Help us fix old issues

[Sanctaria]

Issue 731, option 1:

“This is a travesty!” yells Nick Jordan, a Marche Noirian asylee and head organizer for the Freedom for Oppressed Peoples’ Initiative. “Mr. Kratt cruelly subjugates our people and maintains power in Marche Noire by sowing seeds of hatred between its various ethnic groups. This is our chance to peaceably remove him. Please, do not allow him to use Merni as a podium to tighten his stranglehold on our people. Emperor Xaranas IV, to show our solidarity for Marche Noirians and oppressed peoples everywhere, we must ban Otto Kratt and every other tin-pot dictator from coming to our country immediately!”

Shouldn't the apostrophe in "Freedom for Oppressed Peoples' Initiative" be removed?

It took me a few readings, but I believe you're right (it's just an Initiative, as opposed to an initiative belonging to all oppressed peoples) so I've removed the apostrophe.

[The Free Joy State]

Issue 226, option 3 allows residents to resettle in Hurjaki and establishes policy No Emigration.
I also have active policy No Immigration and thought it would be killed by taking that option, but that didn't happen.

This option doesn't promote immigration. Immigration is when the nationals of a country move permanently to a different one, where they do not hold citizenship.

The people in this option are explicitly nationals of your own nation who have been living and working in another country. That's repatriation rather than immigration, and thus would not impact that policy.

[Candlewhisper Archive]

After Brancaland announced an increase in tariffs on all goods imported from abroad, several other countries retaliated by doing the same thing to Brancalandian goods. They now expect a response from The Ursine Northlands.

(Option 1) “Let’s just do what everyone else is doing and increase tariffs on Brancalandian imports,” suggests your Trade Minister, Kimberly Pelosi. “The Brancs rely heavily on us to supply them with iron, copper, and other raw materials. When they have to start paying through the nose for them, I’m sure they’ll see sense and reconsider their own tariff increase.”

(option 2) “If we raise tariffs as well, that will surely increase the cost of goods for consumers!” panics Ranil Watson, your Economic Advisor. “We need to work with the Brancalandians, not against them. So we should actually lower tariffs in an attempt to get them to buy more from us; once they see that we’re giving them a fair deal, they might even lower their tariffs for us. They get to trade more goods, we get to trade more goods, and the average Bear reaps the savings. Everyone wins!”

This doesn't make sense: It's Brancaland's' own tariffs on imports which are already pushing up the price of the materials that you export to them, whereas you putting tariffs on the goods which you import from Brancaland wouldn't affect the cost of your exports to them... and you lowering your tariffs on imports from them doesn't make your exports to them cheaper.
To make those first two options work properly, you need to have Brancaland (and the nations responding to it) taxing their exports rather than their imports.

Discussed and updated. Option now reads as follows:

"Let's just do what everyone else is doing and increase tariffs on Brancalandian imports," suggests your Trade Minister, @@RANDOMNAME@@. "The Brancs profit greatly from exporting iron, copper, and other raw materials to us. Once we cut into their margins, I'm sure they'll see sense and reconsider their own tariff increase."

[Hurjaki]

Issue 177 Option 2 mentions "seize control of news media", but in Hurjaki that already happened with policy State Press.

[Bears Armed]

After Brancaland announced an increase in tariffs on all goods imported from abroad, several other countries retaliated by doing the same thing to Brancalandian goods. They now expect a response from The Ursine Northlands.

(Option 1) “Let’s just do what everyone else is doing and increase tariffs on Brancalandian imports,” suggests your Trade Minister, Kimberly Pelosi. “The Brancs rely heavily on us to supply them with iron, copper, and other raw materials. When they have to start paying through the nose for them, I’m sure they’ll see sense and reconsider their own tariff increase.”

(option 2) “If we raise tariffs as well, that will surely increase the cost of goods for consumers!” panics Ranil Watson, your Economic Advisor. “We need to work with the Brancalandians, not against them. So we should actually lower tariffs in an attempt to get them to buy more from us; once they see that we’re giving them a fair deal, they might even lower their tariffs for us. They get to trade more goods, we get to trade more goods, and the average Bear reaps the savings. Everyone wins!”

This doesn't make sense: It's Brancaland's' own tariffs on imports which are already pushing up the price of the materials that you export to them, whereas you putting tariffs on the goods which you import from Brancaland wouldn't affect the cost of your exports to them... and you lowering your tariffs on imports from them doesn't make your exports to them cheaper.
To make those first two options work properly, you need to have Brancaland (and the nations responding to it) taxing their exports rather than their imports.

Discussed and updated. Option now reads as follows:

"Let's just do what everyone else is doing and increase tariffs on Brancalandian imports," suggests your Trade Minister, @@RANDOMNAME@@. "The Brancs profit greatly from exporting iron, copper, and other raw materials to us. Once we cut into their margins, I'm sure they'll see sense and reconsider their own tariff increase."

Thank you.

[Trotterdam]

#1140: "Best Light Display in @@CAPITAL@@" - seems like this should either capitalize every word of @@CAPITAL@@, or just trust players that ther capital name is correctly capitalized. Capitalizing only the first letter is pointless.

By the way, this isn't necessarily a bug that needs fixing, but I noticed that something like @@NAMEINITIALS@@ or @@DEMONYMADJECTIVEINITIALS@@ can evaluate to the empty string if the custom field it's based on contains no letters, such as -------------------------------. This threw for a loop my code's expectation that macros are never blank. (Mind you, that was the first time since I started that that's been a problem.) Guess I'll need to change that!

[The Free Joy State]

#1140: "Best Light Display in @@CAPITAL@@" - seems like this should either capitalize every word of @@CAPITAL@@, or just trust players that ther capital name is correctly capitalized. Capitalizing only the first letter is pointless.

Amended.

By the way, this isn't necessarily a bug that needs fixing, but I noticed that something like @@NAMEINITIALS@@ or @@DEMONYMADJECTIVEINITIALS@@ can evaluate to the empty string if the custom field it's based on contains no letters, such as -------------------------------. This threw for a loop my code's expectation that macros are never blank. (Mind you, that was the first time since I started that that's been a problem.) Guess I'll need to change that!

That's not really an editor issue. We can't control what people put in their customisable fields.

[Merni]

Issue 146, options 1 and 2:

1. “Ach, good to see you haff made it here in one piece,” says evil doctor Aziz Graves as you wake up strapped to a chair in a secret lab. “As you can see from my brilliant experiments, science has now solved zer problems of zer vorld und ve need nothink else! I propose zat ve do AVAY vith zer teachink of silly thinks like religion und concentrate on zer FACTS! For a start, ve must teach our children where ve came from. Ve shouldn’t be teaching anythink that hasn’t been scientifically proven - er - accounted for, I mean. Igor, release our guest - I haff a monkey to prezent...”

2. “That’s a LIE, child, we come from the great meteor of truth!” yells firebrand preacher Pastor Richards, kicking down your door. “We cannot allow their transgressions against the HOLY truth to continue! All the heathens should be thankful we don’t burn them at the stake for their devilry! This nation’s true and just government must ban the filth and corruption being spread by these WICKED unbelievers!”

Considering that you (the leader) are evidently in a "secret lab", unless it's your own secret lab (which seems unlikely), it wouldn't be "your door" but rather "the door" or "his [the doctor's] door".

[Candlewhisper Archive]

Issue 177 Option 2 mentions "seize control of news media", but in Hurjaki that already happened with policy State Press.

Thanks. Fixed via validity locking the issue from those with State Press.

[Candlewhisper Archive]

Issue 146, options 1 and 2:

1. “Ach, good to see you haff made it here in one piece,” says evil doctor Aziz Graves as you wake up strapped to a chair in a secret lab. “As you can see from my brilliant experiments, science has now solved zer problems of zer vorld und ve need nothink else! I propose zat ve do AVAY vith zer teachink of silly thinks like religion und concentrate on zer FACTS! For a start, ve must teach our children where ve came from. Ve shouldn’t be teaching anythink that hasn’t been scientifically proven - er - accounted for, I mean. Igor, release our guest - I haff a monkey to prezent...”

2. “That’s a LIE, child, we come from the great meteor of truth!” yells firebrand preacher Pastor Richards, kicking down your door. “We cannot allow their transgressions against the HOLY truth to continue! All the heathens should be thankful we don’t burn them at the stake for their devilry! This nation’s true and just government must ban the filth and corruption being spread by these WICKED unbelievers!”

Considering that you (the leader) are evidently in a "secret lab", unless it's your own secret lab (which seems unlikely), it wouldn't be "your door" but rather "the door" or "his [the doctor's] door".

Good spot, excellent attention to story! Have amended to "the" door.

[Far Tholk]

In Issue 390, the second option mentions "another peoples' sovereignty." This is an error because another is necessarily singular, so the apostrophe shouldn't go after the 's,' making sovereignty a possession of the plural 'peoples.' Corrected, this would read 'another people's sovereignty,' referring to the Brasilistani people.

[Candlewhisper Archive]

In Issue 390, the second option mentions "another peoples' sovereignty." This is an error because another is necessarily singular, so the apostrophe shouldn't go after the 's,' making sovereignty a possession of the plural 'peoples.' Corrected, this would read 'another people's sovereignty,' referring to the Brasilistani people.

Fixed, thanks.

[Trotterdam]

#1142 Womb Service

The Issue

A recent article published in The @@CAPITAL@@ Times featured a @@DEMONYMADJECTIVE@@ woman who’s had her second abortion in two years, with both procedures having been covered in full by the nation’s public healthcare system. The national debate that’s followed has become impossible to ignore.

The Debate

1. "I’ll be dammed if this doesn’t keep coming up every couple years," sighs a representative from the Womb Tang Clan, a leading abortion advocacy group. "Sneaking around in bathroom stalls is for politicians, not for women seeking legitimate healthcare!"

...Huh? This person is complaining about something that the opening just explicitly said isn't happening.

In fact, all of option 1 reads pretty much like a "we need to continue doing what we're already doing" pseudo-dismiss, in the given context.

[The Free Joy State]

#1142 Womb Service

The Issue

A recent article published in The @@CAPITAL@@ Times featured a @@DEMONYMADJECTIVE@@ woman who’s had her second abortion in two years, with both procedures having been covered in full by the nation’s public healthcare system. The national debate that’s followed has become impossible to ignore.

The Debate

1. "I’ll be dammed if this doesn’t keep coming up every couple years," sighs a representative from the Womb Tang Clan, a leading abortion advocacy group. "Sneaking around in bathroom stalls is for politicians, not for women seeking legitimate healthcare!"

...Huh? This person is complaining about something that the opening just explicitly said isn't happening.

In fact, all of option 1 reads pretty much like a "we need to continue doing what we're already doing" pseudo-dismiss, in the given context.

No it does not. There is an action (not only to guarantee the protection of services, but to provide free contraception to all women).

And this thread has never been for subjective changes, only objective problems with spelling, grammar, macros or validities. Any changes would be a subjective change. And we do not make those.

EDIT: Incidentally, "I'll be damned if this doesn't keep coming up" seems to be a clear reference to the national debate mentioned in the second line of the opening description (which has "become impossible to ignore"). So, no change is necessary.

[Window Land]

In issue #1138 Shock Tactics, option 1 is missing an oxford comma. It says “Put an AED in every bus stop, every train station, every supermarket and next to every ATM" when it should say "Put an AED in every bus stop, every train station, every supermarket, and next to every ATM".

[Candlewhisper Archive]

In issue #1138 Shock Tactics, option 1 is missing an oxford comma. It says “Put an AED in every bus stop, every train station, every supermarket and next to every ATM" when it should say "Put an AED in every bus stop, every train station, every supermarket, and next to every ATM".

As you know the term "oxford comma", I presume you know that not everybody uses them. We even have an issue about that.

Please don't waste the time of this thread by reporting the absence or presence of Oxford commas.

[The Sherpa Empire]

Grammar clunk, issue 761 option 3:

“Don’t you think the real problem is that intelligence services that can be beaten by a TV entertainment company?”

I don't think the underlined "that" belongs in this sentence.

[Pogaria]

Grammar clunk, issue 761 option 3:

“Don’t you think the real problem is that intelligence services that can be beaten by a TV entertainment company?”

I don't think the underlined "that" belongs in this sentence.

Thanks for reporting this. I have fixed it.

[Merni]

Issue 540, option 4:

“Spoilers must be banned!” wails George JK Token, the beloved and bearded fantasy author of Hexicon and the popular A Play of Crowns series. “It’s of no coincidence that mere days after you spoiled my book, it fell from its number one position on the Qersi Times best seller list. Spoilers greatly harm the publishing and entertainment industries. Nobody wants to bother with something if they know how it ends! I urge you to make it illegal to spoil. If you don’t, well, then I just might have to kill off Aya Lark in the next Play of Crowns book, seeing how she’s your favorite character.”

I think the "of" should be removed.

[The Free Joy State]

Issue 540, option 4:

“Spoilers must be banned!” wails George JK Token, the beloved and bearded fantasy author of Hexicon and the popular A Play of Crowns series. “It’s of no coincidence that mere days after you spoiled my book, it fell from its number one position on the Qersi Times best seller list. Spoilers greatly harm the publishing and entertainment industries. Nobody wants to bother with something if they know how it ends! I urge you to make it illegal to spoil. If you don’t, well, then I just might have to kill off Aya Lark in the next Play of Crowns book, seeing how she’s your favorite character.”

I think the "of" should be removed.

Fixed. Thanks for the report.

[The Geeses Commonwealth of Goosedom]

Issue 1029, involving a missing hiker in a foreign country, came up despite my policy of no emigration.

[The Free Joy State]

Issue 1029, involving a missing hiker in a foreign country, came up despite my policy of no emigration.

Emigration has never disallowed tourism; people can still go on their holidays. No change needed.

[Verdant Haven]

I'm wondering if 985 ("Service with a Snarl") may be missing a validity.

The issue is basically that your nation has been called out for being horribly rude, and then all your option speakers are agreeing with that assessment. Thing is, we actually have stats to track that. I received the issue despite having Rudeness in the lower half (52nd percentile), and Niceness in the top 10% (7th percentile) globally. I have similarly high compassion, inclusiveness, and all those warm fuzzies.

I would suggest a Rudeness validity be added to this one - I'm just dismissing it myself, since it is jarringly unrelated to reality in my nation's case.

[The Free Joy State]

I'm wondering if 985 ("Service with a Snarl") may be missing a validity.

The issue is basically that your nation has been called out for being horribly rude, and then all your option speakers are agreeing with that assessment. Thing is, we actually have stats to track that. I received the issue despite having Rudeness in the lower half (52nd percentile), and Niceness in the top 10% (7th percentile) globally. I have similarly high compassion, inclusiveness, and all those warm fuzzies.

I would suggest a Rudeness validity be added to this one - I'm just dismissing it myself, since it is jarringly unrelated to reality in my nation's case.

There has been a rudeness validity on it since its inception. But it might bear some adjustment.

Amended this.

[The World Capitalist Confederation]

Issue 540, option 4:

“Spoilers must be banned!” wails George JK Token, the beloved and bearded fantasy author of Hexicon and the popular A Play of Crowns series. “It’s of no coincidence that mere days after you spoiled my book, it fell from its number one position on the Qersi Times best seller list. Spoilers greatly harm the publishing and entertainment industries. Nobody wants to bother with something if they know how it ends! I urge you to make it illegal to spoil. If you don’t, well, then I just might have to kill off Aya Lark in the next Play of Crowns book, seeing how she’s your favorite character.”

I think the "of" should be removed.

Fixed. Thanks for the report.

I think it should be allowed. It's still used in formal and upper class English quite a lot, so I don't think that it should be removed.