Are there a fixed list of them that rotate, or do the mods just create a new one whenever they think of a new, fun calculation that can be made with the vairables NS tracks? Is there a way to submit ranking proposals?
Without knowing the strict answer to this, I would hypothesize that your first answer is correct. I've never heard anything about the mods being able to add rating categories, anyway.
There certainly is no way for normal players to submit ranking proposals, not least because that would require that we gain more idea of what the hidden fields are; something that admin has thusfar been loathe to reveal.
It might also be that there is a list and categories are chosen at random from it.
Without knowing the strict answer to this, I would hypothesize that your first answer is correct. I've never heard anything about the mods being able to add rating categories, anyway.
There certainly is no way for normal players to submit ranking proposals, not least because that would require that we gain more idea of what the hidden fields are; something that admin has thusfar been loathe to reveal.
There is a list of all the variables that comprise a nation in the "Codes for Issues" sticky in Got Issues. However, exactly how the variables are measured isn't revieled.
Yes, a random picking thing is sort of what I meant.
From what I've seen, the codes for issues thread only lists those values which people have tried, and the trying appeared mainly to be guessing names and inputting them. I've never seen an actual list, and, as you say, even if we knew the names, without access to a significant amount of data to analyse, working out their relevance is unlikely. As admin moved pretty quickly to block this, I can't see the happening.
To refer back to this query, anyway, there would be little to propose. It would be along the lines of a mathematical algorithm for deriving one stat from another. Little originality would be required, and besides the fact that people must have reasonable mathematical (and real world modelling) knowledge to generate suitable functions, I can imagine the protest if people didn't agree with the functions.
I know you didn't specifically mention adding this as a feature, but against that being your deeper meaning, I would refer to something Salusa commented on elsewhere. Any code change must be weighed on a cost/improvement basis. To give players the ability to create ratings, and then (one must assume) mods the ability to ratify them would be a coding project on the scale of the player submitted issues enhancement. All this for very little gain. I can't see it happening, somehow