NationStates Issues **SPOILER ALERT**

[Eshialand]

I found this one... on this nation, actually.

#1487: O Fortuna! [Daarwyrth; ed: Pogaria]

The Issue:
JACKPOT! It seemed impossible, it seemed unlikely, it seemed as if the odds would not favour you. Yet you, @@LEADER@@, are the lucky winner of a major cash prize from last night’s national lottery, thanks to that lottery ticket your mother had gifted you for Maxxmas. Yet before you can even celebrate, you realize that your good fortune has made national headlines.

The Debate:
1. “@@LEADER@@ Wins Lottery: A Directed Stroke of Luck?” quotes Lottery Commissioner Otohime Jones, reading a newspaper headline with a heavy sigh. “The optics of this are just too damning. We’re being absolutely overwhelmed with angry and accusatory complaints from every imaginable corner! Some of our employees have even been followed home by mobs carrying literal torches and pitchforks! Who even does that these days? I’m sorry, @@LEADER@@, but you’ll have to let us declare this drawing void so that we can pick a new winning ticket. And from now on, government officials shouldn’t be allowed to buy lottery tickets.”

2. “No, no, just wait a second,” says your Chief of Staff, polishing up the mirror that reflects your image. “The optics are bad, but we can turn this into a significant popularity boost. Accept the prize with all due honours and fanfare, but declare that the entire sum will be donated to charity. The Wagger Dog Shelter, the Bryce Waine Orphanage, or heck, even the Out of Luck Gambler’s Rehab Centre — take your pick! Just practice smiling through pain, and relinquishing your grip on the cheque beforehand. And hey, I’m pretty sure charitable contributions are tax deductible, which means that you could still profit if you were willing to engage in a little creative accountancy.”

3. “Did mommy dear put your name on the lottery ticket? No? Good!” exclaims your brother while unceremoniously snatching the fortuitous piece of paper from your hand. “Just say that the ticket was mine, and all you’ll have to deal with is a few angry stares for a while. You’ve dealt with worse! This way, our family will be happy, all thanks to the numbers 4, 8, 15, 16, 23, and 42. But don’t worry, if you ever lose your office, your dear, old brother will take care of you...”

4. One of your aides tackles your brother, liberating your luck from his grip. “Why not just do what any other @@DEMONYM@@ would do?” she asks with a sincere smile, handing you the slightly battered ticket. “Celebrate! Be happy! Go wild! I’ve seen you working day-in and day-out for the good of the people. This is your reward — go collect the prize, and start living the high life!”

I reckon Otohime Jones is a random name.

[Rocain Founder]

Option 3 of issue #1471 has been found. My puppet Cain G HiN Pat v0 received this issue with option 3 present, but option 2 absent. Option 3 is a doppelganger for option 2, apparently for vegetarian nations. Here is the text, with the differences from option 2 underlined. I presume the parliamentarian's name is random.

A museum is for old farts who dwell in the bog of history, darling!” tuts passing parliamentarian Oprah Lovegood. “It’s time we introduced some haute cuisine into this tasteless den of thin soups and withered salads to woo foreign ambassadors! Imagine rare spices garnishing grilled portobello, slices of chevre floating in pomegranate sauce bursting with flavor, delectable truffles sprinkled on top of the finest dishes. Make this hall splendid again!”

[Nepleslia]

Apologies if this is the wrong thread - and if it is, which is the right one? - but is there a way to get eagles recognized as a flying animal and not a land-based one?

Technical forum: Animal Relocation Thread...
But I see that your Eagle suffers from "toxic air pollution": I'm fairly sure that that means it IS being recognised as a flying animal rather than a land-based one, and I'd be very surprised if such an obvious & widely-used Bird hadn't been placed correctly already.

Ah, okay - thanks~

[Trotterdam]

#1471 option 3 is a variant of option 2 for nations with Vegetarianism:

3. "A museum is for old farts who dwell in the bog of history, darling!" tuts passing parliamentarian @@RANDOMNAME@@. "It's time we introduced some haute cuisine into this tasteless den of thin soups and withered salads to woo foreign ambassadors! Imagine rare spices garnishing grilled portobello, slices of chevre floating in pomegranate sauce bursting with flavor, delectable truffles sprinkled on top of the finest dishes. Make this hall splendid again!"

[Rocain Founder]

Issue 1483: The Unkindest Cut [The Marsupial Illuminati; ed: The Marsupial Illuminati]

The Issue
Civil rights groups are calling you to action after journalists discovered that an isolated community in Valentine Z has been conducting female genital cutting on at least one girl every week.

1. TBD

2. “Female circumcision is not harmful,” reads Heather Keating of the Tasmanian immigrant community as her husband stands behind her. “We women organize and perform the ritual, having undergone it ourselves, so it’s not anti-woman. It turns a girl into a proper lady — honorable, clean, and chaste. My daughters would be bullied and without husbands if they weren’t cut. It is impossible for you to change our culture. In fact, trying to impose your values on us as if we were infants or savages is racism. Invest more money in our neighborhoods so we can more efficiently and safely conduct even more circumcisions. Mandate that everyone educate themselves about the benefits of this little procedure.”

3. “Call it what it is — female genital mutilation!” rages activist Zane Rifkin. “These uncivilized, primitive savages are so ignorant! They’re genetically inferior monkeys with low-IQ brains. FGM has zero benefits and leads to so many harmful complications: infections, cysts, urinary problems, fistulae, bleeding, infertility, depression, and problems during pregnancy! That’s just the tip of the iceberg! Make female genital mutilation a crime of the highest order! Police must be allowed to do all they can to prevent and investigate it.”

4. “As much as I appreciate and value other cultures, maybe I can draw the line here,” opines woke woman Maria Zhu. “It’s all well and good if it’s consensual, just like a nose job or breast enhancement, but when it’s done on little girls because your ancestors or your god said so, that’s when I might object! We should make FGM illegal, but let’s not go out of our way to find instances of it happening, as it is a crime that can be easily hidden. Rather, we should spend money on reaching out to these insular communities to educate them and change their attitudes.”

Here is option 1 (as discovered by my puppet Cain BZ R01An v0). I assume the "tribe elder" has a random name. No clue about "Maharba".

“Female circumcision is integral to our culture; you can’t sever it from us!” implores Finn Stromburg, a Violetstone tribe elder. “It is a tradition that goes back thousands of years, from the time when Violet commanded Maharba to cut her daughter. The goddess demands a flesh sacrifice. Girls may fall ill after getting cut, but evil spirits are to blame for that. Sex is not for fun — it is for procreation! And procreation should be painful to remind us of the painful toil that the Creator Violet bore in creating our world. To appease the supernatural forces, offer free mandatory circumcision for all!”

I believe that this option is an alternative to option 2; my puppet received this one, but not option 2. I can't be sure what determines whether a nation gets option 1 or 2, but my best guess is that nations which are primarily religious get option 1, and the primarily secular ones get option 2. This particular puppet is in the Top 12% for religiousness, but only in the Top 88% for secularism.

Because the text of this option was so different from option 2, I forced my puppet to choose this option, and I can report that the talking point is identical to the talking point for option 2.

[Outer Sparta]

I found this one... on this nation, actually.

#1487: O Fortuna! [Daarwyrth; ed: Pogaria]

The Issue:
JACKPOT! It seemed impossible, it seemed unlikely, it seemed as if the odds would not favour you. Yet you, @@LEADER@@, are the lucky winner of a major cash prize from last night’s national lottery, thanks to that lottery ticket your mother had gifted you for Maxxmas. Yet before you can even celebrate, you realize that your good fortune has made national headlines.

The Debate:
1. “@@LEADER@@ Wins Lottery: A Directed Stroke of Luck?” quotes Lottery Commissioner Otohime Jones, reading a newspaper headline with a heavy sigh. “The optics of this are just too damning. We’re being absolutely overwhelmed with angry and accusatory complaints from every imaginable corner! Some of our employees have even been followed home by mobs carrying literal torches and pitchforks! Who even does that these days? I’m sorry, @@LEADER@@, but you’ll have to let us declare this drawing void so that we can pick a new winning ticket. And from now on, government officials shouldn’t be allowed to buy lottery tickets.”

2. “No, no, just wait a second,” says your Chief of Staff, polishing up the mirror that reflects your image. “The optics are bad, but we can turn this into a significant popularity boost. Accept the prize with all due honours and fanfare, but declare that the entire sum will be donated to charity. The Wagger Dog Shelter, the Bryce Waine Orphanage, or heck, even the Out of Luck Gambler’s Rehab Centre — take your pick! Just practice smiling through pain, and relinquishing your grip on the cheque beforehand. And hey, I’m pretty sure charitable contributions are tax deductible, which means that you could still profit if you were willing to engage in a little creative accountancy.”

3. “Did mommy dear put your name on the lottery ticket? No? Good!” exclaims your brother while unceremoniously snatching the fortuitous piece of paper from your hand. “Just say that the ticket was mine, and all you’ll have to deal with is a few angry stares for a while. You’ve dealt with worse! This way, our family will be happy, all thanks to the numbers 4, 8, 15, 16, 23, and 42. But don’t worry, if you ever lose your office, your dear, old brother will take care of you...”

4. One of your aides tackles your brother, liberating your luck from his grip. “Why not just do what any other @@DEMONYM@@ would do?” she asks with a sincere smile, handing you the slightly battered ticket. “Celebrate! Be happy! Go wild! I’ve seen you working day-in and day-out for the good of the people. This is your reward — go collect the prize, and start living the high life!”

I reckon Otohime Jones is a random name.

Oh nice, that makes it six of the ten issues contest winners earlier this summer being officially added, with Cuy Bono, Home Is Where The Lung Is, Fares Fair? Two Sides of a Coin, and How to Train Your AI being the others (unless I overlooked one or two).

[Valentine Z]

Oh my good golly, I have to do this one soon too. ❤️

[Outer Sparta]

Oh my good golly, I have to do this one soon too. ❤️

On another note, it is quite nice to see the drafts of the winners being steadily added into the game. Obviously editing takes a while and the hard work and dedication of the editors make it all possible!

[Valentine Z]

Oh my good golly, I have to do this one soon too. ❤️

On another note, it is quite nice to see the drafts of the winners being steadily added into the game. Obviously editing takes a while and the hard work and dedication of the editors make it all possible!

Oh no doubt about that, I do love seeing the issue list grow! ❤️

Not to discredit anyone here, so I actually am quite happy to see new issues because for me personally, it gets harder to write because you have to look through nearly 1500 issues.

Then again, life can be stranger than fiction!

[Outer Sparta]

On another note, it is quite nice to see the drafts of the winners being steadily added into the game. Obviously editing takes a while and the hard work and dedication of the editors make it all possible!

Oh no doubt about that, I do love seeing the issue list grow! ❤️

Not to discredit anyone here, so I actually am quite happy to see new issues because for me personally, it gets harder to write because you have to look through nearly 1500 issues.

Then again, life can be stranger than fiction!

At least you're keeping up to date with the whole database, which in itself is a lot of responsibility sifting through entire pages.

[Valentine Z]

Oh no doubt about that, I do love seeing the issue list grow! ❤️

Not to discredit anyone here, so I actually am quite happy to see new issues because for me personally, it gets harder to write because you have to look through nearly 1500 issues.

Then again, life can be stranger than fiction!

At least you're keeping up to date with the whole database, which in itself is a lot of responsibility sifting through entire pages.

GitHub definitely helps a lot! I remember my first few changelogs being entirely manual. ^^;

[Rocain Founder]

Option 3 of issue #1486 has turned up. It was received by my puppet Cain M Cy0 v1 with option 3 replacing option 2. Here is the text with differences from option 2 underlined (no attempt made to remove personal names):

“For the love of Violet, no!” cries Dr. Aang Humperdink, head of the @@DEMONYMADJECTIVE@@ Family Medicine Council. “Patients already come in self-diagnosing with cancer based on a Reader’s Digest article and a rash. The last thing I need is to also explain to them why they aren’t a good candidate for a dubiously evidenced prescription medicine they saw while watching the evening news. Let’s leave recommending medicine to discerning professionals.”

This particular puppet has no Internet, confirming the hypothesis that this is what distinguishes this option from option 2.

[TalAkMaChen]

Today only two small edits to the big list:

1474,1 italics in " which his people call cuy "
1475,2 italics in " in the soap Hard Days on Easy Street for fifty"

[Valentine Z]

I don't want to give myself a date but hey, I'll try my best to do it this week. There are a lot of stuff to add in and edit now.

Thanks everyone! ❤️

[Rocain Founder]

Issue #685 has been updated, as discovered by my puppet Cain A C-S Sc v1. A a new option 3 (which my puppet did not receive) has been added, and the spoiled options 3 and 4 are now 4 and 5.

Since my puppet did not receive the new option, I can't give you its text, but according to this post, a new option was added for nations with Autarky. I presume this is the new option 3. If one of my nations receives the issue with the new option, and no one else has spoiled it at that point, I'll do so myself. Most likely the new option is a bigger edit than usual, since a nation with Autarky is in no position to embargo. Also, the new option is likely to have a different talking point than option 2, as its talking point references "free trade". Of course, the new option could repeal autarky and then embargo, but that seems a little-farfetched to me.

[Rocain Founder]

A new option has been added to issue #488, as discovered by my puppet Cain O-N Wd v1. Option 2 has been inserted between the spoiled option 1 and the spoiled option 2, moving everything following down one position. Here is the text of the new option, with the difference from option 1 underlined. I presume the proper name is a macro result.

“We’re raising a generation of natural born killers!” writes left-wing child welfare activist Lorenzo Levi, who sent a copy of his letter to every member of your staff. “Next thing you know, they’ll want to play with real guns! When will it end? Remember, people don’t kill people, guns do! Even toy guns! We need to get anything that even remotely resembles a gun off the market!”

I believe this option is for nations that have abolished the Internet, mostly because I submitted the report that an alternate option for non-Internet nations was required.

While I'm talking about this issue, I've been monitoring when my puppets get it, and I've found no evidence that the spoiled options 5 and 6 actually exist. Of course proving that an option does not exist is well-nigh impossible, but I've gotten this issue on quite a number of occasions, both with capitalist and socialist nations, and I've not ever seen either one.

[Trotterdam]

Can you repost the full text?

Reports like this:

It received options 1, 2 and 4. 1 and 2 remain unchanged. option 4 is the spoiled option 6.

get really confusing once changes stack up.

[Rocain Founder]

Here is the issue exactly as my puppet received it from the API, so the option numbers are off by 1. The nation is socialist with no internet.

There was some reformatting by my script, so there are some extraneous titles that should not get in your way.

ISSUE:
488

TITLE:
Bright Orange Is the New Black

TEXT:
A misunderstanding involving a 12-year-old boy, a plastic toy gun, and five
heavily armed police officers has resulted in substantial public uproar. The
major news networks are having a field day over-analyzing the manufacturing
and selling of bright orange sci-fi inspired toy guns for children.

OPTION id="1":
“We’re raising a generation of natural born killers!” writes left-wing child
welfare activist Lorenzo Riker, who sent a copy of his letter to every
member of your staff. “Next thing you know, they’ll want to play with real
guns! When will it end? Remember, people don’t kill people, guns do! Even
toy guns! We need to get anything that even remotely resembles a gun off the
market!”

OPTION id="3":
“Hey! That’s our jobs you’re talking about!” bemoans Roxanne Zahm, State
Director of Toy Manufacture, waving around a realistic looking replica of an
AK-47. “Banning our most popular toy lines would seriously damage our
industry. I’d say the best way to handle this situation is a healthy fund
allocation to toy production. If we were better resourced, we could up
production and flood the nation with so many toy guns that no kid would even
want one! Then we make them something better,” she says, letting out a long
eerie laugh.

OPTION id="4":
“Y’all gotta be kiddin’ me,” grumbles local gun enthusiast Alina Falopian
before spitting into a tin can near the doorway. “Plastic toy rayguns ain’t
doin’ nobody no harm. When I was li’l we played with BB guns all th’ dad-gum
time! Y’all wanna ban toy guns? Shoot, we should let ‘em have real guns!
Make it legal, an’ all. I bet it’d even lower crime rates! Who’d wanna rob a
house knowing little Tommy has a 9 mil?”

Option 0 is not present due to No Internet. Option 2 is not present due to Socialism. There is no sign of option 5 or 6, which the spoilers predict should be there for a socialist nation.

[Rocain Founder]

I have previously made several posts regarding issue #32 ("One Wife Is Never Enough, Say Polygamists"). I have now discovered that I was wrong about one of my speculations about this issue. I believed that option 3 and option 4 were doppelgangers, and the current spoilers reflect this. But today, my puppet Cain A P-N Ng v1 received this issue, and the option 3 it received is a doppleganger for option 2, not option 4. Here is the full text of the issue as received by my puppet from the API. Note that the option numbers are off by 1 (for instance, option one in the issue as displayed by the game is presented as option 0 by the API). I have not altered any of the proper names. The text which is different for option 2 and option 3 is underlined.

ISSUE:
32

TITLE:
One Wife Is Never Enough, Say Polygamists

TEXT:
A small religious group is lobbying the government to allow them to take
multiple wives.

OPTION id="0":
“It’s about time we had our religious rights recognized,” says Andreas
Savage, a devout member of a faith that is never made quite clear. “Who is
the government to tell me I can’t love more than one woman? The government
doesn’t know how much of me there is to go around!”

OPTION id="2":
“This is nothing more than sexual deviants using religion as a pretext for
perversion!” says moral crusader Florin Armstrong. “Marriage is one man, one
woman, and death do we part. What’s so hard to get? Anything else is a
perversion, and must be banned.”

OPTION id="3":
“Multiple wives? Excellent!” says passer-by Ksenya Gibson. “Presumably we
will allow multiple husbands, as well. And gay marriages, of course. In
fact, now is probably the time for the government to butt out of marriage
altogether. Let people marry their cats, if they want.”

The only difference between option 2 (as spoiled) and option 3 (API option 2) is the replacement of the word "Reverend" by the words "moral crusader".

I've been keeping a log of the options available when issue #32 is received, and I have now seen 3 alternatives: only options 1 and 2, options 1, 2 and 4, and now, options 1, 3 and 4. Getting neither 3 nor 4 seems to be associated with the Heterosexuality Policy. I have only observed getting 1, 2 and 4 when neither Marriage Equality nor Heterosexuality is a Policy. The nation that just get options 1, 3 and 4 has the Marriage Equality policy, but not the Heterosexuality policy. Which is what I suggested in a previous post, but there is a puzzle here. Why would Marriage Equality cause "Reverend" to be replaced by "moral crusader"? This suggests that the distinction is not Marriage Equality but a religious distinction of some kind. But Cain A P-N Ng v1 has no Policies relating to religion, and the description of its citizens says they are devout, which would seem to make the title "Reverend" acceptable. (Edit: This nation is ranked in the top 4% of the World for Religiousness, and in the top 97% for Secularism. So it really does appear to be very religious, though not to the point of Theocracy.)

So while I think there is now a full picture of what the options are, the national characteristics that cause option 3 to be presented are murky, and may be related to national characteristics not mentioned in its Policies.

[Rocain Founder]

The spoilers for Issue #1406 seem to show that there are no conditional options for this issue. But my puppet Cain A R-C Cs v1 just now received only options 2, 3, 4 and 5. If one looks at the spoiled text for this issue, it looks pretty obvious to me that 1 and 2 are alternatives to each other. My puppet has the Policy Capital Punishment, but not the policy No Prisons. This makes it appear that either option 1 or option 2 would have been compatible with this nation. The obvious validities are the absence of No Prisons for option 1, and the presence of Capital Punishment for option 2. I believe it is possible for a nation to have No Prisons without having Capital Punishment. It would be most logical in such a case for neither option 1 nor option 2 to be presented, but I'm thinking it would be unwise to assume that until such a nation gets the issue and reports on the result.

I suggest the spoiler for this issue be modified to show that options 1 and 2 are conditional. Perhaps a suggestion that option 1 is for nations with prisons and option 2 is for nations with capital punishment could be added, with a couple of question marks to indicate that the matter has certainly not been resolved.

[Trotterdam]

My data suggests that nations with No Prison are ineligible for receiving the entire issue.

Capital Punishment does not appear to affect eligibility, suggesting that options 1 and 2 have the same effect line and a nation will always receive one or the other.

[Obscure Issue Finder]

It's now been 88 days since this nation should have become eligible for #1353. While I haven't been incredibly consistent with remembering to login and clear my inbox, I've dismissed enough issues that I'm starting to think there's more to it than we currently think.

The original effect line has disappeared out of the happenings, but I answered a couple issues that are supposed to give one-child, and used #136 to get the No Abortion policy (still visible in my policies). The last effect line I've got stored is #68.3, which I answered at the same time as #638.4, both of which should link to the one-child policy.

If anyone else is still trying to report #1353, let me know what you've tried so we can figure out what's not clicking.

[Valentine Z]

Valentine’s Changelog 037

---

Dumb ways to die.... So many dumb ways to die.... ♪

- Changed ALL the smart quotes into dumb quotes. Includes the apostrophes.

Changes made to the threads can be seen here.

This is made separate from the rest of the changes because it will overshadow a LOT of things. With that said, no worries - the actual changes are coming in soon! ♥

[Candlewhisper Archive]

It's now been 88 days since this nation should have become eligible for #1353. While I haven't been incredibly consistent with remembering to login and clear my inbox, I've dismissed enough issues that I'm starting to think there's more to it than we currently think.

The original effect line has disappeared out of the happenings, but I answered a couple issues that are supposed to give one-child, and used #136 to get the No Abortion policy (still visible in my policies). The last effect line I've got stored is #68.3, which I answered at the same time as #638.4, both of which should link to the one-child policy.

If anyone else is still trying to report #1353, let me know what you've tried so we can figure out what's not clicking.

Extremely narrow criteria, that issue. 7 nations have answered it in the last month. Good news is that you are indeed eligible for it, so sooner or later you ought to get it.

[SherpDaWerp]

It's now been 88 days since this nation should have become eligible for #1353. While I haven't been incredibly consistent with remembering to login and clear my inbox, I've dismissed enough issues that I'm starting to think there's more to it than we currently think.

The original effect line has disappeared out of the happenings, but I answered a couple issues that are supposed to give one-child, and used #136 to get the No Abortion policy (still visible in my policies). The last effect line I've got stored is #68.3, which I answered at the same time as #638.4, both of which should link to the one-child policy.

If anyone else is still trying to report #1353, let me know what you've tried so we can figure out what's not clicking.

Extremely narrow criteria, that issue. 7 nations have answered it in the last month. Good news is that you are indeed eligible for it, so sooner or later you ought to get it.

Huh, sweet. Given the frequency with which I remember to switch and dismiss, we might be waiting a while longer, but I'll try and remember to refresh that nation's inbox at least once or twice a week.