[MEGATHREAD] Unusual Issue Effects

[Westinor]

Exactly. Authoritarianism (as a stat) is a countermeasure of civil rights, and since you lowered Civil Rights, your Authoritarianism went up.

Yes but my authoritarianism decreased when I picked that option.

Oh, right. My mistake. I'd note that according to your nation graph, your Authoritarianism stat has gone up rather than down.

Note: Not an editor though, so I can't see the individual effects of each issue. I'm not entirely sure why authoritarianism may have gone down in that case

[Noahs Second Country]

I picked option 2 on "Keep The Greenbelt Green, says Protestors" just a few minutes ago and my Authoritarianism decreased. I have the socialism policy, so anything I did did not give more leeway to the free market; it only benefited the government at the expense of protestors, not to mention suppression.

Authoritarianism is a measure of government influence/submission to government in daily life, which applies to businesses too. You chose an option that increased your economic freedom by a couple of points. This means a slight reduction in government oversight of business, and thus a slight reduction in your authoritarianism. Your economic freedom can still change despite having socialism - think of the changing number as a measure of how well policies are enforced, how controlling the government is over each individual business, etc..

Yes but my authoritarianism decreased when I picked that option.

Oh, right. My mistake. I'd note that according to your nation graph, your Authoritarianism stat has gone up rather than down.

They answered 3 issues after the one in question, all of which happened to increase their stat back up to former levels.

[Great Algerstonia]

I picked option 2 on "Keep The Greenbelt Green, says Protestors" just a few minutes ago and my Authoritarianism decreased. I have the socialism policy, so anything I did did not give more leeway to the free market; it only benefited the government at the expense of protestors, not to mention suppression.

Authoritarianism is a measure of government influence/submission to government in daily life, which applies to businesses too. You chose an option that increased your economic freedom by a couple of points. This means a slight reduction in government oversight of business, and thus a slight reduction in your authoritarianism. Your economic freedom can still change despite having socialism - think of the changing number as a measure of how well policies are enforced, how controlling the government is over each individual business, etc..

Oh, right. My mistake. I'd note that according to your nation graph, your Authoritarianism stat has gone up rather than down.

They answered 3 issues after the one in question, all of which happened to increase their stat back up to former levels.

Gotcha! Thanks

[Disgraces]

I got the "Compulsory Organ Harvesting Proposed" issue while already having the policy. This time I did check.

[Disgraces]

I got the "Compulsory Organ Harvesting Proposed" issue while already having the policy. This time I did check.

Same thing again but with an issue that allows you to use nuclear power

[Trotterdam]

I got the "Compulsory Organ Harvesting Proposed" issue while already having the policy. This time I did check.

Same thing again but with an issue that allows you to use nuclear power

You got an issue that allows you to use nuclear power while already having the Compulsory Organ Harvesting policy? I don't see the problem with that

[Electrum]

I got the "Compulsory Organ Harvesting Proposed" issue while already having the policy. This time I did check.

Sometimes issues repeat, we don't have an infinite amount of them. And the text reads:

"Tempers flare in @@NAME@@ as civil libertarians and the healthcare lobby clash once again over mandatory post-mortem organ donation."

The underline implies that this argument keeps getting brought up.

[Liagolas]

I answered Issue #912, Ambassadors Behaving Madly. I selected the last option to give the leader immunity to all laws, and authoritarianism dipped from 6,782.38 to 6,760.41 milliStalins. This seemed kind of strange to me, as making the dictatorial leader immune to all laws seemed more, not less, authoritarian, even if only slightly.

• Nation: Liagolas
• Day: December 12, 2020
• Issue Name and Number: Ambassadors Behaving Madly, #912

Thank you for taking the time to look into this!

[Noahs Second Country]

(Image)

I answered Issue #912, Ambassadors Behaving Madly. I selected the last option to give the leader immunity to all laws, and authoritarianism dipped from 6,782.38 to 6,760.41 milliStalins. This seemed kind of strange to me, as making the dictatorial leader immune to all laws seemed more, not less, authoritarian, even if only slightly.

• Nation: Liagolas
• Day: December 12, 2020
• Issue Name and Number: Ambassadors Behaving Madly, #912

Thank you for taking the time to look into this!

Thank you for the detailed report.

Note that your civil rights did increase very slightly as a result of this issue. Giving your leader (and ambassadors) diplomatic immunity in your nation, which has incredibly low personal freedoms, marginally increased civil rights.

By increasing these civil rights you're decreasing the level of government interference, therefore decreasing authoritarianism. It's a really tiny change but definitely intended.

[Liagolas]

Thank you for the detailed report.

Note that your civil rights did increase very slightly as a result of this issue. Giving your leader (and ambassadors) diplomatic immunity in your nation, which has incredibly low personal freedoms, marginally increased civil rights.

By increasing these civil rights you're decreasing the level of government interference, therefore decreasing authoritarianism. It's a really tiny change but definitely intended.

Huh, interesting. A little counterintuitive, but it makes sense in context. Thanks for explaining!

[Disgraces]

I'm not sure this is the appropriate thread but, how come Vat-Grown Infants and Maternity Leave aren't an invalid pair?

[Noahs Second Country]

I'm not sure this is the appropriate thread but, how come Vat-Grown Infants and Maternity Leave aren't an invalid pair?

Maternity leave can be given if a parent adopts a child as well. Although maternity leave is often to allow mothers to recover from childbirth, it also serves the purpose of allowing the new parent(s) to adapt to their new child.

[Disgraces]

I'm not sure this is the appropriate thread but, how come Vat-Grown Infants and Maternity Leave aren't an invalid pair?

Maternity leave can be given if a parent adopts a child as well. Although maternity leave is often to allow mothers to recover from childbirth, it also serves the purpose of allowing the new parent(s) to adapt to their new child.

But Maternity Leave's description is "women receive paid leave from employment for childbirth" while Vat-Grown Infants' is "biological reproduction is prohibited".

[New Celoveniortan]

So, to end my space program, I decided to go with the tax cut option in issue #679, however, taxation increased. Is this supposed to happen?

[Kholan]

Hey, I have an issue with Issue 99, Option 4 on this Nation, today.

Primarily my Nation puts a lot of emphasize in intelligence and education as well as a rapid increase in technology. Now the issue came up and to me, the best option for my nation was to scan all literature and put it up for free on the Internet. That seems to be a much better future-proof and economy-proof option than just saving libraries by injecting them with a ton of cash.

I expected my Scientific Advancement to raise and Book Publishing to decrease, what I didn't expect at all was the reduction of Intelligence by 1.4% and Public Education by 9.1% (!!) .

My question is... why? How? The option does not imply any restriction on who gets access to the literature, any indication that it is only available for the rich or anything like that. Yes, it does say it be hard on those with no access to Computers, but the game is set in the current year, right? And since my Nation is already in the Top 15% of Scientific Advancement and Top 17% of Intelligence, it stands to reason that the vast majority of people in my Nation have access to a PC, especially the youth in Education, as is the case with most Real World Western Countries. Who in our modern society has no access at all to the Internet? Even the very old are rapidly more involved with technology as time goes by.

So why does Intelligence go down? The implication being... reading a physical book makes you automatically smarter than reading the same digital? Or is it that people are more likely to read if they need to go to a Library as opposed to the comfort of their home on the Internet? Because I seriously, seriously doubt that.

And Public Education? Why? Wouldn't it even better for Educators and Students that instead of having to go to a Library, hoping the relevant Lecture is still available and having to keep the rent time limit, as well as the opening times of the Library itself, they could just access all needed literature everywhere and every time they want? Possibly right then and there in the class room the moment the Teacher gave the assignment. That would save money, time and worry.

I am really annoyed with it because I did not expect it and it really put a dent into those statistics I work so hard on raising with the answer not indicating any of that will happen.

[Noahs Second Country]

Hey, I have an issue with Issue 99, Option 4 on this Nation, today.

Primarily my Nation puts a lot of emphasize in intelligence and education as well as a rapid increase in technology. Now the issue came up and to me, the best option for my nation was to scan all literature and put it up for free on the Internet. That seems to be a much better future-proof and economy-proof option than just saving libraries by injecting them with a ton of cash.

I expected my Scientific Advancement to raise and Book Publishing to decrease, what I didn't expect at all was the reduction of Intelligence by 1.4% and Public Education by 9.1% (!!) .

My question is... why? How? The option does not imply any restriction on who gets access to the literature, any indication that it is only available for the rich or anything like that. Yes, it does say it be hard on those with no access to Computers, but the game is set in the current year, right? And since my Nation is already in the Top 15% of Scientific Advancement and Top 17% of Intelligence, it stands to reason that the vast majority of people in my Nation have access to a PC, especially the youth in Education, as is the case with most Real World Western Countries. Who in our modern society has no access at all to the Internet? Even the very old are rapidly more involved with technology as time goes by.

So why does Intelligence go down? The implication being... reading a physical book makes you automatically smarter than reading the same digital? Or is it that people are more likely to read if they need to go to a Library as opposed to the comfort of their home on the Internet? Because I seriously, seriously doubt that.

And Public Education? Why? Wouldn't it even better for Educators and Students that instead of having to go to a Library, hoping the relevant Lecture is still available and having to keep the rent time limit, as well as the opening times of the Library itself, they could just access all needed literature everywhere and every time they want? Possibly right then and there in the class room the moment the Teacher gave the assignment. That would save money, time and worry.

I am really annoyed with it because I did not expect it and it really put a dent into those statistics I work so hard on raising with the answer not indicating any of that will happen.

First of all I recommend you do not judge changes by percentages but instead by the actual quantity your stats change by. A 9.1% drop in public education sounds terrible on paper but the stat only dropped around 100 points. That's fairly normal for the stat.

There are a few justifications for this issue decreasing your public education stat. First of all, the option explicitly states that you cut some level of funding to libraries and librarians (fire all those expensive librarians with their pensions). Public education is a measure of how much government funding schools, libraries, and other public education institutions receive. Additionally, access to the internet is not 100% in your nation. Not only did libraries formerly provide internet for those without it, but they provided physical books and other important public services. Obviously these were terminated by the option. It's also notable that studies suggest digital reading is slower, less accurate, and harder to understand compared to physical texts. Intelligence decreases due to the same reasons.

Also keep in mind that scientific advancement may not be indicative of the average person and internet access does not guarantee digital literacy, which is now a required skill just to access books.

Good news is that the changes to your stats were fairly small and easy to recover from.

[Noahs Second Country]

So, to end my space program, I decided to go with the tax cut option in issue #679, however, taxation increased. Is this supposed to happen?

"Why didn't tax / unemployment / black market do what I expected it to?"
NS uses a complex model to calculate a lot of things, which can lead to counter-intuitive results.

- Why didn't tax fall when spending was described as reducing (or why didn't it rise when spending was described as rising)?

The answer usually lies in your economic output.
The more economic output you have, the less %tax you need to support your spending.

Bear in mind that economic output is dependent on a lot of interacting factors. Sometimes an option will cause you to shrink your economy by more than you proportionally shrank your spending, causing a tax rise to support the same spending. Sometimes it won't. Often different things will happen to different nations faced with the same issue choice.

The bolded part applies to this particular option.

[Great Algerstonia]

Nation: Great Algerstonia
Day: December 15 2020
Issue: Number 37, can't seem to remember the name.

I picked the second option; the one that says only government approved websites are allowed. Well apparently internet is now completely banned from use.

[Electrum]

Nation: Great Algerstonia
Day: December 15 2020
Issue: Number 37, can't seem to remember the name.

I picked the second option; the one that says only government approved websites are allowed. Well apparently internet is now completely banned from use.

I'll quote my colleague:

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.

The issue is working as intended.

EDIT: Currently, we can't differentiate between no internet and government-controlled intranet in our policies. It would be possible to add a policy (if only a backstage one), if there was a sufficient call for it in our issue base. Right now, I don't think there is.

[Dominions Pizza]

Dominions Pizza, just now, issue 1006.
I've chosen option 4

“Why don’t we just replace all conventional doors with automatic doors?” says fringe economist Django Falopian, who part-owns In a Spin Automatic Doors. “There’d be no need for anyone to cause offence by opening doors for anyone, and just think of all the amazing manufacturing jobs it’d create.”

My Pizza Delivery stat dropped by 2%.
Sure, automatic doors mean it's easier to get your own pizza, but surely not by that much?

Cheers!

[Trotterdam]

My Pizza Delivery stat dropped by 2%.

What about the other industries?

Replacing all doors in the nation is going to have somre ripple effect on your entire economy.

You probably just only noticed the effect on Pizza Delivery because it was your strongest industry (and, based on your name, I suspect the one you care most about).

[New Celoveniortan]

So, to end my space program, I decided to go with the tax cut option in issue #679, however, taxation increased. Is this supposed to happen?

"Why didn't tax / unemployment / black market do what I expected it to?"
NS uses a complex model to calculate a lot of things, which can lead to counter-intuitive results.

- Why didn't tax fall when spending was described as reducing (or why didn't it rise when spending was described as rising)?

The answer usually lies in your economic output.
The more economic output you have, the less %tax you need to support your spending.

Bear in mind that economic output is dependent on a lot of interacting factors. Sometimes an option will cause you to shrink your economy by more than you proportionally shrank your spending, causing a tax rise to support the same spending. Sometimes it won't. Often different things will happen to different nations faced with the same issue choice.

The bolded part applies to this particular option.

Thanks.

[Dominions Pizza]

My Pizza Delivery stat dropped by 2%.

What about the other industries?

Replacing all doors in the nation is going to have somre ripple effect on your entire economy.

You probably just only noticed the effect on Pizza Delivery because it was your strongest industry (and, based on your name, I suspect the one you care most about).

Thanks. You're right, that's the only one I focused on. It's hard to say retrospectively which of my other industries changed due to that particular issue. I'll need to remember and take a screenshot next time. Thanks for your help!

[Noahs Second Country]

What about the other industries?

Replacing all doors in the nation is going to have somre ripple effect on your entire economy.

You probably just only noticed the effect on Pizza Delivery because it was your strongest industry (and, based on your name, I suspect the one you care most about).

Thanks. You're right, that's the only one I focused on. It's hard to say retrospectively which of my other industries changed due to that particular issue. I'll need to remember and take a screenshot next time. Thanks for your help!

Most of your industries declined slightly, with the exception of IT and Retail, since they would benefit from the change. Trotterdam's explanation is correct.

[Baizou]

• Baizou
• December 21, 2020
• What Goes Up Breaks Down, #1005

I chose the last option, proposed by the Minister of Austerity, which calls for scrapping/not replacing the air force's jet fighters. Defense Forces accordingly plummeted more than 300 points, but very strangely the Arms Manufacturing industry grew by a point. I'm curious how that came to be.