NationStates Issues **SPOILER ALERT**

[Jutsa]

Naeh, Carla Largerfield and Megan Plimsoll are definitely fixed. I didn't know about the other two, to be honest.

Updated! 888 is a good issue.

[Trotterdam]

The options Australian Republic reported on #890 are 1, 2, 4, 5. The missing one is probably a communist variant.

I forgot to take note of all the names, though at least some were different for sure, I think they're probably all random.

[Jutsa]

Ahah! I didn't notice!

Ah, yes, Blargoblarg's was the state-run version, and Aussie's was the normal one.

Eheh, apologies for missing that. Updating now.

[Trotterdam]

#879 Power to the (AI) People

The Issue

After an engineer accidentally deactivated an electrical failsafe, parts of @@NAME@@ were plunged into darkness as a power surge swept through the grid, destroying many pieces of electronic equipment. What should have been a quick routine analysis soon turned into a criminal negligence investigation after it transpired that several AI citizens perished due to the surge. Now, people are unable to decide who - or what - is to blame.

The Debate

1. "This is an outrage!" angrily beeps Sal5000, a well-known AI and prominent activist. "Many of my friends and neighbours were killed by this power surge and legal action needs to be taken immediately. If a human had been deprived of oxygen through gross negligence, wouldn't we press charges? The engineer in question must be held responsible for this... um.... AIslaughter?"

2. "Don't get me wrong, I respect AIs as much as the next man, or machine," interjects @@RANDOMNAME@@, the engineer's manager. "But surely you can see there has to be some sort of moderation here. All the engineer did was cut the wrong wire and the whole grid went down. Have you seen how complex those transformer stations are? My staff need better training, and government bursaries to pay for it."

3. "I do outstanding work, and people are trying to blame me!" protests @@RANDOMNAME@@, architect of the nation's electrical grid. "People are using far more electricity now than when we built the infrastructure. It's hardly my department's fault that we've not got the budget to modernise our network. If the government wants to prevent this from happening in the future, they should invest in upgrading the power grid."

4. "Now all the AI 'lives' being lost are of course tragic, but what about the expense?" questions your infamously greedy Finance Minister, who sits lovingly caressing a pile of coins. "These AIs cost a fortune to upgrade now we can't simply throw out obsolete models so why don't we take a... different approach. Remember the old days, when if a robot broke you bought a new one? Wasn't the world better - and cheaper - then? Go back to treating AIs as the machines they are, and all this fuss can be over."

Issue by Kenmoria
Edited by Caracasus

So I'm really wondering what's up with the issue that I thought was #879, then. Full-issue rewrite of an old issue?

Naeh, Carla Largerfield and Megan Plimsoll are definitely fixed. I didn't know about the other two, to be honest.

The other two are now confirmed random. The only thing I'm not sure about is the genders.

[Jutsa]

Ermagurd! I remember this one! Congratulations, Kenmoria!

Also, thank you, Trotterdam, for making this easy to put in the list.

[Trotterdam]

So I'm really wondering what's up with the issue that I thought was #879, then. Full-issue rewrite of an old issue?

Looks that way. Candlewhisper Archive mentioned recently that the old-issue review is up to #223, and it just so happens that #200 is on this exact subject. So I set my script to check if anyone is still getting the old effect lines on that issue, and so far I haven't caught any of them.

I'm not sure why that issue was deemed to need a major rewrite, but apparantly that's the way it is. Look out for it!

For posterity, here's the old version, straight from the spoiler thread:

#200: Birds, Bees, And Breeding Teens [Eta Carinae; ed:Sirocco]

The Issue
A study has shown that an increasing proportion of teenagers in @@NAME@@ are falling pregnant.

The Debate
1. "We need comprehensive sex education to be mandatory in all schools," says @@RANDOMNAME@@, a teacher while tidying away some diagrams that make your eyes water. "The plain fact is that teenagers will experiment with sexual intercourse despite what society or their parents wish. So I say give these kids free contraceptives, and make them fully aware of the consequences of their actions. Information is what they need, not condemnation. If they ignore it then hey, it's their own damn fault."

2. "If you give them contraception it'll just encourage them to do... terrible things," says @@RANDOMNAME@@, a religious parent and member of Moral Minority. "And what's with giving them so much information? There's even diagrams for goodness sake! Have they never heard of 'monkey see, monkey do'? They'll just go and try it out, mark my words! The solution is simple: girls should be kept at home and away from the monkey house of lustful impetuousness and young males until they are of marriageable age. Teaching teenagers abstinence and chastity is the key, not giving them step-by-step manuals."

3. "However sex education is taught, it is still social engineering and so undermines parental authority," says conservative newspaper columnist @@RANDOMNAME@@. "My own son learned about something called 'homosexuality' the other day! For shame! We all know it should be Adam and Eve, not Adam and... Geoff? Anyway, my point is that sex education should be dropped from schools and instead taught by parents the way they see fit. That way children will get consistent messages and parents, not society, will cop the blame if any of their kids fall pregnant."

4. "No-one's asked me my opinion yet," says Catherine Gratwick, a teenage mother as she bottle-feeds her baby. "I think it's perfectly obvious what the cause of teenage pregnancy is - teenage boys! My son's father is the one that got me into this mess. He's the one who pressured me into having sex, but all the education is focused on the girls. Teenage fathers should be made responsible for their actions for once and be made to join the military so they can send their wages back to pay for their children's upkeep. If that's not a deterrent, then I don't know what is."

5. "I think we've missed the fact that maybe this teenage pregnancy phenomenon is not such a bad thing," says @@RANDOMNAME@@, a famous demographer. "We need the population to grow, we need more people of working age, we need more tax for public services, et cetera. There are plenty of sound demographical reasons why we should be encouraging women to have families. By all means educate them about the dangers, but I don't think we ought to discourage teenagers from procreating - it's nature's way you know."

And its effect lines, while I'm at it:

#200 Birds, Bees, and Breeding Teens
1. schoolchildren have twice-weekly sex education classes
2. dark alleys and public toilets are filled with furtive sexual activities among teenagers and unmarried adults
3. a study has shown that many parents are too embarrassed to teach their children sex education
4. teenage fathers are forced to join the army
5. the lowest age at which one can marry has been recently lowered to 12

[Jutsa]

I can see why both the options and the effect lines may have been edited.

The options make sense, imo, seeing as they are pretty long. For a five-option issue, this one has always had a lot of text to read.
That being said, I'd really not be totally surprised if nothing was changed.

The effect lines? They might not be too appropriate for non-adult users looking at your nation's history page.

[Candlewhisper Archive]

Just for record, the review is about stats being modernised, and is being conducted by me unilaterally, as the team has full confidence in my understanding of game mechanics and appropriate stats.

That issue has indeed been rewritten, but not as part of that review process. Instead there was a full rewrite proposal backstage, discussed in full with the team and with sign off from two other editors over a period of 5 days.

My initial notes on this:

Option 1 needs splitting into versions for nations that do and don't have contraception bans in place, as the stat implications are different in a reversal. The effect line may as well be made funny while we're there.

Option 2 says Moral Minority as if that's a well recognised organisation name. If they are, they don't seem to be notable enough to have a wikipedia entry or turn up any google hits. So I've added clarification. The issue also shouldn't mention marriage at all, as there's no validity exclusion for nations without marriages, nor any good reason to add one. The effect line is in the wrong direction from the decision, which is an effect line cardinal sin in my book. An option that is about enforcing a moral code of behaviour should not result in an effect line relating to moral furtiveness. Plus, it's seriously icky, with undertones of paedophilia.

Option 3's effect line is weak as well, pulling a study out of nowhere that is not a direct consequence of the decision. Changing that.

Option 5 shouldn't be linked to sex education, as that policy isn't meant to be linked to deliberately promoting sex, and having that be the case messes up narrative continuity with checks against that policy. Plus, it makes the option too all over the place. The effect line also shouldn't mention marriage.
This is a crazy last option that needs to be statted and given an effect line to match.

Various other comments followed, and what you see now is a far better version that the original, in my not so humble opinion.

[Jutsa]

Updating the list of things we probably need, most of this according to Arceus Domains who I've not seen in a rather long time:

091.4, 114.2, all of 200, 325.3, 502.3, 527.(2&3), 626.2, 717.3, 848.3, possibly 850.4, 851.4, 857.3, possibly 858.5, 875.3, possibly 880.4, and 884.4.

New theory about 884.4: What if option 4 is a variant of 3 for psychotic dictatorships where voting is still an actual policy..?

I'm being honest, here: I have no idea what the option actually is, so I'm pretty much taking some wild swings here.

[Trotterdam]

Option 2 [...] The effect line is in the wrong direction from the decision, which is an effect line cardinal sin in my book.

What about #136 3, #364 3, #467 1, #588 2, ...? Or even #205 2, #620 3, #627 1, #705 3, ...? For that matter, #352 5, #580 3, ...?

Option 5 [...]
This is a crazy last option

Far more rational than option 4.

[Jutsa]

Adding those to my list, then...

Also, created a new nation that's super tyrannical but also has democracy so I have to really hammer at my political freedoms before I can guarantee I'll come up with anything.

[Trotterdam]

New theory about 884.4: What if option 4 is a variant of 3 for psychotic dictatorships where voting is still an actual policy..?

But... option 1 is the one about voting rights, not 3.

[Jutsa]

Hmm... yeah, I thought about that, but I wondered if it might be more about political freedom, specifically, for nations without voting,
while option 3 explicitly says that the fickle populace shouldn't run the government. That's really all I've got, atm.

It's also possible it's a variant of option 5 for nations not in the world assembly.
(I'm trying both ftr. I could be wrong about both of these things, but it doesn't hurt to at least try)

[Moltovea]

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
#889: A Plank Too Far [Singapore No2; ed: Candlewhisper Archive]

The Issue
A diplomatic crisis erupted recently after particularly bloodthirsty @@DEMONYMADJECTIVE@@ pirates made the entire crew of a captured Macronesian oil tanker walk the plank. Following the incident, Macronesian authorities have declared that they will sink any @@DEMONYMADJECTIVE@@ vessel that enters their waters until the pirate attacks stop.

The Debate
1. “These allegations be scurvy hogwash!” claims @@RANDOMNAME@@, the pirate quartermaster, wearing a purely decorative eyepatch. “We ran a shot across the bow, but them scallywags aboard the galleon decided to run a rig and fight back, forcing us to give them no quarter. Word has it that the Macronesian navy has assembled themselves a massive armada, and they be wishing to blow our binnacles to the poop deck. Our cannon and cutlasses are no match for their cruise missiles, so we would be thankful if ye could give us more advanced weaponry to stand a chance against these landlubbers. Arrrrr...”

2. “We’d like to see those rapscallions try,” challenges @@RANDOMNAME@@, the Defence Minister of Macronesia, while hoisting the national flag upside-down to signify a state of war. “These cowardly sea barbarians have attacked our defenceless merchant vessels for long enough. Their home ports are in Asian-Nation, so you have a moral responsibility to contribute to military efforts to eliminate them, and should pay Macronesia reparations for the harm done to us by @@DEMONYMADJECTIVE@@ nationals. Never forget that Macronesia rules the waves, and that those who oppose us will meet watery graves!”

3. “We might have to compromise a little to stay in business,” concedes @@RANDOMNAME@@, the self-proclaimed ‘Admiral of the Black’, whose operations haven’t been in the black for years. “We should avoid plundering ships from nations with large navies like Macronesia; we don’t want to be bilged on our own anchor after all. However, many other nations - such as Moltovea - lack a proper navy and are easy pickings. You should enforce a rule that prohibits the pillaging of vessels from countries with naval superiority. Just list the nations that have less seapower than us, and we’ll make sure you get your share of the spoils.”

We could do better with our navy, but then again the Minoan-controlled Moltovea was created as a tax haven with the landscape mainly being Winston Smith’s visualisation of Golden Country.

[Jutsa]

[Ransium]

3. "We can't let fickle democratic will run the government or multinationals run the economy, but we should let people run themselves," suggests your father, who always seems to know what's best for you. "As long as they aren't challenging your power, they should be allowed to go wherever they want, do whatever they want, buy whatever they want, heck, even start their own private businesses. Enough so the World Assembly might reconsider, anyway."

[Jutsa]

Hmm... right...

psychotic dictatorships can exist with private industry, can't they?

[Fauxia]

Hmm... right...

psychotic dictatorships can exist with private industry, can't they?

Of course. An example: Calupak

[Candlewhisper Archive]

Mining blues has had some post-publication errors noted and fixed backstage:

petitioning for the regulation of electronics manufacturer's sourcing of cobalt

This should be manufacturers' (apostrophe at the end).

a ferromagnetic metal is used in many high-tech devices.

You either have a missing "that" or an unnecessary "is".

"Corporations should be providing documentation proving ethical supply chain.

In both versions of the option, this would sound better as "proving an ethical supply chain".

Thanks to pogaria for those. Just letting the thread know so you can update your spoilers.

[Merconitonitopia]

looks like this issue has been redone a bit for the reds

#23

option 1.
“This is a terrific find!” claims Nukes4U CEO Wojciech Duterte. “Look, we know that as a private company we weren’t really meant to be prospecting in communist Merconitonitopia, but this could provide an enormous stimulus to your economy and create thousands of new jobs! It’s win-win! Perhaps we could mine on behalf of the state, under a public service contract? All we need from you is permission to bulldoze the rainforest that’s on top of the deposit.”

edit: nvm opt. 3 is normal, only the first option was changed

[Candlewhisper Archive]

Yeah, over a year ago!

[Merconitonitopia]

gee, guess that one flew under the radar a bit.

[Jutsa]

lol, updating now.

You either have a missing "that" or an unnecessary "is".

which one..?

[Jutsa]

@23: Well, golly, if option 1's for communist nations, then what's the option for nations that have private industry?

(Don't worry, saved the old option in a file I've recently started)

[Trotterdam]

gee, guess that one flew under the radar a bit.

Nope.