[DRAFT] A Bullet Pointed Problem

[Western Balkania]

Description: Nearly all of the allies of @@NAME@@, and even some of its adversaries, have transitioned en masse to standardizing the new 5.65x54mm cartridge (called the Fury), a firearm caliber, in their militaries. With @@NAME@@ being left out of the party, still mainly using the 7.26x49mm cartridge (called the Blackfield), your office has been jammed by a magazine of military officials, arms manufacturers, and veterans.

1a: “This is long overdue,” remarks @@RANDOMNAMEMALE@@, Chief of Staff of the @@DEMONYMADJECTIVE@@ army, who suspiciously has various connections to the arms manufacturing industry. “We should have begun switching to the Fury a decade ago, but we’ve been clinging onto the Blackfield for the past hundred years! The advantages are undeniable; the Fury is lighter and more compact than the Blackfield, meaning our servicemen can show our enemies more lead while getting less kickback from each shot, and using the same bullets as our allies will make logistics planning a breeze since we'll be able to exchange ammo with each other—or perhaps we could even plunder our enemies!" As he brandishes an assault rifle in the air, he cries, "Authorize the switch to the Fury!"

Effect: Soldiers in joint military bases can often be overheard arguing over who stole their ammunition

1b: “This is long overdue,” remarks @@RANDOMNAMEMALE@@, Chief of Staff of the @@DEMONYMADJECTIVE@@ army. “We should have begun switching to the Fury a decade ago, but we’ve been clinging onto the Blackfield for the past hundred years! The advantages are undeniable; the Fury is lighter and more compact than the Blackfield, meaning our servicemen can show our enemies more lead while getting less kickback from each shot, and using the same bullets as our allies will make logistics planning a breeze since we'll be able to exchange ammo with each other—or perhaps we could even plunder our enemies!" As he brandishes an assault rifle in the air, he cries, "Authorize the switch to the Fury!"

Effect: Soldiers in joint military bases can often be overheard arguing over who stole their ammunition

2a: “Having outdated ammunition is the least of our problems!” cries @@RANDOMNAMEMALE@@, who is even more suspiciously the CEO of Marheed Buren, the largest arms company in @@NAME@@. “Blackacre is already experimenting with AI-guided bullets and undetectable stealth bombers, meanwhile, most of our inventory is old and outdated! How can we call ourselves a modern military when we don't even have access to night vision technologies? Our armed forces are in desperate need of some modernization—sign this contract here. We’ll give you the cutting edge in military tech. Think about it; railgun tanks, augmented supersoldiers touting exoskeletons, and hypersonic bombers...“ He drools at his fantasies, with a drop of his slobber falling onto the paper.

Effect: Military scientists are rumored to use sci-fi literature as inspiration for their next projects

Validity: Must be capitalist
Must have low scientific advancement

2b: “Having outdated ammunition is the least of our problems!” cries @@RANDOMNAMEMALE@@, the head of the Bureau of Military Science and Arms Manufacturing (BMSAM). “Blackacre is already experimenting with AI-guided bullets and undetectable stealth bombers, meanwhile, most of our inventory is old and outdated! How can we call ourselves a modern military when we don't even have access to night vision technologies? Our armed forces are in desperate need of some modernization—authorize a generous increase in the BMSAM’s budget and we’ll give you the cutting edge in military tech. Think about it; railgun tanks, augmented supersoldiers touting exoskeletons, and hypersonic bombers...“ He drools at his fantasies, with a drop of his slobber falling onto your floor.

Effect: Military scientists are rumored to use sci-fi literature as inspiration for their next projects

Validity: Must be socialist
Must have low scientific advancement

3: “UGH!” loudly groans @@RANDOMNAMEMALE@@, an infamous @@DEMONYMADJECTIVE@@ ultra-nationalist, conservative, and dishonorably discharged veteran. “Why do we always have to give in to our peer-pressuring ‘allies’ like the United Federation? No... not this time, this time, we won't suck up to them! The Blackfield has been in service by us for a hundred years because it GETS THE JOB DONE! So what if it’s not the most ‘optimal’ or ‘logistically viable’, whatever those fancy words mean? The Blackfield is a part of our national identity—our fathers and grandfathers have used it to defend our homeland. Dismissing it would be erasing a part of our glorious culture and history! Keep the Blackfield and cut military ties with our so-called 'allies', we can't let them keep getting away with meddling with our heritage!"

Effect: The armed forces still use cannons and muskets as they are cited as symbols of national heritage

4: After dismissing everyone from your office, you scour your mailbox and find a letter from your 6-year-old niece. Written next to a unicorn drawing that spans half of the paper, it reads, “DEAR uncle, why do we hav to use guns? my teachers told me that you shouD never be mean and always kinD. why are we bullying other cuntries? And guns are realy scaray. Wee shouD ban all guns and give all the cuntries candy so we wil be kind to every boDy. I will tell Ms. @@RANDOMLASTNAME@@ on you ef you Dont!”

Effect: The @@DEMONYMADJECTIVE@@ armed forces is the first military to use obesity as a weapon of war

Validity: Must have public education
---------------------
Issue validity: Must have a weak or decent military

[Mossex]

First thing I noticed: Probably don't specify measurements. I don't recall any issues with details that specific.

[Western Balkania]

First thing I noticed: Probably don't specify measurements. I don't recall any issues with details that specific.

Firearm calibers are *almost always* known by and named by their measurements. I feel it would make sense here.

Edit: Just made some random names for the calibers

[Umbratellus]

As far as validities go here, is the low scientific advancement/high primitiveness even really necessary here? Is a 7.26x49mm really that much less advanced than a 5.65x54mm? It seems to be more an issue of logistics with allies than necessary a matter of technology here. This is a genuine question here, and I could just be ignorant on the topic, but what makes one bullet "more advanced" than the other? The issue asserts a difference, but neglects to tell us what that is. I have a couple of revolvers and am no stranger to guns, but I'll be quite frank I'm not that big of an ammo-buff. It'd be one thing to have those validities if it was upgrading from grapeshot, but are a few mm that big of a leap in this regard?

With the third option as well, I can only see a single letter difference between the two, why not just have the teacher be "Ms." and drop the alternates? The actual text of the issue isn't significantly impacted by the policy here. It'd be one thing to have an alternate for say, a country with cars versus one without in an option about transportation, but here the issue & the option themselves have nothing to do with marriage or the lack there of (and we don't even really know if a marriage-less society would have a title like "Ms." either; there would be no need to address someone based on an ambiguity of marriage status).

[Western Balkania]

As far as validities go here, is the low scientific advancement/high primitiveness even really necessary here? Is a 7.26x49mm really that much less advanced than a 5.65x54mm? It seems to be more an issue of logistics with allies than necessary a matter of technology here. This is a genuine question here, and I could just be ignorant on the topic, but what makes one bullet "more advanced" than the other? The issue asserts a difference, but neglects to tell us what that is. I have a couple of revolvers and am no stranger to guns, but I'll be quite frank I'm not that big of an ammo-buff. It'd be one thing to have those validities if it was upgrading from grapeshot, but are a few mm that big of a leap in this regard?

With the third option as well, I can only see a single letter difference between the two, why not just have the teacher be "Ms." and drop the alternates? The actual text of the issue isn't significantly impacted by the policy here. It'd be one thing to have an alternate for say, a country with cars versus one without in an options about transportation, but here the issue & the option themselves have nothing to do with marriage or the lack there of (and we don't even really know if a marriage-less society would have a title like "Ms." either; there would be no need to address someone based on an ambiguity of marriage status).

First paragraph: You raise a good question. I added those validities mainly for my choices... which do steer off-topic from the original description. Although, a more scientifically advanced country would likely adopt the 5.65 since it is a much newer ammo caliber (which I did not state in this issue) than the 7.26

Second paragraph: Changed!

I'll try incorporating your feedback from the first paragraph into the issue tmrw, I'm out of energy for now.

[Umbratellus]

First paragraph: You raise a good question. I added those validities mainly for my choices... which do steer off-topic from the original description. Although, a more scientifically advanced country would likely adopt the 5.65 since it is a much newer ammo caliber (which I did not state in this issue) than the 7.26

Second paragraph: Changed!

I'll try incorporating your feedback from the first paragraph into the issue tmrw, I'm out of energy for now.

Newness alone doesn't make something more advanced or not though, so I would try to emphasize what particular aspect of its newness is desirable. Is it cheaper to produce at scale? Is the ammo more reliable in combat scenarios? Does it fly further and faster? Still though, in any case, technological advancement doesn't necessary progress evenly, so the most advanced military in the world is still going to have aspects that are still more technologically primitive; I think that validity could just be done away with here.

One other validity issue I noticed this morning when I looked at the draft with a fresh set of eyes; if you have both the "No Dissent" policy and the "Child-Rearing" policy you only have a single option available, which isn't really tenable lol. I'm not even really sure why the second option has the "No Dissent" policy associated with it here. Now, I could be wrong, but its my understanding that "No Dissent" basically means no large-scale organized protests are legal, not that literally everyone in the country agrees with each other (so no organized Bigtopian Lives Matter protests, but an individual advocating a position of racial equality is fine on its own). The latter aspect is the only thing I could maybe cue in on here as for why it's flagged with that validity, because nothing in the body of the text suggests the speaker is acting on behalf of an organized protest. The Issue Editors and Mods have in the past made it explicitly clear that no nation is utterly ideological homogenous, and thus even the most oppressive dictatorship is still going to have the occasional option with a pro-Democracy position (iirc the context where I saw that stated was that some guy was taking objection to the fact that there were conservative speakers showing up on options in his issues, and that he felt his nation was progressive & inclusive enough that there should be no more conservatives in the entire country). I think it would be pretty safe to drop the "No Dissent" validity here.

Also, the effect line for option 2:

Effect: The armed forces still use cannons and muskets, citing them as symbols of national heritage

has a comma in it, which isn't allowed for an effect line. Each effect line is already separated by a comma on the recent happenings section of the nation page, so having one in the middle of the option would make it look like there's a second issue outcome where there really isn't.

[Western Balkania]

Thank you for all the feedback, I've made major changes to the issue.

[Umbratellus]

Thank you for all the feedback, I've made major changes to the issue.

Looking a lot better! Keep up the good work.

[Western Balkania]

Up this goes