Let us lower populations?

[Bears Armed]

Could players posibly be given the power to re-set their nations' population totals, to any level they want that's lower than game-derived one (as currently determined), through a box on the nation's settings page? Some of us don't want billions of people crammed into our countries, and this would relieve us of the need to mention the values that we actually use instead of the official ones every time that it becomes relevant...

Oh, and of course if we did do this then we should also be given the ability to freeze the subsequent "automatic" growth in population, too, so that we could just add realtively small numbers of people now & then -- using the same 'setting' control as would apply above, & only within the same maximum total value -- to match our own ideas on the matter...

[A mean old man]

But that's kind of part of the game, isn't it...? I mean, we get issues regarding our ever-increasing populations - would this then make those issues invalid?

[Bears Armed]

But that's kind of part of the game, isn't it...? I mean, we get issues regarding our ever-increasing populations - would this then make those issues invalid?

There's "expanding", and then there's "bloody ridiculous": Bears Armed occupies specifc sections of the IDU's regional map, which has a scale, and even the 19 million that I currently state to be the population is probably a bit higher than the total for those areas really should be considering both the Bears' typical (& preferred) lifestyle and the local conditions...
And after all, we already get issues that are pretty much invalid if we're WA members because passed resolutions effectively limit us to specific options within them if we intend to stay 'compliant'...

[Glen-Rhodes]

How about just an aesthetic population level, that, if it's set, displays instead of the game-recorded one? Thus, you'd still be able to get issues that are population-sensitive.

[Unibot]

Let's see what lower populations would effect ....

• National Descriptors .. (fledgling..massive...colossal);
  
• Spamguard is now determined by population size;
  
• Census Reports ("Biggest Population in the World");
  
• NSeconomy stats;
  
• Eligibility for certain issues (special issues?);
  
• Eligibility for a long-title, or issue submission;
  

How'll about at 500 million, you receive an issue regarding emigration.. up until then your nation has a had a stern policy against emigration, by approving the right of citizens to emigrate, you receive a telegram from the NationStates Bureau of Migration or whatever. Crappier environments, war-torn places and higher taxes, will have greater emigration rates.

You'd never be able to emigrate lower than 500 mil., so the code wouldn't get screwed (unless of course you can just have long-titles and what not activated for anyone who has answered the issue, and thus has reached 500 million at one time or another).

However these citizens emigrating will not just disappear.. no-no-no, they'll immigrate to 'better' nations in your region, depending on if they approved immigration or not through issues. There are consequences to immigration too, though.

This all might break that policy that the admins have, which is, "citizens are 100% supportive of their nations". But its worth a suggestion, I think...

XML feeds would show the 'daily' emigration, immigration, and net migration rates for a nation.

[A mean old man]

Good Lord, that's complicated.

[Unibot]

Good Lord, that's complicated.

Eh, thats how me brain works. *intentional accent*

[Glen-Rhodes]

How about just an aesthetic population level, that, if it's set, displays instead of the game-recorded one? Thus, you'd still be able to get issues that are population-sensitive.

Unibot, this wouldn't cause problems with anything. :\

[Somewhereistonia]

How about just an aesthetic population level, that, if it's set, displays instead of the game-recorded one? Thus, you'd still be able to get issues that are population-sensitive.

Unibot, this wouldn't cause problems with anything. :\

I do like this idea, perhaps a visible strikethough of the undesired number next to the desired one would work to allow people to edit their nation stats without disrupting any in-game mechanic.

[Unibot]

How about just an aesthetic population level, that, if it's set, displays instead of the game-recorded one? Thus, you'd still be able to get issues that are population-sensitive.

Unibot, this wouldn't cause problems with anything. :\

It would be dahm confusing and not intuitive at all to new members, though. (e.x Why do I have two populations!?)

[Sedgistan]

I like knowing how long nations have been around for, so I'd find this change rather irritating.

[Glen-Rhodes]

I like knowing how long nations have been around for, so I'd find this change rather irritating.

Well, population alone doesn't give a proper depiction about how long a nation has been around. That data is in the nationdata XML. With a purely aesthetic population setting, the actual age of a nation would still be found in the XML.

[Unibot]

How about just an aesthetic population level, that, if it's set, displays instead of the game-recorded one? Thus, you'd still be able to get issues that are population-sensitive.

Unibot, this wouldn't cause problems with anything. :\

You could implement your idea through a special issue like this...

We the people of @@NATION@@, or is it peoples?

Demographers, statisticians and politicians have been under fire recently by the vigilant media and deceivingly jubilant hosts of morning talk shows. Classified government reports that were accidentally revealed to the media have exposed that the Ministry of Population Management has been fudged statistics for decades.

[option] “Well, it’s not really a crime? Is it!?” asked Zoran Yama, a perspiring statistician who had been chosen to publicly represent the government on the matter. “I mean, look at it this way, it was just a little error we made in the censuses from a few decades ago. The census asked for citizens to mark how many citizens lived in their household, and how many household pets they owned. Unfortunately the replies to those got, well… added together. Afterwards we realized our mistake we decided to not reveal it, to spare ourselves the embarrassment. But this is all such a frivolous matter! I think we should just grant me, I mean, statisticians as a whole, amnesty for their fraudulent acts, and ask for the true statistics to be revealed publicly from now on. No harm done. What do you say?”

[option] “I say you’re a bloody criminal! That’s what I say!” screamed Berahthraban Séamas, a high-profile prosecution lawyer for a non-governmental statistical firm. “I mean, look at it this way, the statisticians could have just admitted their mistake, but no, they didn’t – and it gets worse! They’ve been committing fraud for years!! The Ministry of Population Management has been draining tax dollars into these censuses, but they never bothered to tell anyone that all they did was choose random numbers from off the top of their heads to please people. They’re liars, cheats and criminals who should be trialed and jailed at the highest penalty we can provide them with!! What do you say!?”

[option] “Wait, what is so bad with these statistics, again?” asked General Baldarich Raginmund, while writing out fraudulent letters of recognition. “We have a saying in the Military, and that is, if it's broke don’t fire the buggers, commend them! Think about it! You see, you normal people don’t understand, if someone in the military makes a blunder like destroy a perfectly good aircraft, or bomb the wrong village, we just give them a metal … nobody can question that the solider did an excellent job if he is being awarded a metal for it. These statisticians are doing a great job, who is going to try and attack a nation of a whopping @@POPULATION@@ million number of citizens? I say, give them a medal, keep paying them loads of cash for doing our country a great service, and shoot anybody who suggests they’re not! What do you say?”

[[violet]]

Spamguard is now determined by population size;

That's actually age, not pop size, if you're talking about the delay when sending TGs.

My biggest fear with this is that the number of people who say, "Cool! I always wanted to reduce my population" will be less than the number of people who say, "OMG WTF JUST HAPPENED I LOST HALF MY POPULATION YOU A-HOLES."

[Sarzonia]

Some RPers decided to use RP'd populations rather than the game-generated figures.

For example, I RP with a population of 11.6 million, which is almost one one thousandth of my game-generated population.

I would think coding a change in population available at the whims of the player would be too much of a pain in the arse to be worth the while of those who code the game.

[A mean old man]

You could always make a new nation for RPing a nation that small and make sure to let everyone know it's your puppet.

[Wikipedia and Universe]

What exactly is spamguard and what does it do? I have never heard of this before.

[Unibot]

Spamguard is now determined by population size;

That's actually age, not pop size, if you're talking about the delay when sending TGs.

My biggest fear with this is that the number of people who say, "Cool! I always wanted to reduce my population" will be less than the number of people who say, "OMG WTF JUST HAPPENED I LOST HALF MY POPULATION YOU A-HOLES."

A special issue would keep it optional, and you would still retain the data of their game-population, if at anytime they wanted the game-stats again I suppose a tree-issue could circulate about needing to 'keep up in the "Population-Gap" with foreign competition' or something, which would reverse the effects of the special issue. Until the issue arrived, they could set the population of their nation as being similar to their game-decided one in their settings.

[Enn]

You could always make a new nation for RPing a nation that small and make sure to let everyone know it's your puppet.

But if you're RPing a nation of, say, 10 million (which is what Enn's population really should be, instead of over 4 billion), your puppet will pass that within a week. Hardly a usable suggestion.

[Glen-Rhodes]

That's actually age, not pop size, if you're talking about the delay when sending TGs.

My biggest fear with this is that the number of people who say, "Cool! I always wanted to reduce my population" will be less than the number of people who say, "OMG WTF JUST HAPPENED I LOST HALF MY POPULATION YOU A-HOLES."

*Ahem* Not if it's a setting that you set yourself, to whatever population you want (so long as it's lower than the issue-derived population, I guess).

[Flibbleites]

My biggest fear with this is that the number of people who say, "Cool! I always wanted to reduce my population" will be less than the number of people who say, "OMG WTF JUST HAPPENED I LOST HALF MY POPULATION YOU A-HOLES."

Which is a legitimate fear considering the outrage over the "Population bug fix" April Fool's Day prank.

[Qazox]

ICly Qazox has about 400 Million people, while according to the "offical" tally is: 8.845 Billion.

Bears Armed, if it that bothersome, then add something to your sig about the IC population of your nation.

[North Wiedna]

I like knowing how long nations have been around for, so I'd find this change rather irritating.

XML feeds? They show it in days, which is even handier.

[Topid]

I like knowing how long nations have been around for, so I'd find this change rather irritating.

XML feeds? They show it in days, which is even handier.

It takes a long time to go to an XML feed. I check a nations population within seconds off their page. I do so to pretty much every single poster I haven't seen before if he/she posts in a thread I'm reading. So going to an XML feed would lengthen the time that takes by a lot.

[Enn]

ICly Qazox has about 400 Million people, while according to the "offical" tally is: 8.845 Billion.

Bears Armed, if it that bothersome, then add something to your sig about the IC population of your nation.

Not to go OT or anything, but Bears already has their 19 million population in their sig.