NationStates Jolt Archive

What does and doesn't belong in the tech forum:

Does:

Bugs in the game
Consistant server problems
Questions about the rules of the game.
Questions about how the game works/figures things out.
Questions about the forum.
Ideas for improvements. (Great place for polls)


Does Not:

Any question related to role playing.
Any question related to game play that is not directly technical.
Anything related to in character actions.
Anything related to issues. (We have a forum just for that.)
Joke polls. (Actually, almost any poll doesn't belong here. It must be directly related to tech.)
Anything which already has a thread addressing it within the past several days. These will be locked. Also, it will piss off mods and hurt your case.
Any question answered in a sticky or announcement in any forum. There is no excuse for not looking there first.
Concerns or questions regarding moderator actions, these belong in the Moderation forum. See Special Note #1


So, you think that you have a post?
Before posting any question ask yourself the following:

Is this RP related?
Is it discussed in the official NationStates FAQ (http://www.nationstates.net/cgi-bin/index.cgi/page=faq)?
Is it discussed in the official PHPBB (the forum) FAQ (http://forums2.jolt.co.uk/faq.php?s=) or the BBCode (http://forums2.jolt.co.uk/misc.php?do=bbcode) instructions?
Is this RP related?
Have you searched (http://forums2.jolt.co.uk/search.php?s=) the forums to see if it there already exists a thread discussing it?
Have you visited the Getting Help (http://www.nationstates.net/cgi-bin/index.cgi/page=help) page (for non-tech questions and mod contact)?
Is this RP related?
Is this discussed in the Known Issues (http://www.nationstates.net/cgi-bin/index.cgi/page=problems), the News (http://www.nationstates.net/cgi-bin/index.cgi/page=news) pages, or at the bottom of this post as a known issue?


If you answered "Yes" to questions 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, or 8, this probably doesn't belong here until you're sure the answers are "No".
If you answered "No" to questions 5 or 6, check those pages and come back if the answer isn't there.

And remember, the Tech forum is not for discussion. That's what the other forums are for. The Tech forum is, in short, for reporting spam/griefing/bugs/etc so that it can be dealt with by the Mods/Admin.

Finally, if you are a new player and unsure of how to do things (such as war, trade, diplomacy, etc.) my biggest suggestion, is to lurk for a week or two, possibly not posting at all, and reading a bunch of thread to figure out how things are done, and then to post them (usually in NS if they are related to role playing).

Thank you all very much.

SalusaSecondus

P.S. If anyone has any suggestions on things to be added, let me know and I will add them.

http://www.weirdozone.0catch.com/projects/nationstates/salusasecondus/salusasecondus2.jpg
SalusaSecondus
Tech Modling / Game Admin
PGP: 0x0604DF3E

Special Note #1: Moderator Actions
There will be times when you may want to question a moderator's actions or learn the reason behind them. For that I will repost something I wrote earlier:

There are two different issues here:

1) The only authority above a mod is admin, and they aren't likely to overrule them, so you pretty much have to do what they say.
2) Mods must be held accountable for their actions.

This combination is what makes life interesting so this is my recommendations should you desire explanation for a Mod's actions or feel they were unjust (which is essentially saying you want an explanation). When you make your post in Tech (where it belongs) please remember the following:

1) Keep it polite, civil, and non-confrontational. Remember point #1. If you piss off a mod, it will just make everyone's lives more difficult, and it can count as griefing. Not to mention, as they are people, they will give all of your requests lower priority and it will take longer.
2) Do not accuse a mod of doing something wrong, ask why they did it and then be patient.
3) Listen to what the mod has to say, even if you don't agree with it. If it seems reasonable (even if you don't agree) accept it and move on your way. If you still don't understand, politely ask for clarification.
4) If it seems unreasonable, sit on it for a day or two and think about it.
5) If it still seems unreasonable, and you consider it especially important (as in abuse of mod powers), then you should probably say so (politely) in the thread, listing your direct complaints. Please listen to what the mod has to say and what the community has to say. If a significant number of people in the forum supports the mod's actions, they are almost definitely in the right. Don't continue as you will lose the argument. People, as a whole, don't kiss up to mods, and express their honest opinion. If forum members tell you that you are in the wrong, LISTEN TO THEM.
6) If it still seems unreasonable then you might want to consider emailing admin@nationstates.net

P.S. NEVER send a telegram to a mod related to moderator business unless SPECIFICALLY requested to.

So many idea's are randomly thrown in the big pit known as the technical forum. Usually one reply is enough to tell the user(s) the idea will never be added to the current version of NationStates.

[violet] or Salusa will only alter the game code/in-game text because of:
- typos.
- (major) game bugs.
- behind the scene coding.

Big chance 99% of all input given today or in the future can be answered with "no".

GAME RELATED INPUT
Don't go into discussion with any of the staff about the ones listed here. It will get you nowhere. All of the idea's listed below are rejected.

Adding war to the game
Of all suggestions given this one will certainly never be added to NS. To be short, doing so will require a complete overhaul of the current code, essentially making it NS2 lite. Needless to say the NS team is the most vocal against this one. See trade if you want more information about the new scripting stuff needed for war. IF war ever becomes reality in NS2 to be honest. And when you have war, don't expect anything major or earth shattering. The multitude of wars will be fought by RP, scripts will never change that.


Adding trade to the game
See #1.
Under this category you will also find adding a pool of resources, production features and more economic matters. None of these will be put in NS 1. The main problem with said proposals is: all of these require servers with more power and whole new scripts running the site. Instead of the fairly simple CGI and HTML used, it must be PHP driven by a dedicated mySQL server. Do you honestly think jolt gives those away for free? It takes time and manpower to maintain such a server, not to mential the people who have to code every single line of it, testing and then adding it to NS itself. In conclusion: this means NS is down for a long time and when this happens adding war is a logical next step because PHP is already in use. And there you have it: NS2 lite.


Adding alliances to the game
See #1.
Adding alliances to the game makes as much sense as adding a second national animal or another custom flag you can put next to your "main" one. If you want alliances, make a region and add "regional alliance" to your factbook. All members must join your region with their main nation or a puppet if they want to be part of the alliance. Simple as that, case closed.


Changing your national name
WILL NEVER HAPPEN. Make a new nation or just live with it. The technical reasons alone are legion enough to make sure this will never be changed. Contrary to what people think, on the old forums this never happened either. Jolt and NS may be integrated by using an e-mail database and when you sign up on NS an account on jolt is created if you want to use the forum, they are totally seperate. Changing your name on NationStates means you must have to change your name on jolt as well. This is a lot more difficult than it sounds, mainly because jolt and NS aren't one. On a normal forum I'm quite sure name changes aren't a technical issue, because the same database is used. NS and jolt are different.


Adding other fields to your in-game profile
http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=416188 None of these will ever happen. Or whatever you think of. This is not debatable, and you can count on your thread being locked the very same hour you posted it.


Capital cities added to your nation profile
No. This one in particular has been beaten to death and it will never happen. Want to have capitals, go to NSwiki.


Increasing or decreasing the amount of days your nation is allowed to live
28 Days without vacation mode, 60 when vacation is enabled. Live with it, you can restore nations for a reason.


Adding more nation types
Yes, the corporate police state gets boring after a while, and more won't be added. Just RP if you want something else.


Adding a regional flag
Won't happen. Only requires more diskspace and has been asked many times before. Adding any sort of customizable image isn't going to be put in.


Allowing hotlinking in your regional factbook
Has been asked before, it won't happen. Your regional factbook is meant for some quick information about the region. If you want links, colour and underline them. Everybody knows how to copy and paste. Actually, you can use the [thread=######] tag to hotlink to a forum thread now, but that's all there will ever be.


Disbanding the UN
Won't happen. If you don't like the UN, don't join them, ignore their existence and never visit the UN forum to spout your garbage how much you hate them and the proposals that come up. It only makes you an easy target for ban happy moderators.


Deleting your own nation
Out of all input given this one keeps returning. Just be patient and wait 28 days, it's only a month. There are ways to get rid of all your nations very quickly, but neither mods nor any other players recommend that, since it means you can never return to NS.


Population locking
Locking your own population to create a more realistic enviroment has been asked a couple of times, and guess what the answer is? You got it.


Pre-emptive ban
Has been brought up with a few players in the past, promised to be looked into and nothing has happened. You can count on it it will never be added to the game.


Adding flags
Yes we all know the flags from Kazakhstan, Libya and several other nations are missing, and no they won't be added.


Adding UN rankings
Won't happen, only requires more serverpower.


Changing the random issue code
We all know issues tend to repeat themselves over time. And the script handing them out won't be changed.


Issues having effect on population
Will never happen, your population grows with an average 6 million per day, and that's the way it is and will be.


Adding ThirdGeek like statistics
A good ol' no fits right in.


Adding new nation titles
No. If you want a custom nation title, wait until you are 500 million.


A donation feature
If you want to help Max Barry, buy his book. The concept of paypal or another service has been suggested before, and has been subsequently rejected by all members of the staff.


Adding new forum categories
Storefront forum: no;
Future tech forum: no;
Fantasy tech forum: no;
RP school forum: no;
Serious debate/discussion forum: no;
Semi-spam off topic forum: no.


Adding new UN resolution proposal categories
Won't happen because of reasons said at least a million times before.


Region or world listing/sorting/specific searching
Everything related with a region database is a no. This means all forms of sorting nations on the world or in a region by population, join date or activity.


Junior United Nations
Everything in the lines of another UN alike global organisation will not happen. WTO, EU, NATO etc etc.


Listing issue decisions made in the past
It might be plausible for nations who are two months old, but for nations who registered in 2002 or 2003, that's a tough one. It takes whole heaps of server space, more scripts and other fancy features that will not be implemented.


FORUM RELATED INPUT
Some of these might have not been asked, but it's good to cover them while I'm at it.
Expanding signature length
The signature option is already horrible enough, and it won't be expanded. HTML or new vB codes to create more cool effects are also a no-go zone, as well as new fonts.


Avatars
It has been promised, but Jolt has some very different thoughts about that. The answer is no. UPDATE: No users other than mods and paying customers are allowed to have avatars.


Images in signatures
Nowhere on jolt you see images in signatures. NatonStates ain't no exception. The jolt forums are already overloaded with users, so adding more options only makes the chance of server crashes more likely.


Changing the forumstyle, ie allowing you to choose
Has been asked some time after the shift, and the answer starts with an "n" and ends with "o".


Changing registration date
Yes, we all know you are a 2002 nation. And no, administrators will not hack the vbulletin code to give you your status symbol back.


Custom forum titles/changing the forum titles
We know cyberfruit farmer and cabbage patch girl sucks, but these are standard jolt titles. We have to put up with them.


Removing annoying smileys
Has been brought up by me in the jolt general forum, and it will not happen.


BRING BACK FORUM 7!!#@#$@
How many times do people have to say no before you actually get it through your head? The answer is no, and will stay NO.


Removing banners/advertisements
Jolt has to make money out of their free service, and ads are the only real option. They cannot be removed if you want to keep using jolt.


Roleplay moderation
Roleplay moderation, though not mentioned much in technical or moderation, it's good to be covered in this thread. Because I like to listen what people say on instant messaging programmes I heard this one quite a few times passing the revue.

What is Roleplay Moderation?
It's quite difficult to know the difference between regular moderation (locking threads, issuing warnings, deleting on request, deleting) and RP moderation because some things overlap each other. Roleplay moderation, as I seen it happen, means that RP moderators can force players to recognize an attack, adjust losses, classify actions as godmodded, numberwank or guiding OOC debates. In NS this will never work, because everything done here is freeform RP. The excuse has been abused by many players in the past to escape an annoying situation, but it cannot be changed. And even if you force a player to recognize an attack, does that mean he has to post it? Or when he's classed as a 'godmodder' in thread A, while being an excellent storywriter in thread B you have a conflict, because it contradicts each other.

N00b wars being no more than spam are killed on site, and people who flame the clueless n00b are warned. Remember, there is a difference between n00b wars and real RP moderation. In my opinion deleting threads with nothing but smileys and lots of caps isn't roleplay moderation, for that is merely spam removal. Roleplay moderation means you have a certain group of people dedicated to keeping roleplays godmodfree by forcing things to happen, regardless of the freeform RP rule.

Will be updated whenever there's a new rejected proposal.