[Suggestion] IC-Nation Macro

[Kiddian States]

I have an idea for an issue macro. I’m not sure it’s a good idea, but I’ll share it anyway
My idea is that there would be a macro that would show the name of a nation in the reader’s region with a specific stat. This would help to immerse the reader in their region, yet might contrast with rps
What are your thoughts?

[Luna Amore]

I have an idea for an issue macro. I’m not sure it’s a good idea, but I’ll share it anyway
My idea is that there would be a macro that would show the name of a nation in the reader’s region with a specific stat. This would help to immerse the reader in their region, yet might contrast with rps
What are your thoughts?

This has been discussed before and the main concern is with silly nation names.

Does anyone really want nations like Ameeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeerica showing up in issues?

[Kiddian States]

Although, would it be worth it to cut our losses?
After all, there would only be a chance those names would appear

[Panagouge]

Silly names are part of the game; I see no reason to exclude them for being randomly chosen in an issue.

[Kiddian States]

Silly names are part of the game; I see no reason to exclude them for being randomly chosen in an issue.

I’m saying what if we did it anyways, regardless of silly names

[Haganham]

I have an idea for an issue macro. I’m not sure it’s a good idea, but I’ll share it anyway
My idea is that there would be a macro that would show the name of a nation in the reader’s region with a specific stat. This would help to immerse the reader in their region, yet might contrast with rps
What are your thoughts?

This has been discussed before and the main concern is with silly nation names.

Does anyone really want nations like Ameeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeerica showing up in issues?

At first I agreed with this, but the more I thought about it the weaker this objection seems. How can I worry about silly names when RL has places named Turkey, Nameless, Humptulips, and Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch? I was confident that at least real life doesn't have an equivalent to names with numbers in them; but then I I went and checked and... there is a commune in Romania named "1 Decembrie".

I no longer believe it is possible on nationstates to make a nation with a name sillier then what people have come up with for actual places. In fact I now believe the opposite; Nationstates is more strict then real life. I don't think Humptulips for example would be permitted, and it is relatively tame.

Now you might say that's all fine but those aren't nations.
Well to that I say Turkey is a nation, so there, Mr Strawman!
In all seriousness NS is a satirical game, so nation names that are equivalently silly as regional names isn't that jarring, even if the international community still refuses to recognize the sovereign rights of the great nation of Humptulips.

[Kiddian States]

Personally, as a member of an active region with many interesting nations, I would love to have my region mates’ names show up in an issue

[The Order of Makai]

I approve of this suggestion.

The concerns about silly nation names appearing in the macro is groundless. If your region-mates are using such stupid names like "Card Farmer 42069", then you only have yourself and your region control officer to blame for permitting them to exist in your region if such names take you out of the game that much.

Even then, perhaps the macro could restrict such names from appearing? Perhaps a list of prohibited phrases like "Card Farmer"?

[Balkede]

What if you're the only member of your region? Or the other few nations have stats that are completely different to what is needed for the issue?

[Kiddian States]

What if you're the only member of your region? Or the other few nations have stats that are completely different to what is needed for the issue?

I’d imagine that if no nations apply, it’d be replaced by an example nation, like Maxtopia

[One Small Island]

I am categorically opposed to this idea.

There are many issues which pit your nation "against" another nation, such as the issue chain with Brazilistan, and it would be extremely confusing for new players if the nations that they were interacting with, or had received recruitment telegrams from, were showing up in their issues as their enemies. Or worse yet if they were in an issue chain where they conquered and bombed the other players nation.

[Kiddian States]

I assumed we’d just not use this macro when it would pit nations against each other with out their consent
We’d just keep it brasilistan for that issue chain

[Frisbeeteria]

This is getting far too complicated for an idea that doesn't have a ton of support. I'd suggest abandoning it.

[Kiddian States]

This is getting far too complicated for an idea that doesn't have a ton of support. I'd suggest abandoning it.

Well, the concept is quite simple: it’d be a macro, like @@ANIMAL@@ (which gets replaced by the national animal of the nation answering the issue) that chooses a random nation, say in the top 10% in the region, of a specified stat.
The complex part is in execution, but that can be handled after the addition of this feature

[Comfed]

This is getting far too complicated for an idea that doesn't have a ton of support. I'd suggest abandoning it.

Well, the concept is quite simple: it’d be a macro, like @@ANIMAL@@ (which gets replaced by the national animal of the nation answering the issue) that chooses a random nation, say in the top 10% in the region, of a specified stat.
The complex part is in execution, but that can be handled after the addition of this feature

No it can't... you need the execution part to implement the feature

[Kiddian States]

Well, the concept is quite simple: it’d be a macro, like @@ANIMAL@@ (which gets replaced by the national animal of the nation answering the issue) that chooses a random nation, say in the top 10% in the region, of a specified stat.
The complex part is in execution, but that can be handled after the addition of this feature

No it can't... you need the execution part to implement the feature

I was referring to adding it to past issues
Of course, the coding will be tough, but worth it, I believe

[Acyria]

I think this would be a great idea, as long as there's a way to filter out silly nation names because I agree that is a valid concern.

It'd be great to see "real" nations you know of, come up in the official gameplay.

[The Sarangtus Lands]

For what it's worth, I think this is a good thing, especially if you had an issue which went "We must strengthen our manufacturing sector to complete with @@MANUFACTURINGNATON@@ and increase our exports for the benefit of the nation."

[SherpDaWerp]

You can't do anything more complicated than just name-dropping these nations, though. You can't characterise the other player nations in any way other than by their stats, which will always be limited. What do you make a @@manufacturing@@ nation's citizens sound like? What inflections, speech patterns, will they have? What jokes will they make?

NPC nations are great because authors and editors can mold them in any way they want, create new ones to fill niches, and use them to satirize real-world nations. Subbing in player nations will only ever be a novelty name-drop.

[Kiddian States]

You can't do anything more complicated than just name-dropping these nations, though. You can't characterise the other player nations in any way other than by their stats, which will always be limited. What do you make a @@manufacturing@@ nation's citizens sound like? What inflections, speech patterns, will they have? What jokes will they make?

NPC nations are great because authors and editors can mold them in any way they want, create new ones to fill niches, and use them to satirize real-world nations. Subbing in player nations will only ever be a novelty name-drop.

Funny, I’ve never seen any npc nations have the things you mentioned
Also, I don’t believe that npc nations should be completely replaced. When an ic nation makes more sense, then we’d use that, and vice versa

[Wintermoot]

What if there was something like this for a new type of interactive issue chain involving multiple nations?

Say, some kind of diplomatic incident with an active nation in your region. Your nation receives an issue on how to address it, and then based on your response their nation received an issue on how they would respond to it. The chain could go on for as long as the author(s) felt was appropriate, and the resulting stat changes would depend on how both nations responded over the course of the issue chain.

I know it's a little more complicated than what Kiddian was suggesting, but it would allow for actual interactions between nations when it came to the issues. In turn, it would make that end of the game feel a bit less like you're in a silo by yourself and some imaginary nations (even more imaginary than the ones we're running, in any case).

[Honeydewistania]

What if there was something like this for a new type of interactive issue chain involving multiple nations?

Say, some kind of diplomatic incident with an active nation in your region. Your nation receives an issue on how to address it, and then based on your response their nation received an issue on how they would respond to it. The chain could go on for as long as the author(s) felt was appropriate, and the resulting stat changes would depend on how both nations responded over the course of the issue chain.

I know it's a little more complicated than what Kiddian was suggesting, but it would allow for actual interactions between nations when it came to the issues. In turn, it would make that end of the game feel a bit less like you're in a silo by yourself and some imaginary nations (even more imaginary than the ones we're running, in any case).

This is a fantastic idea!

[SherpDaWerp]

Funny, I’ve never seen any npc nations have the things you mentioned

Well, considering you're aspiring to be an issues author, I recommend you read up on that. There are multiple threads maintained by various people that detail NPC nations, religions, and recurring speakers' general character with tips on how to write them.

When an ic nation makes more sense, then we’d use that, and vice versa

Yeah. But when does an IC nation make more sense? How do you know that an IC nation makes more sense without dragging in their characterisation? You'd end up having to have such specific requirements on which nations get used ("@@nation(religious, no abortion, open emigration, open tourism)@@ doesn't like their citizens going to @@name@@ for abortions!" - at that point just make a new NPC) that it would be pointless.

The only way this works is if it's a meaningless name-drop once in every 20 issues, where some speaker from within your nation says "C'mon, we need to boost manufacturing, we're worse than @@nation(high manufacturing)@@", which would quickly become gimmicky anyway. I know I'd get very sick of the umpteenth issue where someone on a science-boosting option says "I can't believe we're worse than @@nation(high science)@@!"

You'd also have to have a backup version for nations that don't have region-mates fitting the criteria, which would be an NPC nation, and at that point... just give everyone the backup anyway. Either you have @@nation(high economic freedom) || United Federation@@ (so just say "United Federation"), or you have to make doppelganger options that leave that whole sentence out (so more unnecessary work statting and editing two options for a tiny difference).

What if there was something like this for a new type of interactive issue chain involving multiple nations?

That sounds like a fantastic idea for Sedge & the editing/admin team in the Issues/Nation Management tech dev thread.

[Luna Amore]

Fictional nations can be given characteristics, backstories, consistent motivations. Throwing random regionmates in (even if you tie it to stats) cannot match that. None of the current issues are set up for this and I just don't see it being used.

This is without mentioning how many tiny regions exist that wouldn't work with this system.

Out of the 26k regions currently, something like 17k of them have just one nation in them. Something like 23k have five or less. It either wouldn't work or provide a very repetitive experience for most players.

[Candensia]

Fictional nations can be given characteristics, backstories, consistent motivations. Throwing random regionmates in (even if you tie it to stats) cannot match that. None of the current issues are set up for this and I just don't see it being used.

This is without mentioning how many tiny regions exist that wouldn't work with this system.

Out of the 26k regions currently, something like 17k of them have just one nation in them. Something like 23k have five or less. It either wouldn't work or provide a very repetitive experience for most players.

I really agree here. I don't see such macros being used frequently by writers.

One of the main reasons why NPC nations are useful is that they give the writer creative freedom. You can describe the intentions, goals, history, and culture of NPC nations. You can't do that with player nations, as issues must respect the internal fictions of player nations.

So beyond cursory name-drops, such macros would largely be without purpose.