Worldbuilding Realism Consultation Thread Mk. 4

[Welskerland]

I have a vague outline for a possible government transition, and I'd like input on it.

viewtopic.php?f=23&t=420888

It's a republic, so obviously the monarchy would be abolished, but the current monarch could keep their estate and popularity, and prestige, they would just no longer be recognized as the head of state.

[The State of Monavia]

I have a vague outline for a possible government transition, and I'd like input on it.

viewtopic.php?f=23&t=420888

It's a republic, so obviously the monarchy would be abolished, but the current monarch could keep their estate and popularity, and prestige, they would just no longer be recognized as the head of state.

If you intend to have your NS nation undergo a government transition, you will get a lot out of it by roleplaying the changes. In order to do that, you will need to invest a little effort in creating a background story explaining how a transition is even possible in the first place. You also will need to explain why anyone would bother changing the government—does replacing the monarchy with a republic make it easier for the average person to get an education, find a job, save money, start a family, practice their religion, or access medical care? If the answer is “not really” or no, the average person has little reason to support such changes. If the answer is yes, use the plot of your IC thread to show how this is so.

I looked at some of your factbook dispatches and none of them said that your National Assembly has any power to get rid of the monarchy. From a technical perspective, you first need to have a constitutional amendment that gives them that power in the first place, and if things are to be fair, the monarchy and its supporters will probably campaign against that amendment. They will probably use some of the arguments I outlined in one of my previous posts in this thread:

Unbiased is not my word of choice for describing hereditary leaders. Nonpartisan would be more on the money in this particular context. Monarchy’s strongest appeals besides “they’re trained from birth,” “monarchs stand outside politics,” “they personify the nation,” and “they cannot be bought because they don’t have to stand for re-election” lie in their relative advantages vis-à-vis other forms of government.

Even if the National Assembly gains the power to vote on the monarchy’s future, any number of things can happen. The smart politicians will not vote to get rid of anything until they have agreed on something with which to replace it, which leads me back to something else I posted earlier:

As for the relationship between an elected politician’s position and salary, there are two possible options to consider, neither of which are particularly great. The first is to keep compensation modest so that incumbents campaign for positions out of a desire to serve the public. This option has the drawback of restricting all but the independently wealthy from competing for office since nobody else can afford to run. The other option is to offer high compensation that is commensurate with the importance of political positions. High pay and benefits mean that anyone can afford to serve in office—but then people will compete for office for the money. Splitting the difference between these two options does not seem to make much sense, but perhaps it can be tried.

Salaries are just one of many things the assemblymen can disagree with one another on while debating what they want the future to look like. Even worse, your Democracy in Welskerland factbook dispatch indicates that democracy has not been working very well most of the time the people have had it, so asking for more might not make very much sense. In fact, as real life is proving in Turkey, Russia, France, and the U.S., once people get fed up with things not going well for them, they tend to start backing authoritarian leaders and candidates for leadership—and the current king can simply say “Remember the good old days when the Crown ran everything? Why not get behind me and make Welskerland great again?”

Assuming you can answer all of the questions I have just posed for you to consider while writing the story of your government’s transition—and whether or not it even works—there is one more thing to consider in crafting the characters and plot points making up your thread. The biggest thing to consider is how your characters ill behave when one of them proposed the transition bill. Who will support it? Who will oppose it? Who will just ignore it? What will its supporters and opponents do to make it pass or fail? If the bill looks like it will pass, a spy loyal to the king might break into the basement of the building where the Assembly meets and sabotage the furnaces so everyone suffers “accidental” carbon monoxide poisoning. If the bill looks like it will fail, maybe some radical republicans decide to kill the king instead. Anything is possible in a story; your goal in telling it is to tell it well.

[The Akasha Colony]

Average tax rate from what I remember is something like 30% already. It was probably even worse under Eisenhower when the top tax rate was 90% until that was lowered by Kennedy to 70% which in my eyes is ideal.

The effective federal tax rate is ~18%. Because this is the percentage of GDP the federal government actually takes in in revenue annually. It's actually probably a bit lower than this, because this includes things like tariffs that are not direct taxes on citizens and ancillary sources of revenue. The state and municipal tax rate combined is something like 7-10%, and combined the United States government apparatus takes in roughly 25% of GDP annually, which is substantially lower than the 40% that is the norm among developed nations.

[Questers]

Finland is a tiny, unitary, very wealthy, country where education is a high-status job and the public willingly let educators, who they trust, do whatever they want in school. The main aim is to teach people things and there are very few exams - Finns excel in the exams they do take.

The United States is a massive federal country with huge discrepencies in wealth, and education is done by the states. Parents are very involved and education is highly politicised and geared around children and parents having lots of choice to choose things they think are right for them.

Both the US and Finland have good education systems in terms of how many highly educated people they produce. Finlands is probably fairer, and produces better general education. But America has most of the world's good universities and massive scientific and technical research as well as being a big cultural force.

To be fair the united state is a bit wealthier than Finland($57,220 USA vs $43,545 FIN) so the tax increase necessary to bring this about wouln't be nearly as high as one might expect. I hypothesize somewhere in the 40% range would be all that is necessary, even that may not be needed though considering that were not calling for a full on welfare state like Finland were just going for a fully nationalized education system.

No, youre missing the point.

Finland's education system is per capita cheaper than America's. The reason you couldn't transplant it is that US is a federation with big disparities between the states.

[Welskerland]

I have a vague outline for a possible government transition, and I'd like input on it.

viewtopic.php?f=23&t=420888

It's a republic, so obviously the monarchy would be abolished, but the current monarch could keep their estate and popularity, and prestige, they would just no longer be recognized as the head of state.

If you intend to have your NS nation undergo a government transition, you will get a lot out of it by roleplaying the changes. In order to do that, you will need to invest a little effort in creating a background story explaining how a transition is even possible in the first place. You also will need to explain why anyone would bother changing the government—does replacing the monarchy with a republic make it easier for the average person to get an education, find a job, save money, start a family, practice their religion, or access medical care? If the answer is “not really” or no, the average person has little reason to support such changes. If the answer is yes, use the plot of your IC thread to show how this is so.

I looked at some of your factbook dispatches and none of them said that your National Assembly has any power to get rid of the monarchy. From a technical perspective, you first need to have a constitutional amendment that gives them that power in the first place, and if things are to be fair, the monarchy and its supporters will probably campaign against that amendment. They will probably use some of the arguments I outlined in one of my previous posts in this thread:

Unbiased is not my word of choice for describing hereditary leaders. Nonpartisan would be more on the money in this particular context. Monarchy’s strongest appeals besides “they’re trained from birth,” “monarchs stand outside politics,” “they personify the nation,” and “they cannot be bought because they don’t have to stand for re-election” lie in their relative advantages vis-à-vis other forms of government.

Even if the National Assembly gains the power to vote on the monarchy’s future, any number of things can happen. The smart politicians will not vote to get rid of anything until they have agreed on something with which to replace it, which leads me back to something else I posted earlier:

As for the relationship between an elected politician’s position and salary, there are two possible options to consider, neither of which are particularly great. The first is to keep compensation modest so that incumbents campaign for positions out of a desire to serve the public. This option has the drawback of restricting all but the independently wealthy from competing for office since nobody else can afford to run. The other option is to offer high compensation that is commensurate with the importance of political positions. High pay and benefits mean that anyone can afford to serve in office—but then people will compete for office for the money. Splitting the difference between these two options does not seem to make much sense, but perhaps it can be tried.

Salaries are just one of many things the assemblymen can disagree with one another on while debating what they want the future to look like. Even worse, your Democracy in Welskerland factbook dispatch indicates that democracy has not been working very well most of the time the people have had it, so asking for more might not make very much sense. In fact, as real life is proving in Turkey, Russia, France, and the U.S., once people get fed up with things not going well for them, they tend to start backing authoritarian leaders and candidates for leadership—and the current king can simply say “Remember the good old days when the Crown ran everything? Why not get behind me and make Welskerland great again?”

Assuming you can answer all of the questions I have just posed for you to consider while writing the story of your government’s transition—and whether or not it even works—there is one more thing to consider in crafting the characters and plot points making up your thread. The biggest thing to consider is how your characters ill behave when one of them proposed the transition bill. Who will support it? Who will oppose it? Who will just ignore it? What will its supporters and opponents do to make it pass or fail? If the bill looks like it will pass, a spy loyal to the king might break into the basement of the building where the Assembly meets and sabotage the furnaces so everyone suffers “accidental” carbon monoxide poisoning. If the bill looks like it will fail, maybe some radical republicans decide to kill the king instead. Anything is possible in a story; your goal in telling it is to tell it well.

I haven't worked out RP reasons for the transition yet, but I figured it'd be a given and I plan to come up with one before I actually switch. Right now, I'm just seeking out input from others about what they think of this system. My IRL country does not have a parliamentary system, so I may be a little unfamiliar with how they work. As for democracy, it is true it has not been working well until recently, but I wanted to give an IC reason for why citizens have a very low tolerance for corruption. I've been experimenting and trying to see if I could improve republics.

[The State of Monavia]

I haven't worked out RP reasons for the transition yet, but I figured it'd be a given and I plan to come up with one before I actually switch.

When it comes to crafting a narrative to explain why and how a government transition happens, your best friend in coming up with the nuts and bolts of the story is research. Mentors can do a lot to help; so can your friends and region mates. It also sometimes helps to talk with knowledgeable people you know in RL if they are interested in discussing the subject. In any case, you have a number of options.

The first thing I always consider when trying to add to my NS nation’s history is canonicity. If I have already established something in my roleplaying canon, then if I want to change it, I have to roleplay the changes. If something is not a part of my RP canon, but simply sits in one of my factbook dispatches, I can just retcon it. The one thing that is not a smart idea is to retcon something that you and a bunch of other people spent a lot of time roleplaying. All that does is make the other participants upset.

The other thing I consider when tinkering with my country’s history is originality. In other words, I try to avoid the standard plot arc tropes used by many roleplayers (e.g. every dictatorship must be run by a comic book villain, or every communist country used to be a monarchy once, or every socialist state does exactly what RL Russia has done since 1991 and ends up as a democratic republic) because they have all been done to death and gotten old. That’s why I brought up the questions I mentioned at the end of my previous post. You don’t always have to have that wacky dictator killed in a coup—have her trip on an icy exterior staircase and split her head open on the pavement so the RP thread focuses on the aftermath of her death instead of focusing on how some revolutionaries want to make it happen.

My IRL country does not have a parliamentary system, so I may be a little unfamiliar with how they work.

Research is your best friend. If Wikipedia does not suit you, there are loads of British people around here who can explain parliamentary systems to you.

As for democracy, it is true it has not been working well until recently, but I wanted to give an IC reason for why citizens have a very low tolerance for corruption.

How does democracy not “working well until recently” explain a low tolerance for corruption? Were you trying to say that corruption interfered with democracy so that it did not work well?

I've been experimenting and trying to see if I could improve republics.

If you want to improve a republic (or any other type of government), improve the educational system, make sure the military can keep invaders out, guarantee press freedoms, and take action to attract both foreign and domestic investment (e.g. lower tariffs, impose low taxes on foreign companies, enforce contracts, protect intellectual property like patents and trademarks, etc.) in order to help the citizens build up their society. Unless the government structure has a substantial direct effect on how well people live out their everyday lives, it will not be all that relevant in determining how well off the country is in the long run.

[Taviana SSR]

To cut down on personnel costs while providing the same coverage, I am thinking of reducing the number of law enforcement officer to one per patrol car (instead of two).

Would this make more sense in an urban area PD or for a rural police force?

[Ord Caprica]

To cut down on personnel costs while providing the same coverage, I am thinking of reducing the number of law enforcement officer to one per patrol car (instead of two).

Would this make more sense in an urban area PD or for a rural police force?

definitely rural..

In an Urban environment, PD are vulnerable to ambushes, being overwhelmed in firefights until backup arrives and generally not being about to be aggressive in first response situations.

[Crookfur]

To cut down on personnel costs while providing the same coverage, I am thinking of reducing the number of law enforcement officer to one per patrol car (instead of two).

Would this make more sense in an urban area PD or for a rural police force?

From what i have seen single crewing ends up being a bit of a false economy as single crewed vehicles have to call in back up to deal with anything but the most compliant 1 or 2 person stops/conforntations.

[Purpelia]

To cut down on personnel costs while providing the same coverage, I am thinking of reducing the number of law enforcement officer to one per patrol car (instead of two).

Would this make more sense in an urban area PD or for a rural police force?

definitely rural..

In an Urban environment, PD are vulnerable to ambushes, being overwhelmed in firefights until backup arrives and generally not being about to be aggressive in first response situations.

That is only true if his country is a violent hellhole which it might well not be. Like where I am from most nobody owns firearms and the very idea of a police officer getting into a firefight is extremely far fetched. And as for being overwhelmed... well they have a gun and you don't.

[The Islands of Versilia]

If a series of island near Kamchatka and Japan existed, about to the east of both land masses and in the north-west Pacific Ocean, what fault lines and other geographical areas would it be on or near?
What about climate? Would it be sub-arctic or temperate?

[Taihei Tengoku]

If a series of island near Kamchatka and Japan existed, about to the east of both land masses and in the north-west Pacific Ocean, what fault lines and other geographical areas would it be on or near?
What about climate? Would it be sub-arctic or temperate?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuril_Islands

It wouldn't exist because the tectonic plate east of the Kurils (the Pacific plate) is being subducted into the Okhotsk plate. The Kurils are a series of volcanoes created by that subduction.

[Puzikas]

To cut down on personnel costs while providing the same coverage, I am thinking of reducing the number of law enforcement officer to one per patrol car (instead of two).

Would this make more sense in an urban area PD or for a rural police force?

definitely rural..

In an Urban environment, PD are vulnerable to ambushes, being overwhelmed in firefights until backup arrives and generally not being about to be aggressive in first response situations.

Maybe if you live in a despondent hellhole?
Normal LEOs in developed nations by and large do not worry about vertical ambushes. The world isn't RoboCop.
The majority of PD deaths occur by motor vehicle, and the majority of PD shootings occur at traffic stops.
You're right in that there should be two officers but it's not because of a shootout suddenly occuring.

To cut down on personnel costs while providing the same coverage, I am thinking of reducing the number of law enforcement officer to one per patrol car (instead of two).

This only decreases coverage and increased cost.

Two officers per patrol car with one patrol car per square kilometre=2 officers per square kilometer
One officer per patrol car with one patrol car per square kilometre=1 officer per square kilometer

An officer requesting backup now must wait for second PD on scene, reducing readiness and increasing stop time, or must now preform task alone.

[The Islands of Versilia]

If a series of island near Kamchatka and Japan existed, about to the east of both land masses and in the north-west Pacific Ocean, what fault lines and other geographical areas would it be on or near?
What about climate? Would it be sub-arctic or temperate?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuril_Islands

It wouldn't exist because the tectonic plate east of the Kurils (the Pacific plate) is being subducted into the Okhotsk plate. The Kurils are a series of volcanoes created by that subduction.

Where would the position be if it were near them? Would it be more south near Japan, more east towards USA, or more north, towards Russia?

[Ord Caprica]

It's a game regardless but having been in their shoes before in a more or less secure area. I still wouldn't want to roll up in a patrol car by myself. Potential issues that would arise.

Accountability issues(what happens if the officer has a medical emergency, can't call for backup, is otherwise in a situation where we don't know where they are).

Integrity( if there's an incident, without an additional officer, there's always going to be a doubt over what happened at a given call, unless body cams are being worn.)

Economics( one officer is simply inefficient)

Situational awareness( 4 eyes are definitely better than one)

Fatigue( PD pull crazy hours sometimes and that additional officer is available to help pull the load and keep each other up and alert while on a patrol).

Take your pick.

[DnalweN acilbupeR]

It's a game regardless but having been in their shoes before in a more or less secure area. I still wouldn't want to roll up in a patrol car by myself. Potential issues that would arise.

Accountability issues(what happens if the officer has a medical emergency, can't call for backup, is otherwise in a situation where we don't know where they are).

Integrity( if there's an incident, without an additional officer, there's always going to be a doubt over what happened at a given call, unless body cams are being worn.)

Economics( one officer is simply inefficient)

Situational awareness( 4 eyes are definitely better than one)

Fatigue( PD pull crazy hours sometimes and that additional officer is available to help pull the load and keep each other up and alert while on a patrol).

Take your pick.

This.

I would add to the integrity bit, other than police brutality there is also the issue of abuse/corruption. Randomly pairing cops instead of sending out lone cops on the field should help mitigate this. If the chances of any single officer being dirty are X%, the chances that two randomly paired cops are both corrupt will be a lot lower than X%.

[Taihei Tengoku]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuril_Islands

It wouldn't exist because the tectonic plate east of the Kurils (the Pacific plate) is being subducted into the Okhotsk plate. The Kurils are a series of volcanoes created by that subduction.

Where would the position be if it were near them? Would it be more south near Japan, more east towards USA, or more north, towards Russia?

It could be anywhere. If it is on the Pacific plate proper it would be a isolated volcanic island or atoll like Midway or Hawaii.

[Kazarogkai]

Where would the position be if it were near them? Would it be more south near Japan, more east towards USA, or more north, towards Russia?

It could be anywhere. If it is on the Pacific plate proper it would be a isolated volcanic island or atoll like Midway or Hawaii.

Could be derived from continental drift potentially.

[Costa Fierro]

Some spanish-themed slicktop police van livery I've randomly made (click 4 higher res)

([url=https://s2.postimg.org/8yukgs5mh/image.png]Image)[/url]

credits: source - shipbucket.com ; original author - indiajuliet

some things:

-the bottom strip of blue/green squares is supposedly made of reflective hi-vis stuff
-the spiderweb headlight guard design is probably not the best as it tends to bunch up the highest density of material around the center of the headlight which will obstruct the light from going through

criticisms/suggestions? (both in regards to aesthetics and functionality i.e. ease of recognition as an emergency vehicle etc.)

Generally speaking blue and green (used together, not separately) aren't something one generally associated with police vehicles. And it looked like Spiderman jizzed all over the headlights. To me at least, from an aesthetics it looks like...um...I don't actually know.

Also try and use MS paint. The original drawing was best suited for MS paint.

[Ainin]

I made some route maps for Aininien, Ainin's flag carrier, whose business model is to exploit its central position to serve as a one-stop* long-haul carrier between continents. The lines are not meant to accurately represent the physical routes taken by the aircraft.

* Two-stop if you have to get to the southern continent, since you have to take a domestic flight from the red hub to the green hub. But that's not very common, and in either case, there's a flight every 15-30 minutes between those two airports.

[DnalweN acilbupeR]

Some spanish-themed slicktop police van livery I've randomly made (click 4 higher res)

([url=https://s2.postimg.org/8yukgs5mh/image.png]Image)[/url]

credits: source - shipbucket.com ; original author - indiajuliet

some things:

-the bottom strip of blue/green squares is supposedly made of reflective hi-vis stuff
-the spiderweb headlight guard design is probably not the best as it tends to bunch up the highest density of material around the center of the headlight which will obstruct the light from going through

criticisms/suggestions? (both in regards to aesthetics and functionality i.e. ease of recognition as an emergency vehicle etc.)

Generally speaking blue and green (used together, not separately) aren't something one generally associated with police vehicles.

Yeah I know but I was trying to do something different than the usual black and white or white and blue cop car.

And it looked like Spiderman jizzed all over the headlights. To me at least, from an aesthetics it looks like...um...I don't actually know.

Yes I did mention that this design concentrates a higher density patch of metal mesh on the center of the headlight causing obstruction. Maybe I'll just have a polycarbonate screen encased by a metal rim instead or something.

Also try and use MS paint. The original drawing was best suited for MS paint.

I find "smarter" editing programs (or whatever the correct term is) easier to work with. MS paint has a lot of problems I've found with even simple tasks like scaling or flipping images where it fucks your shit up, apart from not supporting "objects" or "layers" or whatever the correct terminology is.

[Welskerland]

How would a landlocked nation structure its military? Welskerland has two branches: an army and an air force. There is a navy that patrols the rivers and lakes, but it is not a separate branch but part of the army. Does the air force really need to be separate, or should it all be a part of one branch?

[Gallia-]

It should be separate in the sense that it is segregated from the rest of the military, i.e. no infantry or armor officers are allowed to be brought up through the ranks of the Air Force or allowed to influence its policies. Otherwise you'll end up with something dumb, like the US Marines. Whether the Army should have its own fixed-wing aircraft to use however it wants is another question entirely; but for important missions like counter-air and strategic bombing it should be a separate air force. You could go :USSR: and have like five air forces (VTA, DA, FA, AV-MF, and PVO) if you want. Or just be American and have like six (USMC, USN, SAC, TAC, MAC, and ADC).

FWIW, Galla has about six air forces (Naval Aviation, Army Aviation, Tactical Air Command, Bomber Command, Air Defense Command, and Airlift Command). Though a land locked country would probably only have maybe two or three air forces: transportation, tactical air, and maybe strategic/nuclear bombers.

These could exist inside the Army as an Army Air Force, or they could exist separately. If they exist inside the Army they will probably receive less necessary funding and have less influence by virtue of being subjugated by trench diggers and cavalrymen. If they have enough influence and pull to actually get what they need, though, then they have enough influence to legislate their separate existence (and potentially legislate the competition out of existence, as the First Austerity Wars [aka post-WW2 USA] showed).

[The Islands of Versilia]

What would be the climate and what natural disasters would Versilia face?
https://i.imgur.com/SM4V1PT.png
^Location of Versilia, on the right^

[Kazarogkai]

Probably similar to the nearby penisula of Kamchatka though a bit more temperate due to the fact that due to being an island the ocean may moderate it slightly. I'm not a climatologist though so I can't say perfectly for sure.