Suggestion - Instead of an all or nothing investment pool solution, portion it.

[Rascal Nag]

One possible compromise to the debate over investment pools vs AI investor decision making is to make the amount of control over the investment pool a policy item. In general, the more command economies don't have a pool at all and use state coffers (planned economy) while more liberal economies cede a larger proportion of the investment pool to pops to make their own decisions with each step towards Laissez-Faire. The crucial point to ensure players are not locked out: NEVER cede the entire pool. Using Victoria 2's economy types as a starting point but acknowledging there will probably be more a spectrum to work with in Victoria 3, for example:

• Planned Economy - No Pool
• State Capitalism - Control of the entire pool (investors might clamor for more control or other concessions)
• Interventionism - Control 75% of the pool plus bonus percentage based on what portion of the investors are loyalists or neutral (investors still might want more control and concessions but not as much as in State Capitalism)
• Laissez-Faire - Control 50% of the pool plus bonus percentage based on what portion of the investors are loyalists
• Lastly, don't take away the ability to subsidize industries in more liberal economies as happened in Victoria II but perhaps make it take more political jockeying to get things passed as you move towards Laissez-Faire. Edit: Should clarify the existing knowledge we have on different policies affecting what can be subsidized is good, just wanted to make this bullet point to emphasize that this idea is pro-user control relative to Victoria II Laissez-Faire's complete removal of subsidies.

Percentages of course up for debate, just throwing stuff at the wall. Another addition would perhaps be to change how pops present their own investment decisions - this could even be a toggle of some kind. When investors in Interventionism or Laissez-Faire make their own decisions in their part of the pool, they could present a "top 5" for the player to then weed out to pick their estimated best option. If the player toggles this off, they try to pick the best of the 5 themselves, which could be useful if trying to run a big economy and you don't have time to check the investors' work all the time.

I really, really think it is important to see the pops not only react to your guidance, but become proactive as they become wealthier and participate in building the world in their own right. It's the ultimate demonstration of how the economy and world of the Victoria era comes alive like no other era before it, and seeing pops being able to take part in the game in such a manner sends the clear signal to the player that they have done a great job of planting the perfect seeds for their country's growth and prosperity. And by never removing pool control from the player entirely, you can ensure the player never has their gardening tools taken from them, which I agree is a big step up from how Victoria II would lock things up in Laissez-Faire.

 

[SanicK]

It's a great suggestion, replying for bump!

 

[BeauNiddle]

The info dump on reddit from the journalist already said what you can do with the pool changes with political laws.

Until we get an actual DD on the investment pool (and on political choices) this seems overeager.

The most recent Dev posts in the Buildings DD shows they have picked up on the subtle hints from the forum that people want the AI to build things.

 

[JBolt]

One possible compromise to the debate over investment pools vs AI investor decision making is to make the amount of control over the investment pool a policy item. In general, the more command economies don't have a pool at all and use state coffers (planned economy) while more liberal economies cede a larger proportion of the investment pool to pops to make their own decisions with each step towards Laissez-Faire. The crucial point to ensure players are not locked out: NEVER cede the entire pool. Using Victoria 2's economy types as a starting point but acknowledging there will probably be more a spectrum to work with in Victoria 3, for example:

• Planned Economy - No Pool
• State Capitalism - Control of the entire pool (investors might clamor for more control or other concessions)
• Interventionism - Control 75% of the pool plus bonus percentage based on what portion of the investors are loyalists or neutral (investors still might want more control and concessions but not as much as in State Capitalism)
• Laissez-Faire - Control 50% of the pool plus bonus percentage based on what portion of the investors are loyalists
• Lastly, don't take away the ability to subsidize industries in more liberal economies as happened in Victoria II but perhaps make it take more political jockeying to get things passed as you move towards Laissez-Faire. Edit: Should clarify the existing knowledge we have on different policies affecting what can be subsidized is good, just wanted to make this bullet point to emphasize that this idea is pro-user control relative to Victoria II Laissez-Faire's complete removal of subsidies.

Percentages of course up for debate, just throwing stuff at the wall. Another addition would perhaps be to change how pops present their own investment decisions - this could even be a toggle of some kind. When investors in Interventionism or Laissez-Faire make their own decisions in their part of the pool, they could present a "top 5" for the player to then weed out to pick their estimated best option. If the player toggles this off, they try to pick the best of the 5 themselves, which could be useful if trying to run a big economy and you don't have time to check the investors' work all the time.

I really, really think it is important to see the pops not only react to your guidance, but become proactive as they become wealthier and participate in building the world in their own right. It's the ultimate demonstration of how the economy and world of the Victoria era comes alive like no other era before it, and seeing pops being able to take part in the game in such a manner sends the clear signal to the player that they have done a great job of planting the perfect seeds for their country's growth and prosperity. And by never removing pool control from the player entirely, you can ensure the player never has their gardening tools taken from them, which I agree is a big step up from how Victoria II would lock things up in Laissez-Faire.

This would be wonderful. Part of the deal with Laissez-Faire is that you are forced to not make things perfect. It gives that dynamic of being frustrated with your population, and having to sometimes work against them. Having a full investment pool where you make things perfect is taking that dynamic away. Or, PDX could be at least making the AI prioritize a sawmill in a wood province. Just making the AI do that (which isn’t terribly advanced decision making) and keeping Victoria 2’s capitalist investment system would be great, or make it a percentage/portion as you describe.

 

[Alfred Dreyfus]

Here is my proposal from the dev diary thread:


It should work similar to Vic2 but adapted to Vic3. Countries with capitalists could have 3 types of policies, here is an idea:

• Laissez-Faire Capitalism (free market):
  • Government (Player) abilities: Use your government budget to build, modify or destroy public industry. You can't manage private industry.
  • Capitalist POPs (AI) abilities: Use their private money to build, modify or destroy private industry. Private industry is fully autonomous.
• Interventionist Capitalism (mixed):
  • Government (Player) abilities: Use your government budget to build, modify or destroy public industry. You can subsidize or forbid specific buildings to the capitalists. You can manage private industry in some degree.
  • Capitalist POPs (AI) abilities: Use their private money to build, modify or destroy private industry. Private industry is semi-autonomous.
• State Capitalism (statism):
  • Government (Player) abilities: Use your government budget to build, modify or destroy public industry. You need to manage private industry.
  • Capitalist POPs (AI) abilities: They cannot build on their own, they put their money at the player disposal in a investment pool, the player manages the private industry with the capitalists money, but the buildings still belong to the capitalists (the profit goes to them, not to you). This is the current Vic3 system. It represents economies like the Nazi Germany, where private industry existed but it followed the orders of the government.

Laissez-faire would represent something like USA, interventionism something like France, and State Capitalism something like Nazi Germany.

As you can see, in all of them the player can participate in the industry of the country. Even in a laissez-faire economy, you cannot interfere with private industry, but if you want to build a factory or mine somewhere, you can build a state owned one. You also get this autonomous capitalists doing their thing. So with a mechanic like this, you get both things, and it is still a faithful mechanic to the real economic ideologies (in some degree).