Help us fix old issues

[The New California Republic]

Not sure if this is a glitch or not, but I've been having problems with Issue No. 16 for a while now. The issue relies on the @@MAJORINDUSTRY@@ macro, but for some reason in my nation it results in "Tourism Workers Strike!"; Tourism is not the biggest industry in my nation...

It actually makes the issue completely absurd for me, since it results in the following in option 1:

We are the backbone of this country, and we demand a fair wage rise! ... Let’s see how well The New California Republic’s economy manages without any Tourism, huh?

And my answer is: probably perfectly fine, because tourism in the nation is extremely low.

[Merni]

Issue 307, option 2:

“This is quite absurd!” scoffs Colin Nelson, taking a sip of Bollinger ‘86. “We toil day in and day out keeping this country running, and this is the thanks we get? Newspapers snooping around our personal business, questioning what we need to do our jobs. We incur certain, necessary expenses that may look odd when taken out of context - and that’s just what the media is doing! They’re distorting the facts just to boost their ratings. Well, I say their prying eyes have gone too far. We need to outlaw this underhanded ‘reporting’ for the sake of the patriotic values that made this nation great!”

Shouldn't the comma in the underlined section be removed?

Also, I may be wrong about this, but should the full stop after "jobs" be a question mark?

[Candlewhisper Archive]

I got #1030.5 which still mentions condoms, despite contraceptives being illegal in my nation.

That explains why they're being flushed away then, eh?

[Candlewhisper Archive]

Not sure if this is a glitch or not, but I've been having problems with Issue No. 16 for a while now. The issue relies on the @@MAJORINDUSTRY@@ macro, but for some reason in my nation it results in "Tourism Workers Strike!"; Tourism is not the biggest industry in my nation...

(Image)

It actually makes the issue completely absurd for me, since it results in the following in option 1:

We are the backbone of this country, and we demand a fair wage rise! ... Let’s see how well The New California Republic’s economy manages without any Tourism, huh?

And my answer is: probably perfectly fine, because tourism in the nation is extremely low.

This is a known thing.

The macro works on which industry is the biggest in your nation. And actually, your tourism industry IS the biggest industry in your nation.

However, the Tourism stat doesn't actually measure the size of your industry, it measures the number of tourists per hour.

So how can you have a huge tourism industry and barely any tourists per hour? Well basically, the Tourism stat is INSANE, attributing relatively little importance to the size of the industry or to things like culture and so on, and attributing almost the entirety of the value to the quality of your environment, to the degree of environment being 10-15 times more important to tourism than the tourism industry is, depending on how you read the stats.

Around two years ago I proposed a change to the way this works, and a beta was established to do tourism differently. If this beta were to be activated, your nations Tourism would go from 11.7 tourists per hour to 1515.8 tourists per hour, and your world rank would bounce pretty much from right across the centiles to the top end, so basically your nation is one of the most extreme examples of what would happen.

To me, this is an extremely necessary change, as you've got your nation's tourism industry stat to where it is now by consistently answering issues that favour tourism. That your stat is still so low is because you've also been bad to your environment.

Post-fix, environment will still have an input. My own nation, for example, has an environment so much worse than yours that my tourism will remain tanked even after the patch. However, for you, tourism will skyrocket.

Right now, that beta has been in "private view" limbo for a long long time, essentially because the technical folk are always busy enough with day to day maintenance that long term improvements to the simulation fall by the wayside. I'd really like to see the Tourism one fixed sometime though...

[Candlewhisper Archive]

Issue 307, option 2:

“This is quite absurd!” scoffs Colin Nelson, taking a sip of Bollinger ‘86. “We toil day in and day out keeping this country running, and this is the thanks we get? Newspapers snooping around our personal business, questioning what we need to do our jobs. We incur certain, necessary expenses that may look odd when taken out of context - and that’s just what the media is doing! They’re distorting the facts just to boost their ratings. Well, I say their prying eyes have gone too far. We need to outlaw this underhanded ‘reporting’ for the sake of the patriotic values that made this nation great!”

Shouldn't the comma in the underlined section be removed?

Also, I may be wrong about this, but should the full stop after "jobs" be a question mark?

Possibly subjective, but I agree on both counts, changed.

[The New California Republic]

Not sure if this is a glitch or not, but I've been having problems with Issue No. 16 for a while now. The issue relies on the @@MAJORINDUSTRY@@ macro, but for some reason in my nation it results in "Tourism Workers Strike!"; Tourism is not the biggest industry in my nation...

...

So how can you have a huge tourism industry and barely any tourists per hour? Well basically, the Tourism stat is INSANE, attributing relatively little importance to the size of the industry or to things like culture and so on, and attributing almost the entirety of the value to the quality of your environment, to the degree of environment being 10-15 times more important to tourism than the tourism industry is, depending on how you read the stats.

Yeah I always knew that it had something to do with the shitty environment, because every time I have even slightly increased the quality of the environment it seemed to result in an increase in number of tourists that was totally out of proportion relative to other factors.

Around two years ago I proposed a change to the way this works, and a beta was established to do tourism differently.

I think I vaguely remember hearing about this. I think it was the one beta out of all of them that I was really hoping would see the light of day.

If this beta were to be activated, your nations Tourism would go from 11.7 tourists per hour to 1515.8 tourists per hour, and your world rank would bounce pretty much from right across the centiles to the top end, so basically your nation is one of the most extreme examples of what would happen.

I always knew that I was special :3

To me, this is an extremely necessary change, as you've got your nation's tourism industry stat to where it is now by consistently answering issues that favour tourism. That your stat is still so low is because you've also been bad to your environment.

Yup. I've always thought that the fairly high safety rating in conjunction with the high degree of culture and a very good retail industry (and economy overall for that matter) in my nation would easily override the environmental factors. After all, the likes of Hong Kong have issues with smog, but factors similar to what I just mentioned go some way in overriding that.

Post-fix, environment will still have an input. My own nation, for example, has an environment so much worse than yours that my tourism will remain tanked even after the patch. However, for you, tourism will skyrocket.

Right now, that beta has been in "private view" limbo for a long long time, essentially because the technical folk are always busy enough with day to day maintenance that long term improvements to the simulation fall by the wayside. I'd really like to see the Tourism one fixed sometime though...

Here's hoping.

Thanks for the response Candlewhisper!

[Merni]

Issue 716, option 2:

“Although Mernian Air is happy to accommodate all legitimate disabilities,” states Tim Parkarvarkar, a big shot Mernian Air executive, “obesity simply doesn’t fit the bill. People who can’t squeeze into our seats should examine their life choices. Besides, if Mernian Air just gave complimentary seats to everyone who asked, our profits would fall faster than a plane in a stall.”

Is there any reason why "Mernian Air" needs to be italicised? As far as I know it's only names of books, movies, etc. that need to be italicised, not company names.

[Candlewhisper Archive]

Issue 716, option 2:

“Although Mernian Air is happy to accommodate all legitimate disabilities,” states Tim Parkarvarkar, a big shot Mernian Air executive, “obesity simply doesn’t fit the bill. People who can’t squeeze into our seats should examine their life choices. Besides, if Mernian Air just gave complimentary seats to everyone who asked, our profits would fall faster than a plane in a stall.”

Is there any reason why "Mernian Air" needs to be italicised? As far as I know it's only names of books, movies, etc. that need to be italicised, not company names.

I think we don't enforce italicisation rules in any direction, but it would certainly seem to be more consistent style-wise to not italicise company names, so have changed it.

[PillarOfSociety]

Today I got issue "Sick Days for Sick Waves" (#575).

It must be noted that I have compulsory nudism. Yet I got these descriptions in options #1 and #3.

“We lost a whole summer!” says Ming Norris, your Minister of Productivity, while adjusting his swimming costume. “We can’t just shut PillarOfSociety down whenever it’s a bit too hot - our economy would go broke. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with bumming around the beach, but not while you’re being paid... How about we allow the government, rather than the people, decide when somebody is sick enough to stay home from work. That’ll put an end to their malingering tricks!”

“Why can’t we just start working on beaches?” asks Stella Clarke, a bikini-clad beach beauty who persuaded your doorman to let her into the meeting. “I mean let people take the papers and printers and stuff to the beach and do the work there! Pay people for the work they do, not the hours they are in the office. Flexible workplaces are more productive, so you should be subsidising and encouraging with appropriate legislation.”

[Candlewhisper Archive]

Good point, fixed.

[Trotterdam]

#421 option 3:

"Shoot, we could even export the miniature weapons - turn ourselves a profit while we're at it!"

assault rifles sized for 7-year-olds are a frighteningly popular export

...Problem is, the nation I did this on has Autarky.

[Candlewhisper Archive]

#421 option 3:

"Shoot, we could even export the miniature weapons - turn ourselves a profit while we're at it!"

assault rifles sized for 7-year-olds are a frighteningly popular export

...Problem is, the nation I did this on has Autarky.

Good point, fixed.

[Lenlyvit]

Issue #1,169 Option 3 should have a "the" between "and" and "only" I think.

3. “I, like, can’t see why museums are even still a thing,” complains teenager @@RANDOMNAME@@, in a bland monotone. “Just last week my school, like, made my class go on a field trip to a museum or something. It was like the most boring thing ever. We were there for so long that I was beginning to fossilize, and the only thing I liked was walking out the front door. You should just, like, tear down all museums. Soooooo boring.”

[Merni]

Issue 917, option 2:

You want us to pay to put shirts on the backs of these money-grabbing... our dear children who are our nation’s future?” scoffs incredulous Principal Chastity Dubois. “Just get businesses to donate uniforms to those who can’t pay for them. In fact, my cousin who is on the Board of Directors at Rummikub Pizzas would probably be happy to help, so long as the company name and logo can be predominantly displayed.”

The word "predominantly" feels a bit weird to me in the context, shouldn't it be "prominently"?

[Trotterdam]

#766 1: "business leaders commend the government for enacting a emissions reduction strategy that reduces no @@DEMONYMADJECTIVE@@ emissions at all"

Should be "an".

[Pogaria]

#766 1: "business leaders commend the government for enacting a emissions reduction strategy that reduces no @@DEMONYMADJECTIVE@@ emissions at all"

Should be "an".

Thanks. I fixed it.

[Pogaria]

Issue #1,169 Option 3 should have a "the" between "and" and "only" I think.

3. “I, like, can’t see why museums are even still a thing,” complains teenager @@RANDOMNAME@@, in a bland monotone. “Just last week my school, like, made my class go on a field trip to a museum or something. It was like the most boring thing ever. We were there for so long that I was beginning to fossilize, and the only thing I liked was walking out the front door. You should just, like, tear down all museums. Soooooo boring.”

Thank you. Fixed.

Issue 917, option 2:

You want us to pay to put shirts on the backs of these money-grabbing... our dear children who are our nation’s future?” scoffs incredulous Principal Chastity Dubois. “Just get businesses to donate uniforms to those who can’t pay for them. In fact, my cousin who is on the Board of Directors at Rummikub Pizzas would probably be happy to help, so long as the company name and logo can be predominantly displayed.”

The word "predominantly" feels a bit weird to me in the context, shouldn't it be "prominently"?

Agreed. I changed it.

[Trotterdam]

I still haven't seen any trace of #1188, and suspect a broken validity.

[Candlewhisper Archive]

I still haven't seen any trace of #1188, and suspect a broken validity.

Right, sorry, I hadn't set the links up yet, it's on my job list.

Not so much broken, as work not done yet.

Doing it now.

Edit: And done. Though only a few hundred nations will get this issue each month, so you may not locate it that easily still.

[Merni]

Issue 274, option 3:

“Duuude, marriage is like totally outdated,” says a hippie, wearing a multi-colored robe and in need of a wash. “They’re like, restrictive and they bring down the vibe, man. Why put people in a box? Ban marriage, and let us roam free and we can all be brothers and sisters! It’s what’s nature wanted!”

"They" should be "it".

[Trotterdam]

Eh, I dunno. People use that pronoun for just about everything these days.

[Merni]

Eh, I dunno. People use that pronoun for just about everything these days.

Not for abstract concepts like marriage, surely?

[The Marsupial Illuminati]

Eh, I dunno. People use that pronoun for just about everything these days.

Not for abstract concepts like marriage, surely?

"They" refers to marriages. It's fine.

[Merni]

Not for abstract concepts like marriage, surely?

"They" refers to marriages. It's fine.

But the issue has "marriage", not "marriages".

[Candlewhisper Archive]

Gone for compromise and changed it to "marriages".