Democracy 4: Modding Policies

[@ShIbaShlba]

For a future democracy game I think it would be really cool if we could actually have a world map that's intractable. So we can see the effects of our foreign policy.

[@gigachadgaming1551]

Oh wow, I wasn’t expecting for most of it to be in game. Good on you for making it so accessible!

[@miguelbeedle3429]

Hi Cliff I know it's a big ask but can you relook at the EV transition polices like, mpg limits, hybrid incentives, ev incentives etc etc It's a big part of the game as you go forward but there's so many policies overlapping that it feels messy e.g I can annoy motorists with mpg limits when I don't have ICE cars anymore, or me still incentivising hybrids when one of the policies had the flavour text at the extreme of banning gas powered cars It feels like there needs to be a special screen just for ev policies and to better show how they all interact with each other as at the moment it's just a bit clunky or have the policies auto cancel or overwrite each other

[@positechgames]

Yup, its a bit fiddly to do this but I know it needs looking at

[@panzerkamphwaggenlll5247]

Submit to Workshop button doesn't work

[@aturchomicz821]

This will really speed up me making my Super Custom Modded Country, Cool!👍🏻

[@cakeisyummy5755]

Wait, which country is it?

[@aturchomicz821]

@@cakeisyummy5755 Well you will see, it will be quite unique :p

[@MrSnivvel]

It would be a great follow-up to this video is how to create mods "outside" of the game, including what the directory structure should be, so that they can stored in a git repository. I know you have a modding guide on Steam, but it would be great to have a video demo and clarification on some points.

[@abu-isawebb9868]

When I do this, the "submit to workshop" button does not light up so I can't submit it? I am logged in to steam...

[@positechgames]

That sounds like the various boxes in the form are not filled in correctly. It should light up when you have valid entries and steam is in the background (the steam app, not just a website)

[@abu-isawebb9868]

@@positechgames Should it matter that I have borrowed the game? Steam app is running, boxes are filled in, still doesn't light up.

[@positechgames]

@@abu-isawebb9868 I don't think it shoyld matter, although I do not know how borrowing a game works with steam, so maybe

[@panzerkamphwaggenlll5247]

@@positechgames it's not working for me either and I'm using the steam version

[@smekoy]

did you find a fix ? i have the same issue

[@NikodemHild]

Perhaps we can have a "country nominations" or whatever For a realistic mod for each country (E.g. Sweden, also no im not from Sweden) and have a nomination of 1-5 mods created (if created) that seems the most realistic for said country

[@ThorHanson7531]

Thanks for all the help, works perfectly. I just made a mod with your tutorial

[@Benjamino-lt8dh]

Is there a way to make a situation or policy be only available/ appear for 1 country? In the base game this works with the North Korean threat but I don’t know how to do this with a mod.

[@positechgames]

Yes, you do this with the prerequisites feature. If the country has a prereq with its name in, you can select it for a policy. Thats how the north korean threat is done.

[@ArthurAugustyn]

How can you check if a mod is actually implemented in the game? I'm working on a dilemma pack and after cycling through 5+ election cycles I haven't come across one of my modded ones yet. Is it because it's broken or they're all random?

[@positechgames]

dilemmas all have inputs which determine how likely they are to trigger based on various circumstances. You could try increasing all the inputs to your dilemma to a very high number to check they are being loaded, because then they should be the first ones to trigger.

[@cyrowing1552]

Hi, unfortunately I got some issues with adding Effects which are influenced by my already created effects. It always gives me an error that it did not found the policy. Furthermore it would be really nice if there was an opportunity to reduce the effect of one policy when another is getting more influential. For example Monetary Supply and interest rates which automatically reduce each other whenever one of them increases. Maybe this is already in the game and I am the one who is stuck, but it would be very nice if you could effect the depts or income with your mod.

[@positechgames]

that error with self-referencing effects is on my todo list to fix for the next update!

[@CPT85]

Still yearning for a Mac release… 😕🖥

[@123four...]

Hello, I'm having a few issues when making the equations. I'm trying to have a sim value that has a parabolic shape, where the extremes close to 0 and 1 have negative effects on GDP while the ones in the center have positive effects. The closest I've gotten was with the equation "0-(0.5-x^2)", but the curve isn't nearly as pronounced as I would like it to be, and modifying the x value to do something like 0-(0.5-1.5x^2)" doesn't actually make the curve more pronounced, but rather just makes the curve inexplicably flat. I've tried using graphing calculators to make an equation like this, and while I've had success using a simple quadratic function, it doesn't apply when I put it in game. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[@777-b1f]

Hi. Is there any way to replace art? Like, I want to put a real picture of people in the game, but the only thing I can change seems like some icons.

[@positechgames]

no sorry, not yet moddable...

[@snappy_one9120]

Hi Cliff i love democracy 4, but i noticed an error. Firstly, for some reason, immigrations rules don’t actually affect immigration. Just wanted to let you know so that you can fix it. Secondly: I have a suggestion. If i were you, id darasticly nerf winter fuel subsidies or even compleatly remove them, since they are very cheap and an easy way to get all the retired voters on your side, hence the state pensions are pactually useless. To increase the importance of state pensions, id change it to where retired people are unhappy if they have low state pensions, obviously because they need to save their own money. Next in my oppinion the minnimum wage is way to overpowered and need nurfing. Studies show that a 15 dollar minnimum wage would destroy between 500k to 1.4 million jobs. Hence it would be realistsic if it boosted umemployment quite a bit more. It shoudl also reduce productivity. Next: Economist agree than when taxing buissness profits, they raise prices and lower wages to compensate about 2/3 ig the lost money in taxes. So it would make sense if wages would go down and all earnis decrease because of higher prices. All in all, democracy 4 is a great game and i hope that will think about my suggestions, thanks

[@positechgames]

Thanks for the feedback!

[@Qatari2007]

@@positechgames how do we actually make the mod file? there's not much info on it, and I've already spent hours trying to do it!

[@anarchosherman961]

"Will destroy" those jobs can also be replaced with more jobs from increased capital flow. Even back when this comment was made. The jobs that can't afford to pay workers a livable wage are what we call "failures" in the capitalist model. That simple.

[@Studio800Gaming]

Hi Cliff, so when i go to create a policy in the game using the above tutorial the game keeps crashing saying: "Unknown operator in equation:D:\programming\democracy4\builds\src\_all_operating_systems\sim\SIM_EquationProcessor.cpp 112" . No matter if i click on any value in the policy menu. I am very confused as to why because even if I change all the values for everything it still does this. Is their anyway you could create a tool or publish a way to get around this in game issue. I love both Democracy 3 and 4 but have always found modding them correctly to work to be difficult.

[@willnash7907]

99.5% of the time, in my experience, this means you made a syntax error or used an inapplicable value. Scan for forgotten commas, mispellings in localisation files, equations that do not follow the expected form, etc.

[@ajhare2]

Whenever I go to submit to steam workshop, I get an error saying "item submitted failed: [k_EResultFileNotFound]:D:\programming\democracy4\builds\Democracy4\src\_all_operating_systems\app_steamworkshop.cpp111"

[@positechgames]

hi, is this a new mod you created using the in game tools, or did you manually create the files in windows explorer?

[@michaelblackledge5447]

Thanks for the video! Is it possible to download the Mods off Steam if you bought Democracy 4 from Humble Bundle?

[@positechgames]

if you run the game without steam, the mods screen should give you a curated list of mods you can install without using steam (the game handles the download itself). Its not as many as steamworks, but its quite a few.

[@Sly14000]

Hey Cliff, Is there a way to edit vanilla game policies in the editor? I know this can be done by just going into the text files in the game directory but I was wondering if the mod editor would allow something like this.

[@positechgames]

No, the policies that already are in the game cannot directly be modded, but you can effectively mod them by including a mod that has overrides for every effect from that policy. Details on our site modding guide: www.positech.co.uk/democracy4/mod_countries.html

[@cyrowing1552]

@@positechgames I just wanted to give you the hint that you also have the possibility to change the values in the tables in the folder 'Steam/steam/apps/common/Democracy4/data/simulation'. But I agree with you. A corresponding tool to mod the values would of course be better.

[@NickFallap]

Alright, im trying to make a mod that adds policies where the player can choose when to enable Emergency Powers. Ive gotten it to work but as soon as I go to the next turn the policy cancels itself and the Emergency Powers ends. Another problem I had was with a different policy that would add funds to the players income. For some reason, no matter how much you set it to give, it will give the max of whatever I set it to. I havent found a solution to either yet and any help would be very appreciated!!

[@maxschoenleber4580]

Hi Cliff, So when i go to test the mods, the game always crashes before I get to policy screen in a new game. I am wondering if there is something i am doing wrong? Its just very strange to me. I am also wondering is anyone else also having this issue where, the game crashes while loading the mod? I am just asking because i would love to make content for this amazing game.

[@positechgames]

Hi, it could just be a buggy or broken mod. does it happen with any mod?

[@maxschoenleber4580]

@@positechgames I have found it occurs only when I make a custom mod of any type.

[@positechgames]

@@maxschoenleber4580 Its probably a data error in a mod in that case. I am intending to do a lot more work on the mod tools to prevent players from making any errors when creating a mod. Right now it is possible to enter some errors unknowingly, especially in the equations. If you email me the mod folder for your custom mod to cliff AT positech dot co dot uk I can take a look at it.

[@jldldr3933]

Just started played Dem 3 again recently, keep up the good work

[@Chaehwan1213]

I have some problems with the link about the icon, that when I click the link, it shows WindowsError(no found). How can I solve it?

[@positechgames]

Hi, what do you mean exactly? what link?

[@Chaehwan1213]

​@@positechgames the link that you clicked at 2:04

[@positechgames]

@@Chaehwan1213 Interesting. Is this in a non-english version? does the folder My Documents\My Games\Democracy\mods not exist on your PC? TBH I'm not 100% sure how windows explorer handles English filenames in a Korean or Chinese windows install...

[@Chaehwan1213]

@@positechgames I am using Korean windows install. This is my folder adress. C:\Users\one12\OneDrive\문서\My Games\Democracy4\mods I believe "문서" makes errors.

[@positechgames]

@@Chaehwan1213 Interesting. I suspect it might be related to onedrive actually, as we grab the name of the mydocuments folder without using its name, so it should give us the correct path, but I know onedrive can be remote, maybe we arent handling that right...

[@shadishd5210]

Hello, can someone tell me how can i download mr. Cliff's mods? ( if possible)

[@Studio800Gaming]

Hi Cliff, So when I went to put the SVG file into the directory for the policy, the game could not read it. Despite the name of the images being correct. Do you have any idea why this would be? I also noticed I do not have a program that can open SVG files. Do you have a program you recommend.

[@positechgames]

Hi I use inkscape. Google it, its free! The svg needs to be in \data\svg when the game starts. It sadly does not detect one you copy there while the game is running, so thats probably it...

[@Studio800Gaming]

@@positechgames Hi Cliff, so I attempted to save an svg to the svg data file and made sure the game was not loading however, it still did not show up for me upon game restart and the name was correct. Do the svg files have to be a certain size? Thank You for your patients in helping me resolve this matter.

[@positechgames]

@@Studio800Gaming hi, size shouldn't really matter, but i make them 256x256 with a transparent background, using white as the color for the shape, and save them as a normal svg file, never a 'inkscape svg file' which seems to pad the file with nonsense. Try replacing your file with one copied from the svg folder first to be sure that the name and location are correct.

[@Chadt18]

I'd love a MOD that tells me what policies I can cancel.

[@willnash7907]

Hello Cliff. I keep encountering a bug where using a spreadsheet edited version of the situations file results in the start and stop conditions of all situations being set to 0 and all happening at once. This stops me from modding in new situations. Is there a workaround?

[@positechgames]

I'll try and reproduce, then fix this...

[@positechgames]

Can you email the modded file that causes problems? You shouldn't really be editing the existing file, but just using the format to create new files with new situations in. The best way to create mods is in-game using the tools in the mod editor, which handles all the formatting for you.

[@willnash7907]

@@positechgames I could not get a work-around working through tools and so I ended up (redacted) a few (redacted) versions of the game to work on a previous build. I had used this tactic with multiple other games I worked on when I reached an impasse. I edited the files directly with sublime text and tracked how the game accessed them with glare utilities. The issue, as I understand it, was that normal, error-free spreadsheet editing would still produce syntax errors when trying to add new situations under bureaucracy, resulting not in the customary "bad equation" crash and popup but in a misreading of the "start/stop" value. It was really strange as everything else worked normally as far as I could tell. On the build before the bereaucracy update this was not happening. Editing the situation from the (redacted) pre-bureaucracy version and strictly adding new situations by copypasting them over dummy copy pastes of the old ones before the final two, then using that edited folder as a full replacement fo the situation in the mod folder worked for me, though now I have to copy paste new vanillia situations to that folder after every update to have them. Unfortunately right after I got it to work I got rid of the (redacted) versions of the game and all its files for obvious reasons and later I got my internet connection back and updated the game (social media addiction content if I remember right) which got rid of my bugged vanillia folder. I will email you the folder I currently use in the mod in the oldest bckup I can find in case it can point you anywhere, it produced the exact same problem in the same way, but I haven't been able to reproduce it in the current version of the game. If this is at all relevant, the bug first appeared on a windows 7 OS and with libreoffice editing.

[@willnash7907]

If anyone happens to come across this again, I finally cracked what happened because I happened to work from that computer after a while. Officelibre for some reason, while claiming to be able to faultlessly import csv files, replaces dots with commas if you happen to have the UK version. I just had to open the file with an online reader to change them back. Such a stupid little thing.

[@anonymoususer2284]

Hi Cliff, I downloaded an image for a mod I'm making, and made sure the names lined up, but nothing is happening, so I'm stuck on square one What's the solution to this issue?

[@positechgames]

Hi, are you sure the file extension for the image is the same as for other mods? are you using the in-game mod editor? thats definitely the simplest way to create mods, and ensures stuff is in the right place and named correctl.y.

[@anonymoususer2284]

@@positechgames Yeah, I've been using the in-game mod editor, I've tried replicating the example you showed in the video, but it didn't work, as yes, the file extension is the same, I made sure to check to see if the file name of the jpeg lined up and matched, and was on the mod folder.

[@positechgames]

@@anonymoususer2284 can you email me the files that have been created to cliff AT positech dot co dot uk?

[@migfigfitness2850]

Hi Cliff, is there a way to edit the inertia of each effect in a policy? Thanks!

[@positechgames]

you mean a global value that affects all policies inertia? not currently. the inertia for any individual effect in the game can be edited or modded though.

[@agustinmarquez8425]

I always thought that creating a mod for democracy was pretty hard, now i see that is pretty simple, is a shame i can't afford democracy 4 but i will test it on democracy 3 ♥ Another question, ¿what language of programming do democracy use? i want to learn that

[@positechgames]

C++

[@agustinmarquez8425]

@@positechgames thank you ♥

[@maksio-c7j]

Anyone know a mod where you can play in opposition.

[@jackharkness7820]

I want to mod, but I bought the game through the Epic Games Store, is it possible to mod their?

[@positechgames]

It is, but the in-game stuff might currently be disabled unless you are running through steam. The mods created the old way (by hand editing text files) still work. I will make sure everything works for everyone soon!

[@genctubay3239]

how do you add mods tho?

[@samuelforsyth6374]

I see how to edit policies but how do I edit the values for things like nuclear power stations? is there annother list?? please help anyone

[@positechgames]

Nuclear fission is a policy thats already in the game. If you want a new country to have a setting for that policy, you want the country tab, then the policies list on that tab.

[@samuelforsyth6374]

I was just editing the text file, have seen 'nuclear fission' but can I edit the blue ones around the edge like 'nuclear power stations' , cannot see a country tab/folder

[@positechgames]

@@samuelforsyth6374 Hi, if you want to change the values of blue circles in the game, the best way is just to have policy settings that affect them and bring them to the desired value. If you want to force them to change value without policies, then you need to add overrides. Have a look at the bottom of this page: positech.co.uk/democracy4/mod_countries.html

[@samuelforsyth6374]

@@positechgames game now crashes when i load a country, tried deleting all files and re downloading still crashes.. this game is a mess

[@positechgames]

@@samuelforsyth6374 This is almost certainly mod related. Have you tried renaming the \my documents\my games\democracy 4 folder? thats where downloaded and installed, or locally-created mods are kept.

[@TheStevenWhiting]

Not stealing your content or pushing people away from your videos but being the anal person I am and a bit odd, I like to sometimes watch your playlists IN ORDER :) ;) so created a playlist on my channel, pointing to all your Democracy 4 videos in release order. Haven't put a link as assume you have link protection on that will just remove the comment.

[@persel_hd]

thanks ^^

[@EpistolShow]

But there is no mod community website ?

[@positechgames]

Huh? there is on steam and at positech.co.uk

[@EpistolShow]

@@positechgames So I buy it on GOG I can't access the mod files because it's only on Steam workshop ?

[@positechgames]

@@EpistolShow No, there are a selection of mods that you can browse from within the game and install, even if not bought on steam. There are more mods on steam workshop, but many seem to be tests or works in progress.

[@snappy_one9120]

I have another suggestion how to make the game more realistsic. In my oppinion, labour laws on high rn are too op, in my oppinion, setting labour laws on high should reduce productivity more and decrease all earnings, since companies tend to just raise prices to compensate the increased expensure. Next: One hting that i think is missing in the game are gas/ oil heaters vs electric heaters. I would add a policy called something like : electric heater subsidies, which reduces Co2 emissions, boost electric heater transition, upset capitalists, (since its a market distortion) and maybe increase poverty by a bit since new heaters are expensive. Last but not least what i noticed is that crime normally always goes down to zero, even if your doing a rather liberal playthrough, i would find it more realistic if reducing crime to zero would be much harder, which would actually make some law and order policies usefull. I hope that you will think about it, thanks.

[@snappy_one9120]

Hi Cliff, Since democracy 4 isnt avaiable for ios, could you atleast make it avaiable for mac on steam, thank you