customization options?

[Oruk]

Hi,

I'm new to NationStates. I am an aspiring science fiction author and I want to use this website to simulate a society that will play a major role in my book, once I actually get around to writing it.

The problem is that this society is really weird and I find it hard to customize my MationState society to match the idea I have in my head. As an example: The society is heavily reliant on lie-detection technology to ensure that politicians and other powerful people don't step out of line and put their self-interest ahead of the interest of the people. None of the options I have seen so far match what I have in mind. I was expecting to be able to add fluff to explain things after setting up the Nation, only to find out that most of the profile is auto-generated and not at all what I had in mind.

Similarly, the nation's stance on the military is really hard to represent with just the Options I have seen available so far: They have a very small regular military, but a large number of highly effective assassins as well as WMDs for intimidating their enemies.

I have only used this site for half an hour or so, and I would like to know if it will get better, or if this will keep happening.
Is there some option I am overlooking?


Also, on a related note, is there a way to reverse a decision on an Issue? I misread what an option was supposed to mean and made a massive mistake, and have no idea how to undo this. (The option said "Use Facebook to poll people". I read this as "Use Data Science and Machine Learning on publicly available data sources as an alternative to traditional polls." but what they meant was "Only the opinions of the personal friends of the Glorious Leader matter." Needless to say, this was quite different from what I expected)

[Freed Lymonia]

There's no way to reverse a decision on an issue, but as far as customizing your in luck as a lot of people use what's known as factbooks to explain what they're like. Often they don't even worry about the issues, I do, but you can write down any details about your nation that you want :^D

I hope that helps

[Gig em Aggies]

Hi,

I'm new to NationStates. I am an aspiring science fiction author and I want to use this website to simulate a society that will play a major role in my book, once I actually get around to writing it.

The problem is that this society is really weird and I find it hard to customize my MationState society to match the idea I have in my head. As an example: The society is heavily reliant on lie-detection technology to ensure that politicians and other powerful people don't step out of line and put their self-interest ahead of the interest of the people. None of the options I have seen so far match what I have in mind. I was expecting to be able to add fluff to explain things after setting up the Nation, only to find out that most of the profile is auto-generated and not at all what I had in mind.

I have only used this site for half an hour or so, and I would like to know if it will get better, or if this will keep happening.
Is there some option I am overlooking?


Also, on a related note, is there a way to reverse a decision on an Issue? I misread what an option was supposed to mean and made a massive mistake, and have no idea how to undo this. (The option said "Use Facebook to poll people". I read this as "Use Data Science and Machine Learning on publicly available data sources as an alternative to traditional polls." but what they meant was "Only the opinions of the personal friends of the Glorious Leader matter." Needless to say, this was quite different from what I expected)

Hi their the only way to set your nation up to the way you want it without using the daily issues is to write a factbook exactly how you want it and then when you RP 'Role Play" as your nation you can just tell people to use the states and stuff on your factbook. I do it all the time example my nation on NS has about 16-17 billion people but in my factbook it has way more then that. Just take a look at the factbooks of several nations on NS and look at how they set it up almost everyone will have different facts or stats some don't even use NS stats. hope this helps

[Switzo-Polish Republic]

Hi,

I'm new to NationStates. I am an aspiring science fiction author and I want to use this website to simulate a society that will play a major role in my book, once I actually get around to writing it.

The problem is that this society is really weird and I find it hard to customize my MationState society to match the idea I have in my head. As an example: The society is heavily reliant on lie-detection technology to ensure that politicians and other powerful people don't step out of line and put their self-interest ahead of the interest of the people. None of the options I have seen so far match what I have in mind. I was expecting to be able to add fluff to explain things after setting up the Nation, only to find out that most of the profile is auto-generated and not at all what I had in mind.

Similarly, the nation's stance on the military is really hard to represent with just the Options I have seen available so far: They have a very small regular military, but a large number of highly effective assassins as well as WMDs for intimidating their enemies.

I have only used this site for half an hour or so, and I would like to know if it will get better, or if this will keep happening.
Is there some option I am overlooking?


Also, on a related note, is there a way to reverse a decision on an Issue? I misread what an option was supposed to mean and made a massive mistake, and have no idea how to undo this. (The option said "Use Facebook to poll people". I read this as "Use Data Science and Machine Learning on publicly available data sources as an alternative to traditional polls." but what they meant was "Only the opinions of the personal friends of the Glorious Leader matter." Needless to say, this was quite different from what I expected)

Well, look at the awnsers to the issues carefully. There's an option on the settings page that says "Confirm Legislation" this will allow you to click the yes button, but then have a little buffer between choosing your final answer. I hoped this helped.

P.S- My dad's a writer as well. You should check out a book called The Twenty Year Reset. It is a sci-fi novel.

[East Angria]

The problem is that this society is really weird and I find it hard to customize my MationState society to match the idea I have in my head. As an example: The society is heavily reliant on lie-detection technology to ensure that politicians and other powerful people don't step out of line and put their self-interest ahead of the interest of the people. None of the options I have seen so far match what I have in mind. I was expecting to be able to add fluff to explain things after setting up the Nation, only to find out that most of the profile is auto-generated and not at all what I had in mind.

Hello and welcome.
Nationstates issues like to take things to the extreme and paint you into a corner real quick. This takes some time to get used to, but you will. You can always use nsindex.net to find out what consequences your issue will entail, but in my experience that spoils half the fun. Answer issues according to your ideals (or the ideas you have about your society) and deal with the consequences. You can always dismiss the issues that offer no relevant solutions. You will get the hang of it all within a few days, I'd say.
The game engine is limited as to what kind of society you can come up with, but you can always fluff the rest in your factbook or wiki page and come up with clever explanations for your odd stats. For example, my nation has way more than the 73 million inhabitants it is supposed to have, and there is no way to stop this. So I came up with the explanation that it is extremely easy to acquire citizenship here, even for pets, wild animals, or people who have never been here. That's what messes with the statistics.

Also, on a related note, is there a way to reverse a decision on an Issue? I misread what an option was supposed to mean and made a massive mistake, and have no idea how to undo this. (The option said "Use Facebook to poll people". I read this as "Use Data Science and Machine Learning on publicly available data sources as an alternative to traditional polls." but what they meant was "Only the opinions of the personal friends of the Glorious Leader matter." Needless to say, this was quite different from what I expected)

The issues will role around again after a few months, but until then, your hands are tied.

[USS Monitor]

The issues game doesn't have an undo button, and it's not going to give you the fine-tuned customization you're looking for.

The issues require some interpretation to make them fit unconventional nations. Like my nation is a 19th century ship with a crew of 60 or so, but I still got issues about cities, roads, internet, etc. and my nation page still lists a population of a few billion. I have another nation that is an Ebola infection in a bat. It still gets issues about roads, cities, internet, food, and a bazillion other topics that Ebola viruses don't care about. The issues game is pretty good for nations that are meant to exist in a modern setting with human inhabitants and a normal-sized land area, but the further you stray from that, the more it breaks down.

If you want to develop your nation outside the framework of the issues game, you can write factbooks or join an RP.

[USS Monitor]

P.S- My dad's a writer as well.

Mine too.

[Serrus]

The issues game doesn't have an undo button, and it's not going to give you the fine-tuned customization you're looking for.

The issues require some interpretation to make them fit unconventional nations. Like my nation is a 19th century ship with a crew of 60 or so, but I still got issues about cities, roads, internet, etc. and my nation page still lists a population of a few billion. I have another nation that is an Ebola infection in a bat. It still gets issues about roads, cities, internet, food, and a bazillion other topics that Ebola viruses don't care about. The issues game is pretty good for nations that are meant to exist in a modern setting with human inhabitants and a normal-sized land area, but the further you stray from that, the more it breaks down.

If you want to develop your nation outside the framework of the issues game, you can write factbooks or join an RP.

I need a link to that there.

[USS Monitor]

The issues game doesn't have an undo button, and it's not going to give you the fine-tuned customization you're looking for.

The issues require some interpretation to make them fit unconventional nations. Like my nation is a 19th century ship with a crew of 60 or so, but I still got issues about cities, roads, internet, etc. and my nation page still lists a population of a few billion. I have another nation that is an Ebola infection in a bat. It still gets issues about roads, cities, internet, food, and a bazillion other topics that Ebola viruses don't care about. The issues game is pretty good for nations that are meant to exist in a modern setting with human inhabitants and a normal-sized land area, but the further you stray from that, the more it breaks down.

If you want to develop your nation outside the framework of the issues game, you can write factbooks or join an RP.

I need a link to that there.

-Ebola-

I made it during the Ebola outbreak and posted some screwy forum threads like so: viewtopic.php?f=20&t=315404