Ok, the version that auto-downloads new policies is nearly finished (1.32) so now I just need ideas for policies you’d like added to the game, ditto dilemmas and events etc. So tell me, wjhen you first played through Democracy what policies /laws etc did you look for and were dissapointed? I’m looking for some good ideas for new policies to make available as downloadable content. (free obviously).
Don’t forget they can be country-specific ones tioo, so if theres a dilemma that only affects you in Germany, let me know all about it!
(the problem is it has to affect the existing voter groups in a meaningful way, thats why the canadian language dilemma isnt in there, it doesn’t divide nicely into existing groups).
Thanks in advance!
i live in britain, so here are my suggestions:
a fox hunting dilemma (would affect the wealthy)
a referendum on adopting the euro as currency (patriots and conservatives wouldnt like this)
Increasing autonomy for top schools and hopsitals (giving top schools more autonomy especially in terms of selection would make socialists unhappy, whereas left wing labour backbenchers fear of a two tier healthcare system if more hospitals became foundation status)
a chance to lead the country into war in a middle eastern country
maybe a dilemma about the israeli-palestinian conflict
i know this is all a little britain-centric but maybe you could release detailed patches concerning different nations?
also is there any way you could add an inflation variable? my economics buddy is complining about the fact that a high average income and high equality would drasically increase inflation, causing problems for the economy. do you have plans to implement this in the next game?
many thanks on an excellent game, it supplements my politics degree perfectly. i look forward to the nexxt game.
Interesting ideas thanks. Inflation is horribly complex, ditto interest rates. It may be done in the sequel though. They arent complex concepts, but to balance them in a agem without introducing imports / exports and allsorts of other stuff is very tricky. Ive tried before!
There were discussion about having a “Ministerial choices” dimension to the game. Is that still doable? Also, maybe some more choices on foreign policies? E.g. Middle East policy - oil, religions; China policy - human rights, market, etc.
Also, might want to see if we can raise the retirement age.
International relations is completely absent from the simulation. I’m not sure there’s much that can be done about that, but is there any possibility Democracy 2 could be multi-player? Add in single-party rule, and we could have a very interesting international landscape. 
Of course, you’d have to somehow model military confrontations. I’d have them be abstracted, with countries at war having respective “Military Victory! 
” and “Military Defeat! 
” events happen to them. Each would be based upon the amount of money going toward their respective militaries, their respective technological levels, voter approval of the government/weapons availability (a supportive population with guns would be a bonus, an unsupportive population with guns would be a penalty, a supportive without or unsupportive with would be pretty much irrelevant), and a heavy dose of random chance.
Military events would result in changes in voter approval, particularly for patriots, transfers of GDP from the loser to the winner, and transfers of voters from the loser to the winner. If the two countries are sufficiently different ideologically, transfers of voters could actually harm the winner!
As to how the game would play, I’d have it be online pretty much continually. People could log in and try to win an election in a country (or perhaps start a coup in a country that’s ripe for one?). If nobody was running a particular country at a given time, the computer would take over, and pretty much give the voters exactly what they want. I think this would be awesome. When one logged off, their character would “step down” from office. Their play records would affect their chances of winning an election (or even a party primary, given modeling of political parties).
There is so much potential, and so little time to code!
Who would like a dilemma or policy on campaign finance reform for the US? as I understand it, this is quite a commonly-debated issue (soft-money etc).
yes, although I’m not sure what the in-game effects would be, aside from enraging the capitalists. Maybe if it could alter voter cynicism?
another thing that would be great is if we could do something about assassinations, either as a side-effect of relevant policies or as a dilemma that is triggered when a group is really angry at you. It’d keep you safe, but also anger the liberals or patriots.
I ask because it seems kind of unrealistic for me as a political leader to have to consider, e.g. funding faith-based schools, just to keep from getting shot. It’d be great to have some alternative course of action–though one that makes some other group mad at me, naturally 
if you raise funding for intelligence services, they are quite likely to save you from the assasins bullet
[size=75]oops I guess I just revealed where my spending priorities have been 
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how about these:
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Ecoboni: tax cut for ecofriendly products such as reusable glass bottles
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Ecotax: tax increase on non-reusable products such as plastic wrappers, etc.
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Public Television: perhaps this could counter possible media scandals?
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Compulsary education or not / minimum age you have to go to school
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Genetically modified foods policy
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Abortion
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Immigration Policy
Immigration policy is covered in border controls I believe.
I know that without it there’s kind of no game, but the assasinations, etc… kind of ruin it. There is something missing. Basically what I mean is that if I decide to run the country as a right winged PM with no sympathy for bleeding heart liberals, but am still “Morally” just, making sure I look after people who need it and do let some left wing stuff slide even though it’s pap… I still end up with game over after a while.
My point is, if a PM actually did come along and run a country in such a way (Thatcher for example) then yes they would be popular with some and loathed by others, but it’s highly unlikely they’d be killed by extremists. The extremists just stop you from doing what you want to in the end. I make a crime free Utopia every time, have a great economy, etc… and everything seems pretty much perfect… I have a tough immigration policy, I give plenty to the elderly but none to those who are lazy. Then I end up killed despite the perfect place I have created. I give the liberals plenty to make it fair, jury trials, legal aid, etc…
Also, who says giving prisoners better cells and prisons would reduce crime. From what I’ve gathered letting them rot in harsh conditions like they do in Thailand stops them re-offending better than the soft approach.
I’m in Australia, these are a couple of real life things that could make interesting Dilemmas and policies in any country!
Tampa dilemma- A dutch cargo vessel rescued a boatload of illegal immigrants from a sinking ship, the government of the day refused to allow the dutch ship to dock in Australia - liberals angry, conservatives happy
Van Ngyuen dilemma- an young Australian national was sentenced to death for drug trafficking in Thailand, but Australia is against the death penalty - this supporting the execution would make conservatives happy at the tough on drugs stance but both patriots and liberals would be angry!
Native Title policy- native peoples claim ownership of land taken by the government in the past - liberals happy, farmers furious, some reduction in poverty (maybe…)
oooh these are superb thanks!
I added a people smuggling dilemma, thats a kind of extrapolation of the tampa dilemma so it suits all countries. we have had lots of people smuggled into the UK in containers etc, and of course the USA has its border crossing problems.
had a look it does the trick - maybe mass immigration could be a situation as well, caused by having a high GDP. Although the effects of such a situation are highly contentious, and it might be too hard to model given that it would drasticly increase the total population?
indeed. High immigration would possibly raise unemployment, and could boost GDP, could also cause a housing shortage, or a house price boom that causes inflation, which reduces the competitiveness of domestic products sold abroad, which would affect the exchange rate and balance of payments which… arrrghhh!!!
And an increase in crime, disease, racial tension, terrorist scares and actions… and poverty.
Possibly Skorp, possibly, but as I said the effects of mass immigration are highly contentious. Although one effect is clearly borne out by the evidence, and that is that your range of food options goes up dramatically
I think that all of the negative aspects of immigration can be managed if the system is correctly set up in the first place. That way if you aren’t willing to spend the money you will get segragation and the malaises associated with it.
Thus for the game you would need to have a whole new policy section just for immigration - justifiable I think as immigration is a huge issue in some countries. Maybe for v2?