policy-toggles mechanic sourced
Policy toggles
Enactable laws or policies change simulation rules with explicit tradeoffs.
definition
Owns a catalog of policies, each with an active flag or a choice among mutually exclusive options in a group, prerequisites, an enactment cost (money, political capital, influence, or time), upkeep, and a cooldown. Enacting a policy applies modifiers or changes rules: it unlocks an action, alters a rate, or changes how agents behave, with a stated benefit and a stated cost. Frostpunk (2018) has a Book of Laws in which similar laws are sequenced so later ones are harsher, and accepting early compromises makes later ones likelier. Victoria 3 groups laws into mutually exclusive sets and, since update 1.3, requires each law to pass three enactment phases whose success chances depend on interest-group support, with up to three setbacks before failure. SimCity 2000 introduced city ordinances, and Civilization civics and Cities: Skylines district policies are other forms.
player experience
Choosing which tradeoff to live with. The player browses a menu of laws, weighs their benefits against costs and side effects, and commits. In Frostpunk each signature feels like a moral line crossed; in grand strategy, passing a law is a political campaign.
design levers
- number of policies and how many can be active at once (slots, groups, budget)
- enactment cost, delay, and cooldown
- size and visibility of side effects
- reversibility: free to revoke, costly, or permanent
- prerequisites and sequencing (escalating law chains)
failure modes
- Policies with no real downside become always-on, leaving a menu of mandatory picks.
- Too many small modifiers make each choice unnoticeable.
- Free revocation lets players toggle policies around events, undermining the tradeoff.
dynamics
- Escalating law chains pull players toward harsher policies one reasonable step at a time.
- Policies that change agent behavior ripple into economic and social systems in ways their tooltips do not state.
- Mutually exclusive groups create identity: a society defined by its chosen laws.
open questions
- Could players draft bespoke policies in language and have an LLM translate them into balanced, consistent rule changes?
- Which explanations of second-order policy effects keep surprises interesting rather than unfair?