Domestic Policy FAQ v1.1
Index:
1) What are the Domestic Policy Sliders
They are seven sliders, the positions of which determine your domestic policy, your government type, your ability to wage offensive war, and much much more. See the manual page 40-43 for background information that is assumed in the following; this FAQ deals with the details not the overall intent.
Some of them are interdependent. Dependent on your government type, which is determined by the sliders itself, some changes may be impossible to perform. The various government types are described on page 42.
To summarise, the sliders are:
2) How do I perform this Social Engineering?
Each slider has 10 discrete possible positions with the position determining the exact effect on your society. The closer towards the end of a slider, the more extreme the political position on the issue. In general, effects near the middle of each slider are very mild with positive and negative effects getting more pronounced the more extreme the position. Note that the left side of a slider will have one group of modifiers while the right side will have another; often they carry the same modifiers but that is not always the case. In this FAQ, slider positions are denoted 0 (left end of slider) - 9 (right end of slider).
Changing sliders can be done either through events or by deliberate manipulation by the player. From the moment the game starts (except in battlescenarios disabling this), you can perform changes to the sliders - just not very often. Choose the slider you want to change and click to move either one step left or right. Once you have changed any policy, it takes one year before you can perform your next policy change. Additionally, changing policies incurs a minor +1% dissent hit. As such, think carefully when engaging in this societal engineering.
3) Which areas of the game are affected by the domestic policy?
The better question is, which area is not? Your domestic policy choices will affect any or all of the following:
Consumer Goods:
Dissent:
Diplomacy:
Intelligence:
Manpower:
Production and Upgrading:
Research:
Unit stats:
4) Slider Effect Breakdown
Democratic - Authoritarian
Rulership style from one extreme to the other, this is one of the factors determining goverment type.
Note: The Democratic-Authoritarian slider determines whether a target nation needs a certain level of belligerence to be attacked, but the interventionism-Isolationism slider determines the amount belligerence needed in such cases. This slider also determines whether the Interventionism-Isolationism slider can prevent you from joining/creating alliances or not.
Political Left - Political Right
Political extremism from one end of the spectrum to the other, this is the other factor in the the goverment type. The government type determines which ministers are available for appointment and the limits on the other sliders.
In general, you can appoint ministers who either share ideology with the government or are close. E.g. if the government is Paternal Autocrat but close to Fascism, you can appoint both Paternal Autocrat and Fascist ministers.
Open Society - Close Society
This slider is mainly of interest for those taking an extensive interest in fighting - and taking land - outside their own borders.
Fundamentally, an open society will experience internal dissent (dissent in national provinces, which is rare) much harder than a closed society will, while a closed society will experience external dissent (from conquests..) much harder than an open society will. However, the more open the society, the easier it is for dissent to grow, so there is that to consider as well.
Free Market - Central Planning
So, what is best, a production bonus or an IC bonus? From the perspective of unit production, Free Market rules. An example: Assume a unit costs a base of 5 IC for 100 days - its total cost of production over time is 5 IC/day * 100 days = 500 IC. With a 20% discount on BOTH time and cost, it costs (0.8*5 IC/day) * (0.8*100 days) = 320 IC
Compare that to a 25% IC bonus. The cost is unchanged (500 IC) but you have 25% IC more for an effective cost relative to the baseline of 500 IC/1.25 = 400 IC. Another way to look at it is to assume that you have, say 25 IC. That allows for 5 simultaneous unit productions on the baseline. The -20% discount reduces the cost to 4 IC/day, so you can run 6 (and one quarter) simultaneous which will be finished in 80% of the baseline. The +25% IC bonus increases IC to 31.25 allowing for 6 (and one quarter) simultaneously which will be finished at the same time as the baseline.
For province enhancements it is less clear since only production time is affected, not daily IC cost, though Free Market still retains a edge. Of course, if the majority of the IC is going to be used on consumer goods or supplies, the planned economy is better as these are not affected by the production bonuses, but it is unlikely that you will win the war by mass producing consumer goods. Sooner or later, you will need the weapons of war. One important thing to notice is that the planned economy has a very important side effect: The increased IC translates directly into increased Transport Capacity.
In the end it is very tempting to go for one of the extremes rather than muddle in the middle if the government type allows it, in which case the type of government will also determine which extreme you can reach.
Standing Army - Drafted Army
Unless you are going to be producing a LOT of the same type of unit, a standing army is clearly superior to a drafted one. A drafted army is most interesting when coupled with slider settings that reduce upgrading costs, as it then makes sense to start e.g. a 99 production of '36 infantry, give them highest priority, and just keep on producing them until '41 or even '43 infantry is available, as the total cost of production plus one or two upgrades will be less than producing new units without the accumulated gearing bonus. Fundamentally, parallel builds to fit the situation on hand works for everybody but long serial builds are the domain of the drafted army.
Hawk Lobby - Dove Lobby
This is the choice between Guns and Butter? Given that HoI2 is a wargame, there can be only one answer: GUNS! (And the more, the merrier)
Interventionism - Isolationism
Note: BelToAttack and JoinAlliance are only active when the leadership is very democratic (see Democratic-Authoritarian). However, under those circumstances this is one of the most important sliders in the game as too high isolationism will prevent you from acting against other nations; you will only be able to react. In some ways, this slider can be considered representative of the War Entry from Hearts of Iron 1, except that it is more generalised and not directed against any particular nation but against all aggressive nations. So long as other nations play fairly nice and only invade and conquer just a little bit, the democratic isolationist country will not be able to act because of public opinion. As a rule of thumb, if you are unsure of which dp-slider to move in your yearly dp-change (you DO try to maximize your social engineering skills, presumably), going more interventionist is almost certainly a good choice. If your nation is very democratic, you need it to be able to act rather than merely reacting; if your nation is not, then you need it to reduce the dissent cost of your next declaration of war.
Just like the Hawk or Dove lobby choice, this really is a no-brainer unless you want to play neutral Tibet or something similar: INTERVENTIONISM
5) Why do I keep getting policy initiative events?
Democratic nations are blessed with (somewhat) loyal oppositions. Once some sliders are brought out of balance with the sort of policy that would be expected by the government type, it is possible to receive some government-specific events. Typically, you may receive an event representing either a government initiative or the opposition's bitching, on any of the topics of defense, economy, foreign policy, law, and constitution. While some of these may indeed bring the free opportunity for slider movements that you desire, it is often at the cost of dissent and it may, occasionally, be better to back off.
Note especially that Democratic nations going Authoritarian have some pretty heavyhanded random events (constitutional policy) in an attempt to stop the slide into Dictatorship before it is too late. But who cares: If you are going Authoritarian, it is probably because you know better than the plebes already, so just accept that 10 dissent hit and continue your purge of unnecessary freedoms. After all, if the good men prefer hanging together, it is almost a civic duty to supply them with rope.
Index:
- What are the Domestic Policy Sliders
- How do I perform this Social Engineering?
- What are the different things that can be affected by sliders?
- Slider Effect breakdown
- Why do I keep getting policy initiative events?
1) What are the Domestic Policy Sliders
They are seven sliders, the positions of which determine your domestic policy, your government type, your ability to wage offensive war, and much much more. See the manual page 40-43 for background information that is assumed in the following; this FAQ deals with the details not the overall intent.
Some of them are interdependent. Dependent on your government type, which is determined by the sliders itself, some changes may be impossible to perform. The various government types are described on page 42.
To summarise, the sliders are:
- Democratic - Authoritarian
- Political Left - Political Right
- Open Society - Close Society
- Free Market - Central Planning
- Standing Army - Drafted Army
- Hawk Lobby - Dove Lobby
- Interventionism - Isolationism
2) How do I perform this Social Engineering?
Each slider has 10 discrete possible positions with the position determining the exact effect on your society. The closer towards the end of a slider, the more extreme the political position on the issue. In general, effects near the middle of each slider are very mild with positive and negative effects getting more pronounced the more extreme the position. Note that the left side of a slider will have one group of modifiers while the right side will have another; often they carry the same modifiers but that is not always the case. In this FAQ, slider positions are denoted 0 (left end of slider) - 9 (right end of slider).
Changing sliders can be done either through events or by deliberate manipulation by the player. From the moment the game starts (except in battlescenarios disabling this), you can perform changes to the sliders - just not very often. Choose the slider you want to change and click to move either one step left or right. Once you have changed any policy, it takes one year before you can perform your next policy change. Additionally, changing policies incurs a minor +1% dissent hit. As such, think carefully when engaging in this societal engineering.
3) Which areas of the game are affected by the domestic policy?
The better question is, which area is not? Your domestic policy choices will affect any or all of the following:
Consumer Goods:
- Consumer Goods Demand (Directly affects the amount of consumer goods needed to satisfy the population)
- Consumer Goods Money (Modifies the amount of $ generated per consumer good created)
Dissent:
- Dissent in Occupied Territories (Reduces or increases the base dissent values in occupied territories)
- Dissent in National Territories (Reduces or increases the base dissent values in national territories)
- Dissent Growth (This is a modifier to the daily dissent growth from the current IC's invested in consumer goods. This is not the same as the Consumer Goods Demand modifier)
- Partisan Activity
Diplomacy:
- Democracy or Dictatorship (This is determined by the form of government)
- Diplomatic Action Cost (Increases or reduces the cost of all diplomatic actions)
- Bad Relations Normalisations Bonus (Affects how quickly other nations get over your bad actions)
- Belligerence Needed to Declare War
- Can Join Alliances (Whether the nation can join other alliances or not)
- Declaration of War Dissent (Dissent per time you DOW. Minimize this by becoming an interventionist autocracy if you want to attack everybody at your leisure.
Intelligence:
- Counterintelligence Penalty for outsiders (What it says)
Manpower:
- Manpower growth (Reduces or increases the daily manpower growth)
Production and Upgrading:
- IC bonus (Increases IC available)
- Production Time and Cost (Reduces or increases the time of producing units and provincial enhancements. Reduces or increases the IC cost of units only. I.e. a -20% modifier reduces both cost and time of an infantry division but only production time of a naval base)
- Upgrade time and cost (Reduces or increases the time and cost divisions of upgrading divisions and brigades)
- Gearing Bonus (This changes the cap of the gearing bonus. A unit in continous production that is never short on IC will keep increasing in gearing bonus until it reaches 35%+Gearing Bonus Cap. As such, this modifier is only relevant for units you are going to be building a lot of)
Research:
- Tech Team Cost (Reduces or increases the daily cost of tech teams)
Unit stats:
- Manpower Experience (The base experience value that new units will have)
- Organisation Bonus (Increases or reduces the organisation of all units by this percentage. E.g. +10% means that 50 org becomes 55, 80 org become 88 etc)
4) Slider Effect Breakdown
Democratic - Authoritarian
Rulership style from one extreme to the other, this is one of the factors determining goverment type.
Code:
[u] 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9[/u]
DowDissent +10% +8.9% +7.8% +6.7% +5.6% +4.4% +3.3% +2.2% +1.1% +0%
BelToAttack yes yes yes yes yes no no no no no
Partisans -5% -4% -3% -2% -1% +1% +2% +3% +4% +5%
GoodsDemand +20% +16% +12% +8% +4% -4% -8% -12% -16% -20%Note: The Democratic-Authoritarian slider determines whether a target nation needs a certain level of belligerence to be attacked, but the interventionism-Isolationism slider determines the amount belligerence needed in such cases. This slider also determines whether the Interventionism-Isolationism slider can prevent you from joining/creating alliances or not.
Political Left - Political Right
Political extremism from one end of the spectrum to the other, this is the other factor in the the goverment type. The government type determines which ministers are available for appointment and the limits on the other sliders.
In general, you can appoint ministers who either share ideology with the government or are close. E.g. if the government is Paternal Autocrat but close to Fascism, you can appoint both Paternal Autocrat and Fascist ministers.
Code:
LEFT RIGHT
[u]DEMOCRATIC 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9[/u]
0 SD SL SL SL SL ML ML ML ML SC
1 SD SD SL SL SL ML ML ML SC SC
2 SD SD SD SL SL ML ML SC SC SC
3 LWR SD SD SD SL ML SC SC SC PA
4 LWR LWR SD SD SD SC SC SC PA PA
5 LE LWR LWR SD SD SC SC PA PA FA
6 LE LE LWR LWR SD SC PA PA FA FA
7 ST LE LE LWR LWR PA PA FA FA NS
8 ST ST LE LE LWR PA FA FA NS NS
9 ST ST ST LE LE FA FA NS NS NS
AUTOCRATIC
Where
FA = Fascist
LE = Leninist
LWR= Left-Wing Radical
ML = Market Liberal
PA = Paternal Autocrat
SC = Social Conservative
SD = Social Democratic
SL = Social Liberal
ST = Stalinist
NS = National SocialistOpen Society - Close Society
Code:
[u] 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9[/u]
DisGrowth +10% +8% +6% +4% +2% -2% -4% -6% -8% -10%
DisNat +40% +30% +20% +10% N/A -10% -20% -30% -40% -50%
DisOcc -40% -30% -20% -10% N/A +10% +20% +30% +40% +50%
CounterInt -40% -30% -20% -10% N/A +10% +20% +30% +40% +50%
TechCost +20% +16% +12% +8% +4% -4% -8% 12% -16% -20%This slider is mainly of interest for those taking an extensive interest in fighting - and taking land - outside their own borders.
Fundamentally, an open society will experience internal dissent (dissent in national provinces, which is rare) much harder than a closed society will, while a closed society will experience external dissent (from conquests..) much harder than an open society will. However, the more open the society, the easier it is for dissent to grow, so there is that to consider as well.
Free Market - Central Planning
Code:
[u] 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9[/u]
GoodsMoney +40% +30% +20% +10% N/A -10% -20% -30% -40% -50%
GoodsDemand +20% +16% +12% +8% +4% -4% -8% -12% -16% -20%
TechCost +25% +20% +15% +10% +5% -5% -10% -15% -20% -25%
UpgradeCost -25% -20% -15% -10% -5% +5% +10% +15% +20% +25%
ProdCost -20% -15% -10% N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
ICBonus N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A +15% +20% +25%So, what is best, a production bonus or an IC bonus? From the perspective of unit production, Free Market rules. An example: Assume a unit costs a base of 5 IC for 100 days - its total cost of production over time is 5 IC/day * 100 days = 500 IC. With a 20% discount on BOTH time and cost, it costs (0.8*5 IC/day) * (0.8*100 days) = 320 IC
Compare that to a 25% IC bonus. The cost is unchanged (500 IC) but you have 25% IC more for an effective cost relative to the baseline of 500 IC/1.25 = 400 IC. Another way to look at it is to assume that you have, say 25 IC. That allows for 5 simultaneous unit productions on the baseline. The -20% discount reduces the cost to 4 IC/day, so you can run 6 (and one quarter) simultaneous which will be finished in 80% of the baseline. The +25% IC bonus increases IC to 31.25 allowing for 6 (and one quarter) simultaneously which will be finished at the same time as the baseline.
For province enhancements it is less clear since only production time is affected, not daily IC cost, though Free Market still retains a edge. Of course, if the majority of the IC is going to be used on consumer goods or supplies, the planned economy is better as these are not affected by the production bonuses, but it is unlikely that you will win the war by mass producing consumer goods. Sooner or later, you will need the weapons of war. One important thing to notice is that the planned economy has a very important side effect: The increased IC translates directly into increased Transport Capacity.
In the end it is very tempting to go for one of the extremes rather than muddle in the middle if the government type allows it, in which case the type of government will also determine which extreme you can reach.
Standing Army - Drafted Army
Code:
[u] 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9[/u]
Manpower XP +20% +15% +10% +5% N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
Gearing -10% -8% -6% -4% -2% +2% +4% +6% +8% +10%
OrgBonus +10% +8% +6% +4% +2% -2% -4% -6% -8% -10%Unless you are going to be producing a LOT of the same type of unit, a standing army is clearly superior to a drafted one. A drafted army is most interesting when coupled with slider settings that reduce upgrading costs, as it then makes sense to start e.g. a 99 production of '36 infantry, give them highest priority, and just keep on producing them until '41 or even '43 infantry is available, as the total cost of production plus one or two upgrades will be less than producing new units without the accumulated gearing bonus. Fundamentally, parallel builds to fit the situation on hand works for everybody but long serial builds are the domain of the drafted army.
Hawk Lobby - Dove Lobby
Code:
[u] 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9[/u]
GoodsMoney N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A +10% +20% +30% +40% +50%
ProdCost -20% -15% -10% -5% N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
ManGrowth +10% +8% +6% +4% +2% -2% -4% -6% -8% -10%
DisGrowth -10% -8% -6% -4% -2% +2% +4% +6% +8% +10%This is the choice between Guns and Butter? Given that HoI2 is a wargame, there can be only one answer: GUNS! (And the more, the merrier)
Interventionism - Isolationism
Code:
[u]
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9[/u]
DipCost -40% -30% -20% -10% +0% +10% +20% +30% +40% +50%
BadRelBonus -80% -60% -40% -20% +0% +20% +40% +60% +80% +100%
DowDissent +0% +1.1% +2.2% +3.3% +4.4% +5.6% +6.7% +7.8% +8.9% +10%
GoodsDemand +10% +20% +30% +40% +50% +60% +70% +80% +90% +100%
BelToAttack 1 9 19 29 39 49 59 69 79 89
JoinAlliance yes yes yes yes yes no no no no noNote: BelToAttack and JoinAlliance are only active when the leadership is very democratic (see Democratic-Authoritarian). However, under those circumstances this is one of the most important sliders in the game as too high isolationism will prevent you from acting against other nations; you will only be able to react. In some ways, this slider can be considered representative of the War Entry from Hearts of Iron 1, except that it is more generalised and not directed against any particular nation but against all aggressive nations. So long as other nations play fairly nice and only invade and conquer just a little bit, the democratic isolationist country will not be able to act because of public opinion. As a rule of thumb, if you are unsure of which dp-slider to move in your yearly dp-change (you DO try to maximize your social engineering skills, presumably), going more interventionist is almost certainly a good choice. If your nation is very democratic, you need it to be able to act rather than merely reacting; if your nation is not, then you need it to reduce the dissent cost of your next declaration of war.
Just like the Hawk or Dove lobby choice, this really is a no-brainer unless you want to play neutral Tibet or something similar: INTERVENTIONISM
5) Why do I keep getting policy initiative events?
Democratic nations are blessed with (somewhat) loyal oppositions. Once some sliders are brought out of balance with the sort of policy that would be expected by the government type, it is possible to receive some government-specific events. Typically, you may receive an event representing either a government initiative or the opposition's bitching, on any of the topics of defense, economy, foreign policy, law, and constitution. While some of these may indeed bring the free opportunity for slider movements that you desire, it is often at the cost of dissent and it may, occasionally, be better to back off.
Note especially that Democratic nations going Authoritarian have some pretty heavyhanded random events (constitutional policy) in an attempt to stop the slide into Dictatorship before it is too late. But who cares: If you are going Authoritarian, it is probably because you know better than the plebes already, so just accept that 10 dissent hit and continue your purge of unnecessary freedoms. After all, if the good men prefer hanging together, it is almost a civic duty to supply them with rope.
Last edited: