So, I was just thinking about the game like I often do, and had an idea for what I think would make a neat feature. We've talked in the past about "Services" (a sort of project/perk mix, where you could enable something like "Free Healthcare for All Citizens" that would have some tradeoff type effect, and it would be advantageous for some nations and harmful for others). I thought this was a good idea, but I was trying to think of a better way to implement it than simply an "on/off" switch for a bunch of options. Nation perks are also something that people are constantly asking about, and today I finally mashed the two together into an idea that I wanted to suggest to the community.
How about a system of Laws that functioned as a mixture of both "Services" and "Perks"? I'm thinking it goes something like this: each nation would have some sort of legislature that would have to pass laws. You (as head of state) could push for laws to be passed or repealed, once per day. These laws would have effects that could help or harm your nation, depending on your building style. For example, let's say there's a Universal Healthcare law:
Universal Healthcare
This law would provide all citizens free, government provided healthcare. Hospitals' effect on disease is doubled, and Hospitals' upkeep is tripled.
There'd be a number of laws, this being just one example, and each nation would have the ability to try and sign one into effect or repeal an already passed one per day. Whether you were successful or not would be a random chance figure, maybe 33%. So, let's say you think this law is going to benefit your nation (you can afford the extra upkeep, or maybe you just need extra slots so you want to cut down on hospitals), you click a button and attempt to pass this law. The dice are rolled, and 67% of the time you'll fail (meaning you can try again tomorrow to pass/repeal a different law) or 33% of the time you'd succeed (the law goes into effect, and you can try tomorrow to pass/repeal a law).
It's a pretty straightforward system, and I think that players who enjoy the roleplay aspect of the game (think NationStates) would enjoy this feature a lot, and players who want nation perks (diversification of nations) would enjoy it as well. Laws could be stacked so that you'd need to pass one related to, perhaps Military, before you could pass another, more influential law, etc.
It would also provide a platform for fun events, like April Fool's jokes, some sort of Zombie Apocalypse (you could pass laws to react to it, or something, etc.
Potential drawbacks are that some people are undoubtedly going to be luckier than others, some people are going to think it's just another hoop to jump through to getting your nation "ideal" (in terms of numbers, min-maxing, that sort of thing), and other people will probably be disappointed it's not Nation Perks in their simplest "pick and choose" form.
I think, though, that limiting it to 1 law action per day, and having laws that are situational (peacetime/wartime, commerce/resources, etc.) would create the diversification that perks would add but in a very limited, roleplay oriented way. For example, if your nation had a bunch of laws that were great for peacetime but bad for wartime, and suddenly you go to war, it's not going to be easy to magically flip all of your laws. It would make you think twice whether you want to invest too heavily one way or the other, and keep people from being able to just react immediately to changes in min-max situations, which essentially nullify any sort of optional mechanic.
Anyway, there's my rambling thoughts on what I think would be a neat feature for the game. This is totally just me making a post about an idea, don't expect this to be happening overnight. Also, I don't really need any "law" suggestions, for the aforementioned reason. Just give me some feedback on what you think. Good idea, or no?
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