA classification

Years ago, NationStates used a different create-a-nation questionnaire that was widely researched, allowing players to easily start any nation with any nation type they desired.

The new system hasn't been nearly as widely researched as the previous one, presumably because it includes a new "Random" option that can be mashed until it outputs the desired stats from the beginning. This is an effective, if admittedly tedious, way to easily start any nation with the desired WA classification.

Fortunately, it is still possible to obtain any such classification by simply selecting one of the 9 starting freedoms and answering the 8 questions in the first page. More variation can be added with the 9 history options, but they are not really required to obtain any specific classification and as such will be omitted from this guide.

This guide is based on a forum post I made that is over one year old now, but it will probably get more exposure (and better formatting and detail) through a dispatch. The original post also forgot a category: Liberal Democratic Socialists.

The underlying mechanics are very complex, as is the case for anything directly related to NS stats. Furthermore, due to how the questionnaire works, it is possible to obtain a WA classification through multiple paths. The one considered for this guidelist is the most simple I discovered.

The 9 starting freedoms
These are the 9 starting freedoms available. The resulting freedom stats are shown in this list, without replying to any question. They are ordered as shown in the create-a-nation page:

Remember that negative Economic Freedom values imply a socialist state-planned economy.

*Not to be confused with Economy!

The 8 questions

• Q1. A country should be judged by how it treats its worst-off citizens.

• Q2. Corporations are good for society.

• Q3. Marijuana should be legal.

• Q4. The world needs to rediscover its spirituality.

• Q5. Young people should perform a year's compulsory military service.

• Q6. Capitalism is on the way out.

• Q7. Without democracy, a country has nothing

• Q8. It's better to deter criminals than rehabilitate them.

These questions modify the stats preselected through the 10 freedom choices (9 + Random) by a variable amount, that depends on the base stats of your nation-to-be. Not all of them affect the freedoms used to determine the WA classification, and as such will be omitted below.

How to start with the WA classification you want
This table indicates how to start with any WA classification. The listed method is the most simple I have discovered. Freedom indicates which of the 9 Freedoms (see above) you should select, while questions indicate how to answer each one. Questions not explicitly mentioned should be left blank. If two Freedoms are shown, both are valid options that will result in the same WA classification.

WA categories are in alphabetical order.

*To obtain a Mother Knows Best State, follow the steps for a Father Knows Best State, but on the second page of the nation creation questionnaire select either "Matriarchy" or "Queendom" as the nation pre-title.

Throughoutly tested the 31st of January 2019, updated 11th of April 2020, and still valid as of 2024. With a bit of experience, the questionnaire is quite intuitive and it is easy to recognize the pattern I used to get every possible type from the start.