I don't as a rule like to stick my nose into places it hasn't first been invited to but more and more I feel the need to respond to common posts made by people concerning the site of NSTracker. People actually argue over which calculator to use and it's silly. Make your own numbers or not if you want to fit in with the group these days, good luck. It's become more and more about arguing figures than about roleplaying. Standardization? Seriously? Have you looked closely at the NationStates World? It's as diverse as our own.
All calculators take your information from the daily data dumps which is directly related to the choices you make through daily issues. This to me is a function that grants you control over various aspects of your nation through daily issues. These very same attributes impact your economic standing. If we research how GDP is actually calculated we find that things such as consumer confidence and worker enthusiasm are very tangible, impacting factors. The best thing about NationStates is that it's fiction. We can modify fiction towards taste defined by players.
This is easy to find: http://tracker.conquestofabsolution.com ... lculations
We weren't even in the picture when Commerce Heights wrote the initial formula for calculating national and regional statistics. Fostonia was the original creator of NSTracker and his site was still active in 2009 when myself and a few other players started looking at the source code as something simple to place on our own board. We didn't even really start looking at it until the Summer of 2010 when we noticed that Fostonia's site had disappeared and that some players were beginning to use our site as a substitute. Players passing through Absolution over time passed the link along and we responded to that newly founded need by looking more and more into correcting the flaws within the calculator or at least the ones we ourselves could see. There is still so much more to do and we accomplish this with the help of regular players.
Two years later, it does so much more all attributed to the regular players leaving comments on our site. They all had an idea and thus something to offer the greater community of NationStates above and beyond the old, tired arguments of days gone by. NSTracker is customizable now and there's a lot more to come. You can define your roleplay population to as low a 2,000 if required. You can define your nations import/export percentages and the strength of your military by population, budget and reserves. NSTracker now has six different layouts. It never before gave regional data or World statistics, it now does. It used to have unreadable graph images. We use the same jquery graphs NationStates does. It no longer retrieves 100% of your stats today from the API but rather from our own resources and the work is still continuing to decrease our own footprint upon the servers of NationStates. We do in fact feel that we are there to help you help us and NSTracker could never force anyone into using it. The choice is entirely up to the individual. Beautiful thing, choice!
All calculators were brought to you by people you do not know but people nonetheless that wished you to have it. Imagine if there were nothing. Not everyone is strongly suited towards math. Calculators were never expected to be seen as "bibles" and in truth were created to be fun. Remember? What always surprises me is that none of the naysayers want to help in the least to actually bring you a calculator worth while. They simply repeat old, tired arguments from days gone by. We are currently completing our latest upgrades so yes, things do tend to need fixing from time to time. It's our hobby and this Summer has already seen large changes. Our comment section and email overflowed with ideas for this ongoing project which anyone can attend. All we require is time enough to see to them all so please bare with us.
Seems a much more rewarding journey over and above arguing with people that will never see things from your point of view. The best thing is, you always have the choice there too.
Onwards and upwords!
