I think there's a little balancing issue with the neutrality act of 1939 event. If you choose "don't", then that effectively makes your neutrality low enough to enact war mobilization and three year draft. The massive IC bonus you get from war economy allows you to get rid of the 10 (or was it 15) dissent within 1-2 months (with massive IC still in production & other sectors). And the organization & popularity hit is nothing if you've been using "support ruling party" since the first years, so basically I just got about additional 100-150 IC a few years earlier than I should have while suffering a very minimal penalty.
I'd suggest increasing dissent hit to about 20-25 and also perhaps giving a national unity hit. Maybe make a strategic modifier like "Unpopular decision", which would last for about 2 months and incerase "daily dissent change" (and some others perhaps too, like lowered manpower gain) significantly, so there's atleast some kind of a downside to not prolonging the act?
Very hard, Road to War, v3.05 (FLRA), SandS 1.1 + quickfix 1.1.5
well... Ricox proposes to increase the dissent, and at the opposite, I find it a bug when using at start some options, like hard/very hard setting and a strong path...
When you play very hard, there is pop-up warning you of possible "extensive un-balance" but it is related to bonus to factions, not your internal balance...
Problem : If you choose from start the option "Don´t" for "Neutrality Act of 1936", your IC falls instantly at 1, dissent grows out of proportions, and you will never recover.
Reproduce it: easy, just start at "very hard" in 01/01/36, and choose "don't" at 1st option firing 1 month after game starts.
At start of the game, we have 38 IC, 0% dissent, and -35% of IC which is fair.
Very quickly, you have a -50% IC reduction due to Full Civilian Economy: Your IC is now reduced by -85%...
When you choose "don´t" at "Neutrality Act of 1936", you have an additionnal -15% of dissent and IC drop... you are now at -100% of IC, which means you are after the 1st month of game (February 1936), with 1 IC.
OK... It is then a HUGE crisis in your country, ALL factories stop, no food, stores are close, etc...
But it is not a temporary issue as the dissent will continue to drop by 0.04/day.
From this on, it is impossible to use an ahistorical path. The next decision is about the Rhineland crisis. If you choose "Back up Soviets", you have an additionnal 25 dissent which increase the impossibility for recovering.
Next decision is "Abyssinia crisis" where economic sanctions vs Italy gives you an additional 15 dissent...
5 months in the game, and I am already at 60+% of dissent, and 10 months later, I am at 153% of dissents and it grows fast...
It means that whatever you do afterward, you will never produce anything, even not enough food for your people (you only have 1 IC forever...), and your dissent will grow faster than any event allowing you to reduce it.
Besides, I do not understand how you can have more than 100% of your people not liking you... or dissent % should be capped at, say, 99% (because some one at the Gov needs to like himself!...)
When you have more dissents than "happy" people, you should have riots, even civil war...
Proposed solutions, or simply ideas (I am a bit short...):
- in any cases, dissent rate can not exceed 99%
- when reaching more dissents than the popularity of the ruling party, organization of anticipated election (option yes/no)
, or automated "coup d'etat".
Yes: anticipated elections, with beforehand a huge push of the opposition (if a LOT of people hate their current gov, so then they will support the other extream, such as Silver shirts?). Penalty with dissent halved, with a maximum of 49% (99%/2)
No: so then the player faces a constant no-production and ever growing problem. An impossible challenge though...
- additionnal trigger if IC virtually drops at -100% : IC reduction is capped at the consumer good production, stopping the infernal leak loop for dissent (not enough consumer goods, so more dissent, more dissents so less IC and less consumer goods,...)
actually it is perhaps easier to cap the maximum drop of IC at -90% (still 10% of IC, which makes sense as there are always some factories working, even if it is for sustaining the police forces for containing the heavy riots!)