Download to make game harder (inflation)-Updated :D

Democracy 1 & 2 Democracy 2
1

This thread has over 250 views-that means at least 100 unique people have looked at it :smiley:. Thanks to you all.
Like TomPhil, my biggest complaint against Dem2 at the moment is the lack of difficultly over the long term (past your first election.)

I spend a few hours this morning trying to fix that with an inflation mod.

What this mod does, is, as your GDP and the percentage of higher incomes in your society goes up, the following goes down (due to increased inflation.)
Support from the wealthy and capitalists (They don’t like it that there hard-earned money is worth less)
Support from everyone (They don’t like the news)

And, the following is affected:
Working Week (People have to work more to make up for the weaker currency)
International Trade (Goes down-other countries would rather trade with countries with a better currency)
Average Income (Goes up, as people get more money)

With most countries, the inflation rate is quite stable when you start out (meaning support from capitalists and the wealthy-and a positive boost to international trade.)
But, as your GDP goes up (as most people try to do) you have those other effects to deal with.

Now, for the bad stuff.
I strongly recommend backing up your stimulation.csv file as this mod changes it a lot.
Also, at the moment, this mod is still a beta. I’m confident that it is stable enough to release to the Dem2 public, but there still may be some balancing issues-most have been fixed with this update, but some are still bound to be around.

If you are using this, could you please reply with suggestions\comments\criticism, ill take all of it.

Ill release a new version of this around the 5-10th of January-once I get feedback. If a new version is announced, ill wait for that to be released.
That version will improve balance, and implement any suggestions on these forums-it will also include all the policies\dilemmas\events related to this mod that I have made.

Download link: positech.co.uk/democracy2/modlist.html (Thanks Cliff)

Install instructions are in the readme-but this mod has quite a complicated install-so some degree of modding experience is desirable (but that wont stop newbs from trying :slight_smile:

PS: Anyone know much about economics, there assistance here would be a great help :smiley:.

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I really like this modification. It adds whole new simulation possibilities to the game - now you could possibly create policies reflecting the nations macroeconomic policy, like Keynesianism, Monetarism etc.
Those could influence the inflation level,along with other things like Unemployment,or GDP in the long run ,for example (you would have to use the inertia option to make this work more realistic).

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Downloading right now, with a full commentary later… At the moment however, it sounds like it addresses any concerns I really had, and the idea of being able to mess around with inflation and watch it’s effects on citizens is actually fairly intoxicating.

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Thanks to everyone who has downloaded the mod so far :smiley:.

The mod only really needs balancing fixes and maybe another related policy (depth…) to make it more realistic-anyone got a suggestion of how much of a bonus you should get from capitalists for having a high\low inflation rate?

Oh, and DT, can you explain a bit on what you mean by ‘macroeconomic’ policy-I know what you need, but I have no idea on how to implement it in-game.

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In fact i am not sure how to implement this exactly,but maybe the Keynesian policy could influence GDP positively in the short run,decrease unemployment,while at the same time decreasing GDP in the long run (using two equations,one normal increasing GDP,and the second one with the inertia option,to simulate possible crisis in the future ),and increase inflation. It could cost much also to represent increased spending. And, i think it would anger the Capitalists, but may please some socialists. It would be rather controversial to implement.

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Thanks, ill put this in the second beta of the mod.

And, what is Monetarism (im still in high school-and I dont do economics until next year :wink:)

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Well, Monetarism is basically a neo-classical, capitalist strain of thought, so i do not think there is a special need to simulate this additionally in the game. You may follow it by simply keeping a balanced budget and not introducing Keynesianism.

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Here is my list of planned implementations for the next few mods (as well as TBC release dates:)

Update 1 (Beta 2)-December 27-28
Macroeconomic policies (Keynesian, closed economy and corporatism)
Some inflation-related dilemmas
Some inflation related events (hopefully)
The Interest Rates policy becoming integrated with the mod
Improvements on some of the effects (most likely a smaller effect on capitalists, and everybody)

Between Update 1 and 2-Some situations (which will be in beta until update 2) and maybe a new policy (again, in beta until update 2)

Update 2 (Beta 3)-January 5-7
More policies (TBC-most likely including a stance on banks, how free your market is, etc)
More dilemmas and events
The big change-Full integration with current policies and situations

Between Update 2 and 3-A new policy. I might start implementing an ‘inflation’ variable into some of the other people’s economic mods (as long as that is OK with the mod dev, of course :slight_smile:

Update 3 (Release)-January 15-20
Hopefully, it will mostly be bug fixes (yes, they do happen) and realism\balance tweaks

Well, that is my ‘road-map’ for this mod. If anybody is wondering why I am doing this this way (releasing the mod in small tidbits instead of in one go) its because I am no expert in economics (don’t get me wrong, i’m no noob)-and I also want some say from the Dem2 community (especially the non-modding community) in it.

If anyone wants anything added, just ask :slight_smile:.

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This mod sounds very interesting. However, I am not sure about the effect of inflation on foreign trade. Since inflation weakens the local currency, I would have guessed that imports are weakened too, but exports are strengthened. What are your thoughts on this?

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Hmm… I did not think about that :neutral_face:.

Sadly, there is no different values for exports and imports-they are both summed up in ‘international trade’

I might think about adding a international relations up-to simulate that more people want to trade with you now.

Thoughts?

EDIT: Woot, updated :smiley:.
Update 1 (Beta 2)-December 27-28
Macroeconomic policies (Keynesian, closed economy and corporatism)
Some inflation-related dilemmas
Some inflation related events (hopefully)
The Interest Rates policy becoming integrated with the mod
Improvements on some of the effects (most likely a smaller effect on capitalists, and everybody)

All of that stuff has been added in this new version, comments, as always, are much appreciated :slight_smile:.
Bug fixed-it was just a bad install on my part :slight_smile: (and a file was missing anyway)

New Link: positech.co.uk/democracy2/modlist.html (Thanks Cliff)

Note: If you have already installed this mod, it is safe to install over the top of your old one, as far as I know.
This updated mod has quite a complicated install-so some degree of modding experience is desirable-but that wont stop modding newbs from trying :slight_smile:.

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I think Interest Rates should be made into Uncancellable policy,since you cannot possibly conceive an economy without them. Banks would practically cease to function.I know that some islamic countries prohibit interest rates entirely because of religious reasons, and many say this is one of the main causes of their lack of real economic growth.

Alternatively, you can add a possiblity to keep interest rates high or low when fixed, and thus keep the policy as it is, assuming it represents the existence of a central bank and its influence over the interest rate. It would then please socialists,etc. (and without the policy we would have floating interest rate).

But a modern country without interest rates at all is a highly unrealistic scenario.

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Good point.

Ill change it to become ‘centeralised interest rates’ or something-without it you will still have interest rates, but with this policy, they will become centeralised, limiting inflation.

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Umm, loading instruction sez

“Finally, move the file situations.csv to programme files\dem2\data\simulation. It will overwrite an exsisting file”

but that file is not in the zip package

anyone else missing that?