Issues and the weirdness of them

[DarKgeorgia]

We receive issues on a daily basis, yet we are supposed to choose them based on the line of dialogue....and even more, something like monopolyzing beans somehow affects military, law, and manufacturing and even food exporting.....
The stuff doesnt make sense, and many times have I chose something, and had a bunch of things affected that has absolutely nothing to do with the issue is talking about or asking for.
Either this randomness has got to stop,
or have a system where you click on the choice of the issue, and it shows you what it positively and negatively effects, and then confirm it based on the things that you want.....

[The Black Forrest]

I still can’t figure out the secret message

[Sovaal]

I generally just go for whatever is funniest.

[The New California Republic]

have a system where you click on the choice of the issue, and it shows you what it positively and negatively effects, and then confirm it based on the things that you want.....

You are not the first person to suggest this, and will by no means be the last. Seeing the effects of issues ahead of time will make answering issues boring.

[Valrifell]

have a system where you click on the choice of the issue, and it shows you what it positively and negatively effects, and then confirm it based on the things that you want.....

You are not the first person to suggest this, and will by no means be the last. Seeing the effects of issues ahead of time will make answering issues boring.

The whole point of a simulator (even one as silly as NationStates) is to mirror reality. Well, in reality your choices have unintended consequences.

The pseudo-unpredictable nature of stat changes is a good part of what makes the game interesting and at least semi-grounded.

[Lillorainen]

Oii,
At first:

The whole point of a simulator (even one as silly as NationStates) is to mirror reality. Well, in reality your choices have unintended consequences.

The pseudo-unpredictable nature of stat changes is a good part of what makes the game interesting and at least semi-grounded.

Pretty exactly this. Not seeing the effects before you can't reverse your choice is the core of and fun about issue answering.

As for the effects of answering issues, I'll let Max himself speak, through the FAQ:

>I just banned skateboards and my insurance industry boomed! Why??

Because of the way so many factors can interact, it's hard to predict the effects of a decision even when you know all the variables. Banning skateboards, for example, can lead to unhappier teenagers, who generate more youth crime, which increases the level of fear amongst the general populace, which spurs insurance sales.

>But why did it change so much?
The world is realistic but more so. There's a logic to how things work, but everything tends to gravitate to the most extreme outcome, with the largest consequences. Fear not, though: This also means it's usually easy to reverse the effects of earlier decisions.

[Land Without Shrimp]

Either this randomness has got to stop,
or have a system where you click on the choice of the issue, and it shows you what it positively and negatively effects, and then confirm it based on the things that you want.....

That would be boring though. If you know exactly what happens each time you click a response...where's the fun in that?

Part of the reason I enjoy the issue-answering in NS is that I am responding to a situation in a way which I think is best...but the results don't always match expectations (just as in real life!). Honestly, the sheer amount of data points and statistics that our nations track makes for an extremely fascinating simulation...ridiculous yes. But that's part of the fun.

But...if you do want to have more of an idea of what will happen for each response, you may want to visit this topic: https://forum.nationstates.net/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=440593

To each his own

[Alterrum]

You are not the first person to suggest this, and will by no means be the last. Seeing the effects of issues ahead of time will make answering issues boring.

The whole point of a simulator (even one as silly as NationStates) is to mirror reality. Well, in reality your choices have unintended consequences.

The pseudo-unpredictable nature of stat changes is a good part of what makes the game interesting and at least semi-grounded.

In principle, I agree, especially with respect to the number of different stat changes -- everything is interconnected in reality, and the ripples from some event can reach very far and unexpected places. I would in fact say that NS doesn't go far enough, and is actually extremely oversimplified at modelling reality, especially as the system lacks any awareness of time and so the effects of every issue apply only to the subsequent game tick (with the exception of unlocking some issues for the future). In NS, you can apparently tax away everything, still have a functioning market economy, and in fact continue to tax away pulling wealth out of the ether.

Meanwhile, plenty of stats are defined in a rather abrupt manner, typically from a liberal-left perspective, without taking into account any nuances. For example, most decisions that grow the welfare state increase stat compassion, but in reality that comes down to people personally not having to have any compassion and just rely on some government agency to mete out resources. Compare that with a civil society model, where citizens personally feel responsible for others, and so donate their time and money to charities and other non-state organizations to help the needy. Yet, the NS model operates from a simplistic dichotomy of selfish capitalist vs. bleeding-heart liberal. The same is apparent in issues regarding e.g. immigration. Opening your borders increases the compassion stat, even though, an immigration-skeptic may argue, in the long run it's more compassionate towards everyone to limit excessive migration. Yet again, in the NS model, there are only two positions: either you give in to people's base desires (which is supposed to mean your nation is 'compassionate'), or you are Ebenezer Scrooge who hates puppies and only cares about profit.

In the end, if you are not satisfied with how the system works, it's of course possible to game it, as some technically-minded people have done.