NationStates Jolt Archive

Hello,

I have a big idea for a Cartographer feature that could appeal to map makers and that is the introduction of a feature that allows players to create maps of their country with mountains, roads, cities and more to the style of something like the British Ordnance Survey. Since the game integrates imagination there should be no cost to make adjustments to their map such as making mountains or relocating a whole city, however the land size should be restricted to a range that reflects the population as (of course) we can't fit 1 billion people into kilometre square. Every time a population increases more land gets available to be place and those that are removed are of course reusable. There would be no limit on altitude and water placement.

Having said that NationStates would have their very own SimCity-like application. Comments and ideas welcome.

It sounds great, but I'm sure it would be a massive undertaking, and what about nations that are set in real world geography ?

I'd be worried that NationStates could evolve into micromanagement if such a feature was allowed in the game code. Just a concern.

It sounds great, but I'm sure it would be a massive undertaking, and what about nations that are set in real world geography ?Or nations that are set in well-developed regional maps?
Or nations that simply aren't set on Earth-like worlds at all?

It sounds great, but I'm sure it would be a massive undertaking, and what about nations that are set in real world geography ?
Good point, there may be very sparse countries, so I have to say land restrictions may not need be part of the plan, thereby opening up more scenarios such as overpopulation. I would also be inclined to suggest importation of bitmaps for custom maps like what we do when we make customised terrain in SimCity 4. Better still let the players upload their own images of their maps if they wish (created in any image manipulation program).

I'd be worried that NationStates could evolve into micromanagement if such a feature was allowed in the game code. Just a concern.

Cartography functions would be made an optional feature to all active and archive nations and it would not be expected that a player has to build a map of a nation. It is available as an additional way to presenting your nation. I would personally spend an hour a day building my own map and presenting it to my friends in my nation page.

Or nations that are set in well-developed regional maps?
Or nations that simply aren't set on Earth-like worlds at all?
That should be taken into account too (although my previous suggestion of player-created images of maps may cover this).