NationStates Jolt Archive

Howdy,

I had an idea and thought it wouldn't be too tough to implement, but would be kinda handy. Its probably been brought up before and I missed it. Anyway, here goes...

When you get your world rankings in the different categories, in addition to getting your number rank (65,302) if we could also have a percentile rank (42nd Percentile) that would be great.

I mean, I can figure it out on my own, but it would be nice if it was presented to us.

Nifty idea. Consider it noted.

Yeah, that sounds nice. Are you talking about for the world or the region, or both?
Actually, I guess both because it is the same code.

That would be nice... helps you put those meaningless numbers into perspective.

Chances are, they could be done both at once... if Sal can do it to one code, he can probably copy it directly into the other one with minor adaptions.

Actually, I was only going to do it for the world, but you're right, it makes sense to have it for the region as well. Actually, though, the code would be very different for the two (We can't handle 120,000 nations in the same way we handle a few dozen).

Ah. My bad. Sorry.

Actually, I was only going to do it for the world, but you're right, it makes sense to have it for the region as well. Actually, though, the code would be very different for the two (We can't handle 120,000 nations in the same way we handle a few dozen).
Oh, that's true. It's interesting. I never thought that the region rankings and the world rankings would run in a very different way, but I guess it would be extremely inefficient to have the same code processing fifteen or 100 data compared to more than 100,000 data. And, while it would seem to be more accurate and better for the world screen, I also think it would be very nice to have it for the region screen. I, personally, care much more about the region screen because it is me being compared to fifteen people who I know, compared to me being compared to 100,000 people who I don't know.

The only problem is that, in a region of fewer than 100 nations (as most of them are, I assume), it is going to be rather difficult to give a percentile rating. How do you assign 100 numbers to twenty nations? I do not know. Maybe it could give you a eightieth percentile score, even if you were number one on the normal rankings, if you were very close to the number two nation. Then, it would give you a higher score if you were farther away from number two. I don't know if that would be possible, however.
The other option is (I think), that the code would just say (for the region screen, that is) "for a region of ten nations, nation number one is ninety ninth percentile, nation number two is eighty ninth, three is seventy ninth... For a region on fifteen nations, number one is ninety ninth, two is ninety second..." and so on.

What I just said may not be clear. I'm not sure, as I am the author. If you need any clarification, just ask. :p

*golf clap*

Neat idea, Haberman.

I was thinking simply:
(N-r+1)/N*100 (where r is your rank and N is the total number of nations).

will this come with the updates you've been doing behind the secens?

Congrats to Salusa for implementing a player request! Finally, a change from the old "not gonna happen"!

*shakes Salusa's hand*

Great idea. :):)

Is there anyway we could sign into different nations at the sametime? I always wondered this. It would be nice if I could use several nations at the sametime.

I was thinking simply:
(N-r+1)/N*100 (where r is your rank and N is the total number of nations).
There we go. The only problem is, then you can end up with 100, and there is no 100th percentile. That would be like saying "there are 100 people in a line, including me, and I'm taller than 100 of them. That's impossible.
Also, if you wanted to be mathematicly correct, I wouldn't use N, because that usually stands for any number, but it doesn't really matter.
I would suggesst [(N-r+1)/N*100]-1=percentile
That way, you would get your real percentile, as opposed to just your ranking out of 100.

Mathematically speaking, the equation I would use (I'm not really sure though) would be this:
GIVEN: x=total number of nations, y=your UN rank, z=your percentile score
{[((x-r+1)/N)*100]+1=z}
That really wouldn't be practical, though. Also, I'm not entirely sure about whether or not a mathematician would use the brackets there, as they are not necessary. According to order of operations, you would already multiply by 100 before adding the one; I added those for clarity, however. I think that SalusaSecondus would know far more about math than me.

Actually, you can have 100th percentile. "100% of the population scored the same or lower than you." (The definition that I learnt).

As far as multiple nations logged in at once: No.

Actually, you can have 100th percentile. "100% of the population scored the same or lower than you." (The definition that I learnt).

As far as multiple nations logged in at once: No.

Exactly, except wrong conclusions. You can't score lower than yourself, but you're part of the population, so 100% of the population can't score lower than you. Hence: "99% of the population scored lower than you" while inaccurate, is considered the standard to use on those SATs and PSATs and all of that stuff.

Also, nice idea! Thanks to anyone who will implement it!

The pth percentile is a value so that the probability of being smaller than that value is p. For example, the 25th percentile is a value so that the probability of being smaller is 0.25.

So Salusa's' statement "100% of the population scored the same or lower than you." is correct as the key phrase is "same"

In plainer words: if you are ranked first then all the nations in the region are equal to or lower ranked than you.

Then why do tests always have the 99th percentile as the highest? Riddle me that! :p

Don't know the answer about the tests. But bringing this back around more to NationStates... I'm thrilled to see that this now seems feasible. Back when we first got rankings like "______ is ranked 3rd in the region and 393939th in the world ..." listed on our nation pages, I asked for something simlar in the form of " ... 3rd or 25 in the region and 59859th of 4909999 in the world." and was immediately told that such a request was way too hard to grant and we should just look at our region page and the world page to get the other data . The shortcoming of that response was that the number of nations in the world and region may have changed between when you were ranked and when you look and what you's want is the figure from when the ranking occurred.

Anyway, I'm glad that we have a more talented game mod now that doesn't see this as an insurmountable task.

Cheers!

Anyway, I'm glad that we have a more talented game mod now that doesn't see this as an insurmountable task.

Um... how about: "a Game Administrator and principle coder who has more free time"?

Hi Gang,

I really didn't think there would be such a positive response to my idea. This is great!

I'm just glad I could contribute to help make the game better for everyone.

Thanks (especially you coders out there... I feel your pain)!

i think haberman deserves a worship club thread now too

With none of these nations actually existing in a database, at least according to Max Barry, my heart goes out to whoever will code this in. It's going to be annoying, no doubt.

...The shortcoming of that response was that the number of nations in the world and region may have changed between when you were ranked and when you look and what you's want is the figure from when the ranking occurred....

You know, I knew I was missing something. That makes it much harder. I'll need to look more closely at this before I commit.

Why don't you just have it generate the percentile score at the same time as the other UN ranking?
And yeah, why isn't there 100th percentile on tests?

So, is this going to be introduced with that next big update I heard about (in a month or so) or will it probably wait a while?
Just wondering.

So, is this going to be introduced with that next big update I heard about (in a month or so) or will it probably wait a while?
Just wondering.
It's come and gone. It had to be bumped up due to some problems. Every single change was backend and security based. For example if you try the NationMessage trick now, it doesn't work.

Um... how about: "a Game Administrator and principle coder who has more free time"?

I guess if the response had been, "No time" rather than "Too hard" then I might have thought that Sal just had lots more free time. But since it wasn't that way, I thought that it just didn't seem as difficult to him.

Sorry if you were the one who originally said "no." I wasn't trying to slam the earlier mod, just to praise how much the game has changed with time, experience, more mods and admins, and so on... So that an idea that was once too hard or took to much time to even be put on a wish list is now one that is readily considered.

Oh well. It's nice that Sal has lots of free time...

I guess if the response had been, "No time" rather than "Too hard" then I might have thought that Sal just had lots more free time. But since it wasn't that way, I thought that it just didn't seem as difficult to him.

Sorry if you were the one who originally said "no." I wasn't trying to slam the earlier mod, just to praise how much the game has changed with time, experience, more mods and admins, and so on... So that an idea that was once too hard or took to much time to even be put on a wish list is now one that is readily considered.

Oh well. It's nice that Sal has lots of free time...

Well, I was the one who originally said "Too Hard." The fact is that my coding skills in PERL (and with this game) have improved greatly and many problems that used to be quite dificult are becoming much easier now that I know more about the language and game. More importantly, with the added experience more parts of the game are becoming available to modify (I limit myself to what I understand).

As far as lots of free time? No, I don't have that. This has been noted so will probably be looked at in detail next time I want to add something. It may still be several months before this is added. (I do still have class and school).

It's come and gone. It had to be bumped up due to some problems. Every single change was backend and security based. For example if you try the NationMessage trick now, it doesn't work.
Oh cool!

Well, I was the one who originally said "Too Hard." The fact is that my coding skills in PERL (and with this game) have improved greatly and many problems that used to be quite dificult are becoming much easier now that I know more about the language and game. More importantly, with the added experience more parts of the game are becoming available to modify (I limit myself to what I understand).

As far as lots of free time? No, I don't have that. This has been noted so will probably be looked at in detail next time I want to add something. It may still be several months before this is added. (I do still have class and school).

Aha! Then she was right with her original "more-talented" remark. YOu're getting more and more talented every day, Sal!

Peace