Big update with tons of fixes and new policy/situation/simulation stuff

Hi everyone! Welcome top the first update of Democracy 4 post-launch! These updates will be bigger and less frequent now its no longer an Early Access game. This is a complete list of the changes and fixes in this update to the game:

  • Fixed bug where the first tutorial window could be skipped, causing issues.

  • Fixed various situations where the tutorial window on the electioneering window could get stuck.

  • Changes to some balance code, including adjusting extent to which govt debt is seen as a losing factor, and detecting zero debt as a winning factor.

  • Having no extremists in terrorist groups is now noted as a game balancing factor.

  • Added new model of mental health, which feeds into healthcare demand and has multiple inputs.

  • Increased (and curved) impact of lifespan on healthcare demand.

  • High levels of Lifespan now impact the cost of Social Care and State Pensions.

  • New situation (Social Media Addiction) and Policy (Regulate Social Media).

  • The various fields in the mod content editing screens can now reference items created within the current mod.

  • Mod tools now allow you to add scripts for a modded country that generate grudges (permanent effects) to customize starting conditions.

  • Fixed crash bugs relating to deleting the last dilemma, situation, policy, situation or simulation value in a mod you created, then using it.

  • Fixed bug in transgender ban in the military dilemma where rejecting the ban still reduced liberalism.

  • Reduced frequency of the speed limits dilemma when playing Germany.

  • The new car subsidies policy now scales many of its effects down to allow for the transition to EVs.

  • Fixed a lot of missing translations for various items.

  • Reversed impact of the single-adoptions dilemma on parents so it fits the description better.

  • Fixed bug where going to a policy from the manifesto pledges screen and back again would require two mouse clicks to quit electioneering screen.

  • Graphics optimization to boost frame rate for every screen in the game for super-low spec graphics cards.

As ever your feedback, suggestions and opinions are most welcome. Especially if you have feedback on any changes in this build, and the implementation of stuff like Mental health. Are you happy with the way this is modeled in the game? Any ideas for future updates?
Please let us know :D.

4 Likes

Glad to see this released! Expecting more factors or links with the Mental Health simulation. It really has lots of potential. Currently there are some links but most of them remain at near-0 level (though this might differ if I try more harsher economic policies).

Social media addiction, at least for me, sounds like another Environmental Protest - something I don’t intend to remove. I tend to go with the liberals quite frequently (as most other players do) so liberal approval drop of at least -12% (with -10% youth) is more painful than a small mental health dip & approval drop on everyone of -4%. Productivity drop is bit damaging. But it’s kinda bearable provided that I’ve successfully removed Uncompetitive Economy already. And, lastly, I don’t want to spend policy cap (aka Bureaucracy) to this. I’m already running short of it to the extent of never implementing Welfare Fraud Dept.

1 Like

I think I found a darn good reason that you should merge overrides into respective *.csv files, at least for none-perception changes.

[override]
TargetName = "StatePensions_cost"
HostName = "Lifespan"
Equation = "-0.1+(0.2*x)"
Inertia = 4

This is pensionslifespan.ini located at Democracy 4\data\overrides directory. And there was a change in state pension cost in the latest update. It was adding ;Lifespan,0.07*(x^4) at its cost. Now let’s check how it’s working.

image

As you can see, Lifespan-Pension cost link is "-0.1+(0.2*x),4" instead of Lifespan,0.07*(x^4).

+I also think this is a good chance to discuss the matter addressed at Redundant link: Health and pension costs. While I understand that Health & Lifespan are two different things, I see Health-to-Pension cost link as a legacy when the game didn’t have the Lifespan simulation. The retired living long & healthy won’t make any difference to pension costs compared to them living long & unhealthy.

3 Likes

another feedback incoming!

  • Mental Health has only few links and hardly shows any perturbation. At least Business Confidence had several events affecting it, though it had only few links too. I expected something similar to the Crime - Violent Crime relationship (general - specific). Making it considerably harder or more expensive to improve might have been better.
  • For example, some very expensive healthcare policies with relatively small benefits (such as State Health Care at higher range of slider or Social Care) could have provided mental health boosts.
  • Work Safety Law, which is also seen as not that efficient since it can cause Corporate Exodus, is another good candidate for mental health boost in my opinion.
  • Adding some other factors for flavor would also have been nice. Traffic Congestion (or Gridlock) to mental health sounds quite plausible for me. Selective Schooling policy at high slider scale (dedicated schools or best school subsidies) can be a negative factor for mental health as competition-high education system can put heavy stress on teenagers’ mental health.
  • I see some events could have take Mental Health as either causes or effects.
  • accidentalshooting getting affected by mental health would make sense in my opinion.
  • celebrityopioiddeath, highriseblaze, holybuildingburned, hugehurricane, sexualassault, socialstupidity, terrorattack, tsunami, xenophobicattacks having impacts to mental health sounds plausible.
  • schoolshooting has 2 = Health,0.42-(0.45*x),8 in one of its causes and its flavor text does mention the mental health issue. I think it should be replaced with 2 = MentalHealth,0.42-(0.45*x),8 instead.
2 Likes

OMG that sounds very likely, I shall investigate.

2 Likes

I totally agree on the high selective schooling impacting mental health. This is like the korean drama ‘sky castle’ in Democracy 4 form, I will add that for the next update.

Also agreed that mental health should feed into school shooting.

I should do some reading as to what statistical data there is regarding mental health decline causes.

3 Likes

Glad to hear that! More interaction links with mental health will be welcomed. Going to add a point I’ve missed. Since the Mental Health is assumed to be around at 50% with current numbers unlike the Health roaming around at 100%, a new MentalHealth-to-schoolshooting equation should take that into consideration. So my suggestion was actually flawed.

2 = MentalHealth,0.42-(0.45*x),8
2 = MentalHealth,0.42-(0.8*x),8 (or any other equations that wouldn’t make this event more likely to happen at 50% Mental Health)

1 Like

Cliff, I think that it’s time to do a major overhaul of ministers as seen here:

  1. I briefly came back - Democracy 4 - Positech Games
1 Like