Rehab

Sutton finally has the bank to match its ambitions, finally blood enough for its great heart. Once it claims the same benefits, infrastructure and attention its rivals have so long taken for granted, all football shall know fear.

You might've ducked being actually called misogynist if you had left out the old gold-digger standby. I've personally heard the former more than the latter around some of my hangouts, at least, but I don't think I could count the latter out. Acceptance and encouragement of women in workplace and educational cultures are especially common subjects for me to hear from them, though, yes. That and women still having lower participation in the workforce are often mentioned near the same breath. I do have to say that I've probably seen more data showing that incomes, participation and representation of women are getting better as we go forward than the reverse. I've also heard the idea part of why we don't see as many women who have pierced then inner sanctum of jobs/areas that tend to require time invested and experience gained may be because we care, pay attention to and expend effort more on the whole thing than we used to, back when those dudes were the young up-and-comers. Could be at least one less-toxic reason why the gap may be more noticeable in the 30+ age range (which is when people tend to get married and have kids moreso overall, of course. slightly less less-toxic area. I also wonder if that part might help inform the overall pay gap, given (I hope it's safe to assume) older-than-30 people tend to make more of the money made). I assume/realize conflicting studies and assessments no doubt abound, though.

Waitresses making more would be an example for a big huge prime argument for a ton of feminists I've heard from, actually. I've heard a bunch say that women actually find themselves in service industry jobs a lot more, both because it's seen as their "sphere" culturally and because both just making it and getting equal pay elsewhere is disproportionately harder. And then they still lose out in aggregate pay, between professions. In other words, female waitresses making more than male waiters comes out as a wash at best, because who wants to grow up to be a waiter? (to replace "waiter" with every single job that women overall make more than men in wouldn't always have the same effect, but the point of the argument I've seen remains that those jobs still don't make for a playing field that's in the favor of women overall) Not to say I personally think the whole set of issues that make up "gender gap shit in the workplace" is so straightforward that it only ever runs one way in every situation, but I wouldn't exactly want to trade.

So far as I'm aware, every nation in Democracy 3 starts with their creationism v. evolution position dead in the middle of the spectrum. It seems a bit weird to me too, but I guess it could also mean "is allowed to opt out of being taught evolution." Never personally heard of somebody being tested on the principles of creationism in public school myself, though, yeah. (and I live in the U.S.) In-game, the issue is mostly used to determine whether you want to grow or lower the population of the Religious faction, assuming you're willing to piss off the Liberal or Religious faction respectively. Foreign Relations got a boost from upholding the whaling ban. Not a lot of other people seemed to care- the Capitalists weren't any happier, but they didn't put much effort into complaining, and the Environmentalists are physically incapable of liking us any more than they already do. [spoiler=TURNS 31 AND 32: YOU CANNOT GRASP THE TRUE FORM OF THIS (FACEPLANT)]The short and long of this post: Oil. Fuck oil. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4A2UvekxsWw Far as I know, there are roughly 2 ways to deal with oil-related expenditures in Democracy 3: lowering the Oil Demand stat by lowering Car Usage and enacting a bunch of other policies that affect it directly (a couple of which we happened to get to this turn), and using the Oil Drilling Subsidies policy to increase the Oil Supply stat (along with GDP, at ~50%+ funding). The latter costs 36 PC and probably the most money of any policy in the game to fully fund, in Australia's case over $100 billion, but its minimum funding (designated "None," meaning "Lowest") is less than a single billion and increases Oil Supply a fair amount, so I'd say that much is actually a pretty good investment, if we're willing to go for it (and anger the Environmentalists, but I'm pretty sure they love us so much by this point that they would barely even notice, at least not at lowest-funding). Another problem is that Oil Supply continually falls as time passes in the game no matter what we do, though, so the first way of dealing with the problem is inevitably going to be necessary. You know what? We have way too little time left to be begging our ministers to stay. Time for a shuffle. We need PC more than we need to keep every single one of our experienced ministers right now, but exchanging everyone in our cabinet who we could get more PC from could be asking for our budget to take a bigger hit than we can handle. I opted to just get rid of the 2 who had dropped to 1.0 PC per turn- replaced one with a 4.6 PC-er (Conservatives and Trade Unionists, which means he at least shouldn't abandon us any time soon), and the other with a 2.3-er with a little more experience and factions that both like us a good bit (Socialist and Liberal). Kind of a "fuck it, it'll do" solution. On to addressing the oil stuff. Starting with a somewhat contradictory policy: New Car Subsidies reduces Oil Demand and CO2 Emissions, and boosts The Environment directly, but it also boosts Car Usage and (very slightly) GDP, which have the opposite effects. I was sort of hesitant to enact it before, but decided that the direct hit to Asthma Epidemic probably makes it worth the PC. It's like good news and bad news alternate every turn: Gonna wait just one more turn to repeal the Internet Tax, though: So. I only found that this policy deals with Rare earth crisis, and extremely well at that, I might say, just the other day while messing around in a different file. On one hand, this means we can probably get back Technological Advantage before the term ends! This is good! On the other hand: <God fucking damn it, Democracy 3 Anyway. Continuing to deal with the oil stuff: This should be good for the country long-term, but it also increases Car Usage. We'll have to tape that down a bit later, as well. Another question with international implications. Prepare to vote! What the heck kinda trade agreement has "prevent emerging economies from catching up and secure economic dominance at the expense of global equality" in the mission statement? So, the Liberals get mad if we pick the first choice. The Capitalists won't get too pissed if we don't, but, y'know. Foreign Relations also improves if we refuse, while I believe GDP improves if we sign. [spoiler=CURRENT AFFAIRS]Turn 32 main: $28 billion surplus, we hardly knew ye. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBE787hdjz0 No tears. Straya will have its revenge, even if we have to run a deficit. This I swear. (that's safer to do now that our debt is so low, to be sure- less danger of credit rating downgrades) Finance: I'm assuming this future is an economist's worst nightmare. We've rebounded from a market crash, are now on the way down from the recovery of it, we might even see a second one, and we haven't been here ten years. Security: man_tips_over_trashcan_fuckthepolice.gif

For all who just read the above post: sorry about your eyes

Special ALERT: Being that we have only ten turns remaining, I thought I'd update you guys on what stat changes have taken place since our delegation of The Sky Blue United Party came into office in Australia, in case you wanted to tackle any of them before we meet the term limit that I we have set for ourselves. Positive stats that we've already maxed out (as in, the game won't recognize that we can push them any higher): -Education -Energy Efficiency -Foreign Relations -Health -Productivity -Technology (nearly) Negative stats that we've already bottomed out: -Crime -CO2 Emissions (very nearly) -Racial Tension -Violent Crime Also, an incomplete list of things which we could change Straya's position on before we leave office (with our current position on each bolded): -Abortion Legality (5 settings: Total ban, Life threatened, Limited circumstances, With approval of 2 doctors, On demand) -Alcohol Laws (6 settings: No limits, Minimum age 16, Minimum age 18, Minimum age 21, Low strength beer, Strong restrictions) -Armed Police (6 states: None (requires cancelling the policy, also it's 48 friggin PC), Specialists, In every department, Widespread, Every officer armed, Submachineguns) -College Grants (7 settings: None (cancel policy), Partial fees paid, Fees paid, Grants for poor schools, Partial grants, Grants for all, Generous grants) -Creationism vs. Evolution [being taught in schools] (5 states: Creationism only, Emphasis on creationism, Both systems taught, Emphasis on evolution, Evolution only) -Gambling (4 states: Illegal (requires cancelling the policy), Limited stakes, No stakes limit, No restrictions) -Electric Cars Initiative: (4 states: None (requires cancelling policy), Public transport, Taxis, Ban gas-powered) -Handgun Laws (7 settings: No restrictions, No machineguns, No automatics, License required, License required+minimum age, Strict controls, Total ban) -Immigration Control (5 states: Random passport checks, Passport checks, Biometric checks, Armed guards, Retina scans) -Labor Laws (3 states: Pro-employer, Balanced, Pro-union) -Legal Drug Consumption (4 settings: All illegal, Cannabis legal, Cannabis and LSD legal, All drugs legal) -Limits on Automated Trading (6 settings: No limits, Frequency limits, Trading delays, Circuit breakers, Ban high-frequency, Total ban) -Prostitution Legality (basically Yes/No, there's a slider but it lets us fill in the blanks regarding the stages of it) -Wiretapping (7 settings: None (cancel policy), With government decree, With judicial order, With police chief order, On police request, Widespread, Universal) And a special section for "shit that's so expensive we could probably only completely fill out two more of them, depending:" -Military Spending (6 states: Ceremonial only, Reservists, Light defensive, Well trained, Highly trained, OVERWHELMING FORCE) (guess what the USA starts with. go on, guess) -Public Education (5 states: None (42 PC to cancel, actually doable), Wooden schoolhouses, Shared textbooks, Modern textbooks, Student laptops) -Public Healthcare (6 states: None (it costs 60 PC to cancel this policy. I wouldn't hold my breath, although technically I could do another cabinet reshuffle for it maybe?), Life-threatening only, All major operations, Serious illnesses only, Some prevention, Excellent healthcare) -Road Building (5 states: Essential maintenance, Basic maintenance, Existing roads fixed, Some expansion, Major expansion, Major new road network) -State Housing (standard states: None (canceled), "None" (except it's actually more like "Lowest"), Low, Medium, High, Maximum) -State Pensions (standard states: None (canceled), "None" ("Lowest"), Low, Medium, High, Maximum) -Unemployed Benefit (standard states: None (canceled), "None" ("Lowest"), Low, Medium, High, Maximum) An even-specialler section for "things that will make me look at you with sad puppy eyes if you ask me to decrease funding for them to anything below the absolute maximum, but will ultimately relent on:" (mostly for practical purposes. AKA "things which are really fucking OP in Democracy 3:") -Intelligence Services (5 states: A few spies, Small spy agency, Sizable spy agency, High tech spy service, Spy satellite network) -Police Force (standard states: "None" (except it's not really "none," you can't cancel it), Low, Medium, High, Maximum) -Prison (5 settings: Overcrowded cells, Shared cells, Basic Provision, Some rehabilitation, Extensive rehabilitation) -Science Funding (4 states: Test tubes, Microscopes, Electron microscopes, Particle accelerators) Also also, the lists of both "all the policies we haven't yet enacted" and "all the policies we have yet enacted" in the second post have been updated. "when will you update the situation profiles for the ones we got after the game started?" you may think to ask. the answer to that is *breaks down laugh/crying*" All stances+stats maxed updated as of turn 38.

After everybody refused to shut up about it on twitter even after the normal cycle-of-outrage length of time had passed, we threw up our hands and went with reforming. It took an entire month to convince the Secret Service we weren't going to take away their spy satellite(s), but we got them down from their tree eventually. Patriots seem to be the only ones angered, but they're indeed kicking up a fair bit of a fuss. Still in the yellow, though. (what does it take to miff the State Employees faction, I wonder?) Foreign Relations also got a boost, now that I look back at it. Holly Ellis hasn't been in the news as much lately... some are wondering if [REDACTED] [spoiler=TURN 30: I WISH THERE WERE 4 DAYS IN MAJORA'S MASK, SO I COULD MAKE A "DAWN OF THE FINAL DAY" JOKE HERE. OTHER THAN THIS ONE]We're about halfway through our final term, and we're... expending effort to try to get our ministers to not resign. Hrm. Maybe we could stand to shift our priorities a little... This is a pretty good policy as far as Democracy 3 is concerned, though. Youth Club Subsidies is fairly cheap in both funding and PC, puts a fair dent in crime, and only improves happiness. It doesn't directly affect any situations as far as I'm aware, but that's not much of a weakness. I've been thinking of enacting it and then cancelling CCTV Cameras, to get our Liberal ministers to lighten up (and also to save money on crime-fighting.) Pity that'll just barely cost more than our current PC-per-turn intake. what's that, you say? biased? sorry, can't hear you over all our Liberal ministers whingeing at me And as part of a push to finally destroy Asthma Epidemic once and for all, I'd like to present the policy with the third-highest positive impact on The Environment in the game, as far as I'm aware (behind Pollution Controls and Clean Energy Subsidies): Pretty cheap, aside from the 13 PC. On the downside, it's slow to implement and hurts the income of a fair portion of the population. what does that even mean in practical terms though, D3? We're going ahead with it because what do you mean we didn't have anything like this before at all Another update where not one turn passes before we get a policy question. Prepare to vote! I'm kinda stumped as to what we're doing debating whaling going on in Japanese waters. Maybe we're just picking our public stance on it? Maybe some supporters here are going "they still whale, why can't we whale?!" I believe that in the game's practical terms, the choice is between Capitalist favor and GDP/Unemployment-busting maybe? and Environmentalist favor and Foreign Relations, respectively. [spoiler=CURRENT AFFAIRS]Since it has (only) been one (bloody) turn, the only real difference between turn 30's main screen and turn 29's is that our Expenditures are down ~$1 billion and our Income is up ~$4 billion, for a surplus of ~$28 billion. Finance, on the other hand: Income up, Expenditures down... yet (Relative) GDP and the Global Economy are also down. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfpVd3BpQrc One problem Democracy 3 has is that while almost everything significant* happens for discrete reasons, and experience+study of the stats can at least allow one to make educated guesses as to what's behind what happening, the game doesn't always make it abundantly clear just what previously lead to what's happening now, at least not on any one screen. Maybe the Oil Price dropped? Maybe it's because our Health has improved? But even if that would explain it, did truly nothing happen that boosted GDP? We just don't know. (Or at least I don't.) *Except what policy question the game decides to throw at us on a given turn. And market crashes. I think? Well, maybe that's not entirely true, those might happen because we turned the difficulty up to 200% and the game feels like having a laugh. Security: Everybody's too busy being Egalitarian to want to blow us up. If only we didn't have so much to do, we could spend more time increasing Equality to counteract how hard Tax Shelters is hitting it.

1. I believe you said you've lived in both rural-ish and urban areas? Where were those, if you can say, and what was the lay of the land (grassy, arid, forested etc) like? 2. Since I feel like I don't know shit about non-European sailing traditions, which ones might you be interested in? (If I'm remembering correctly) 3. What-all role-playing games (tabletop) (or maybe keyboard-top, as the case may be) have you played? 4. If I asked what, if any creative/artistic aspirations you have, what would come to mind?

Admittedly, while I did find Democracy 3 a little overwhelming at first, it has a design which might be considered a lot simpler in some ways than I originally assumed- a lot of things which one might imagine to be heavily interconnected and complicated may be much more one-off than they could be, and could be seen as coming down to individual positive/negative influences on income and popularity, if you boil them hard enough (that might not be totally accurate, but I've found that way of thinking about what the game throws at us works well enough to help us "win"). It's also not quite as hard as it first felt- things vary between the default nations,* but once you get rolling towards financial stability, things can build on themselves pretty quickly. Clones&Drones feels like it has made it a bit harder to just steamroll towards a utopia of your choice in the lategame, though. (but then again, if I did this run over I would find a lot of missteps I made which would be fairly simple to correct) I feel I'd be underselling it if I didn't mention that to its credit, it's heavily moddable, though. *For example, with Australia here on 200% difficulty, although we got lucky that the assassination attempt failed, winning the election required scarcely a single blatantly pandering act of populism, and I managed to never totally shit up beyond repair what's effectively an Ironman playthrough. Whereas in my U.S.A. playthrough (for fun times, make your first playthrough Canada on 100% difficulty, and then immediately start one as America on 200%), I spent almost half an actual week figuring out how to avoid the Debtzilla situation and then not get assassinated along the way. And even now, although I can manage to get its finances something vaguely like under control with great difficulty, I still haven't been able to win the first election as the U.K. on 200% difficulty+other default settings. I've heard that Masters of the World: Geopolitical Simulator 3 is a bit more completely insaiyan alien and unknowable, like the mind of a god hardcore, if buggy. I'd still call Democracy pretty fun as a game, though. (but then I'm LP'ing it, so I might be biased)

Wouldn't you know it, rain turned to snow midway through the morning here, so I figured I might as well get another quick update out. We shot the database down. The Liberals and the Conservatives look like they were the only ones to have cared much about the idea, the former happy enough to have finally gotten in the green and the latter miffed again but also still in the green. Not a bad balance we've achieved. Mostly. [spoiler=TURNS 28 AND 29: *POPEYE THEME INTENSIFIES*. MOSTLY]As I thought, we do indeed have a sizable surplus. Among other things to deal with, as we near the second half of our final term. I belieeeve this is a notice we can get when we have a high enough Technology rating? It may be a holdover from an earlier version of the game where Internet Access was a tracked stat; (Don't know that it has any non-flavor impacts now, though.) And just in case we were getting too proud of ourselves: Up until this past turn, both the Liberals and Parents have been in the yellow, so Cat may have kind of a point. But she's not gonna make it easy on us. Still, I'd rather not throw away the Experience she's been acquiring, so we may hold off on another reshuffle. (though another minister, our Foreign Policy one with Youth and Capitalist ties, is also heading for bottom PC. she may be harder to bribe back into good graces) To that end: Policies that just make a faction a bit happier aren't my biggest favorites in the game, but they can actually be used towards some interesting effects when they influence the membership of a faction (represented by the second tick there, with the restroom/roadside sign people logo), like in order to make a faction that likes us get a bigger share of the vote, or (in the case of opposing factions, like Liberals/Conservatives or Socialists /Capitalists) to depopulate a faction entirely. Also, it would probably cost more money overall to just boot her at this juncture, and pleasing both those factions shouldn't be that hard to do anyway Towards pleasing the other one: The Youth+Capitalist minister will probably be a bit harder, because while the Youth aren't that hard to please they might require a bit more PC, and the Capitalists are... harder to please without angering other people. And also just get upset with some policies that are otherwise pretty good as far as pure numbers in D3 go, IMO. We'll try our best, anyway. And with my apologies to Excellen and Parrhesia, I'm afraid this is the least I can do that I know will finish off Corporate Exodus quickly: Technically we don't have to do this to keep from going bankrupt or anything, and it's a bit hazardous to the Egalitarian Society positive situation, but I'll be damned if I let those Maroon slags say we left Australia an iota weaker than we found it. We can cancel it as soon as its work is done, to be sure. To try to counteract the hit to Equality, among other things, we can fill out the funding for Food Stamps: We're gonna need to do a bit more to keep E.S., but it should indeed be doable, since the Equality hit only implements gradually. I would've liked to do something more for Equality this turn, but everything I could find required me to spend too much PC to get something else done the next turn, so I just went with a little 2-PC throwaway to nick a situation we haven't been paying that much attention towards: Alcohol Abuse is still driving up our Expenditures by $7+ billion. I think I may've had enough of that. Turn 29 throws us another little reward for our efforts. (with my continued apologies to Tryhard) This is another cause for some guilt, but by the game's terms it'll stop Internet Crime even quicker than Internet Censorship. (which, uh, might not actually be saying much on its own, because that implements kinda slow, but anyway it's pretty fast trust me.) (/nervous smile) Our Intelligence Services helped Parliament to craft the tax in closed-door sessions, and at the announcement of its implementation, a representative of the former wished to assure us that the tax specially targets those most likely to commit Internet Crime. When asked how the heck they'll manage that, and just how effective that's going to be anyway, said representative declared the Q&A session to be over and used a grappling hook to escape via skylight. The sound of a helicopter nearby could be briefly heard over the building. We decided not to think about it too much. (This also should be temporary) Speaking of, our Secret Service (as opposed to our Intelligence Services?) endured a scandalous leak this month. Prepare to judge! So, this coooooould be a nod to, y'know. That one guy, and also possibly that one woman. Maybe. (Not that it goes into any detail.) Or maybe in Australia's case, that wiretapping stuff? Again, it's probably the Patriots/Conservatives? versus the Liberals. Foreign Relations may also be at risk, anybody's guess what else. [spoiler=CURRENT AFFAIRS]29 main: Aw yeah, the surplus is back baby. Friggin Middle Incomes won't lighten up, though. The Socialists are miffed, but they should be back to green when the Tax Shelters have finally finished the deed. Finance: Hrm. Global Economy's a bit worrisome, but our Income doesn't look to have suffered too much. (or maybe it's just that it's finally getting free of a bunch of other, uh, suffrin's.) Please stand by... Security: I'm imagining a huge auditorium with nobody in the seats except one grumpy suited man in the far back.

The Conservatives and especially the Patriots are about as mad as policy question decisions can make a faction, though the former are still in the green and latter are still mid-yellow. Liberals are happy, Ethnic Minorities keeping out of it. [spoiler=TURN 27: LIKE DOMINOES, I TELL YA]2 more down, ~4 to go: And that positive situation I was hoping for did indeed start up: I half-felt like that was a bit too easy, but to be sure Australia starts out just a couple boosters away from a maxed Education stat, and the population only just started getting some Ethnic Minorities in the mix, so there was very little Racial Tension too. (again, the effectiveness of your actual poverty-fighting methods in our reality may vary) Just to get it out of the way, we spend all our PC this turn on the lowest implementation of Rare Earth Mining: The Productivity boost is pretty massive for so little funding, but it compensates by taking forrreeeevvvveerrrrrrr to implement. It's even more like slapping on a slow-growing buff than a bunch of the other economic booster policies. Wouldn't let us go even one turn without a question this time. Prepare to vote! Liberals versus Conservatives, round jillion I believe. Crime could be affected, though ours has almost bottomed out regardless. I may have encountered some kind of bug- I could've sworn that we initially had a $10 billion surplus this turn, but after passing just R.E.M., suddenly it jumped up and we were at an $8 billion deficit. Then I did some fidgeting, I think, and it was back to the previous. Then I reloaded the turn, and it went from surplus to deficit again, but it won't go back. I'll just list the Security page for Turn 27. They really did all calm down. Woo! (Not seen here: The Middle Incomes are still in the red, but I could've sworn they flipped from that to yellow in between my checking some stat pages. We'll see what the fuck next turn <_> )

So Excellen's thoughtful restraint is appreciated as always, but I think we're criticizing the monarch you guys

As expected, the Everyone faction took a ('nother) hit and the Farmers are extra-pissed (but at least still high in the yellow), while the Capitalists are sitting pretty, and our economic/environmental stats are... unharmed. Also untouched. Hrm. And of course the game would pick right now to throw another curveball. [spoiler=TURNS 25-26: I GOT YOUR BOOTSTRAPS RIGHT HER- *COUGHS BLOOD*] So turn 25 starts out just swimmingly- wait, what's that there WHAT Oh, and I checked our security screen that same turn just for laughs. Okay. I'm cool. It's fine. Everything's fine. I spent rather a lot of time trying to figure out where to go with this turn. We have a lot on our plate: -try to get the Middle Incomes to crack a smile (our chosen method for which costs more than a turn's worth of PC) -not get assassinated by the Religious (who hold sway over a maddening 1.60% of the population fer chrissake) or Liberals (who (in large part because of the demographic shifts enabled by our policies) are 3/4 of the population and in the mid-yellow, which is kinda "uhhhh *loosens collar, sweats*") (both of their terrorist groups started growing as of turn 25) -beat down the Corporate Exodus (starting to worry again that we might indeed have to temporarily use Tax Shelters to finally end it) -enact Rare Earth Mining (again, more than a turn of PC) -finally destroy the Asthma Epidemic once and for all (jesus do I ever hope it doesn't come back afterwards) -destroy the Internet Crime situation, whose enders (Internet Censorship and/or Internet Tax) require both at least a turn of PC and piss some dudes off (hopefully, both will be temporary) -get the money to enact a version of the Climate Change Adaptation Fund which does more than jack diddly squat (so like 27 billion spare) -ensure The Poor don't get any more eaten than they are already -Biohazard?! What do you want from us Democracy 3 So, I got to thinking; we're gonna be playing catchup for months until our ministers get the lead out of their asses. My personal preference as a D3 player would be to enact some faction-pleasing policies in order to please our ministers and get our PC per turn back up, now that we have a good little surplus again, but that comes second to the will of the PMs, of course. Then I realized something: the Homelessness situation negatively influences the happiness of both the Middle Incomes and Liberals! (And, uh, The Poor, obviously. *cough*) If we beat it, we should be able to hit a flock of issues with one stone! Working towards that end, 2 policies that are great at fighting Poverty, a major contributor to Homelessness in D3: I'm being a little stingy with funding at the moment, but lucky for even miserly me there's another function that can do just as much to fight Poverty as Food Stamps fully-enacted for less than a third of the price (your realism may vary): Now that is a dang good policy as far as D3 is concerned. (we can also go back and fund Food Stamps fully any time, for the extra Poverty kick/Equality boost/things) Also, since Euklyd suggested it and we owe Tryhard something for the Environment/Asthma Epidemic anyway: I don't think I realized before how good a policy the Hybrid Car Initiative is in a gamey sense. Only $0.33 billion to fund, reduces Oil Demand (good for Expenditures) and helps the Environment, and costs a mere 9 PC to enact, plus it makes nobody unhappy. The thing I was a bit slow to overlook before was that it increases Car Usage, but the Environment boost is at least double that, so it should actually be good overall for the Asthma Epidemic and such. Kinda. Feeling a little dumb for not realizing how good it is earlier. Turn 26 gives us a chance to breath. I decided to save some of our PC after enacting the first thing, to check if you guys have any preferences as to what to focus on. Despite that things may look like they're going a little topsy-turvy, I think we actually have enough wiggle room that you guys can feel free to pick which of the above concerns to focus on first. (it's just that as de facto treasurer, I may end up also acting to try to increase our Income somehow at the same time) That first thing: The power player in me sees this as a candidate for getting raised in the future. Jacking up the Food Price too quick might have undesired consequences, though, so I left it on the edge of "LOW" funding for the moment. (Interestingly, if you push the slider all the way to the left, it will say "NONE," despite that we're obviously still funding it and it has an effect. D3 got quirks) We also have a chance to breath because we just got a great policy question. Prepare to... prevaricate?! Patriots and Conservatives versus Liberals, Ethnic Minorities, and maybe Foreign Relations? Too perfect. Should've sent poet. [spoiler=CURRENT AFFAIRS]Turn 26 main: The faction happiness front might not look much improved, but on the other hand: Read em and weep, Poverty. Also, once we get our Equality stat high enough, a positive situation called Egalitarian Society should start, which'll make the Everyone "faction" happier. Should be good for our security, too. Finance: Phew, the Global Economy thing was just a stutter. So far. The decrease in (Relative) GDP makes me wonder a little, though. We don't have a lot of direct GDP-boosters left, but not to worry, there's plenty of stuff yet to do to increase our Income (and that's going beyond just ending Internet Crime and Corporate Exodus). Security: Our worries aren't quite dealt with, but at least the bar's not speeding towards an assassination attempt. I'm banking on Homelessness ending soon to make everybody lighten up a little.

Red just means we don't have enough PC to spend on a given policy that turn; those always get shunted below the ones in white, which are the ones we still have the PC to enact for that turn. Although generally the farther down we go through a sphere of administration, the more likely they are to get plain nutty, yes (To be sure, a lot of the really wacky ones, as noted above, came with the second DLC, rather accurately titled EXTREMISM) (>Compulsory Work for the Unemployed was in there)

To be sure the Poor have a bunch more stuff we can throw at them, like Food Stamps and Free School Meals are pretty good policies just by the numbers in D3 that I've been meaning to get off for a while now, and they'll also just be really pleased to have the Homelessness situation dealt with. If it seems like I haven't cared about their happiness very much, a good deal of that's just because I've just been putting off the measures for them a while.

Yeah, I'm also a bit wary of implementing it fully just on the gameplay side, because the Clones&Drones store page lists a new situation to come with the DLC called Real estate bubble. Makes me kinda nervous. (Other situations said to come with C&D that I've never yet seen: Cyclones Food crisis Drone Protests Luddite Riots Antibiotics-Resistant Bacteria Weather Prediction Technology Virtual Reality Market Leader Some of these make me nervous enough to think about putting in place some other policies, like (low-level?) Antibiotics Ban and maybe a very low-level Automation Tax, hopefully before they trigger)

A good question, which I wish had a wider variety of answers in D3. Out of literally all the yet-unimplemented policies (which for reference may also be found at the bottom of this post), [spoiler=IF YOU ASK ME TO PREVIEW EVERY SINGLE ONE I'M GONNA GIVE YOU SUCH A PINCH] I am only sure that Home Fabrication Grants, Mortgage Tax Relief, and Health/School Tax Credits make Middle Incomes happier. [spoiler=AND WOULDN'T YOU KNOW IT, ALL OF THOSE MAKE SOMEBODY UNHAPPY] All of them tend to increase Middle Earnings, but the tax credits (almost) all increase privatized forms of a bunch of things, which may reduce Homelessness or increase Education or Health or whatever, but increasing private ___ also tends to reduce Equality and decrease Poor and Middle Earnings, whereas state-funded versions don't, and which usually only make the Capitalists less happy. And the Home Fabrication Grants increase Poor/Middle Earnings, but I'm not sure what effects those actually have on GDP and therefore our actual Income, and it decreases International Trade, which I actually know equates to a decrease in GDP, along with Foreign Relations, which leads to a cumulative decrease in International Trade and also likely a decrease in Tourism, which I actually know also makes for a direct decrease in GDP. I have no idea what this adds up to oh god I'm a sham TL,DR; I have no idea whether any of them are actually good for boosting Income. Also, the Tax Credits are damn expensive, to the point where I wonder if they might be meant to replace the state versions (which seem to have better effects overall?). Mortgage Tax Relief looks to me personally like the most effective Middle-Income-pleaser for the least investment overall, but unfortunately it also costs a hefty 31 PC to enact. Home Fabrication Grants probably comes in second. [spoiler=SHIT YOU ABSOLUTELY DON'T NEED TO KNOW ALERT: ON HOW I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT SIGNIFICANCE "EARNINGS" ACTUALLY HAVE TO GAMEPLAY]I'm not actually sure what impact boosting a given class's (including Poor, Middle, and High) Earnings has economically in D3; supposedly the higher a given class gets the more of its members will move up or down a wealth faction (including Poor, Middle Income, and Wealthy), but aside from influencing the proportion of the population with the opinion modifiers that each faction has, the only direct effects listed on the given Earnings stats, [spoiler=LISTED THUS,] (the reason these have gone down so much, which I neglected to scroll down towards in the shot, is that the Food Price stat took a massive toll, particularly as the drought situation got worse) ...is on transport usage of various types, and the Internet Currency Adoption stat, which very slowly reduces the modifier of various tax incomes below 1.00 as it grows. what the fuck does all this even mean the numbers Mason The game implies that each wealth class pays more in taxes, so more Wealthy people equals more Income Tax revenue, for example, but looking at the income history for that, the only factor it lists is GDP! WHAT DO THEY MEAN MASON

aw, thanks guys/necktie tough choice, lots of you guys would be nice to hear about/from. (since Nightmarre's leading comfortably and Makaze and Loki are up there,) nominatin Oldman and SeverIan

I believe you mean a Gay-Straight-Alliance-approved hug

After much rankling of chains in the streets and on the Parliament floors, our implementation of Compulsory Work for the Unemployed has been drastically restructured, such that it's now largely geared towards finding work for unemployed volunteers, as opposed to mandating work for all unemployed in order to retain benefits (AKA the lowest level that would still increase GDP and reduce Unemployment). Regardless, the Socialists and Poor resent that they may be socially pressured into applying, and further lectured unfairly when having difficulty finding a job, instead of receiving more direct living support. In turn, the Capitalists pout about lost potential profits, and some middle-class representatives continue to grumble about the use of their tax dollars, but they both end up taking what they can get when they notice the former two remain the more annoyed ones. The whole thing has left pretty much nobody totally happy, and therefore the matter is probably as settled as it's going to get. (Unless it's ever reopened at a later date)

I don't like what effects separating music into genres feels like it has on my perception of music, like sometimes it seems to actually obscure my understanding of "what do I really enjoy listening to?" where I'd hope that it would make it easier to find more of what I enjoy (as in something being rock doesn't guarantee I'll enjoy listening to it, even though the majority of my library could probably be described as some form of that, etc) Problem being that coming up with some other way to think about/classify music instead is even harder My least favorite genre may be reductionism, op

The legislature debated and debated, and eventually erupted into such chaos that order couldn't be restored, even to vote, until everyone was so sick of it that they stormed out, work unfinished. This then happened many more times over the course of 3 months. Curious how this issue in particular inspired so much acrimony- maybe we shouldn't have left it until the end of every day to look at. No change in the labor laws were enacted, though the parliament's codes of conduct have been made a bit more stringent. I can't find anybody who's pleased at this outcome. The Liberals are very minutely annoyed, the Socialists and Trade Unionists are ticked, and the Parents are mad (what are you complaining about?! I assumed they were likely doing it in large part to help you guys!). The Capitalists and Self-Employed's have merely decided to ignore the whole thing. At least I can't find any bad stat changes this time. [spoiler=TURN 24: SOME PAYOFFS, FINALLY]Realized that it only cost 1 PC, so I cut back on the Work Safety Law before turn 23 went out: It might seem a bit much of a cut, but the Health bonus and Productivity hit will be exactly equivalent, and it just might finish off the Exodus. We can raise it back up some more after the negative situation is dealt with if you guys would prefer. Turn 24 vindicates us a little bit with one hand, and throws us our second policy question in a row with the other: "The situation is now at an end." My favorite sentence in D3 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ChG7zM-mx6Y (Again, with apologies to Tryhard that this shit keeps getting in the way. Asthma Epidemic is on the ropes again too, though) I'm a bit conflicted about this next policy, not because it's bad but because there's so much clamoring for our attention, and this takes the whole turn up. This one is maybe a bit too good as far as the game goes to pass up, though: GDP increase, Unemployment Decrease, Capitalists and Middle Income pleased is just a damn good spread for just 0.38 billion. This might even finish off Homelessness on its own. We really ought to find a way to appease the Poor, though. My LP for an update that lasts 3 whole turns. Prepare to vote! I think this is a rare case of a policy question where one choice will make for a happiness drain with the Everyone "faction," and I think the Farmers will also be extra-miffed. I assume the case for going ahead and building them is being made by the Capitalists and, oddly enough, the greens. Not sure whether the consequences for not building them would be more economic or environmental. [spoiler=CURRENT AFFAIRS]Turn 24 main: That Income figure better shoot the heck up in a turn or so. Finance: On one hand, it is good. to. be. back. up. with regards to our GDP. On the other, the Global Economy's stuttering. Stand by for future developments. Security: Maybe they're just getting a little bored?

I could do over 200 maps if I knew ahead of time that the game was going to be that huge, and if they were split into distinct acts. Bring on the century-spanning, cross-generational story of a continent or even world-changing war from its beginning to its aftermath, the epic saga that Fire Emblem has always had the potential to tell. I think I'd prefer such a game not have as linear a chapter-based structure as even what the less-linear Fire Emblems have had, to be sure. If the game progressed like, every chapter leading into the next (not that this is the case for every single chapter transition in the history of the series, but the majority of them I should think), yeah, that could be horrendously tedious to do for seven times the length as it was for FE7/9. Though I'm not sure exactly what I'd have replace it, if I'm honest. I've probably been playing too many regular strategy games. I guess what I'm saying is I want FE4 2, times ten. Again. Destroy all english majors, crown all history majors

Doh! Should've known I was filling in the blanks in my memory with pretty much whatever.

You should see what they do to Link and Pit