Goverments & Political Parties

from GalCiv2 Forums
I have only had the game for a few time, so i still fall in the newbie zone. But as anyone here i'm entitled to an opinion and this time i would like to express the one related to Goverments & Political Parties.

This game is very good and i know that i'll be playing it for years (even without Dark Avatar... but i preordered it becuase it seems gold!). But there are a few things that i don't like and/or cannot understand. I know about all the problem of a complex game versus a simple game. I find this game not to be too complex, what it's good, but i also find it too simple in some things.

If i were to tweak the system of political parties and the like, i would try to avoid the silliness of having abusive high taxes until the week before elections (if you changed Goverment), when you lower them until you get a nice and safe approval rating. Then the elections comes and seems as if everybody forgot all the other weeks were you bleed your people for money.  It would make sense if the game had a "log" of the taxes since the last election and have it to reflect in the following elections. If the choices in the random events could have some impact ("What? You sacrifice 1000 citicens each day for that frakking event? And you want me to vote you?") that would be nice too. (accumulative effect in some cases, mind you)

I also find curious the idea that after the elections, your planets have a ruling Political Party. So if in the elections your Federal Party gets 99% of the votes, for example, you would have 99% of your planets with that party as the most important one (and getting the bonus of your party) while the rest (lets suppose that the War Party got the other 1%) have the other party and don't get your party's bonuses. (maybe gets that other party's bonuses, would make sense)

When going to war, there could be a... hmmm "prevotation screen" where you can try to buy votes from other parties in case that you don't control the Senate, for example.

I don't think that it's too complex (except maybe the events part but the rest seems not too complex as it seems Stardock's desire) and although i know that Stardock won't use it (not per se, not depured), i wanted to tell the known world about it.  
5,344 views 6 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Yes, it would be an improvement if your citizens took into account your tax changes before any elections. I never see this problem tho, because my Citizens' morale is so high that I can tax them at 65-70% and win the elections with 80%+ of the senate vote. I can't see any need to try and fool my citizens, they love me and my War Party anyway.

As for the political and Diplomatic screens, I have (as well as others) on several occasions posted ideas that would improve these aspects of the game, in much the same ways you suggest. Selecting the Agenda for the UP vote and knowing the agenda in advance of the vote are prime on my list.

I disagree with your "99% of planets get my party bonus, 1% don't" premise. Much like the governments of today, if your party wins the election, your policies are the ones everyone has too live with, whether the divide is 99-1 or 55-45. So if you delare war on a rival Civ, and your War Party has 60% of the vote and the Pacifists have 40%, guess what, 100% of your civilization is going to war. I really don't see any gameplay improvement from that idea, so I don't see any need for change.

Cheers,
Reaver

Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Actually, under the Star Democracy or Star Federation each planet is supposed to have more autonomy--so it would be a nice touch to see "local" governments of different parties popping up.
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Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Abusive high taxes are not really abusive as far as the game is concerned. You can set them at 80% pretty early if you maintain the necessary approval builders and keep your populations under 15B. Trade goods and galactic resources can help there too. Or, you can run low taxes, use few approval builders, and run higher popoulations. Personally, I think the economic advantage of high taxes justifies the allocation of resources for them. You only need to stay above 60% approval to win the elections. It's not all that hard to do even with 80% taxes.
Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Actually, under the Star Democracy or Star Federation each planet is supposed to have more autonomy--so it would be a nice touch to see "local" governments of different parties popping up.


Thats all just backstory for the game mechanic, the only thing the Advanced Governments do is provide additional economic bonuses at the cost of requiring you to maintain a higher level of morale among your citizens. I don't want systems in my Federation et. al. deciding what to develop on my planets in my game, particularly if I have 80%+ morale. I know there is a potential for some worlds to splinter off if you let morale get too low, and thats ok, because at that point I no longer have control. But while I *have* control, I don't want the game AI, making decisions for me on what to build on my planets. So I don't want to see those parties gaining any measure of autonomy.

Unless, of course, I get some of the benefits of the lesser represented Party's. For example, if my party holds 80% of the seats and gives me +20% Influence while the *other* party holds 20% of the senate and the bonus is +10 Soldiering, then I get 80% of the +20 and 20% of the +10.

Cheers,
Reaver
Reply #5 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Ha ha ha, i'll just blast the planets the don't agree with me, dumb little bastards!
Reply #6 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Interesting ideas. People should be slower to forgive massive taxes, sounds good. But, as I learned when screwing around one game with taxes at 100% and paying no heed to the people's morale, if they get too unhappy, your people tend react... negatively. If you're evil, the chances and damage of a Fundamentalist revolution (a chunk of your empire becomes the turf of a goody-two-shoes hippy minor race) go way up, and anyone abusing their people risks a revolution. You can go off and re-conquer what you lost, but it's really annoying.