Factbook Question/Answer Thread

[Communo-America]

Is it possible to have your country under a group of countries as a sort of just group or clan and not just join a second country?

[Kinky Bastards]

Is it possible to make a wiki-styled list of rulers, with a frame, like in this random example? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_rulers_of_Duklja

[Jute]

Is it possible to have your country under a group of countries as a sort of just group or clan and not just join a second country?

A region?

[The Plutonian Empire]

If I wanted to use my factbooks purely for storytelling purposes, can I do that?

Meaning, for example, If I write about an event that take place at Alpha Centauri in my made up storytelling universe, in a History Factbook, involving either this nation or one of my puppets, would I be able to do that without much trouble?

Or, would I be able to write an OOC, miscellaneous disclaimer factbook stating this takes place in a separate universe to minimize any confusion, if I write something happening on Alpha Centauri in my historical factbook?

[Kinky Bastards]

If I wanted to use my factbooks purely for storytelling purposes, can I do that?

Meaning, for example, If I write about an event that take place at Alpha Centauri in my made up storytelling universe, in a History Factbook, involving either this nation or one of my puppets, would I be able to do that without much trouble?

Or, would I be able to write an OOC, miscellaneous disclaimer factbook stating this takes place in a separate universe to minimize any confusion, if I write something happening on Alpha Centauri in my historical factbook?

I don't see why not.

[Dagea]

Does anyone know how to resize a table? I've tried doing this:

Code: Select all

[table size="width:50%"]TABLE STUFF[/table]

but that is a no go.

My table is ignoring the floatright tags on my sidebar and is being unnecessarily large and rather than sitting on the left, it goes underneath the sidebar.

[The Plutonian Empire]

If I wanted to use my factbooks purely for storytelling purposes, can I do that?

Meaning, for example, If I write about an event that take place at Alpha Centauri in my made up storytelling universe, in a History Factbook, involving either this nation or one of my puppets, would I be able to do that without much trouble?

Or, would I be able to write an OOC, miscellaneous disclaimer factbook stating this takes place in a separate universe to minimize any confusion, if I write something happening on Alpha Centauri in my historical factbook?

I don't see why not.

Ah, okay. Thank you!

[Republic of Vectors]

deleted

[Kartunium]

Greetings from the spanking new nation of Kartunium. We have just today planted our flag in terra incognita, so please forgive our first post for what we're sure is the spectacular stupidity of the questions it contains. However, we have read and reread the FAQ pages and found no answer, and so, responding to the invitation in this thread's original post, we ask away...

Can one edit the content of one's overview page? Or is that content automatically generated, based on the answers given upon registering and by decisions made on issues and banners chosen? Does entering information in one's factbook affect the content of the overview? And if factbook data does affect the overview, is the entering of a few bare facts all that is necessary to do so, with the overview then automatically edited by the system? Or does one need to submit the entire text of what one wishes to have as the overview?

Lastly, is there a way to reallocate government expenditures, in the sense of directing a higher proportion to this segment of the pie and less to that?

Thanks to anyone who can enlighten the ignorant masses of our fledgling nation...

[Republic of Vectors]

Greetings from the spanking new nation of Kartunium. We have just today planted our flag in terra incognita, so please forgive our first post for what we're sure is the spectacular stupidity of the questions it contains. However, we have read and reread the FAQ pages and found no answer, and so, responding to the invitation in this thread's original post, we ask away...

Can one edit the content of one's overview page? Or is that content automatically generated, based on the answers given upon registering and by decisions made on issues and banners chosen? Does entering information in one's factbook affect the content of the overview? And if factbook data does affect the overview, is the entering of a few bare facts all that is necessary to do so, with the overview then automatically edited by the system? Or does one need to submit the entire text of what one wishes to have as the overview?

Lastly, is there a way to reallocate government expenditures, in the sense of directing a higher proportion to this segment of the pie and less to that?

Thanks to anyone who can enlighten the ignorant masses of our fledgling nation...

Hello there, allow me to use what I know to help answer some of your questions.

-Can one edit the content of one's overview page?
=I do not believe so. The things written there are a result of the choices of your 'issues'. Factbooks have no influence over these items. As a general rule, for Role playing, it is usually factbook information instead of NS stats.


- is there a way to reallocate government expenditures
=No, not directly. The only way to do that is via issues. However you may choose to use whatever numbers you wish and post them in your factbook, and refer to that as the real numbers of your nation.

I hope that helped. If not, ask again and we'll work through it!!

-RoV

[Kartunium]

RoV, thank you very much for your reply! You've answered our questions fully, clearly, and succinctly.
Much appreciated!
The information is about as we expected. Alas, we shall have to be extremely patient, then, to fine-tune
our nascent country -- evidently the auto-generated legislature tends to overreact wildly and at times quite
inappropriately to our decisions on issues (ferinstance, deciding against the death penalty yesterday resulted in
extreme political groups being outlawed and our Political Freedom rating thereby plummeting... huh?).

[Keshetar]

I'm not a new nation--but I took a months-long hiatus. I want to start a new nation/factbook under this name. Now, say I wanted to create a sparsely populated nation. How many people per km/mile^2 would be feasible for a country with some decent level of modernity (like access to at least a few TV and radio channels, basic internet, everything)? And what are all the factors that go into writing about a nation's society, government, politics, the economy and foreign affairs? Please, I'm not the greatest articulate writer and I may need some help with using smarter words.

[Republic of Vectors]

I'm not a new nation--but I took a months-long hiatus. I want to start a new nation/factbook under this name. Now, say I wanted to create a sparsely populated nation. How many people per km/mile^2 would be feasible for a country with some decent level of modernity (like access to at least a few TV and radio channels, basic internet, everything)? And what are all the factors that go into writing about a nation's society, government, politics, the economy and foreign affairs? Please, I'm not the greatest articulate writer and I may need some help with using smarter words.

Ukraine: 200/mile^2
Iran: 109/mile^2
United States: 84/mile^2
Taiwan: 1849/mile^2
United Kingdom: 650/mile^2

Reference


As you see, the numbers of population per square mile differ greatly. Higher states like Taiwan, even the UK would fulfill your requirements, however the USA, with a very low number is one of the highest advanced countries. So population density should not be used to determine technological availability, and vice versa.



One big thing when writing Factbook entries, is realism. Always ask yourself 'if this possible?' I suggest you find a country similar to your desires and 'Google' what its budget, population, foreign policy is, so that you have a starting point. Of course this does not apply if you are not aiming for a believable country. IE unicorns, magic, etc.

Did I explain that well enough for you? If not, ask again and we'll make something work.

-RoV

[Maltropia]

Adding to the above, keep in mind that your country's geography will influence your population density quite a bit. A more mountainous country, like Bhutan, might have as low a population density as 18.0/km², while nearby Bangladesh - a country consisting entirely of floodplains - has over a thousand per km₂.

Geography has potential influences on many other factors, including your access to modern luxuries: radio waves don't travel so well in a mountainous country, so one valley might get signals from Keshetar Radio but the next valley over only gets garbled static, or nothing at all. In general, more advanced infrastructure is more possible with easier terrain.

The population density itself isn't, surprisingly, the key operator here. As I've said, several factors are at play in determining density. Iceland has a whopping 3.2/km², but great access to technology - indeed, it's at the forefront of scientific research in several areas - because most of its landmass is entirely uninhabited while most of the people live in a few coastal towns, bringing the average way down. Depending on what kind of country you're going for, you'll be looking at various different possible densities, so, as Republic of Vectors has said above, it will help to look at real-world comparisons - keeping in mind that there is always variation.

Just to go off on a[nother] tangent for a moment here, and to take RoV's example of the United Kingdom's pop. density - 255.6/km². It manages to be four times denser than the neighbouring Republic of Ireland, meaning that its population is fourteen times higher than Ireland's, despite its territory only being three and a half times bigger. Before the Famine of the 1840s, the island of Ireland had a population of 8 million (which it still hasn't returned to, 150+ years later) while Great Britain had only twice that. If the Famine had never happened, and Ireland had modernised to match Britain (somehow), it would today have 20 million or so inhabitants, but 130 years of continuous net emigration takes its toll. History, even only very recent history, does a lot to shape a country.

As for "all the factors" about "society, government, politics, the economy and foreign affairs" - that's a much longer list than I'm qualified to provide. History is arguably the most important [and yes, if you couldn't tell, my degree is History and Geography <.<], since the modern nature of a country is very often determined by its past development. Was it a monarchy? Did a revolution overthrow that monarchy, or did it survive? Were you recently in a major war? Traditionally, is your country populated by farmers or are you more urban? How do your people view their country and ruling government - with pride, disgust, mild amusement? How does that government interact with its neighbour states?

You have to ask yourself many, many questions like these when you're creating an in-depth description of your nation, but you don't have to start with the articulate vocabulary from the outset. The infoboxes on Wikipedia articles provide a wealth of information about each country without even using verbs, so it's just a question of writing it down.

[Fin Dovah Junaar]

So um, where would magic go in a factbook?

[Climalite]

Can you play videos on fact books?

[Jute]

Can you play videos on fact books?

No, you can only link to them. Alternatively, use gifs.

So um, where would magic go in a factbook?

Warfare, Culture or whatever else seems appropriate, I guess?

[Lons]

Does anybody know of a program that can create modern looking roadmaps? Like this for example? With a lot of struggle I could do that in a classic image editor, but it'd be amazing to have some kind of program doing most the dirty work.

[Jute]

Does anybody know of a program that can create modern looking roadmaps? Like this for example? With a lot of struggle I could do that in a classic image editor, but it'd be amazing to have some kind of program doing most the dirty work.

Well there's this, but it only draws a very basic city map.
There's also this, but the maps are smaller and more fitting for fantasy cities.

[Gim]

What is the best factbook design you can create in this site?

I'm currently using images and background blocks to create how my factbook looks.

[Jute]

What is the best factbook design you can create in this site?

I'm currently using images and background blocks to create how my factbook looks.

This is a popular one.

[Gim]

What is the best factbook design you can create in this site?

I'm currently using images and background blocks to create how my factbook looks.

This is a popular one.

Been there, done that.

Something better-looking than the current factbook I have?

[Liberty and Alderney]

This is a popular one.

Been there, done that.

Something better-looking than the current factbook I have?

I don't know man, you just got to experiment. I mean, maybe a wiki-esque format may not be what you are looking for when you want to talk about your nation. I, for example, was planning to make something like this for my own nation (and I still will, just gonna take some time). Maybe you can devise your own style with some experimentation.

[American Union Republic]

I'm confused about when I should say my nation is set.


Technically, the present day in my nation is July 4th, 2176. The President of the United States has decided to write a history of the country from 2012 to the present day, and in his writing, he is currently up to the year 2014. If you check my nation's factbook right now, you will see that it is only up to 2014. However, as time goes on and the president writes more of the national history, he will gradually make his way through the 21st Century.

Of course, in the meantime, I will be posting in character on the various happenings of my nation. However, I am confused if I should post them as if the year was 2176, or as if it was whatever year in the history the president is currently writing (which is 2014).

[Jute]

Been there, done that.

Something better-looking than the current factbook I have?

I don't know man, you just got to experiment. I mean, maybe a wiki-esque format may not be what you are looking for when you want to talk about your nation. I, for example, was planning to make something like this for my own nation (and I still will, just gonna take some time). Maybe you can devise your own style with some experimentation.

That's looks pretty cool, actually.

I'm confused about when I should say my nation is set.


Technically, the present day in my nation is July 4th, 2176. The President of the United States has decided to write a history of the country from 2012 to the present day, and in his writing, he is currently up to the year 2014. If you check my nation's factbook right now, you will see that it is only up to 2014. However, as time goes on and the president writes more of the national history, he will gradually make his way through the 21st Century.

Of course, in the meantime, I will be posting in character on the various happenings of my nation. However, I am confused if I should post them as if the year was 2176, or as if it was whatever year in the history the president is currently writing (which is 2014).

Whatever suits you best for that particular post, just make sure to include a date to avoid confusion.