Screenshot Democracy 3, an LP: Serenes Forest flies the Commonwealth of Australia into the [heavens/ground]

[Parrhesia]

Drill just to piss off the Greens out of spite.

The last question was all well and good, but it lacked the proper answer. Let them stay.

In island prisons.

[MRDRHAWK]

DRILL THAT SHIT

[Rehab]

Confirmed, we are drill, baby, drilling that shit.

Environmentalists are ticked, but still in the green, Capitalists are very modestly pleased, and the only stat that I can find being affected is our Oil Supply getting a small boost, which may lower our expenditures a bit. The environment got off kinda easy, really.

[spoiler=TURN 8: FIGURATIVE-LITERAL BABY STEPS, IF A G20 ECONOMY CAN BE ACCURATELY LIKENED TO A VERY LARGE AND CLUMSY BABY]Got some more bits and pieces that we can't quite all fully fund yet. Except the first one:

Great, cheap policy with only 2 downsides (other than the usual side-effects of growth): it costs 27 PC to enact, and takes 6 turns to get going. That last one is kind of a pain, because right now we have some Farmer-sympathetic ministers who could really stand to lighten up.

I debated whether it would actually be efficient to spend the money enacting this without funding it fully. At least it'll do something for the Capitalists, and better returns on our investments should be coming in any turn now.

And they do! But then turn 9 also decides to hit us with a triple whammy. Starting with that cheeky cunt Ollie:

I'm starting to wonder if taking the hit to all those ministers' Loyalty might actually be worth it if I can replace this jerk with some fresh 3.5+ PC young buck. Reshuffling the cabinet is also an option, but I'm worried that would also get rid of ministers who're doing fine. (I, uh, kinda forgot if it does that.)

More importantly:

The Conservatives refuse to be ignored any longer! Crap, and that approach was going so well, too. (A Religious terrorist group is also starting to grow in number.)

Now, most of the time I don't actually worry that much about the Conservatives in Democracy 3, because while they're a bit difficult to find scraps for and rarely start out very happy, the petty crime negative situations that most nations start out with tend to be doing the vast share of the work in pissing them off. Solve them, and the Conservatives have in my experience mostly buggered off. Unfortunately, while we finally have more than a couple billion spare to fund things with, dealing with those negative situations will take some time since we'd be doing it mostly from scratch, not least because the programs which deal with them (which in many cases the Conservatives like, win-win there) take like 4+ terms to implement (less win-win there). We may need to find a panic button of sorts to hit...

Oh, and the refugee policy question is back. Prepare to vote! Again!

Again: Liberals, Ethnic Minorities and Patriots are the only ones whose happiness is affected by the immigration control policy (the former two prefer it being more lax, Patriots love to see it tightened as far as possible), but we never know whether other factions or our foreign friends may be paying attention. (At this point, the patriots actually like us a lot more than the libs or minorities do. I don't have that happen all too often.) It's anybody's guess what other stats our decision might affect.

[spoiler=CURRENT AFFAIRS]Turn 9 main:

Just look at that sweet, sweet $17 billion surplus we've worked so hard for.

Also maybe prepare to say goodbye to some of it. :smith:

Also, the Capitalists are out of the red! Not that Ollie's likely to get off my ass about them any time soon.

Current Economy:

You may refer to my avatar for my current feelings regarding the Global Economy.

Security briefing:

We got a warning fairly early, but avoiding an assassination attempt by Conservative extremists could still come down to the wire. We need something fast-acting...

Also, aw god damn it

I am gonna drop like five bus subsidies on your ass I sw2g

Edited November 8, 2014 by Rehab

[Parrhesia]

I'm actually going to vote unironically for once as part of my political formation. Accept the boats.

[euklyd]

man, I even heard this being discussed plenty of times but I just never got around to looking for a thread
that has now been remedied, though 8]

Any idea if there are economic benefits / detriments to migrant workers (illegal or otherwise)?
like, cheap labor or more consumers or what-have-you

regardless, accept the boats

[Rehab]

man, I even heard this being discussed plenty of times but I just never got around to looking for a thread

that has now been remedied, though 8]

Any idea if there are economic benefits / detriments to migrant workers (illegal or otherwise)?

like, cheap labor or more consumers or what-have-you

regardless, accept the boats

Is cool! More the merrier

It's a bit up in the air. There's a lot of these "pick a choice" events in Democracy 3 which seem to only affect the happiness of a couple political factions, even when there are stats one might imagine they could be affecting ingame (though to be fair sometimes only one of the two choices will affect a non-happiness stat). This situation could indeed be tied to the Immigration stat (and it's anybody's guess which of the others that it could also affect), which does indeed have some economic consequences.

[spoiler=A LOOK AT IMMIGRATION IN DEMOCRACY 3]

Australia starts out with the second-highest tier of Border Control policy in the game, the Citizenship Tests policy in place, average GDP for the start (which means low) and high Unemployment, which keeps the stat low, so it might not look like much here. A high Immigration can be the single largest generator of the Racial Tension stat in the game, though, and while the Ethnic Minority faction doesn't like most of the policies that restrict immigration, they don't like Racial Tension much either, and on top of that if you pick at random from the policies which lower Racial Tension, you have about a 50% chance of picking one that also raises immigration. You can imagine how this may be a pain.

On the economic side: I believe higher immigration tends to contribute a slight boost in GDP (which contributes to boosting immigration, natch), but it also contributes to a higher Unemployment stat, with lowers Productivity and therefore GDP, and it also increases the cost of funding the State Housing and Health Service policies, along with positively contributing a tiny bit to the Homelessness negative situation.

So. Go figure. (If it's not clear, I'm less than totally sure of how "good" immigration is in Democracy 3.

Edited November 8, 2014 by Rehab

[Rehab]

Letting the refugees stay.

Dang it, of course the Conservatives were paying attention. Got a minor hit to their happiness and a slightly larger one for the Patriots (though not enough to drop them from green to yellow), and bonuses of the same respective sizes for the Liberals and Ethnic Minorities. Can't find any other stats that were affected.

[spoiler=TURNS 9 THROUGH 11: *HITS STAPLES BUTTON* ==> "THAT WAS EAS-" ==> *SOUNDS OF GUNFIRE*]When I checked the happiness pages for the Conservatives and the Religious, I found something I'd missed before; the policy that was doing more to make either of them angry than any other single one.

Sorry, Liberals, but this policy is doing way too much to put our asses on the line right now, and I need a politically expedient and frugal solution yesterday. Another time, maybe.

Also throwing this at the Conservatives and hoping the happiness boost activates fast.

Something I didn't realize before: see the zeros next to the happiness and negative situation modifiers? Apparently this goes into effect for them immediately, regardless of implementation delay. Damn it game, you gamin me

Turn 10 arrives bright-eyed and bushy-tail-

Oh. Oops.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0qXmxVySMzw

This is kinda weird. There's an actual stat called Work Week in the game, which makes the Trade Unionists angry and hits the health stat if it gets too high, but that hasn't changed for a bunch of terms, its current impact on either of those is tiny, and the policies that affect work week length haven't been touched yet, all still in neutral positions. Maybe some of these dudes just really want that raise? Come on fellas, make that paper

Speaking of raises,

YOU DID IT AUSTRALIA

Our GDP-boosters are getting funded as fuck. Now maybe the Capitalists will finally get off our collective ass. (They won't, but we can dream)

Fully funding old policies already in place:

The increase in police funding did a number on both of the petty crime negative situations, but Antisocial Behavior is still kicking in there. My apologies to Tryhard for switching focus a little in the middle of our assignment, but we gotta get the Conservatives off our asses.

Also hits racial tension. Not a bad little policy, I think. /bias showing

More filling out (this is a real good'un at full):

Doesn't affect the situations, but it's a bone for the Conservatives and Liberals, and actually relatively cheap. Man do I wish real life prison reform were this easy

And a 2-PC mo' money policy, just because we had some left over.

We start off turn 11 with a game of bad news, good news, holy-shit-are-you-kidding-me news.

Aw hell, Mitch, not you too! Both of your factions are in the middle-yellow, and Farmers should be in the green any quarter now, what do you want from me. God

Fittin' to build up a new cabinet at this rate...

In brighter news:

Phew, the Conservatives should be happy about tha-

JESUS.

With our ~40% funded army, we are, uh, kinda lucky we survived that, not gonna lie.

Hopefully that will be their last try, actually, and they got it all out of their system, now that we've derailed our agenda to wait on them hand and foot, the jerks.

[spoiler=THE REST OF TURN 11]Hopefully, this will get that last petty crime situation finished off a little quicker, as well as mollify the conservatives a little more. as if we weren't already devoting enough PC to doing that lately, damnit

The Liberals are a bit more noticeably displeased by this one than some of the others, so we may end up able to rationalize drawing back down and saving a billion or so later, when the Conservatives have settled down and crime isn't as much an issue. biased? don't know the meaning of the word

Also, another growth injection fully funded. Hopefully, we're pretty close to a nice little positive situation that we get when our Technology stat gets high enough.

And finally, as we mark the second half of our first elected term, going into turn twel- Aw, faith 'n'begorrah, another one?

Well. Hopefully we got the warning early enough to prepare something.

Anyway. We also have some good news!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUkimGuGDMs

The boost to both GDP and productivity (and therefore GDP) will get larger as our technology stat grows. Also, apparently, the less we teach creationism in our schools? (practical translation: the extent to which we are willing to go to spit in the Religious faction's face in this game)

Alllllll right then.

Also also, prepare to vote!

The most obvious players here are the Trade Unionists versus the Capitalists, respectively, but I would guess that the Liberals, Socialists and Self-Employed could also be listening. It's a crapshoot whether GDP, Productivity, or Health could also be affected a bit either way.

[spoiler=CURRENT AFFAIRS]Turn 12 main:

Huh. Almost everybody's out of the red, and some of the factions have almost traded places- the Conservatives and Capitalists are worlds happier than they were at the start though I somehow doubt that our Capitalist ministers will be appeased god damn it Ollie. Patriots have gone back down to yellow, but are still pretty happy. Remarkably, the Liberals and Religious are about equally unhappy at this point. Nobody make any sudden moves

Finance:

Don't look now, but I think the Global Economy might actually be on the rise! Also, our debt's really tapering off. Grow baby grow

Security:

Eurgh.

Part of the reason I'm not a big fan of the assassination system as implemented is that neither the bars on this screen nor the happiness meters on the main screen are terribly reliable indicators of when an attack will happen. I'm pretty sure that the turn before the Conservative terrorists attacked, the bar was no larger than it had been earlier, and I think the number count for the Moral Crusade group actually went down/the arrow was red that turn. But I've already said my piece on the mechanic.

Anyway. If we don't make it through the year, I'd just like to say that it has been a pleasure and a privilege legislating with you all.

God save AUS

Edited November 10, 2014 by Rehab

[Parrhesia]

Pass the law.

And christ, the idea of religious extremists in Australia... sure, we have a generic religious conservatives party (Family First) but it was literally outvoted by the Sex Party in most of the urban southeast...

Edited November 10, 2014 by Parrhesia

[Excellen Browning]

Block the law.

Even if it is TRUE too many workplace accidents happen, death is the result in only a tiny portion of those, not to mention the legal issues with subcontractors, etc. You'd be much better off improving and enforcing health & safety regulations. That or more actively pursue corporate negligence lawsuits, as I'm pretty sure a lot of accidents can be taken to court with existing law.

[Rehab]

Appropriately enough, there indeed is a policy or so that we can enact in Democracy 3 for that.

For the record, posts like Gyarados' giving things resembling real-world reasons behind our legislating rational are cool and welcome. However, you need only state your case- all will be heard.

[Excellen Browning]

Overall, what I think the country needs is a crackdown on crime. If the issues thing is up to date, three out of seven(?) are directly related to our crime rate.

I believe Rehab said that community policing might be a good way of lowering the petty street crime, as well as doing something about the lynching mobs going about. If I have received the correct information, we should also have room in our budget to pay for it.

[Rehab]

We have reached a brief state of legislative gridlock. Gyarados makes an interesting point for the Nays, but Parrhesia posted in bold for the Yays, and actually lives in Australia. Either choice may have considerable consequences to deal with.

Fortunately, as with most truly divisive arguments, we can flip a coin to determine our pick and pretty much be done with it. In the interest of not just showing you guys me flipping an actual coin:

Yays get it on 1, Nays have it on 2.

Nays have it. Not to worry Parrhesia, we should have a robust work-safety bill up and running soon.

Trade Unionists are a bit more upset, Capitalists a bit happier (for the moment). Turned out to actually be kind of a boring decision, nothing dramatic that I've been able to see.

[spoiler=TURNS 12 THROUGH 13: (THE SOUND OF ELLIPSES)]I'd like to get just a couple of things out of the way first. One more "gimme" GDP/Technology/Productivity booster for the road:

I didn't quite fund this fully, to try to ensure we'd keep our balanced budget, but it was hard not to; just look at that spread. This is a really good policy to fund... if you can afford it.

And then there's these guys.

I think I could've lived with trying to just get Ollie back on our side, but 2 ministers at minimum PC per turn and another one speeding to the bottom is just embarrassing. Turns out their experience might not have been worth it. Also, we can probably get enough capital per turn to make up the 10 PC spent on reshuffling in just one turn.

That'll do 'er.

(I probably could've replaced even more of them, but I stubbornly held onto a couple for their experience levels. Yeah, I know. My rationale was that it'll make for a more drastic difference in implementation time and policy costs to get rid of almost everybody who has been building up experience at this point than it would've been to just pick better-PC candidates over others with much slighter leads in experience in the beginning.)

(Also, since we've gotten to fund all these GDP boosters, we're probably really close to the part of the game where we're able to just snowball to universal love and negative-situation-defusing power and wealth. Plus we're already pretty close to good terms with most of the factions, so we should barely even have to worry about Loyalty soon enough!)

Turn 13 starts off with our investments in Community Policing and other like policies bearing fruit.

The Conservatives will get such a big happiness boost, they'll probably end up in the green! It's almost like 13 is our lucky num-wait a minute. What's that event exclamation point say?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQKrgA6Ye2g

Well, a couple of times I've had this event just be a matter of a few billions. Maybe we'll just be able to tighten our belts a little, ride it out, and it won't be so ba-

...

...

...

Will the Prime Ministers of Australia please stand by.

Lucky number 13, everybody.

Edited November 26, 2014 by Rehab

[Excellen Browning]

If I'm interpreting the graph right, the Strayan economy hasn't been hit as hard as it could have, or on average would have, when I compare it to the Global Economy drop. At a point like this, what I'd do depends entirely on the financial state the government finds itself in. If we have large reserves(if the game even models this), I suggest riding the year out as much as possible, while slowly cutting back on various policies. If we don't have such luck, I guess we'll just have to cut back immediately.

I suggest cutting in policies that mainly affect Retirees and/or State Employees, as these are the happiest groups and have continually been so. Community policing has also done it's job so cuts can be made there!

(I really don't know what level of involvement you expect from me, so I'm just throwing stuff out there)

[Parrhesia]

at least the socialists got a boost of *checks notes* .08

I suggest doing whatever Wayne Swan did, since it basically worked.

[euklyd]

imo there are two courses of action we should take

first, fund a hefty economic stimulus package, and possibly bail out some banks if they ask you to give them money

which I'm sure they'd be responsible about

and then more importantly link our citizens to more simon and garfunkel

[Klokinator]

imo there are two courses of action we should take

first, fund a hefty economic stimulus package, and possibly bail out some banks if they ask you to give them money

which I'm sure they'd be responsible about

and then more importantly link our citizens to more simon and garfunkel

cant tell if trolling

[euklyd]

cant tell if trolling

honestly I'm not sure either

at least part of it was

(the bailout thing was not exactly subtle)

but economic stimulus programs are - generally - effective for salvaging your GDP, much more than austerity, and in this game it sounds like public opinion matters hella more (and like GDP is probably the most important factor for that)

[Parrhesia]

speaking as someone living in an Australia which is introducing austerity programs for literally no reason, I would firmly vote against austerity and in favour of literally anything else

[Rehab]

Man, it would be cool if Democracy 3 touched fiscal policy, stimulus packages et al more. As it is, there actually is a Currency Strength stat, but it's kinda hard to intentionally manipulate, and it only has tiny affects on our Tourism and International Trade income stats. Those... probably aren't as important in Democracy 3 as they are in real life.

If I'm interpreting the graph right, the Strayan economy hasn't been hit as hard as it could have, or on average would have, when I compare it to the Global Economy drop. At a point like this, what I'd do depends entirely on the financial state the government finds itself in. If we have large reserves(if the game even models this), I suggest riding the year out as much as possible, while slowly cutting back on various policies. If we don't have such luck, I guess we'll just have to cut back immediately.

I suggest cutting in policies that mainly affect Retirees and/or State Employees, as these are the happiest groups and have continually been so. Community policing has also done it's job so cuts can be made there!

(I really don't know what level of involvement you expect from me, so I'm just throwing stuff out there)

(You're doing great, thanks. I mostly just paused the LP there to give you guys a heads-up, because I thought it made for a nice, ludicrously on the nose dramatic update, for us to have been working our way towards economic strength for so long, and then BAM! Mortage crisis. and maybe because I got a little carried away once I decided I was going to imbed SoS.) (Panic? Me? Never)

[spoiler=TURNS 14 THROUGH 15: I GOT YOUR STIMULUS PACKAGE RIGHT HERE]In lieu of quanitative easing via fiscal policy, we're going to draw on the next-closest thing we have to a bottomless pit of free money: our lovely, attractive tax base. :smgu:

Starting off with an old favorite:

So the GDP docking is getting a bit noticeable, but hey, we needed a boost to the environment anyway, and it's just a couple more percent. We have tons of programs in the works that should counteract it, and it's not exactly catastrophic in the first place.

This one I feel just a little bit more evil about, but it's a pretty efficient way of landing another 3 billion. Go to war with the rum fields you've got, so to speak.

Plus we have an alcohol abuse problem that's literally costing us more than this tax is bringing in.

As Gyarados suggested, drawing down of some policies used to vanquish crime situations:

I know, I didn't cancel it, but I like Community Policing :< Hard to replicate the Racial Tension reduction. We may come back for the rest of it, but I think we're going to be okay long-term.

Hopefully turn 14 brings happier-

Jeez. How many times are you gonna make a liar outta me today, Democracy 3

(Also, how often do credit rating agencies even do re-ratings??)

This tacks a bit more onto our deficit, but at least it's down from ~27 billion the turn before to ~17 billion now. It's good, but I want something, perhaps a bit drastic, to close the gap quick.

This is kinda playing with fire. The corporation tax can contribute to some nasty negative situations, but I'm wagering on this not being quite enough to blow us up. Capitalists won't be happy, but they're not quite our highest priority at the moment.

On the reduction side:

On one hand I felt like these were some nice bonuses to be giving up for just one billion and the Liberals quieting a little, but our Violent Crime stat is actually at zero now, in spite of the Organized Crime situation. It can go no lower, and we have a bunch of ways to fight regular Crime already. This is looking just a tad redundant.

And finally:

Oh, yeah. We're waking that dragon.

(Or really, more like very gingerly propping up the dragon's claws so as to lift a 2 billion bauble from its grasp, but anyway. This is actually one of the easier public funds to take from with relatively little consequences in D3, barring the 26 PC cost ending Turn 15 for us.)

Phew. That actually could've been a lot worse for us. We're down to just a billion dollar deficit or so.

And of course we get a policy question just as we're about to cross the threshold. Prepare to vote!

Thanks for the reminder, Homer.

This one's a bit hard to read, though I'm guessing it's another round of Liberals (and maybe Foreign Relations?) vs Capitalists (and maybe some GDP?). Choose wisely.

[spoiler=CURRENT AFFAIRS]Turn 15 main:

The Capitalists aren't quite so in love with us at the moment, and I think the Trade Unionists are still smarting over that manslaughter bill block, but things are mostly evening out. It'd be nice to get the TU's not-miffed at us for the sake of at least one of our ministers, though.

Finance:

At least it's popping back up at a faster rate than normal. We should come out of this recession stronger than we were going in. *knocks on some hollow-ass wood*

Security:

juststandingthere-menacingly.jpg

Edited November 11, 2014 by Rehab

[euklyd]

Starting off with an old favorite:

hype 8]

imo it'd make more sense implement as few new taxes as feasible at least until your GDP recovers, but idk if the game will even factor that into your economy, so it probably doesn't matter

as far as land mines are concerned you should ban the shit out of them

also I am proposing a mandatory minimum sentence for any citizen that says something along the lines of "waaaah you're taking away my right to defend my home"

(yes I'm aware that's not the issue shut up)

it's also the option less likely to piss off the human rights society even further

sidenote: what the fuck does "minimal" membership mean if "11 members" doesn't count

pedit: wow only when looking at the full-size images do I notice that it tells you how much things change on the graph portion

[Parrhesia]

The reject law uses a really stupid slippery slope argument so based on general principle pass the law

also lol oh man 4% approval rating for the carbon tax this game just got realistic again

[euklyd]

The reject law uses a really stupid slippery slope argument so based on general principle pass the law

this is also a good point - pettiness based on one side making scummy arguments is a great way to decide how to vote

(I would know I actually did some of this in the election last week I don't regret it at all)

[spoiler=also thanks for reminding me I can post]

[Klokinator]

Whoa whoa whoa, pass the law. No no, never ever put down land mines. Do you guys even realize how awful land mines are? Entire countries are ravaged by land mine plagues. Thanks to wars where these things were spammed fucking everywhere. years after the conflict(s) have ended, the entire countryside is basically unusable. Mines get covered by grass, and stay usable for potentially hundreds of years. Children step on them and die, lose their limbs, or simply suffer awful disfiguring injuries for the rest of their life.

No self respecting human could reject a law banning land mines. Make all the arguments about guns that you want, there is a big fucking difference between a clearly visible weapon and threat and an invisible killer waiting to murder innocent children.

Edit: Misread Parrhesia's post, my bad.

Edited November 11, 2014 by Klokinator

[Excellen Browning]

While I wouldn't use the "eats babies" style argument, land mines are an economical weapon in the long run. After you planted them, who's gonna clean them up?

[Klokinator]

Well, there is this...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YeFY2vTW538