NationStates Issues **SPOILER ALERT**

[Electrum]

Oh, wow! That's probably the very first issue I see with a Mathematical equation inside. Now I am happy.

So the [sup] tags are also used in the equation for the power / exponents, right? ^^

Yup

[Candlewhisper Archive]

Trotterdam gets uncredited credit here for putting together that formula for me in the drafting process.

[SherpDaWerp]

not sure if this has been reported; but: #734 has "The Issue" misspelled as "The Issure"

EDIT:
None of these were in TalAkMaChen's changelist, and I'm not sure if they've been reported elsewhere, so...

#932 and #1231 are missing "The Issue" altogether
#939 has an unnecessary colon on the end of "The Issue"
#972 has "Description: " on the same line as the description instead of "The Issue" above
#1261 has "The Debate" and "The Issue" switched around
#1298 has a duplicate title
and finally, #1094 is missing a colon after the issue ID number.

[Tinhampton]

Issue #1346 was written by Voxija (although how much the forum draft differs from the accepted version I do not know).

[TalAkMaChen]

In option #960 the third option is also hidden at nations that have computers and video games. It was, however, hidden at WD24, which has the No-Internet policy. So my guess is... the policy should read "[Computers are legal AND Video games are legal AND Internet is legal]".

Also, 997,6 "10-year old matured Famous @@ANIMAL@@. " in italics

[Jutsa]

Issue 1122, is that @@RANDOMNAME@@ or is it supposed to be @@CAPITAL@@? The latter makes more sense in context to both the surrounding description
and the theme of the issue, given how this issue's obtained.

[Trotterdam]

#1346 The Problem With Peyote

The Issue

The Pangaoaoangans, an indigenous native tribe of @@NAME@@, have been using the illegal hallucinogen peyote in their religious ceremonies.

The Debate

1. "Drugs are bad, mmkay," says @@RANDOMFIRSTNAME@@ Emkay, holding a sign that says the same thing. "I love the Pangaoaoangans, but the peyote thing is a problem. Drugs ruin lives. All drugs, mmkay? They should swap something else in. Instead of peyote they could use, say, potato. Sounds almost the same, and doesn't hurt anyone."

2. Chief Hoogahooga, leader of the Pangaoaoangan tribe, takes a long draught of his peace pipe before speaking with you. "Lo, don't you want to allow the people living in your country to practice their religion freely? We do no harm, and peyote is not addictive. Peyote brings sacred visions that guide my people, and it is impossible to practice my religion and heed the words of the spirits without this all-natural, all-herbal, plant-based substance. Please, @@LEADER@@, allow a special exception for drug use when part of traditional faith ceremonies."

3. "Peyote comes from cactuses, right? If we get rid of the cactuses, then no more problem!" suggests your Minister of Babies and Bathwater, sparking a furious debate amongst your aides regarding the correct pluralisation of cactus. "There's a whole bunch of fungal diseases and mealybugs that we can seed across the deserts and mountains — the problem will soon be gone."

Issue by Voxija
Edited by Candlewhisper Archive

Partial randomization of the first speaker's name is taken from the draft thread (I got "Filipe"). The theocracy-only option from that draft seems to have been cut. (Also, the last option is completely different from the draft even though it starts with the same observation.)

EDIT: Random first name / fixed last name confirmed, I got the issue on another nation with "Clara" this time.

[Jutsa]

Another very small help-box to help you finish the page up to 1339.

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#1337: Waste Not Want Not [Candlewhisper Archive; ed: The Free Joy State]

The Issue
With the nation recently affirming its pro-choice stance and guaranteeing women the freedom to terminate unwanted pregnancies, the question has risen about the proper disposal of the products of conception.

The Debate
1. “This is an untapped medical resource of considerable scientific value,” explains @@RANDOMNAME_1@@, the Director of the @@NAME@@ Stem Cell Research Institute, urging you to look at an image depicting a life-sized zygote. “Life-saving research can and has been carried out using foetal material. For example, past experiments that gave us the polio vaccine. In the future, they may be part of the cure for neurodegenerative diseases and spinal cord injuries. Claim this resource for use in medical research, and new advances will surely follow.”

2. “I understand that abortion is sometimes regrettably necessary, but these are still human remains that we’re talking about here,” argues funeral director @@RANDOMNAME@@, glancing dolefully at @@LASTNAME_1@@. “The bereaved family should perhaps instead be given counsel on options for a dignified funeral service, and the importance of mourning the lost little life. This act will also help give sufficient weight to the act of ending an unborn life, and perhaps make people consider their family planning options more carefully in the future.”

*3. “The way I see it, the thing is a product of my body,” says proud abortion clinic regular and self-proclaimed ‘expert laissez-faire economist’ @@RANDOMNAME@@. “Ipso facto, I retain ownership. If I want to sell the products of conception to a research institute or to some major national corporation that wants it for whatever purpose, then I have the absolute right to sell to the highest bidder. If I’d rather not, that’s up to me too. That’s the free market economy.” [Must have private industry]

*4. “The way I see it, the thing is a product of my body,” says proud abortion clinic regular and self-proclaimed ‘supraequality expert’ @@RANDOMNAME@@. “Ipso facto, I reserve the right to decide whether I want to donate it to the greater good or not. In fact, the state should be giving me the option of exchanging my bodily property for an additional share of the common wealth, to give me an incentive to support state-led research schemes or state factories or whatever. After all, those who contribute more to society deserve a little something in return. [Must not have private industry]

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#1338: Slow and Stupid Is the Race [The Marsupial Illuminati; ed: Baggieland]

The Issue
A book on race and intelligence written by a prominent, but controversial, geneticist has caused a mighty kerfuffle with its claim that some groups are naturally less intelligent than others.

The Debate
1. “Group differences in intelligence are purely environmental,” argues @@RANDOMMALENAME@@, an academic and Bigtopian immigrant, handing his well-tailored cashmere coat to your intern and adjusting his ascot tie. “Performance results on intelligence tests are influenced by test bias and stereotype threat. Wealthy people who are better educated have higher scores, while the necessitous with their poor nutrition never stand a chance. It has nothing to do with genetics. Give minorities better education and living standards and they’ll catch up.”

2. “I just said that poor educational performance reflects an underlying genetic cause, and that it’s not because of any environmental factors,” states the book’s author, @@RANDOMNAME@@, as @@HE@@ looks up ‘necessitous’ in a dictionary. “There have been observed differences between the average IQ scores of varying groups, which also show that these differences persist even after controlling for factors such as income. Throwing money at minorities doesn’t help them; instead you should cut welfare for these people to motivate them to study harder and thus overcome their natural deficiencies. This is the only way to help them improve their station in life.”

3. “What a load of drivel!” declares @@RANDOMNAME@@, a Bigtopian supremacist, proudly displaying @@HIS@@ chunky gold ‘Bigtopia Rulz’ medallion for all to see. “The notion that Bigtopians are inferior to another group, especially @@DEMONYMPLURAL@@, cannot be tolerated. These ‘researchers’ with their absurd ideas must not be given a platform. I demand that you burn their books and send them into exile.”

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#1339: AI Citizens Driving Change? [SherpDaWerp; ed: Candlewhisper Archive]

The Issue
After a series of car crashes in @@CAPITAL@@ this week, all involving traditional, flesh-and-blood @@DEMONYMPLURAL@@, the AI citizens of @@NAME@@ are saying that organic fallibility makes humans naturally bad drivers.

The Debate
1. “We machines have faster reaction times, better processing speeds and more driving ability than any meatbag motorists,” lectures artificial intelligence and motorbiker EVL-KN:EVL. “I’m not saying we shouldn’t let humans sit behind the wheel, but they should have AI help next to them to take over in dangerous situations. Or you know, when they think the humans are driving in a way that is ill-judged. We’re all good at different things — us machines are better at risk assessment, logic, and quick-thinking, while meatbags are better at... at... other things, I’m sure.”

2. “Hmm... I’m just not convinced,” wonders IT security researcher @@RANDOMNAME@@, who is wholly human. “There’s been tests done with adversarial images, and it’s just too easy to fool image recognition these days. The second someone puts a sticker on a road sign, we can’t trust any AI to obey! In fact, to reduce the possibility of such a hack occurring, we should stop AI drivers from getting behind the wheel. It’s for their own good!”

3. “You want fast reactions? I can give you fast reactions!” suggests a shady-looking Phisa Pharmaceuticals representative. “You should mandate that all human drivers take our product Speedica, an enhancement drug that improves reaction times. We also produce other drugs that can address the side effects, as Speedica can sometimes make folk feel a little... uh... flaccid.”

[SherpDaWerp]

Not sure who if anyone can answer this.

Why are some options reported with identical text twice? For example, on issue #70, options 1 and 2 are listed as "1 & 2" with separate validities in brackets. I assume this means in-game, there are doppelgangers for this option (for 70.1/2; capital punishment or no capital punishment), but if options have doppelgangers, they're usually different to each other.

So are there actual doppelgangers that are unreported, and Option 1's text is being used as a stand-in for Option 2 in the spoiler list, or does the game actually have 2 identical options 1 and 2 that just have separate validities?

EDIT: other examples include 134.4/5; 271.4/5; 274.4/6; 274.5/7; 472.1/2; 684.4/5; 1030.3/4; and 1270.3/4

[Candlewhisper Archive]

Not sure who if anyone can answer this.

Why are some options reported with identical text twice? For example, on issue #70, options 1 and 2 are listed as "1 & 2" with separate validities in brackets. I assume this means in-game, there are doppelgangers for this option (for 70.1/2; capital punishment or no capital punishment), but if options have doppelgangers, they're usually different to each other.

So are there actual doppelgangers that are unreported, and Option 1's text is being used as a stand-in for Option 2 in the spoiler list, or does the game actually have 2 identical options 1 and 2 that just have separate validities?

EDIT: other examples include 134.4/5; 271.4/5; 274.4/6; 274.5/7; 472.1/2; 684.4/5; 1030.3/4; and 1270.3/4

Often, as is the case for 70.1/70.2, they're stat doppelgangers. That is, the text and the outcome are the same, but the numerical effects vary. For that issue, there's a difference between assigning this as being a capital crime in a nation that already has the death penalty, and in creating a death penalty specifically for this crime (which in turn would likely make the nation more willing to use the death penalty for other heinous crimes).

However, that's not ALWAYS the case, and in a few rare occasions options that are identical in the spoiler list will be subtly different in other ways. In Issue 982, for example, 982.1 and 982.2 are identical at point of presentation, but the outcome (win or lose the chess match) depends on how smart your nation is.

Conceptually I'd love to see more options that have different outcomes according to your nation's position. That's a design space that remains relatively unexplored.

Discussing that further probably belongs off this thread though, and in The Writers Block.

[SherpDaWerp]

Not sure who if anyone can answer this.

Why are some options reported with identical text twice? For example, on issue #70, options 1 and 2 are listed as "1 & 2" with separate validities in brackets. I assume this means in-game, there are doppelgangers for this option (for 70.1/2; capital punishment or no capital punishment), but if options have doppelgangers, they're usually different to each other.

So are there actual doppelgangers that are unreported, and Option 1's text is being used as a stand-in for Option 2 in the spoiler list, or does the game actually have 2 identical options 1 and 2 that just have separate validities?

EDIT: other examples include 134.4/5; 271.4/5; 274.4/6; 274.5/7; 472.1/2; 684.4/5; 1030.3/4; and 1270.3/4

Often, as is the case for 70.1/70.2, they're stat doppelgangers. That is, the text and the outcome are the same, but the numerical effects vary. For that issue, there's a difference between assigning this as being a capital crime in a nation that already has the death penalty, and in creating a death penalty specifically for this crime (which in turn would likely make the nation more willing to use the death penalty for other heinous crimes).

However, that's not ALWAYS the case, and in a few rare occasions options that are identical in the spoiler list will be subtly different in other ways. In Issue 982, for example, 982.1 and 982.2 are identical at point of presentation, but the outcome (win or lose the chess match) depends on how smart your nation is.

Conceptually I'd love to see more options that have different outcomes according to your nation's position. That's a design space that remains relatively unexplored.

Discussing that further probably belongs off this thread though, and in The Writers Block.

Ah, I see. That means I can/should treat them as entirely separate options, just with the same text.

I'm in the process of finalising a computer-readable version of this list, so I wanted to know how I should treat those double-ups.

[Jutsa]

Issue #682 is all in italics for some reason. I'm not entirely sure why, but I think it's because I forgot a [/i] at the end of issue #681.

[TalAkMaChen]

Speaking of italics... in #1344 option 3 there are some as well, along with some other formatting of super-script (exponents):

“Actually, stopping kids having fun sounds like quite a good idea,” observes algebra teacher Newt Onslaugh, decorating a pile of x hundred-question mathematics test papers with a total of (sin²(x) + cos²(x))(e^2ln10)x red crosses. “Maybe if the government banned trampoline parks and replaced them with mathematics activity centres then these idiot children might be able to raise their academic achievement levels a little.”

For those fancy ... that's a hundred x's (and names of options 1+2 indeed random, might be famale + male, though).

[Valentine Z]

I am most very likely definitely going to do the next changelog by this weekend. With my homework and my midterms done tomorrow (Friday), I have a bit of breathing space!

[Lame Country]

:)

I'd like to point out that Comrade's Choice is italicized, and also that the listed options are 0, 1, 3, and 4. 2 has yet to be discovered, as I, too, have banned smoking.

ed: Now I can cross "communist issue" off my list of must-dos
ed2: many thanks for the report, Runegeist.

Here's the alternate option for didn't ban smoking:

“You know, I’ve heard that smoking helps people eat less,” states your brother, who smells subtly of burnt dignity. “Ergo, we should encourage everyone to take up the habit. We could even add extra appetite suppressants to cigarettes and promote images of the scrawny, smoking socialist to help them ignore their stomachs.”

[Tinhampton]

Issue #1349 now in the wild? be on the lookout, I've seen a lot of people talking about new issues without actually crossposting their full texts here

[Jewspont]

Thankfully, I always post new issues here (is another puppet of Voxija).

#1350: The @@DEMONYMPLURAL@@ Are Coming!

The Issue
Following a fracas between the Minister of Paternalism, the Minister of Patriotism and the Minister of Patchouli, your inner circle has gathered to discuss how best to run your nation’s most recently acquired colony.

The Debate
1. “The best approach is through direct rule, of course,” chortles Judas Wolfe, slamming his hunting crop against the table so your secretary startles. “That accursed continent needs intelligent and honourable people — like myself — to teach those childlike natives. A colonial administration, staffed entirely by our people, will look after them and teach them good @@DEMONYMADJECTIVE@@ values. When they see what great civilisation our pioneers bring to them, they won’t be so upset that we mowed down a few hundred primitive shacks for our five-star clubhouse and gated communities. They’ll see it was just common sense.”

2. “Having a government there comprised entirely of native Jewspontians will breed resentment among the indigenous population,” groans Minister Paris Dredd, adjusting her @@CAPITAL@@ University cap. “Why don’t we co-opt their elite instead? Just educate them in our best schools and universities — for example’s sake, @@CAPITALINITIALS@@U — to value our culture and customs over their own. That way, their ruling elite have legitimacy among the locals yet will be totally amenable to our interests here at home.”

3. “You’re thinking too regressively,” sighs Wolfgang Licorish, who visited the tourist sites of the colony once and now claims to feel like a local. “These are all top-down solutions. If we want to have the support of the people, we need to make a genuine effort to include them in government and listen to their concerns. Why not establish a little local legislature there and reserve seats for the native population? They need to feel they’re working with us, not for us.”

4. “Or we could just forget the whole thing,” suggests your weary Secretary of the Treasury, as he stares at a globe with a magnifying glass. “I mean, armies tromp around, claiming land for @@NAME@@ without any thought of the consequences. Do you have any idea how much it costs to maintain a colony? Resources are stretched thin as it is. Taxpayers at home don’t want to be subsidising a place they can’t even point out on a map, and the colonies don’t want to be subsidised. Besides, imperialism is so old-fashioned. Let’s embrace the modern era, put this empire nonsense behind us and save some money.”

Issue by The Tsardom of Nuremgard

Edited by The Free Joy State

In option two, there is a weird acronym that I don't know the macro for, but it stands for "The City Of Spring University".

[Jutsa]

Alright, I'm really interested in how you get this issue. Is this a followup issue or is there actually a new policy now involving conquering other nations?

Also, I'm even more curious: are options 2 and/or 3 hypothetically reversals to native representation?

Furthermore... son of a gun Nuremgard is op

[Trotterdam]

TCOSU

This is "@@CAPITALINITIALS@@U".

[Zwangzug]

Alright, I'm really interested in how you get this issue. Is this a followup issue or is there actually a new policy now involving conquering other nations?

Neither, the policy already existed backstage, but it's not commonly used.

[Jutsa]

Nice. Never knew this

[Trotterdam]

There's also #450.

[Tinhampton]

In option two [of Issue #1350], there is a weird acronym that I don't know the macro for, but it stands for "The City Of Spring University".

@@CAPITALINITIALS@@U? The name of your capital city is The City of Spring, or TCOS.

[Jewspont]

TCOSU

This is "@@CAPITALINITIALS@@U".

I changed it, thanks.

[Talatorrum]

Hey, does anyone know what the number of this issue is? Winning the Genetic Lottery