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The Nations database contains 287,351 records and the newest are dated Thursday, November 7, 2024
The Regions database contains 27,800 records and the newest are dated Thursday, November 7, 2024
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Overview
This is the new and improved NSDossier tool version 2.0! This is a page of statistics derived from the NationStates Feeds. It will allow
you to see any nation or region at a glance as well as various economic calculations. It will let you view any nation in the world and see
its stats (unlike some other tools). It has all the same functionality as the NSEconomy tool and more. It has bar graphs and every column
on the page will sort the results (without having to recollect the data).
This is considered a new version because [violet] recently began making the entire World available in one download. The old NSDossier
was based off the feeds exclusively. We never had to store anything and all processing was done in server memory. Now, we created a
Microsoft SQL Server database and load it up every day. We update the old records with the new ones and add and delete where necessary.
The ones that did not get an update are presumed to be dead and are moved to a "Dead" database in an abbreviated format. They can be
viewed on the NSStatistics
page where they will reside for seven days. Do not ask why, we just thought somebody might find something of value in there.
Some old features have been moved to another of our tools, NSStatistics. Those features are the all regions listings that allow you to see where any
region ranks in size in the game. And size can be by number of nations or number of Delegate endorsements. Another feature that moved over there is
the Largest Nations in The World list. it is no longer limited to 500 or whenever NationStates decided to tell us, it is real time.
Otherwise, everything else should be the same. If the regions or nations do not appear to be sorted by the size, then just click the column header and
they will sort into order, if it goes the wrong way, click the column header again. Or, you can sort by any feature you like.
The Custom Dossiers are finished and back to working the way they used to.
If you are curious about the technical aspects, it is written in ASP.NET using C# and a SQL Server database. And, yes, we programmed it all. All the
economic formulas are from Commerce Heights and his NS Economy web page (link at bottom of our page). We could not have done it if he had not made their PHP
code publicly available.
This is still a work in progress. If there are some features you would like to see added, do not hesitate to leave a message on the comments page. Or, if you
have any questions or problems, please post them there as well. We are trying to kill any last bugs and optimize the code.
Feel free to post links on your RMB or your forum or anywhere else you like. Once again, if you have anything to say about it, please leave a message. We hope you like it.
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Notes
1. As we mentioned above, the data used in this report is downloaded from NationStates once a day in bulk because that is how often NationStates provides it. When you look up an individual nation or region,
it gets the latest region information on every request and the latest nation info if it is a nation request. We mention this because the last activity times will never be correct for any nation other than the one you are searching for.
Additionally, as nations die and are born throughout the day (often, thousands a day), the snapshot taken at midnight does not reflect that immediately. So, if you create a nation and move it to a region and then try an view the dossier on that region,
it will show you that nation is/was there, but cannot tell if they were just born or just died. Either way, no stats are shown on them because of they are simply not in the database. They will be tomorrow, just not today. Some have suggested that we
download the feeds for those. The answer is that we cannot risk it. Many days, entire regions go from 0 to 100+ in a matter of hours. We have already been booted offline once for violating the "excessive download policy" and we will not risk it again.
The data is not going anywhere, just come back tomorrow if you really must see those stats.
2. Please note that since the economic calculations rely on all the nations in a region, they are all downloaded for every request. This is important because the larger the region you are in, the longer it will take. Regrettably, as of Thu Mar 31, 2011,
we have had to exlcude all regions with 2000 or more nations. As of this date, that is 5 Pacifics and Lazarus. We hate to do this, but it is impacting other programs in NSSuite. You can always move your nation to another (sub-2000 nation) region, check your stats and move back. Sorry.
3. It is probably worth mentioning the difference between NSDossier & NSEconomy. On regions with 10 or less nations, the numbers will match exactly (well, within a few cents on a couple due to rounding differences in the two languages used to program this).
However, on regions with more than 10 nations, NSEconomy does not make the calculations based on the whole region. We suspect this is due to [violet] limiting the number of feeds. Our point is that the statistics will not match on
any region with more than 10 nations. They will on regions with 10 or less. This is by design on the part of NSDossier and not a bug.
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4. Version 2.0 versus Version 1.0. We should probably explain the mechanics of what NSDossier does now versus what it did in the past. What NSDossier does now is when you look up a nation, it gets a fresh copy of that nation's info from the NationStates feeds. Once it has that,
it gets the region that nation is currently located in and gets a fresh copy of that NationStates feed too. When you look up a region, it just gets a fresh copy of the region from the NationStates feeds. So, as an example, in the past, when you used to look up say, NationX, in a region
of 200 nations, NSDossier would make 201 feed requests (1 region and 200 nations). Now, NSDossier will only make 2 requests - one for the NationX and one for NationX's region. We hope that is sort of clear.
5. We are contemplating adding an Export to Excel button like on the NSStatistics page, but have not decided yet.
6. As of April 2011, Regions wih 2000+ nations no longer work. It is too hard on the server to generate those reports. Sorry! You can always move to a smaller region and check your stats there.
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7. The counts and latest data dates are at the bottom of the page.
8. Things on To Do List: Nothing unless there is a need for the Export to Excel.
9. The Economic Caluculations Formula, as created by the NSEconomy authors, is here: Formula
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10. Check out all of our NationStates-related sites: NSSuite
11. more to come... maybe...
12. We hope you enjoy the tool.
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