Just played it, suggestions

Democracy 4
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I was a huge fan of Democracy 3, and was excited to try out Democracy 4 and see where it’s going. I tried the game out and here were some of the first things I noticed (and I’ll admit, most of these are leftover Democracy 3 issues).

  • Small Font sizes
    While the UI is massively improved over Democracy 3, (love the shrinking circles and dark mode!) I still find the font sizes very small to read properly.

State Pensions
The huge bonus to retired is actually an illusion - if you cancel this, private pensions will increase drastically, and negate that loss within a few turns. There are far more efficient ways to help the poor, and those often help in other ways as well, while costing far less. In Democracy 3 it was just a big budget hole that the only reason I’d ever have it is if the country started with it and I couldn’t spare the capital to cancel it, and 4 doesn’t seem to have changed it.

Oil Drilling Subsidies
The tiny GDP bonus and oil supply increase are absolutely nothing next to the ridiculous price tag of this policy, weighing in at nearly double State Pensions! It doesn’t even please capitalists or patriots. Getting energy efficiency to maximum actually costs less than this lone policy. Yes, the existence of the energy industry and foreign investment have improved this policy since democracy 3, but it still costs WAY too much to be worth using.

Airline Tax
Sure, it will eliminate air travel if that’s your goal, but it’s basically a lesser version of the carbon tax. It doesn’t help the environment (unless you had so much air travel it was the main cause of problems), it kills tourism, and it doesn’t even bring in much money.

Road Building
I notice that this policy is much better than in base Democracy 3 (mainly through a big price reduction) but without infrastructure in Democracy 4 it’s lost the importance it had in Democracy 3 Africa.

Rubber Bullets/Tasers/Tear Gas/Water Cannons
I suggest merging all of these into one policy for simplicity.

Gay Marriage/Ban Homosexuality
Merge these into “Minority Sexualities” from Democracy 3 Africa, banned at one end, positive action at the other.

Compulsory Foreign Language Classes/Compulsory Language Lessons
I suggest merging all of these into one policy for simplicity.

Oil Supply/Oil Demand/Oil Price
Just have one, containing the effects of all three to simplify the UI.

Revenue Administration/Civil Service Wage Parity/Minority Representation Measures
Where’d they go?

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I second Road Building tbh. As the game stands right now, the only reason you want to have ALL of the roads is if you want to do a strong motorist-leaning playthrough. Otherwise it’s largely a waste of money.

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Mostly agree with these. I also think the gay marriage policy should a general policy regarding sexual orientation, especially considering that marriage is not the “peak” of such policy (some US states have still failed to implement other discriminatory protections despite marriage being legal). EDIT: Also just realized you can have maxed out gay marriage while also fully banning homosexuality. Thinking they definitely need to just be lumped into one policy.

I would also like to see the return of some of the last policies you mentioned. Minority rep is still relevant, dealing with issues such as negative or affirmative gerrymandering that can influence racial tension for instance.