Missing policies? (what do YOU want?)

Democracy 1 & 2 Democracy 1
21

Hi!

First, great game, congratulations to the designers, very original. One comment, though - I don’t like the manifesto promises for the election at all - the problem is, that there are just eight or nine options to choose from and most of them become pretty irrelevant in the later parts of the game. For example, how do you reduce poverty by 10% if the poverty is already almost nonexistent. Same goes for unemployment. On the other hand, the idea to reduce taxes by 10% is absurd, because that’s giving away 10% of your income.
I suggest that other promises should be included on the list - like a promise to enforce certain policies, or a promise to reduce the deficit in the budget, there are a lot of options.

22

indeed. criticism of the manifesto promises is well taken, although you can turn them off if you like once they get annoying. This is a feature of the game I need to take another proper look at.

23

Another thing came to my mind after playing the game for the better part of today - Why not include ideologies in a future version (or add them as future expansions), for instance if you would have an option to declare yourself as a Democrat you would get mostly democratic policies, if you would say that you are a Communist, you would get policies like planned economy and so on. I would love to see some totally new ideologies here as well, there are a lot of creative potentials, from creating alien societies to establishing an Amish state :smiley:.
I know that such a thing is nearly impossible but i would love to see what kind of new political systems the community would create, given the excellent modding opportunities of this game. (Don’t you think that this game is an excellent simulator for creating a new political system or trying to achieve Utopia?)

24

I agree. Not all people might agree with the way groups and the economy respond but I think cliffski has it fairly well represented.

More of us shouldn’t be so lazy and start modding :slight_smile: Anyone interested in doing a 19th century version of the UK, with policies like abolition and universal suffrage? Best bit would be no more pesky motorists, but you wouldn’t be able to reduce your military spending too much, cause you would get invaded!

25

First, thanks for this game. Here are some of the features I hope to see someday:) (sorry for my english, I’m french!)

  • population growth and decline
    immigration, birth rate as new variables, and their policies/dilemnas. Death rate and emigration would be good also!
    I played France for let’s see, 30 terms of office, and my “retired” population kept growing while the nation population wasn’t…

  • unpredictable evolutions
    the game, and the voter groups, have a tendancy to stabilize over time. It is “relatively easy” to find a stable state : nothing to modify anymore, and you are assured of reelection… and can predict with exactitude how the population will change.
    Events acting on the % of voters would be a good thing: a new religion making adepts , etc.
    In fact, when I was playing my “utopian france”, I rapidly fell to zero religion, and never had to take care of them anymore…
    Random evolutions of the country and voters would be enjoyable.

  • international relations
    nothing too complex, but it would be interesting to have some kind of “external image index” or indexes… it could affect economy, tourism, migrations… induces policy choices based on the “UN state”, limiting import tarrifs, for example, or military budget, encouraging foreign aids, etc.
    A poor nation could obtain aids and loans from the other nations, but only if it followed some externally imposed policies…

  • assembly and congress
    Many nations don’t have a “strong” governement able to apss any policy right away. As it is the case for the simulation of the USA, the possibility to have a congress/assembly blocking/delaying/encouraging policies seems interesting

I think the main problem of the game are the low “unpredictability rate” and the weak effect of international relations…

this a very good game, and very interesting thanks for it!

26

As others said: Thanks for the game.

As an addition to policies, regarding Canada: The First Nations idea brought up before is good too (they want to seize land or something)

Another thing that I find quite lacking for a place like Canada is the whole question of Quebec nationalism/separatism. Now, I’m not sure how could this be added exactly… I guess the ideal would be another electoral group composed of them, and if they are not pleased enough they make secession and you lose the game (instead of assassins). And you’d have policies like Renew the Constitution, Give more money to the province, etc.

If creating a new electoral group is to complicated for now: A dilemna about them asking for an addition to the Constitution of a clause saying Quebec is a distinct society: if you pass it, Patriots are angry, if you don’t Liberals are angry.

Thoughts?

27

btw, with Canada, after an election it should say you can continue your “prime-ministership”, not “presidency”…

28

yeah I spotted that earlier today. Its on my list…

29

Still for Canada (I feel like there’s really nothing that is Canada-specific in this game)

A policy to implement an official language. It would cost some amount. Again, it could be an opposition between Liberals and Patriots. On one hand, set one language (English). Makes very happy Patriots, Liberals not happy and cost less.

After, Make 2 official languages (English and French). Cost a little bit more. Patriots a little bit less happy, but happy still. Liberals more happy. “Everyone” a little happier too (to illustrate the fact that both French and English national groups have their official language).

Last option: Every language having 5% of the population has its language official (or whatever critera… it’s just to illustrate that there are many, many official languages). Make Patriots very unhappy. Makes Liberals very happy. Cost the most.

You could also make this policy “uncancellable”, so that the other extreme would be “no official language”. Cost nothing. Make Patriot not happy.

btw… this is just brainstorming, but it would certainly need some polishing.

As said, I do feel there need at least some Canada-specific issues with Canada. (of course, I’m a Canadian, so it figures…)

Thoughts?

30

the language issue for canada has come up before, but as you are stuck with the existing voting groups, its an awkward one. is it really clear enough that liberals and patriots are cleanly divided on this issue?

31

Frankly, no.

As I said before, to illustrate better the situation, you would need another group, I believe, the “provincial nationalist”, or more specifically “Quebec nationalist”.

I chose the Patriot and Liberal instead to try to keep the same electoral groups. I assumed the Patriots would be the federalists, the ones wanting always a greater role for the central government. The Liberals (and I do not mean the political party), on the other hand, are usually more ready to accept greater power to the provinces, or the fact that Quebec can have French as its official language.

Again, it really depends on how you define your groups exactly. Liberals could be understood as accepting more power for the provinces, or exactly the opposite.

In reality, in Canada, Liberals (both the federal political party and the ideology), often argue that what is most important is individual rights, and collective rights should be restricted as much as possible.

But, for the game’s sake, you could define it otherwise and include those Liberals in the Patriot section. For instance, again in reality, many Liberal intellectuals (again, not the party) agree to the need of collective rights

So, in short, it’s quite a mess to include this with the existing groups. Perhaps for your next version, Democracy 2, you could try adding such a group, which would include things as ethnic minorities, aboriginals, etc. It thus would be usable in most, if not all, countries, and open up many possibilities.

But for Canada, you could do as suggested, even if it’s not 100% adequate. Your choice would really depend on whether you favor realism or playability.

(ps: I’m a student in political science in Quebec, Canada: the province which held 2 referendums on secession since 1980)

32

Boy, I’m so not sure I was clear, lol

Tell me if I wasn’t clear… :confused: :unamused:

33

A tourism advertising one?

Good when global economy is strong, expensive and wasted when economy is down.

(And, from other threads)
Media control

Electoral reform

34

I think we need some more policies/dilemnas to affect the Middle Income. It would seem that there’s almost nothing you can play with regarding them, only income tax, inheritance tax and Fraud Departement, if I remember well

35

How about in a situation where in relevant countries (say like the U.K.) where a slender election win threw up the possibility of universally less popular policies being slowed down (like when you lose either house in the U.S.)

36

oh hey
In the US at least (hopefully other countries are more civilized), foreign aid could trigger a dilemma regarding the funding of international family-planning organizations. I guess the main groups would be socialists vs religious (with liberals and conservatives also involved)

37

Exactly! When you are enough far in a game (achieve enough utopian realm :smiley: ), the only option you have left in to cut taxes in order to satisfy any election promises! I mean, citizens SHOULD be satisfied if you manage to keep utopia running – keeping poverty and unemployment null etc. -, not blame you for not be able to make any feasible promises :neutral_face:

That can be done. I did it through modding Simulation (BTW, there is a typing mistake there : statsitic instead of statistic):
#,AverageIncome,Average Income,“A simple measurement of the average wage or income for your citizens. This statistic can be misleading becase of the effect of inequality, the average income may be very different to the income of most of your citizens in an unequal society”,0.5,1,Poverty,Low,Average,Good,Rich,#,“MiddleIncome,0.00+(0.25*x)”,

38

Great game.
Here are a feew ideas for new polices. Some may already be available in mods - I have not played since I downloaded the mod pack I found on the forum.

If I were a true socialist I would want to be able to nationalise the means of production -or alternatively as atue Freimanist privatise everything. Not quite sure how to model this though

It would also be nice if in the UK at least you could call a snap election when the polls are in your favour.

There does not seem to be any gain from implementing the monorail system - am I missing something.

It might be interesting to have the option of a poll tax - I know it tend to ruin governments who try it.

I have not had time to look at the mods that cover sport - but a dlemma where you have to decide whether torescue a sports event that has gone over budget - like Picket’s Lock stadium for the World Athletics Games - could be interesting.

Also a policy of bidding for the Olympics / World Cup popular, but with a high cost.

Marcus

39

-If you have a budget surplus, have other countries ask you to borrow money. This can be a quick easy way to get cash.

-Import tarriffs are too easy. In the real world, when you put taxes on foreign goods, foreign countries return the favor and put tarriffs on your goods. That’s why tarriffs aren’t used all that much, because they do almost as much damage as they do good. In the game, nobody puts tarriffs on your goods. Fix this.

I’ll add more later.

40

I’d like to see child tax credits and earned income tax credits. Maybe clean emission credits, too.