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 Welcome to this Let's Play of Democracy 3, the third government simulator in the series by Positech Games, the makers of Gratuitous Space/Tank Battle. It was released in November 2013, and the first DLC, "Social Engineering", came out about a month ago. The game puts the player in charge of the government of a nation, with responsibility for making policy, adjusting taxes, hiring and firing ministers as well as reacting to crises and avoiding terrorist plots. The game features an impressive and involved (if not always totally realistic) simulation of the country, where single policy changes can have far reaching consequences over long time. There is no "scoring" in the game, and the only goal given is to remain in power. This leaves the player free to pursue whatever goals he feels like, whether this is a socialist utopia, a religious fundamentalist state, or a cyberpunk-esque high tech society where the rich live in towers of gold and the poor are kept down by the iron fist of the police force. This will be a participation LP, where President Goon Mind and his cadre of advisers (also goons) will be in charge of policy making for a poor unsuspecting first world country. If this isn't a recipe for a perfect society, I'm certain I don't know what is. Table of contents Country selection Turn 0 and mechanics introduction Budget infopost Voters infopost List of all available policies in the game Infopost on intelligence and the cabinet Turn 1 Turn 2 Turn 3 Turn 4 Turn 5 Turn 6 Turn 7 Turn 8 Turn 9 Turn 10 Turn 11 Turn 12 Huge election year infodump Turn 13 Turn 14 Turn 15 ELECTION DAY Explaining all the things we did wrong Alternate (more successfu) run Thread contributions The official Lederhosen für Alles logo, by Ahundredbux  Lederhosen für Alles logo contributions Covski fucked around with this message at 13:56 on Oct 29, 2014 |
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Mar 16, 2014 14:20
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First thing's first - we'll need to decide which lucky country will be blessed by the leadership of President Goon Mind. Each choice comes with their own problems and opportunities, and determines what the government will have to focus on starting out. Here are the contestants:  faces a terrible economy and soaring crime rates at the beginning of the game, as well as low approval ratings.  is in a slightly better situation, with low crime rates and pretty high approval, although the country is plagued by the global economic downturn as well.  (I can't believe there isn't an actual german flag smiley) Germany is in a better spot with regards to the GDP than the other european countries, but they have a pretty serious budget deficit and inner city riots due to poverty which need to be dealt with.  starts out with high crime rates, a huge budget deficit, and a lacking health care system, but they do enjoy a technological advantage over their competitors starting out.  feels a bit like a light version of the American start, with lower crime rates and better health care. Still, it faces many of the same problems as their southern neighbour.  Australia's major problem at the beginning of the game is the high unemployment, though the crime rate could become a problem in the near future. We'll also need an awesome name for the party, as well as for the opposition party - feel free choose from the list or suggest something else! (The opponents name doesn't really matter - the opposition is assumed to always want the direct opposite of what your party is doing, those drat opportunists  ) Don't mind the game settings behind the text: I will be using the default settings for each country with the exception for term limits - the Goon Mind will remain in power until we are forced out of office, or the thread reaches a consensus that we have attained Utopia, whichever comes first.So, first votes: country, party name, opposition name, go! Covski fucked around with this message at 12:29 on Mar 28, 2014 |
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Mar 16, 2014 14:21
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Voting Germany, Invade Poland, third time lucky!
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Mar 16, 2014 14:29
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also USA is our southern neighbour /nitpick EDIT: Changed my vote due to hilariously long party names below Danaru fucked around with this message at 17:51 on Mar 16, 2014 |
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Mar 16, 2014 15:04
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Voting . It's pretty sneaky that they put Australia's GDP Per Capita in AUD instead of USD (otherwise, they're off by about $25k. We're not that rich  )
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Mar 16, 2014 15:10
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I vote to destroy Germany, inner city riots is a perfect excuse for death squads. e: Also holy crap this Lord Tywin posted:Germany and the Lederhosen für alles party, the opposition will be the Donaudampfschiffahrtsgesellschaftskapitän Partei . Ahundredbux fucked around with this message at 17:37 on Mar 16, 2014 |
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Mar 16, 2014 15:22
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I'm recommending that we take on the challenge of Canada and save it from being the oppressive socialist hellhole it is. Freedom (from things like affordable healthcare and gay rights) for all.
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Mar 16, 2014 15:23
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Germany. Let's see how bad we can make it.
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Mar 16, 2014 15:43
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Danaru posted:also USA is our southern neighbour /nitpick I don't know what you're talking about  Three votes for Germany, two for Canada and one for Australia so far. Don't forget to suggest some great party names!
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Mar 16, 2014 15:49
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Germany Since we are all going to be judging which policies are best. The Sandcastle party.
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Mar 16, 2014 16:00
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Voting for the UK, The R'yleh Independence Party, opposed by Michael Moore.
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Mar 16, 2014 16:19
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Voting for the chance to be the specialest snowflakes with the nastist little military-industrial complex and surprisingly racist policies. The National Front or whoever the Le Pen people are.
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Mar 16, 2014 16:24
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Voting for Germany.
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Mar 16, 2014 16:27
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Germany and the Lederhosen für alles party, the opposition will be the Donaudampfschiffahrtsgesellschaftskapitän Partei .
Pump it up! Do it! fucked around with this message at 16:31 on Mar 16, 2014 |
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Mar 16, 2014 16:27
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Voting for the UK, the Monster Raving Loony Party (Because, let's face it, we owe it to Screaming Lord Sutch that he wins at least once, if only posthumously and in a vidya game), with the opposition being New Conservative. Bad UK Politics jokes ahoy!
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Mar 16, 2014 16:28
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Voting for Britain. Long may the Jehovah Party reign and introduce some good old-fashioned Norsefyre-style theocratic fascism (because this game is only fun when it goes way off the rails).
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Mar 16, 2014 16:30
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Drone posted:Voting for Britain. Long may the Jehovah Party reign and introduce some good old-fashioned Norsefyre-style theocratic fascism (because this game is only fun when it goes way off the rails). Dunno, man... I was amazed to find myself in a nigh permanent win-state with the Liberal Democrats... As in, by my 5th, 6th term, I had 97% approval and 90% or more of the vote... every time. To me, that was highly fun.
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Mar 16, 2014 16:35
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JamieTheD posted:Voting for the UK, the Monster Raving Loony Party (Because, let's face it, we owe it to Screaming Lord Sutch that he wins at least once, if only posthumously and in a vidya game), with the opposition being New Conservative. Bad UK Politics jokes ahoy! Although I would like to have the Neo-Whigs in opposition
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Mar 16, 2014 16:48
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Germany. Merkel uber alles.
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Mar 16, 2014 16:49
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Covski, how much do you know about the Democracy series? I'm interested because you mentioned just Utopia in your opening post, but the win condition for Democracy 2 was specifically creating a Marxist Utopia - and the official website seemed to advocate using the game to teach children in schools. Is the same thing true for Democracy 3?
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Mar 16, 2014 16:56
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Everyone knows ze Germans are good at democracy.
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Mar 16, 2014 16:59
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Lord Tywin posted:Germany and the Lederhosen für alles party, the opposition will be the Donaudampfschiffahrtsgesellschaftskapitän Partei . I second this!
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Mar 16, 2014 17:24
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Lord Tywin posted:Germany and the Lederhosen für alles party, the opposition will be the Donaudampfschiffahrtsgesellschaftskapitän Partei . Voting for this as well.
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Mar 16, 2014 17:32
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Lord Tywin posted:Germany and the Lederhosen für alles party, the opposition will be the Donaudampfschiffahrtsgesellschaftskapitän Partei . Voting for this!
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Mar 16, 2014 17:34
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Lord Tywin posted:Germany and the Lederhosen für alles party, the opposition will be the Donaudampfschiffahrtsgesellschaftskapitän Partei . This absolutely has to be a thing. I will never not vote for more lederhosen. That said, we really need a little German flag smiley. Possibly with a crying sausage?
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Mar 16, 2014 17:35
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USA shall be ruled by The Federate Union Movment Over Manhattan (FUMOM)!
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Mar 16, 2014 17:38
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Add one more vote for Germany onto the pile.
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Mar 16, 2014 17:45
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Lord Tywin posted:Germany and the Lederhosen für alles party, the opposition will be the Donaudampfschiffahrtsgesellschaftskapitän Partei . Adding another vote to this pile.
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Mar 16, 2014 17:47
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JamieTheD posted:Voting for the UK, the Monster Raving Loony Party (Because, let's face it, we owe it to Screaming Lord Sutch that he wins at least once, if only posthumously and in a vidya game), with the opposition being New Conservative. Bad UK Politics jokes ahoy!
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Mar 16, 2014 17:50
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Lord Tywin posted:Germany and the Lederhosen für alles party, the opposition will be the Donaudampfschiffahrtsgesellschaftskapitän Partei . Actually I'm changing my vote to this. Canada games in D3 tended to be easy mode when I played anyway.
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Mar 16, 2014 17:50
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Lord Tywin posted:Germany and the Lederhosen für alles party, the opposition will be the Donaudampfschiffahrtsgesellschaftskapitän Partei . But what if we WANT to be the Donaudampfschiffahrtsgesellschaftskapitän Partei? This is a vote for Jerry, just in case it's not obvious enough.
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Mar 16, 2014 18:17
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Calling the vote for the Lederhosen für alles party of Germany! Surely we'll triumph over those populists in the Donaudampfschiffahrtsgesellschaftskapitän Partei. Expect a first update covering the State of the Federal Republic shortly. CatsPajamas posted:Covski, how much do you know about the Democracy series? I'm interested because you mentioned just Utopia in your opening post, but the win condition for Democracy 2 was specifically creating a Marxist Utopia - and the official website seemed to advocate using the game to teach children in schools. Is the same thing true for Democracy 3? To tell the truth, I haven't actually played the second game that much. That was the one with fictional countries, right? Democracy 3 doesn't have a "win condition" as such - although the are quite a few achievements for creating different types of societies, so those give you to strive for beyond merely staying in power. The game also tracks your games on a conservative-liberal/socialist-capitalist political compass, allowing you to see the ideology you used your last 50 elections, as well as comparing your average ideology with your Steam friends.
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Mar 16, 2014 19:22
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The Lederhosen für alles party wins a narrow victory on their single issue platform of... well, providing everyone in the country with lederhosen. Every turn, we start off with an overview much like this, although we get a bit less information on the first turn than we will later on. Germany has no huge glaring problems starting out, with high levels of education and average everything else. The GDP is highly depending on the global economy, and so is currently hurting a bit from the ongoing recession.  This is the main interface of Democracy 3. It may seem like an intimidating clutter at first glance, but it's rather intuitive once you get used to it. Essentially, white icons represent policies (such as taxes and programs and laws), blue icons represent different statistics about the country (such as unemployment, GDP, and drug use), while red and green icons represent "situations" in the country. Most of these are negative and will drag down our approval ratings or increase expenditures. Attempting to do something about these are usually a good thing to prioritize. I'll get back to the current situations in the country shortly. The number next to the fist icon in the top left is our political capital, which is spent by implementing, changing or cancelling policies. It is generated by our ministers (which I will go more into depth on in a later update) and is gained each turn, and excess capital can be saved until next turn although there is a limit on the amount that can be carried over. The income and expenditure figures are mostly self explanatory, again, I will go more into depth on the topic later on. The bar in the middle of the screen is the time left until next election. The menu icons in the top right are, in order, intelligence briefing, polls, budget, policy ideas, achievements, options, political parties and quarterly report. Rest assured, these will be explored in due time. Finally, the bars in the middle show the approval rating with certain voter groups, and the popularity bar gives us an indication of the percentage of voters who intend to vote for us in the coming elections. Currently, around 40% of the population support us, making it obvious most of them only voted for us for the free legwear.  Mousing over a statistic or policy shows us the causes and effects. Red arrows indicate a negative effect, while green arrows indicate a positive effect. Note that a green arrow can actually be a bad thing, and vice versa. In this example, we can see that our current productivity level has a positive effect on our GDP, while the health level is having a positive effect on the productivity. The Legal Drug Consumption has no effect on productivity, mostly because no drugs are legal. As you can see, many factors influence the different statistics in the game, and since these factors are influenced by other things in turn, the simulation is actually quite complex.  Mousing over a voter group will show you what policies and statistics are effecting their approval. In this case, the environmentalists are happy about our petrol taxes and pollution controls to name a few, but slightly miffed by our road building efforts.  Clicking on a policy gives us a detailed description of the causes (in the case of statistics) and effects. Again, green means an increase, red means a decrease - not necessarily whether or not this is negative or positive. The numbers in parenthesis indicate the number of turns until the policy change has had a full effect. The effects will gradually change increase or decrease over time until they reach their full value. The slider on the bottom lets us fine-tune the strength of the policy. This usually translates to the amount we spend on it, or gain from it, in the case of taxes. Increasing the strength of a policy intensifies its effects (positive and negative), both on statistics as well as approval. On the bottom we can see the costs in political capital for raising, lowering or cancelling the policy. This depends on large part on the political climate in the nation - for example a country with a lot of religious and conservative voters would find legalising prostitution very expensive. Now, let's take a look at the current situations in the country, shall we?  All statistics have screens like this, but only situations have the start and stop triggers. The graph lets us see the changes over time, and when the line goes below the stop trigger the situation ceases to have any effect. The current problems with alcohol abuse are caused by poverty, unemployment, and (gasp!) alcohol consumption. Currently, the our police force and policy of community policing is helping slightly, but not enough to really alleviate the problem. In turn, this increases the crime rate and costs of our health services, while reducing the overall health level.  At the same time, we're having a slight problem with riots, apparently, due mostly to the poverty and unemployment frustrating the youngsters in the city. The conservatives are very upset about this, and crime increases a bit as well. Since this situation has crime as both a cause and an effect, it has the possibility of turning into a negative spiral.  The streets are full of homeless people forced out in the cold because of poverty and unemployment, upsetting the voters and committing petty crimes.  Our economy is slightly uncompetitive due to corporation taxes and generally low productivity per capita, lowering the GDP and annoying the capitalists.  And finally, the diet of beer and sausages is causing an epidemic of obesity in the country, lowering the health level and increasing the costs of our state hospitals. Obesity is caused naturally by being a rich country, and our heavy agricultural subsidies bringing down food prices doesn't make the situation any better. Phew! With that out of the way, let's look at the current policies in the nation:   This page shows all active policies, rated in order of popularity. Interestingly, prison policy almost always has a very positive popularity unless you choose the lowest level (overcrowded cells). Well, I think that is enough information for now. I'll cover the rest in separate infoposts as it becomes pertinent! LEGISLATION TIME!
The staff is standing by to provide any information you need, so go ahead, ask me stuff!
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Mar 16, 2014 20:44
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I understand if it is all a bit overwhelming right now, but it will become more clear after playing a few turns, and once we get all the infoposts out of the way. We'll be taking it slow for a while, but we'll probably step up the pace once everyone is a bit more familiar with the mechanics.
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I won't be participating in this LP, but I'll certainly be watching how the goons with their love for Lederhosen will ruin my homeland.
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Mar 16, 2014 20:58
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More police. Dictatorship. Police on every corner. See if you can riot now!
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Mar 16, 2014 21:07
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Can we repress the conservatives and capitalists? That's always great fun and great for society as well! And why did you pick those nations, they seem sorta, I dunno, Vanilla? As well as not really having such big problems compared to pretty much all of the rest of the world outside the Nordics.
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Mar 16, 2014 21:12
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KittyEmpress posted:More police. Dictatorship. Police on every corner. See if you can riot now! We have a few options currently available for increasing policing efforts:  We could simply give the police force more money. At a cost of 4 political capital we could bump up police funding to a max of €8.32 Bn. This is popular with the voters, especially state employees and conservatives. We could also take some more extreme measures:  Equipping the police force with tasers would improve the effeciency of the forces, although the liberal voters would dislike it. This would cost us 25 Political Capital (our entire reserve for the quarter), and between €732 Mn and 1€.47 Bn per year.  Giving the police drones is even more expensive, at 16 PC and between €1.83 Bn and €5.13 Bn per year.
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Mar 16, 2014 21:30
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What are our options for fighting poverty?
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Mar 16, 2014 21:31
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Deceitful Penguin posted:Can we repress the conservatives and capitalists? That's always great fun and great for society as well! Of course! What sort of repression did you have in mind? If you're interested in the taxation kind of repression, here are a few attractive options:     These could do well to help with the current budget deficit as well, though it wouldn't help the uncompetitivity of our economy any. We could also take a look at the labor laws, if that is more your thing. And also, a closer look at the budget will come soon! Edit: As for your question about the nations, that selection is actually all the options there are unless you want to mess around with some crazy mods. A wasted opportunity, I agree!
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Mar 16, 2014 21:40
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TheMcD posted:What are our options for fighting poverty? Government sponsored Lederhosen, of course.
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Mar 16, 2014 21:40
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