NationStates Jolt Archive

I want to make a calculator in Java to decide based on many factors what a country has and doesn't have while RPing. I'm sick of seeing people say with their nation of like 500 million they have 5000 aircraft carriers or something ridiculous. I'm just basically asking for ideas on what variables should be included.

i got a very basic one i just made in 5 seconds here http://rob.issasoft.com/nation/nation2.html obviously it will be way different, but i'm learning javascript as i go, lol.
(technically right now i'm just using html)
http://i42.tinypic.com/2vsooc8.png

Well one variable may be their form of government. For example a dictatorship would most likey have manditory military service.

It would be pretty good if you could make it look up the values of a nation on NSeconomy and use that info as well.

It depends on many factors. a nation of a few millions with mandatory service and large defence budget can easily destroy that claculator...

I don't know, I entered a population of 10,000,000,000 in there and it came out with 50,000 aircraft and almost 3,000,000 tanks. That's a little odd if you ask me. Where would you even park that many tanks?! Contrariwise, 100 nuclear missiles seems a little small given how many a 300,000,000-odd real world nation like the USA has.

Generally speaking, as the population of an average, non-totalitarian nation grows to the absurd sizes that NS.net allows, most of them gradually reduce the pecentage of troops/money they devote to the army as logistics become an absolute nightmare when armed forces grow too large. Most players, even those without significant technical knowledge in such matters, manage to determine their armed forces to a reasonable degree. RP factors take hold in most cases; totalitarian nations with North Korea-sized GDP per capita spending levels are meant to have large but crappy armies, while democratic nations vary the size of their military according to even more factors due to their inherently changing nature.

10 000 000 000 is almost double the population of Earth, so if 10 000 000 000 people are living in that country it has to be a HUGE country. So space should be of little problem

I make no excuses for NS.net's bizarrely huge population figures, I just get to exploit them!

Put in my nation's population and it came up all errors.

I guess 12,695,000,000 is enough to break it. You ought figure in defense budget also and whether they have mandatory service. My nation's defense budget is $20,348,703,255,888.00. I've often wondered about playing some RP, but figure my massive stats would make it rather pointless.

For a simple calculator, it's nicely done. I know there needs to be more work.

I noticed that I can enter my population without commas without a problem. However, when I enter it with commas, I get the "NAN" error in the fields below. Perhaps you may want to include a quick note on how to enter the number?

For a simple calculator, it's nicely done. I know there needs to be more work.

I noticed that I can enter my population without commas without a problem. However, when I enter it with commas, I get the "NAN" error in the fields below. Perhaps you may want to include a quick note on how to enter the number?

That's not really necessary. You could simply do a text sweep to take out any commas, special characters (except periods), or letters before calculation.

Put in my nation's population and it came up all errors.

I guess 12,695,000,000 is enough to break it. You ought figure in defense budget also and whether they have mandatory service. My nation's defense budget is $20,348,703,255,888.00. I've often wondered about playing some RP, but figure my massive stats would make it rather pointless.

There are plenty of massive nations.

more variables. A strong economy often shrinks the overall size of the military force but provides a more high tech one.
also have a way to shift focus.
early 20th century Germany and the UK might have had similar economies and populations(not counting colonies), but different military strategies. the UK had a large NAVY Germany had a large army.

I guess 12,695,000,000 is enough to break it. You ought figure in defense budget also and whether they have mandatory service. My nation's defense budget is $20,348,703,255,888.00. I've often wondered about playing some RP, but figure my massive stats would make it rather pointless.
NS history has seen examples of nations winning despite a 1:5 numerical disadvantage in the size of armed forces. [Actually, it has seen 1:10 and more, but I'll write that off as not realistic.]

With an empty history of NS roleplay, you'd likely set another example if going against an experienced RPer with 2 or 3 billion population.

Besides, there's a lot of non-military RP going on, where size doesn't matter anyway.

I Rp with a nation of 2 billion people. It is a socialist democracy with compulsory military service between 18-21 for both males and females, with median age of the population being 20.3, for Rp purposes. I do not like the calculators much since I just decide issues based upon whatever sounds funny or that sounds interesting- though I tend to try to keep it left leaning- and the calculators go solely based upon issues. The numbers I get from those are worthless for Rping purposes, so I make up a different set. I try to keep my numbers as realistic as possible. Basically picture a nation the size of India or China with the lifestyle of Japan, the Scandinavian nations, Australia, or Great Britain. Also it shows my navy to be only 200 ships for a nation of 2 billion.

I know for a fact that during the War of 1812, Britain, when you factor in the colonies, probably had a population no more than perhaps 1.5 billion, and its fleet numbered at least 800 ships. The Soviets had, in just submarines, 130 ships. So the calculators cannot reflect what a nation is realistically capable of.

I accept whatever numbers that another side uses that sounds reasonable, and sometimes use the calculators to determine ballpark estimates (looking at percentages, not actual numbers) for whether or not they are being honest.

I also reject the economic data it uses, for a nation can Rp with whatever exchange rates it wants, look at my nation: Rp: L$1.275=NS$1.000, calculators:L$224.671 (or something like that)=NS$1.000. I Rp with the exchange rate I do because of the fact I am part of the United Workers' Republic alliance, and we use a standard currency to coordinate trade.

It is also not realistic for FT, as many of the storefronts have prices that are higher than what is shown possible in the calculators at times. Thus they are a useful guide, but one must not get to hung up on stats...it's about telling a story and having fun, after all. That is what a person must keep in mind, to have fun.

I don't know, I entered a population of 10,000,000,000 in there and it came out with 50,000 aircraft and almost 3,000,000 tanks. That's a little odd if you ask me. Where would you even park that many tanks?! Contrariwise, 100 nuclear missiles seems a little small given how many a 300,000,000-odd real world nation like the USA has.

Generally speaking, as the population of an average, non-totalitarian nation grows to the absurd sizes that NS.net allows, most of them gradually reduce the pecentage of troops/money they devote to the army as logistics become an absolute nightmare when armed forces grow too large. Most players, even those without significant technical knowledge in such matters, manage to determine their armed forces to a reasonable degree. RP factors take hold in most cases; totalitarian nations with North Korea-sized GDP per capita spending levels are meant to have large but crappy armies, while democratic nations vary the size of their military according to even more factors due to their inherently changing nature.

those aren't the real numbers i'm using, i just put them there to have something for now.

i have a population of almost 11bn, and a GDP of $367 trillion ($33k per capita).... and the basic calculator gives me similar stats to Interstellar Planets up there, with about 50,000 aircraft and 100 nukes. i'm fine with that.... but, if you look at my NSEconomy stats, i'm spending $0.00 on my defense budget :p

http://nseconomy.thirdgeek.com/nseconomy.php?nation=pure+metal

they are attack aircraft, not defensive aircraft

*is the king of rationalization*

they are attack aircraft, not defensive aircraft

*is the king of rationalization*
lol, i guess i borrow them from a neighbouring state ;)

lol, i guess i borrow them from a neighbouring state ;)

are you sure you got 50,000 i only got 5,000 (when typing in the same)

OH GOD! The new OP! It burns! :p

OH GOD! The new OP! It burns! :p

rofl what? xD

Can't be done. There are too many factors to consider in both military construction and upkeep as well as deployment strategy to be "calculated" in a simple java app. In deployment you need to consider a ton of factors and custom craft a stragedy to that situation. My personal favorite is where I strege da line across da door and tie one end to a shotgun then I call a mall Santa. Santa walks through door and trips wire and istragedy. I naturally video the whole thing for the kids standing in line at Christmas.

But seriously, if you fail to deploy air support for your armor and cover for your air support and the enemy has even crappy air support your armor will cease to exist.

Can't be done. There are too many factors to consider in both military construction and upkeep as well as deployment strategy to be "calculated" in a simple java app. In deployment you need to consider a ton of factors and custom craft a stragedy to that situation. My personal favorite is where I strege da line across da door and tie one end to a shotgun then I call a mall Santa. Santa walks through door and trips wire and istragedy. I naturally video the whole thing for the kids standing in line at Christmas.

But seriously, if you fail to deploy air support for your armor and cover for your air support and the enemy has even crappy air support your armor will cease to exist.

hey hey everything starts small eh lol

I'm sure it needs some twicking but it seems like the concept and base averages are good.

those aren't the real numbers i'm using, i just put them there to have something for now.

Ah I see, that makes much more sense. Looks to be coming along though, well done so far.

With a population of 10 billion, I got a navy of "400." This doesn't make any sense. The US has had that many ships on several occasions, when it's a fraction of that size.

I want to make a calculator in Java to decide based on many factors what a country has and doesn't have while RPing. I'm sick of seeing people say with their nation of like 500 million they have 5000 aircraft carriers or something ridiculous. I'm just basically asking for ideas on what variables should be included.

i got a very basic one i just made in 5 seconds here http://rob.issasoft.com/nation/nation2.html obviously it will be way different, but i'm learning javascript as i go, lol.
(technically right now i'm just using html)

I just had a look at the updated version. It's looking much better.

Would there be a way to factor in stats from NSEconomy or NSTracker in relation to how much the government actually spends on the military?

For example, Kryozerkia has a 100% tax rate and a 11.88 billion population, yet a quick visit over to NSEconomy (http://nseconomy.thirdgeek.com/nseconomy.php?nation=kryozerkia) and NSTracker (http://nstracker.jfsoftware.com/index.php?nation=kryozerkia) reveals that only 24% (K$107,588,603,775,612.98) my budget goes to the military (Defence).

thats way more advanced programming

one of my friends is going to help me and i think when I learn more I want to create it so profiles can be saved on my server with your info so you wouldn't have to type it all in again

thats way more advanced programming

one of my friends is going to help me and i think when I learn more I want to create it so profiles can be saved on my server with your info so you wouldn't have to type it all in again

Best of luck on this. I like what you have so far. I hope you will continue to show us your progress because this is the first time I've seen the calculator being developed from the start. Your idea is actually very good. :)

What? Only a half million tanks? Pfft.

As someone allready mentioned calculator calculates rather small Navies.
But for the start i must say the calculator is pretty solid,so just keep up the effort and youll make a usable and good one.

while(privateprofit > 0) war++

I like it. It has potential.

Needs some work, though, since obviously numbers are a little disparaging.

Great idea! Although I don't RP at the moment, it would be fun to mess around with a calculator like that to keep tabs on what your nation is currently capable of in terms of militaristic might.

There used to be rules about this, but over the years people decided not
to follow them.

Neat calculator. I don't RP, but always like checking out NSTracker or things like this.
With my limited computer knowledge, I have just one suggestion, pretty simple: make the output numbers in the first columns integers. I'd hate to be the New Limaconer flying two-fifths of a plane, no matter how patriotic I was.