Tweak to elections.

bump

Given that most people rarely if ever lose an election, it's unlikely that your first idea would have a noticeable effect. Your other ideas are interesting, though. I like the idea of random events changing the political structure of your race and possibly the others as well--an event that favors certain political parties and disadvantages others, perhaps?

I like both of those ideas, though the first would need some real teeth in it to be effective.

I allwas thought that the party winning most seats after you in the senate (usally just 1/10th to 1/20th of your seats) represented what your people wanted (i.e. if I'm in the middle of a war and the pacifist win 8 seats in parlament, well the people don't seem to like my little war as much as i do).
I like your second idea a lot, specially the spies idea. But as KleinBottle23 said, most people never lose an election. Maybe not having all the bonuses unless you control X% of the senate? So if you are the federalist and control 50% of the senate, you get just 10% bonus to the economy, if you control 70% you get 15% and so on. Not sure if I'd like it so much that way though but I allways thought the elections system was a bit weird, either you get all the bonuses and you completedly control the senate and have all your political oponnents under your boot or you have no control of the senate, not only don't receive the bonuses but also get a penalty.

So if you are the federalist and control 50% of the senate, you get just 10% bonus to the economy, if you control 70% you get 15% and so on.

While I agree that it could be fun to make the elections and various parties more interesting, perhaps it would be better to make sure that it doesn't become a "must have almost 100% approval or I'm penalized" situation. I also don't think that you would have much of a penalty, if we're going for realism, beyond controlling a solid majority of the Senate.

I like the idea of random events changing the political structure of your race

Interesting.

Well elections are definitely underdeveloped as they simply are a way for you to tweak bonuses and watch your popularity.

Agreed. I'm not after anything like the political machine added, but having to worry about policy and an election would certainly add more weight to your strategic choices. You COULD beat the Drengin down with a war of attrition, but the people sure as hell aren't going to like it. And that might mean you lose the election. And that might mean you have to propose things as actions, as opposed to your every word being law.

*bookmarks thread for use when expansion 2 is due*

If they make it race dependent, Star Trek: Birth of the Federation had a great system that had morale consequences for your actions in military and diplomatic actions. Sign a treaty, and the Federation's morale boosted, Klingons would take a minor hit to morale, and so on. When you went to war, Klingon morale skyrocketed, Federation morale tanked, Romulan morale had a minor bonus. Planetary invasions and bombardment would also affect morale. One game where I did a lightning invasion of the Klingon Empire and conquered five worlds as the Federation, the morale backlash almost tore it apart because of their fundamental opposition to hostility.

Now, if your actions in dealing with other empires could have an affect on your systems' morale and support determined by your relative empire ethics, that would add a nice layer to the complexity. You'd be penalized for being "out of character" or for playing nice with races that are of disparate ethics to you.

My tweak would be to add an algorythm that counts popularity over the long haul when deciding election results - not just the week of the election. Right now, there is no reason to lose one as you can just set your tax rate to a very low % the week before elections, win, and kick it right back up to an oppresive burden on the people again. Wash, Rinse, and repeat next year. Yawn.

(Hey, maybe the game is realistic...kinda like how petrol/heating fuel prices seem to decline a few months before an election....then go through the roof soon after...;0 )

I had a similer idea, it's about indiviulism of goverments in empires i think. You can read it if you wish talon.