One problem with ministers is that you never know what your alternative options are until you fire one of them. You can always wait for them to quit, but I’d rather be able to pick from a variety of replacements over multiple turns. It seems especially critical to have an experienced Chancellor, and I’d rather not have to fire someone every couple of turns to find one who supports groups compatible with my current policies.
Some way to see who’s available before firing a minister would be very helpful. Maybe you could add a button or a tab on the Cabinet screen?
I have to agree on this one - sometimes ministers look bad until you see the alternatives, and then you learn what the word “bad” really means!
But what I would not like is to feel the need to check the minister pool every turn to see if any of them are better than my existing, mostly-satisfactory cabinet. I don’t know how the existing minister pool works, but if it just generates a new, random pool each turn I do not think this would be appropriate under the requested system. Perhaps if the minister pool only gained and lost a single member every few (four or so?) turns, on average, this could reduce the ability/desire to powergame/micromanage?
If this were done, it might also make sense to include a message in the quarterly report each time a minister joined/left the minister pool…
I’d still like the ability to choose ministers at the start of the game, and I’d like a wider selection to be available, so that you might have to compromise with one minister but that’s about it. The selection could increase with your party membership of course…
I have to agree that it is very annoying having to fire a minister to see if there is a better candidate. I’m not sure that being able to see the pool before sacking a minister would cause micro-management, as you would still not want the damage to be done that is caused by sacking a minister too often, and the experience ministers gain in office would still reduce your wish to replace them.
It’s interesting you mention that - I’ve heard of negative effects of sacking ministers, but don’t actually know what they are aside from the loss of experience. I assume their sympathetic groups are made unhappy, but is there anything else?
perhaps something of a comprimise? I really would like to be able to pick ministers at the start of the game. I only have the demo (xmas shopping still needs to be done), but having a “Green Party” with two ministers who’s core voters are religous and conservative doesn’t make sense to me. I like the idea that the Minister Pool’s size is linked to how strong your party is. Makes more sense, and having a limit to how often it refreshes is a good, (and realistic?) idea.
Here’s a thought, if the opposition party is significantly stronger than your party more of the avalible ministers are sympathtic to their core voters. Maybe even have an event where the opposition party tries to force you to accept one of their ministers?