Hi all,
Time for another dev diary, and this time we are talking politics.
The idea behind the politics was always to allow you to customize your colony rather than to act as a second research tree. Somewhere along the way, we strayed from that goal, so we want to return to this principle.
The main idea of each law is that it should offer you a meaningful choice. Let’s take the old “Rocket Speed Standards” law - it did not offer any meaningful choice apart from “Do I want to sacrifice 100 RP for faster rockets?” This is why we scrapped it in favor of the new “Rocket Orbits” law that gives you a real choice - faster rockets for extra fuel or slower rockets for less fuel. This is just one example, but multiple laws have been affected by this.
In other laws, we have changed the underlying mechanics. For example, Outsourcing is now strictly a law (in place of the Additional Sponsor research and Outsourcing laws) that gives you multiple choices on spending funding to get vitally needed research points. The Quality Rest law will now remove the night shift from your info panels. Other laws have also had their effects tweaked or improved, so they are not just a matter of spending funding or research points for an effect.
Another change is that you will no longer have to wait a full political cycle to vote for a law, but you may do so instantly for all of your prepared laws. We already mentioned this in an earlier dev diary, but this change alone made politics feel much better and more natural.
A very recent change is that you will also be able to see laws that were previously locked. This will allow you to plan without having to rely on your memory of which law was where. You will still not be able to see laws that require an Assembly if you do not have one.
The missing piece in the political conundrum is making the factions matter more. We are actively working on ways to make that happen, but these changes will take more time and thinking through; the goal is to make each playthrough different through the factions you were given. The faction should not be a stopper on your way, but an active participant that shapes how you play.
We want to make each political choice you make matter and have lasting consequences. Politics is just one of the mechanics we use to achieve this goal, and we will continue improving them.
Keep your colonists safe and your colonies growing!
The Haemimont Team