When implementing a policy for the first time, one should be able to change their mind.
Currently, after clicking the implement button (i.e., from the policy suggestion section), the capital is already spent on the initial implementation, and one can cannot abort/revert the policy implementation and reset spent capital.
Thanks!
That change is intentional, and it represents a realistic approach to policy making, would the government really be able to immediately a legislation it just passed, even in an autocracy? Thereās always some inertia, more so in democracies.
But the issue is that I havenāt decided on whether to implement said policy. I just want to get a better look at its consequences and play with the slider to see whether indeed I should implement the policy.
So, just like we can revert having moved the slider on an existing policy (because we havenāt made up our minds yet), we should be able to revert/abort implementing a policy.
This is a purely UI/UX issue and has nothing to do with the actual game mechanics. I want to be able to explore implementing a policy before actually implementing it. Does that make sense?
I think thatās intentionally hidden information. Since the Democracy 3 at least, there has been a thing called āPolicy Flop-Flipā, which means cancelling a policy right after the implementation. It is there, in my opinion, to make players read the description and take some time to deliberate what kind of consequences might follow.
I see. If it is by design, then itās by design. It felt more like an UX oversight to me.
I wasnāt asking for the ability to cancel right after implementing. What I wanted was the ability to evaluate potential consequences (by looking at the policyās details), just like you would in real life, before finally deciding on whether to implement. If we can do so with the intensity of a policy (slider), I donāt see why we couldnāt do the same with whether to implement said policy.
One way to do this is to look at the policy page and look at the arrows. A better way for this to happen, would be to have a graph which shows the whole possible range of values, when your cursor hovers over the arrows on the policy page.
Just going to add my thoughts on this.
Initially I thought this was annoying but as time has gone on I would be opposed to changing it.
There is definitely a benefit to not telling you EXACTLY what the impact would be - which is that you are incentivised to understand and remember how the policies work.
I think that this makes the game more enjoyable personally.
Hmmā¦that could be, yes. But Cliff wants a game which appeals to veterans and casuals alike. Trying to remember over 1000 relations in game is taxing and can take away from the fun of governance.
Its very hard to be sure what the real effect will be anyway. If We told you that the equation for the impact of petrol tax on car usage was some exact numberā¦ but that equation itself depends on a third variable (EV adoption), then we are suddenly not in a position to give real definitive answers to how one thing affects another anyway!
The whataboutism of why this bug exists is somewhat irrelevant. The game says you can raise or lower the policies implementation for free, which you can. It also says you can cancel for free, which you canāt. itās been a glaring bug since Democracy 3.
The ability to get a snapshot of the effects of a policy in the policies screen was explicitly created to allow you to look at what policies did without having to commit to them. Rather than fixing the bug, or removing the statement that ācancelling is freeā, the team created new features to make the bug less frustrating.
When does this bug occur?
Its a fair point that it should not say cancelling is free. iāll get that fixed.
But thats the only bug. This is a deliberate design decision, and its to reflect the uncertainty of the real world. Show me a government that introduced a new tax or major policy and completely scrapped it within 3 months. Its not a common occurrence, mostly because it makes a government look completely ridiculous.
Maybe instead of preventing such a cancellation, Cliff, you could make the political cost higher (aside from the PC)? More cynicism, people leaving the party, etc.?
Hmmm. this could be done. I think iāll just change that wording for now and leave it as it is, but give the topic further thought.
Thanks Cliff, look forward to the potential improvements in the future. 
