Help us fix old issues

[TalAkMaChen]

At #442 option 3 we have someone "roasting a chunk of indeterminate meat over a makeshift fire." -- this also appears in nations with compulsory Vegetarism. Just another illegal meat-eater/producer there I guess (cf. previous reports).

[The Free Joy State]

At #442 option 3 we have someone "roasting a chunk of indeterminate meat over a makeshift fire." -- this also appears in nations with compulsory Vegetarism. Just another illegal meat-eater/producer there I guess (cf. previous reports).

Well, he is homeless. I don't imagine a legal meat-free diet was affordable. But, I have amended this one. Just for fun. He's now eating "something indeterminate and meaty" -- could be barbecued tofu; could be roadkill raccoon.

The reader decides and no validity changes are needed.

[HappySunShineTown]

In #582, "pedestrians have been hit by unseen vehicles in an effort to snatch ‘em all" even when the nation has No Automobiles.

[TalAkMaChen]

Can also be bikes, rickshaws, carriages, (electro-)bus, trams, subways, hearses, ... "vehicles" is general enough to include others, not just automobiles.

[Ehenhet Dralgad]

According to the Trotterdam archive, issue #221 increases political freedom when allowing an autocratic rewrite of the tax code to privilege a pre-existing elite (#2), but it decreases political freedom when you listen to a more common voice carrying the very popular anti-subsidization sentiment (#3). That should probably be reversed.

[SherpDaWerp]

According to the Trotterdam archive, issue #221 increases political freedom when allowing an autocratic rewrite of the tax code to privilege a pre-existing elite (#2), but it decreases political freedom when you listen to a more common voice carrying the very popular anti-subsidization sentiment (#3). That should probably be reversed.

I'll try and find the quote, but the editors have deliberately and specifically said in the past that they don't accept reports based on Trotterdam's tool. Reason being that Trotterdam's tool tracks literally every person who has chosen that option without any prior context of their nation and their existing stats, so it is, at best, a guide. If you choose the option and your stats change out-of-line, the editors can work with that because they can see what your nation was at the time and so they know a lot more about the wonky stats.

That said, one explanation for that stat is that:
Political freedom is completely unrelated to the question of whether or not you subsidise businesses. The popularity of the anti-subsidisation sentiment has nothing to do with the stat changes involved. In fact, the reason Political Freedom can have anywhere between a dramatic effect (-22 or +8) to no effect whatsoever (-0 or +0) is dependent entirely on whether you allow businesses to donate to political parties. If you do allow that, then giving businesses more money to donate increases their political freedom. Conversely, taking away said money decreases their political freedom to donate to parties. However, if you don't allow businesses to donate money to political parties, then you will see no change.

[Trotterdam]

Reason being that Trotterdam's tool tracks literally every person who has chosen that option without any prior context of their nation and their existing stats, so it is, at best, a guide.

A "guide" which, in this case, has over a thousand data points on both options, and has never seen even a single contradicting data point. That's considerably more reliable than the direct experience of any single nation. Furthermore, the editors should have tools to check the behavior of an option directly, allowing them to very easily verify the data on my site is correct for themselves.

[SherpDaWerp]

Reason being that Trotterdam's tool tracks literally every person who has chosen that option without any prior context of their nation and their existing stats, so it is, at best, a guide.

A "guide" which, in this case, has over a thousand data points on both options, and has never seen even a single contradicting data point. That's considerably more reliable than the direct experience of any single nation. Furthermore, the editors should have tools to check the behavior of an option directly, allowing them to very easily verify the data on my site is correct for themselves.

Ok sure, your tool is not unreliable, but in specific instances of a mistaken stat, specific instances of explanation for that mistaken stat can be given. You can't explain why a stat moved with anywhere near as much accuracy just knowing the averages, because you don't know the prior context. And anyway:

No, we don't take unexpected effect reports based on the averages from Trotterdam's site. Those are average movements across a wide data sample. Every individual nation will respond differently to issues according to their starting position.

To be clear, this query is closed, and future reports based on Trotterdam's stat tracker are not desired.

Which does remind me that this should probably be in the incorrect stat effects thread, not the help fix old issues thread.

[Authoritaria-Imperia]

#598: A Violet Trojan Horse has a typo in the third option where they say:

an ancient religion that has a just as ancient feud with violetism

This confused me quite a bit until I realised what it was meant to say — the words "just as ancient" form a single adjective, and should therefore be hyphenated as "just-as-ancient".

[TalAkMaChen]

I was wondering, could there also be a Socialist variant for 308,3? The ferry company is not offering its services at nations with Socialism policy, that pretty much limits the choice of options there. Or maybe change 308,3 to also be available to such nations?

The first choice in 341 has an opening quote mark, after the d-d-d-, that should be closing.

Fixed, kinda. That option is a mess. Ugh.

Shouldn't the colon also be replaced by, say, a comma?

“She’s only t-t-three years old!” sobs the lost girl’s mother. “She’ll never make it out there in the wilderness all alone. She’s going to d- d- d-” Her husband steps in as she breaks down in tears: “Please, you have to do something! There aren’t enough rescue workers out there. You need to hire more or divert them from other areas or something! What’s more important than a child’s safety?”

[Leppikania]

Option 706.3:

“I have an... alternative solution,” whispers your Minister of Alternative Solutions, Ayn Contra. “We could use the park to stage international training operations for our allies. I’m sure Marche Blanche would love our aid in developing “defensive strategies” against Marche Noire, and I hear they are willing to pay big Stars for the help. We can even keep the park open to the public to show that nothing shady or nefarious is going on... That’s a win-win-win in my book!”

"Defensive strategies" is a nested quote, so it should use single quotes.

[Pogaria]

#598: A Violet Trojan Horse has a typo in the third option where they say:

an ancient religion that has a just as ancient feud with violetism

This confused me quite a bit until I realised what it was meant to say — the words "just as ancient" form a single adjective, and should therefore be hyphenated as "just-as-ancient".

I would have called that a stylistic choice, but the fact that you were confused suggests that more clarity is needed. Therefore, I have added hyphenation.

Shouldn't the colon also be replaced by, say, a comma?

“She’s only t-t-three years old!” sobs the lost girl’s mother. “She’ll never make it out there in the wilderness all alone. She’s going to d- d- d-” Her husband steps in as she breaks down in tears: “Please, you have to do something! There aren’t enough rescue workers out there. You need to hire more or divert them from other areas or something! What’s more important than a child’s safety?”

I would judge that to be an acceptable stylistic choice.

Option 706.3:

“I have an... alternative solution,” whispers your Minister of Alternative Solutions, Ayn Contra. “We could use the park to stage international training operations for our allies. I’m sure Marche Blanche would love our aid in developing “defensive strategies” against Marche Noire, and I hear they are willing to pay big Stars for the help. We can even keep the park open to the public to show that nothing shady or nefarious is going on... That’s a win-win-win in my book!”

"Defensive strategies" is a nested quote, so it should use single quotes.

I fixed it.

[Fauxia]

1185.4 mentions Haptu as a socialist nation. Does that make sense with NS canon, since in 1124 it undergoes a capitalist coup?

[Pogaria]

1185.4 mentions Haptu as a socialist nation. Does that make sense with NS canon, since in 1124 it undergoes a capitalist coup?

Maybe the socialist forces took control again.

I think it's fine to have a few NPC nations that are constantly suffering from revolutions, coups, and/or highly unstable governing coalitions.

[Fauxia]

1185.4 mentions Haptu as a socialist nation. Does that make sense with NS canon, since in 1124 it undergoes a capitalist coup?

Maybe the socialist forces took control again.

I think it's fine to have a few NPC nations that are constantly suffering from revolutions, coups, and/or highly unstable governing coalitions.

Okay, fair enough.

[TalAkMaChen]

In the new issue #1329, option 3 (maybe also in 2, have not seen that one yet):

“Great!” sarcastically exclaims @@RANDOMLASTNAME_1@@'s valet after @@HE@@ has walked out of the room. “One more way the rich get it better off than the poor. My kids are even shorter than his/her, but I could never afford this treatment. You have to level the playing field. State-employed doctors should determine who truly needs growth hormone therapy, and the state should pay for it.”

Wouldn't it be "hers" when referring to the mother's child? Otherwise "shorter than her" would refer to the mother, not her offspring.

[The Free Joy State]

In the new issue #1329, option 3 (maybe also in 2, have not seen that one yet):

“Great!” sarcastically exclaims @@RANDOMLASTNAME_1@@'s valet after @@HE@@ has walked out of the room. “One more way the rich get it better off than the poor. My kids are even shorter than his/her, but I could never afford this treatment. You have to level the playing field. State-employed doctors should determine who truly needs growth hormone therapy, and the state should pay for it.”

Wouldn't it be "hers" when referring to the mother's child? Otherwise "shorter than her" would refer to the mother, not her offspring.

They were referring to the child of the parent. Made one tiny tweak. It will work now.

[Lamenia]

I just got "Carbon Emissions Are Why We Can’t Have Nice Things" despite being nuclear powered. Please correct.

[Trotterdam]

I just got "Carbon Emissions Are Why We Can’t Have Nice Things" despite being nuclear powered. Please correct.

Even if all electricity is generated by nuclear power, vehicles like cars and planes are still likely to use fossil fuels.

Then again, even if that's the case, it's questionable if such a nation would produce enough fraction of global carbon emissions to be the subject of international scrutiny. Though it's also worth notion that NationStates has issues for shifting to electric cars, even if those haven't really caught on in the real world...

[Fauxia]

37.2 currently installs "No Internet". While I see where that’s coming from, the option only censors internet, it doesn’t ban it altogether. If anything, I would think it might remove Public Protest, but I don’t think No Internet matches here.

[Polis Diamonil]

Polis Diamonil already has the "free-roaming dinosaurs" tag, so issue #474 should be giving me more options than just the top two.

[The New California Republic]

Agreed, validity check added.

I just noticed this, and I dispute it. It isn't saying that the iPears exist within the nation at any point, they can be aware that they exist outwith the nation...

Bumping this as it has been a month.

[The Free Joy State]

37.2 currently installs "No Internet". While I see where that’s coming from, the option only censors internet, it doesn’t ban it altogether. If anything, I would think it might remove Public Protest, but I don’t think No Internet matches here.

If it allows only government-approved sites, technically, you don't have the internet (which is a worldwide web); you have a local intranet, where citizens can access local websites and government-controlled sites only.

Currently, there's no way to differentiate between a local intranet and no network connection at all. This could potentially be added, if there were ever issues enough to necessitate it.

Working as intended.

In future, please could you please ask questions about unexpected results here. This thread is for objective spelling, grammar and punctuation errors and suspected errors with macros and validities.

Polis Diamonil already has the "free-roaming dinosaurs" tag, so issue #474 should be giving me more options than just the top two.

No. You are receiving the correct options.

I just noticed this, and I dispute it. It isn't saying that the iPears exist within the nation at any point, they can be aware that they exist outwith the nation...

Bumping this as it has been a month.

Hmm... the problem here is that this could be read both ways. It could be read as either local competition, meaning the iPears are local and thus they must exist in @@NAME@@, or as worldwide competition meaning international iPears are being mentioned.

Best to err on the side of caution and have a validity as written. Added a doppelganger to enable nations with no computers to receive the issue.

[The New California Republic]

Bumping this as it has been a month.

Hmm... the problem here is that this could be read both ways. It could be read as either local competition, meaning the iPears are local and thus they must exist in @@NAME@@, or as worldwide competition meaning international iPears are being mentioned.

Best to err on the side of caution and have a validity as written. Added a doppelganger to enable nations with no computers to receive the issue.

Cheers FJS!

[Leppikania]

Option 754.3:

“But East Lebatuck started it!” whines Gretel Parke, one of your more petulant advisers. ”Cuttlefish-4 was just fine until that stupid Sputnak-3 hit it. We shouldn’t have to do anything other than tell the world where we’re putting satellites. It’s up to East Lebatuck to move out of our way!”

Third quote mark is smartified wrong.