Request: let political capital being disabled

[Simone98RC]

In Democracy 3 the political capital can be disabled in Options menu.
Please provide this setting also for Democracy 4.
Thanks in advance.

[cliffski]

I do intend to make this possible at some point. The reason it was removed was because we have two mechanics in the game that reply on political capital being limited, neither of which existed in democracy 3:

One is the emergency powers situation, which kicks in during bad situations and lets you have much more capital

The other is coalitions, where political capital is offered to you by coalition partners in exchange for carrying out specific actions.

It would kind of ‘break’ the games balance to allow infinite capital, but I will enable it as a cheat at some stage.

[kram1032]

I’d not think of it as a cheat so much as sandbox mode!

[raxo2222]

Could be useful for making new countries

[cliffski]

Does the game not feel way too easy without a limit on political capital?

[raxo2222]

Game without political capital can be won in one turn (or at least how long it takes to overcome inertia), its more about just messing around.
I guess pissed ministers may make it impossible to implement policies with >40 political cost.
I suggested scaling introduction costs depending on policy popularity - sum of happiness changes by policy multiplied by voter group amount.

By the way uncancellable policies shouldn’t have introduce/cancel costs (maybe set those to 0).

Here is list of policies with >30 implement cost

Policy	Introduction Cost
AlcoholTax	30
Banforeignchurchservice	30
CorporationTax	30
ForeignInvestmentRestrictions	30
MarsProgram	30
RoadBuilding	30
StateSchools	30
UniversalBasicIncome	30
MortgageTaxRelief	31
Bandivorce	32
Banprivateeducation	32
Banprivatehealthcare	32
GayMarriage	32
RacialProfiling	32
RareEarthRefinement	32
Tradeunionbansatcompanies	32
DroneStrikeAct	34
Mandatorymicrogeneration	34
GeneralMediaCensorship	35
SolidarityTax	35
BanSundayShopping	36
Compulsorychurchattendance	36
OilDrillingSubsidy	36
Narcotics	37
PropertyTax	37
SalesTax	37
ArmedPolice	38
CarTax	38
SecretCourts	38
StateHealthService	38
CarbonTax	39
SpeedCameras	39
TobaccoTax	39
BorderWall	40
Closeairportscompletely	40
Creationism	40
Limitorbancarsincities	40
OneChildPolicy	40
TortureUsageBySecretServices	40
FlatTax	43
IncomeTax	43
Curfews	45
DetentionWithoutTrial	45
FaithSchoolSubsidies	45
LabourLaws	45
SateliteRoadPricing	45
StemCells	45
InheritanceTax	46
Banhomosexuality	48
IDCards	48
PetrolTax	49
CapitalControls	50
DeathPenalty	50
HandgunLaws	50
MandatoryMicrochipImplant	50
NationalService	50

[kram1032]

As said. Sandbox mode. - Sandbox mode doesn’t typically try to challenge you. It’s there for your entirely free reign. Entirely about exploration, not actual challenge. You can deactivate achievements for it if that’s a concern to you but otherwise I see no reason why you shouldn’t offer it as an option.

[BloodySoap]

As others have said, the option to remove political capital is there to create a sandbox experience, not necessarily to alter the difficulty of a regular game.

I like to play this game in two ways. The first is as an actual game with a challenge and an “ending” - in this case fixing a country while adhering to varying ideological stances, as the game was intended.

The second is simply to mess around and see what happens when I muck around with various policies, or just to min-max my “ideal” country. I’m not looking for a challenge here, I challenge myself enough playing the game as it is intended. Here, I just want to have fun and not have to worry about my political capital.

I think people asking for the option to turn political capital off, myself included, are simply looking for a “sandbox” mode to be able to mess around in, just like how games come with cheat codes or “god mode” included - all in the name of fun.

[AvianOverlord]

I think games generally shouldn’t officially support modes that break their design in half.

[jmski]

call it “sandbox mode” maybe not even enable it until played thought normally? If it is enabled now it would help playtest the game. For instance i am trying to examine how all the different policies affect environment, its hard to try everything out if you have to play the game normally.

[Citi]

Sometimes I want to set really ambitious personal targets, like with the deficit or climate, so removing the political capital but pushing myself is just a fun option.

[kram1032]

Hiding such a feature behind a playthrough seems silly to me. As said, make achievements contingent on regular mode. That should be enough. If you want a challenge you can have a challenge.

[cliffski]

For anybody really determined to do this right now, before I get time to have a proper think about how to implement it…

if you open up simconfig.txt you can probably work out how to make it practically infinite quite easily