Higher rate of issues for New Nations/Revamp of System

[Romance and Reverie]

Hello,

I'm new to this site, and think it's pretty cool. I've been busy trying to set up my nation to reflect its values, but this is proving very difficult and slow. It isn't freely customizable, and issues are issued far too slowly. An old topic on this matter was dismissed due to there being too few issues at the time, and worries about repetition. With over 1000 now, perhaps it could be reconsidered. At the very least, an initial burst of issues to deal with isn't unreasonable, as it would allow the nation to at least start looking right. Maybe 100? Then lessen the rate to whatever you'd like to encourage the longevity and continuity of the experience.

In contrast, perhaps the system ought to be revamped to be freely customizable, since the driving force for interactions is roleplay. People roleplay as nations which are different from their nation "on paper". It might be prudent to let that "on paper" reflect the nation accurately for others. While this makes the most sense, I'm having a lot of fun with the "gameplay" arising from issues. There's a lot of humor to enjoy, and the random changes in % makes me want to solve more issues to get my nation where I want it to be. The rate is seriously a bummer though.

[Amelathania]

100 issues is way too many for people to answer. It’d take forever and might discourage others from playing the game.

Besides there are already eight starting ‘issues’ (the alignment quiz at the start). 4 issues is completely fine, and the rate of issues immediately after is extremely high.

[Romance and Reverie]

100 issues is way too many for people to answer. It’d take forever and might discourage others from playing the game.

Besides there are already eight starting ‘issues’ (the alignment quiz at the start). 4 issues is completely fine, and the rate of issues immediately after is extremely high.

I don't mean the initial ones. Having 100 issues pending, which you can address at your leisure can't be discouraging since there's no time limit. You say it's fine, but haven't addressed how it's fine relative to the problem I raised. My nation reads like a piece of shit, because I've only solved a handful of problems. If it was 100, it'd read more like what I'm going for. The main page of your nation isn't trivial, and having it be entirely inaccurate for weeks would be far more discouraging than anything else. It's probably most likely to have me quit, if after a few days, I see I'm getting nowhere.

[SherpDaWerp]

Hello,

I'm new to this site, and think it's pretty cool. I've been busy trying to set up my nation to reflect its values, but this is proving very difficult and slow. It isn't freely customizable, and issues are issued far too slowly. An old topic on this matter was dismissed due to there being too few issues at the time, and worries about repetition. With over 1000 now, perhaps it could be reconsidered. At the very least, an initial burst of issues to deal with isn't unreasonable, as it would allow the nation to at least start looking right. Maybe 100? Then lessen the rate to whatever you'd like to encourage the longevity and continuity of the experience.

In contrast, perhaps the system ought to be revamped to be freely customizable, since the driving force for interactions is roleplay. People roleplay as nations which are different from their nation "on paper". It might be prudent to let that "on paper" reflect the nation accurately for others. While this makes the most sense, I'm having a lot of fun with the "gameplay" arising from issues. There's a lot of humor to enjoy, and the random changes in % makes me want to solve more issues to get my nation where I want it to be. The rate is seriously a bummer though.

First, welcome to NS!

Second: there already is an initial burst of issues. It slows down to 1 every 6 hours at max throttle after the first few weeks. (I can't remember what the rate is before then, maybe 1 every 4 hours?) Also, consider that your nation will never be eligible for all ~1300 issues. At best, it's around 60-70% due to validity locking (you won't get issues about the free market if you're socialist, for instance).

The original purpose of the game was having original interesting political decisions with funny consequences that you don't expect, which is still the core of Issues gameplay. Of course, R/D gameplay came after that, as well as RP of all descriptions (F&NI or P2TM). Lots of RPers ignore their gameside stats, as you said, but free customisation would remove that aspect of "funny consequences", and it would completely destroy stat rankings. If you want to RP as a different nation, you're more than free to do so - write some interesting dispatches about your "real" nation.

If you want to get more into playing the Issues game for stats; I recommend turning on "More Stats" in settings. Percentage changes can be quite misleading, especially at small numbers. If my "weather" is at 1 and an issue increases it by 2, then you'll see a 200% increase! It's somewhat regular to see percentage changes in the tens of thousands, especially on Industry stats that can change by hundreds at a time.

Also, issue changes are not random - there's always a grain of reasonableness behind them. Sometimes it's difficult to figure out why banning sport led to an increase income equality, but there's always a justification. Banning sport would reduce the economic freedom for people who make money off sport, and reduced economic freedom corresponds to increased income equality.

My nation reads like a piece of shit, because I've only solved a handful of problems.

I can assure you that literally noone here judges others by their stats, especially not when the nation in question isn't even a week old. We've all had times where we started with garbage, or we made one issue decision that bombed a stat we held dear. Look at my economy, for instance - I dropped 40 points due to 1 issue decision. (That option's effects have since been toned down, but other issues with significant stat effects remain)

[Romance and Reverie]

First, welcome to NS!

Second: there already is an initial burst of issues. It slows down to 1 every 6 hours at max throttle after the first few weeks. (I can't remember what the rate is before then, maybe 1 every 4 hours?) Also, consider that your nation will never be eligible for all ~1300 issues. At best, it's around 60-70% due to validity locking (you won't get issues about the free market if you're socialist, for instance).

The original purpose of the game was having original interesting political decisions with funny consequences that you don't expect, which is still the core of Issues gameplay. Of course, R/D gameplay came after that, as well as RP of all descriptions (F&NI or P2TM). Lots of RPers ignore their gameside stats, as you said, but free customisation would remove that aspect of "funny consequences", and it would completely destroy stat rankings. If you want to RP as a different nation, you're more than free to do so - write some interesting dispatches about your "real" nation.

Thanks.

I suppose you could dismiss it as impatience then. I don't mind my stats being weak, and building up gradually like in an RPG, but the summary being solid would be welcoming. And if not through a revamp, the best way would be an greater initial burst. It's like starting with a character in an MMO that looks exactly how you want, but obviously without the best shiny armor vs. unlocking eyes, nose, hair, height customization gradually, let alone earning armours.

I've been confused about the RP aspect, going through multiple nation profiles. You have dispatches which aren't really RP related, and most profiles I visited didn't have dispatches at all. If not the main page, what resources do people use to get background info for RP? I have no idea how any of that works, and when going through the beginner guides, it almost always just leads to random discords.

[Aikoland]

If I can just add one thing here

I'm new to this site, and think it's pretty cool. I've been busy trying to set up my nation to reflect its values, but this is proving very difficult and slow.

This is deliberate, this game has been described, by regular players, issues editors, and even some members of the moderation staff I beleive, as being a marathon, not a sprint.

You're not supposed to be able to immediately and quickly shape your nation to what you want it to be like at a quick pace.

If not the main page, what resources do people use to get background info for RP? I have no idea how any of that works, and when going through the beginner guides, it almost always just leads to random discords.

I mean the RP is completely free-form, you can just make up your nation's background info out of whole cloth or use RL nations as inspiration, fiction, etc. You're not limited to using what the game says as your starter source if you don't want to (and especially because the game engine itself is rather simplistic and is basically incapable of accurately describing some of the complex RP backgrounds that some players have devised). It's basically just creative writing, you know?

[SherpDaWerp]

Thanks.

I suppose you could dismiss it as impatience then. I don't mind my stats being weak, and building up gradually like in an RPG, but the summary being solid would be welcoming. And if not through a revamp, the best way would be an greater initial burst. It's like starting with a character in an MMO that looks exactly how you want, but obviously without the best shiny armor vs. unlocking eyes, nose, hair, height customization gradually, let alone earning armours.

I've been confused about the RP aspect, going through multiple nation profiles. You have dispatches which aren't really RP related, and most profiles I visited didn't have dispatches at all. If not the main page, what resources do people use to get background info for RP? I have no idea how any of that works, and when going through the beginner guides, it almost always just leads to random discords.

The summary is so heavily linked to stats that it's not really possible to customise it without changing stats. There's a guide somewhere (can't find it rn) on how to answer the starting questions in such a way that you start with any of the 27 WA classifications, if you ever want to make another nation.

On the topic of the overview: The first sentence is based on population and "notables", which are interesting issue decisions that have been flagged. Your nation will have a bunch of "notables" that aren't displayed, because the overview only shows 3 at a time. The second sentence is entirely based on your "WA Classification" (Psychotic Dictatorship), which is based on the three "Freedom" stats: Civil Rights, Political Freedom and Economic Freedom. The rest is kinda self-explanatory (government spending, etc).

I do like your RPG analogy, although the NS version of that would be the starting quiz, I think.

There's all different types of dispatches. I don't do RP, so my dispatches are related to cool things I have done. (although how cool they are depends on where you're standing, lol...) My two are both classed as "Meta" because they refer to out-of-character information, like scripting tools or writing issues. For a good example of F&NI (Factbooks and National Information) RP in dispatches/factbooks, look no further than Yohannes, who ran what is perhaps one of NS's best financial institution RPs. Another good example is Valentine Z, who has some very well-fleshed-out characters and a whole new language!

Dispatches are pretty much just a way for nations to write anything about themselves, there's no real "guidelines" as to what you can or can't write.