First. I have not played democracy 2 as I am on a Mac system. However
I read a report some time ago on how drugs makes rioting and aggressively demonstrating amongst a population go down. To spare all the details, the conclusion was basically that people would still dislike / hate / have opinions about the government etc, but the will to actually stand up and protest in a more serious manner than just speaking your opinion dropped significantly. I don´t know if there is a scenario were people start rioting and going nuts in the streets etc in Democracy 2. But if there is legalizing drugs could have a positive effect and decrease the chances for a riot. Just thought about this since I read a post earlier in this topic about making drugs legal was currently pointless.
Just want to put up my personal opinion. Legal aid is a no brainer in a democracy in general. Instead of imposing unrealistic negative effects the future in itself should just be taken out of the game, if it is so good as you are saying.
Possibly some blurring of effects on policies, i.e. the predictions remain the same for their effects, but the actual effects can go either way within a certain degree.
Also, the actual effectiveness and effects of a policy (e.g. state health service) should be affected by the responsible minister’s effectiveness, and possibly also their loyalty and preferred groups (e.g. if you have a disloyal tax minister who sympathizes with smokers, any tobacco taxes will be less effective).
The effectiveness (experience) of a minister already affects their policies. An experienced chancellor will raise more in tax, an experienced foreign affairs minister will have more effective policies in that area etc… It’s one of the main reasons to keep ministers happy and sticking around rather than just replacing them.
I also agree that technology is too much of an all win, no loss - possibly it should provoke religious objection, or enable a random event in which, say, anthrax escapes from a lab, or worse, is used by terrorists (an event which could be helped by general security effectiveness).
Effectively this does happen, because legalising drugs does reduce the chances of getting organised crime as I recall. I think the same is true of prostitution.
Unless the technology is controversial (which stems cells are already in the game) then funding really doesn’t effect anyone opinions. Because how often do you hear in the news how much your government is spending on technology funding, and I’ve never known anyone that react negatively when they hear the government is investing in technology. If it does effect opinion then it should increase state employee, patriot (because their nation will be so much more superior with this new tech funding), and possibly capitalists because they seam to like being competite when it comes to foreign trade.
As for anthrax ever escaping from a lab, have you ever heard that happening in a free country ever? Its just an unrealistic scenario.
Cliff, could you add sliders to the policy implement window in the next patch ? Now it looks like if you have too much policies of a certain kind added to game (Public Services for example) the part of them does not show up on the screen at all ,unless you implement enough policies to get them back visible on the implement screen.
I’ll just throw some ideas round. Suggestions:
1 I feel that you should have more choice in selecting ministers to suit your agenda.
2 Ministers sometimes say stupid things, which could be a source for policy dilemmas
3 A space program could be added. Expensive, boosts technology and membership of environmentalist movement.
4 Oil could be found, giving a rise to capitalism, GDP, but a boost to inequality. Or if nationalized, a rise in equality and drain on capitalism.
5 A country could make a bid for the Olympics or another sport tournament, requiring investment in the hopes of a later return.
6 Religious police could be added (like in Iran), as could the option of a state religion.
7 I feel that liberals in the game are too big a group to feel that strongly about certain freedoms. For example, Human rights would be huge liberal issue (example: 30% of population), but no restrictions on guns whatsoever would not spark nearly as strong a pro reaction from that group.
8 A government could auction of the airwaves each year, providing income, or could let the market trade freely.
9 A government could subsidize culture, such a films (like France), boosting patriotism and conservatism, while annoying capitalist and foreign nations.
10 Communal farms could be interesting for socialists, but harm productivity.
11 If the nation is producing a lot of energy, it is likely to be exporting it, and it should become a part of foreign policy and income.
12 Community service could be a deterrent to crime and a boost to the environment, health, road building and the retired. but take away potential jobs.
13 A government could try to attract educated foreigners without having to pay the cost of their entire training, boosting technology but harming patriotism.
14 A government could try to attract uneducated foreigners once the domestic workforce has become well educated.
15 A government sponsored disaster relief agency, like FEMA.
16 Once international trade is up the country should become more susceptible to the global economy. However as long as it is down, it should not be.
17 the group ‘retired’ should fluctuate in size, like babyboomers (if it already does, forgive me), and so become more or less of a strain on the economy during different decades.
The game is already very good, and there is still so much potential.
Cultural subsidies (arts, music etc) is something that was discussed on here. I think this is something that could be modded or patched in without changing any core parts of the game.
How about foreign relations? Getting into wars could affect the liberal and patriotic populations, conservative, it could affect the market, etc, and then on the other side you could get business contracts, dealls internationally.
Basically, making the government have more interaction with other governments
You know, Cliff, if you don’t want to (or can’t) do this kind of thing in Democracy 2, you might consider doing up a UN game. You’d lead a nation and “win” by building effective coalitions with other nations having their own distinct interests. Just a thought.
Hey I love the Game but i was just wondering would it be posible to create a “GOODS AND SERVICES TAX” so we have something other than the current taxes like here in australia they brought in the GST and it replaced sales tax and the economy grew but it had the poeple worried so maybe you could do it as part as the Election promises under Tax reform . as well a policy called Business Number so your business must have a number to opperate. its like a unqiue id number and it kills the black market . and another policy australia has is a “Business Activity Statement” where business that gross is over 50000 a year has to fill in a BAS saying how much GST they owe the goverment . I love the Games so much and would be great if you could try and add something like this . I have tryed adding Mods but the game keeps crashing for me so i just stick with whatever comes through updates cheers and thanks for a great game 8)
Hi, isn’t GST just a sales tax? Or am I misunderstanding that. the sales tax in the game is meant to be like the VAT we have in the UK. in real life, VAT is horribly complex, charged on hot food but not cold food, charged on adult clothes but not childrens clothes, etc etc.
Hi - addictive and fascinating game - makes a change from military strategy. Comments :-
Military spending. It depends how the money is spent. E.g. if the welfare of the personnel (and their families) suffer due to poor welfare, inadequate equipment, plus health and safety issues a significant percentage of the population is going to disapprove of of the government resulting in a drop in popularity.
Legalised (regulated) prostitution should affect crime figures, especially organised crime; improve the health (with regular medical checks) and safety of sex workers, and free the police up for other criminal prevention/detection. Plus the sex worker industry will become tax payers.
Legalisation of “soft drugs”, i.e. cannabis. This is likely to reduce crime, and especially affect organised crime. If regulated, like alcohol and tobacco, it surely would provide a lucrative tax revenue ?
Keep up the good work Cliff - I will trying Kudos shortly.
I’m from the Netherlands and my view on drug legislation and it’s effect’s are quite different than those in the game.
In my oppinion a more realistic effect can be obtained by eg:
…WAR ON DRUGS -OUTLAWED - LEGALISE CANNABIS - LEGALISE LSD -LEGALISE ALL DRUGS
-Put cost to the WAR ON DRUGS pollicy (Extra police and millitary). cost going down with the level of enforcement
-Put Tax gain on LEGALISE ALL DRUGS decreasing with steps towards outlawing drugs
-And to top it off, derease the influence factor of addiction and increase the factor of unemployment for the Drugaddiction situation.
In the USA the cost for the war on drugs is enormous and this does not make the problems go away but rather drive up the price for drugs, making it a more proffitable enterprize.Because if the big money involved in drug trafficing the crime sindicates can afford quite an arsenal ( easely accessable beacause of the pro firearms laws ) and this makes for more bloody crimes. … in my oppinion of coures
