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Laws (A mixture of roleplay and nation perks)


Alex

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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 You (as head of state) could push for laws to be passed or repealed, once per day.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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I think this is a good idea, perhaps giving multiple options? Say you have a law about drugs. I can think of three options for this right now. 1. All drugs are illegal. 2. Certain drugs are legal. 3. All drugs are legal.

 

This could have many effects and I think would give more than just yes/no

 

There doesn't need to be options, just different laws.

 

One law makes all drugs illegal. One law makes only the harshest drugs illegal. One laws decriminalizes all drugs.

 

Each would probably have an effect on the crime rate in relation to the population, so at a different nation size each is optimal.

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The only issue I'd see is whether or not they'd be dynamic enough to provide differing affects for nations of the same size.

 

In the example, "Hospitals' effect on disease is doubled, and Hospitals' upkeep is tripled," there is a 'right' answer depending on your nation size. For a lot of policies, the element would be more fun if there weren't right or wrong answers but rather differing paths to build your nation.

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is this something like issuing the laws like (That terrible game that is totally irrelevant and I shouldn't be bringing it up anyways) which you would receive its pro and con effect whether you accept it or deny it, but this one is taken but chance?

Random effect like doing a spy operation with success, or having a triumph, facing an opponent which outnumbering you with a little CHANCE that he would run out of resources

 

go for it....It maybe worthy taking it by chance.

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I think random events would be better :v

 

Random events are also something I'm drafting up, but at a regional level with no sort of "response" individually.

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There doesn't need to be options, just different laws.

 

One law makes all drugs illegal. One law makes only the harshest drugs illegal. One laws decriminalizes all drugs.

 

Each would probably have an effect on the crime rate in relation to the population, so at a different nation size each is optimal.

boo drugs
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I like this idea. NationStates does issue chains as well, there is one where 11 issues are apart of some grand story but I have yet to actually get it. And you can only get the issue chain once per nation. I like the part of where your laws adds to the nation and is not merely cosmetic though most of all.

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About these "Perks"......those have been talked about for some time now.....when will they be introduced?

 

This is a suggestion that would be an alternative to perks.

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This sounds like an AMAZING idea. Maybe laws should affect other laws. Like if you pass certain law, it would trigger another law or an event.

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wat if i jsut wanna be a dictator

^ This. Not all nations are going to want to be parliamentary democracies, where voting on laws is a thing. Either there ought to be laws that give you dictator-ish powers (with some drawbacks, obviously) or the government type ought to have some effect on passing laws.

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wat if i jsut wanna be a dictator

 

Even a modern dictatorship does not give all the power to one individual to write, enforce, and decide on laws.

 

There will still be a group of advisers, at the very least, that advise in the legislative process.

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It's a neat idea but why base it on luck?

 

 

I like nation perks more because it gives you a lot to think about and would boost resources and with that small nations.

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So its basically events for individual nations like in NationStates, but with balanced gameplay effects.

 

Sounds good.

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I prefer just having perks as well, but if we end up going with this the laws should be split into categories such as finance, military, production, etc. and you can adjust one in each category daily. 

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I think this is a great idea, it would add a lot more depth to nation building.

Rather than randomly seeing if a law passes, I think it would be really interesting to have an approval rating system.

 

For example:

 

To start Leaders choose to name their government house. There would be 5 political parties that the leader will name, each representing the forms of government that we have in PnW. Once a month their would be elections in the nation (not in Autocracy) and based on the leaders approval rating determines the amount of delegates each party sends to the government house. The lower the approval rating the less delegates his party receives making it more difficult to pass laws that the other parties would not normally support. In autocratic governments, laws are decreed unless the leaders approval rating drops too low and then citizens revolt forcing a change in government.

 

Things that can affect approval ratings: Disease, Pollution, Wars and War Outcomes, Commercial, Civil, Industrial Developments, Military Size, National Projects, Taxation Levels, Policies we created, and maybe we can create schools, universities, research centres.

 

Just my rambling but I REALLY love the idea of creating laws and having a congress or parliament in our nations. This would make it more tricky to switch forms of governments for the bonuses.

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Im in the "just go for simple perks" camp. Laws are great for roleplay, but have them as just that, don't force people to do that kind of thing. much rather have a sensible system that is a lot simpler and more transparent.

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