Tribes of Rocain Labs: The Goalies (revised for v2)

The goalies of Rocain Labs form a tribe of nations which attempt to maximize or minimize one NationStates stat, with no interest in any other. When facing an issue which does not offer any opportunity to improve its chosen stat, it will choose any option not affecting that stat at random. When this strategy works (which is not guaranteed), the result is a nation which stands out in the magnitude of its one chosen stat, and makes no particular sense otherwise.

Here is an example of how it works. The nation Cain G HiF Fdm v0 has the goal of maximizing its Civil Rights stat. When it gets an issue, it uses the information on Trotterdam’s website to look for any option(s) that have been found to sometimes raise the Civil Rights stat, and have never been seen to lower it. If any such options are found, the one with the highest mean increase in Civil Rights is chosen. If no such options are found, then any options which may decrease the Civil Rights stat are identified, and removed from consideration. If there are no options left, the issue is dismissed. If any options remain, they are ones which have never been observed to modify Civil Rights at all. In this case, a random option from this set is selected.

Note that, even if a promising option is found and chosen, there may be no effect, as an option with observed changes from +0 to +0.1 is considered “safe” and may be chosen, even though this choice has been observed, perhaps frequently, to leave the chosen stat unchanged. Also, note that because these nations answer issues unrelated to their chosen goals at random, they may be led down paths that have nothing to do with their goal, like the high Corruption nation’s adoption of Atheism.

The goalies comprise 20 nations, with goals of high or low scores for 10 stats. Seven additional nations similar to the goalies which have specific goals are discussed in the “Miscellaneous Nations” Factbook.

Here is a table of the primary goalie nations. By now, all of them are have seen considerable success in moving towards their goals, though some have failed to receive as many issues which move their stat in the right direction as the most successful ones. Some of the table entries below reference footnotes following the table which give further information on the nation’s progress.

Full nation name	Short name	Goal	Notes
The Free Land of Cain G HiF Fdm v0	Hifland	High Civil Rights
The Oppressed Peoples of Cain G LoF Opp v0	Lofland	Low Civil Rights
The Emirate of Cain G HiC Cap v0	Hicland	High Economic Freedom
The People’s Republic of Cain G LoC Reg v0	Locland	Low Economic Freedom
The Incorporated States of Cain G HiP Wea v0	Hipland	Efficient Economy
The Fiefdom of Cain G LoP Pov v0	Lopland	Inefficient Economy	*1
The Democratic Republic of Cain G HiD Dem v0	Hidland	High Political Freedom
The Dictatorship of Cain G LoD Tyr v0	Lodland	Low Political Freedom
The Jingoistic States of Cain G HiN Pat v0	Hinland	High Patriotism	*2
The Borderlands of Cain G LoN Osc v0	Lonland	Low Patriotism
The Community of Cain G HiK Cmp v0	Hikland	High Compassion
The Nomadic Peoples of Cain G LoK Cru v0	Lokland	Low Compassion
The Most Serene Republic of Cain G HiH Fun v0	Hihland	High Cheerfulness	*3
The Colony of Cain G LoH Glm v0	Lohland	Low Cheerfulness
The Protectorate of Cain G HiE Eth v0	Hieland	High Integrity
The Sultanate of Cain G LoE Ckd v0	Loeland	Low Integrity
The Dominion of Cain G HiL Law v0	Hilland	Low Crime	*4
The Rogue Nation of Cain G LoL Anr v0	Lolland	High Crime	*4
The Grand Duchy of Cain G HiS Sny v0	Hisland	Good Weather	*5
The Disputed Territories of Cain G LoS Stm v0	Losland	Bad Weather	*5

Footnotes:

1. The Bad Economy nation has actually reduced its economic efficiency to a negative number.

2. It appears that maximizing Patriotism minimizes Freedom quite effectively.

3. Observing the high and low Cheerfulness nations makes me question the implementation of these stats. Some of Cain G HiH Fun v0’s policies, such as Child Labor, Corporal Punishment, Feudalism, No Computers and Prohibition, seem to me to be rather likely to, in the real world, detract from national cheerfulness.

4. Both of the Crime-related goalies look to be terrible places to live, especially the high Crime one, which really does seem to be run by the Mob. The low Crime nation has No Automobiles, No Sports and Theocracy but that’s not too bad when compared to Slavery, Human Sacrifice, and children raised by wolves. Oh, and let’s not forget the WMD’s.

5. The Weather-related goalies are really interesting. Similar to the Crime-related goalies, both of them seem to be awful places to live. Observing these nations make their choices has led me to a hypothesis about the meaning of Best Weather. It may not be truly original, but I can’t recall having seen this explanation anywhere before. It is obvious that a good environment helps a nation get good Weather, but it’s clearly not the whole story. My theory is that an issue option raises your Weather stat if it encourages people to go outdoors, and decreases it if it encourages them to stay in. Which explains why encouraging everyone to read Harry Potter books is bad for the Weather, but it doesn’t explain why mandatory nudity is associated with lack of sunshine, a fact I find quite amusing.

All in all, I consider the goalies to be pretty successful. I don’t expect to see them in the Top or Bottom 10 for their chosen stat, as so many stats are dominated by very old nations, but it wouldn’t surprise me at all to see some of them eventually reach the low hundreds.

One interesting thing to observe is that a fair number of these nations are in the bottom 200 or so for the Human Development Index stat, one which none of them are trying to minimize. However, none of them have so far appeared in the top 1000 for this stat (and I would guess that none of them ever will).