Minimum Law Enactment Time

I could see this working and adding meaning to enacting laws, I also think that it would be more representative of RL if different government types have different duration.  Dictatorship should take less time to renew ability to change law, even perhaps making it zero.  Democracy, (oh how slowly the gears turn) would perhaps take longer than average.

Yeh, I thought that maybe there should be a difference for government types. Zero wait time for dictatorship seems pretty reasonable. Not sure I would want a longer wait time for democracies as this might push players away from using democracies. But maybe that would be balanced out by having more laws.

minurominerwin wrote:

 The players dont need more turns for think about a law, because the player decides how long is each turn. 

This doesn't make any sense.

A good case for minimum law lengths is that currently, you can enable the law which gives you some amount of dust and science for destroying an enemy ship, then disable it before your turn ends, thus taking none of the influence penalty but still getting 100 dust (meh) and 100 science (excellent in the early game).

Here is a somewhat confusing, yet perhaps agreeable compromise. Upon enacting a law, you pay 3 times the upkeep up front. If a law costs 2 influence per pop and you have 10 pops, you pay 60 influence (number of pops times cost per pop times 3 turns) simply by selecting the law. This could be explained in game terms by needing the political capital--or influence--to sway lawmakers to sign your proposed law. The next three turns, you don't pay the upkeep, as you already up-fronted it. This would regrettably allow players to enable a law just before gaining a pop, and maybe save a few influence, but in the grand scheme of things that value seems insignificant. 

This would give some incentive for players to think carefully about which laws they would need in 3 turns, 5 turns, 10 turns, etc., but also not completely preclude them from dropping the law if they need space for another one.

magicdoorhinge wrote:

A good case for minimum law lengths is that currently, you can enable the law which gives you some amount of dust and science for destroying an enemy ship, then disable it before your turn ends, thus taking none of the influence penalty but still getting 100 dust (meh) and 100 science (excellent in the early game).

Here is a somewhat confusing, yet perhaps agreeable compromise. Upon enacting a law, you pay 3 times the upkeep up front. If a law costs 2 influence per pop and you have 10 pops, you pay 60 influence (number of pops times cost per pop times 3 turns) simply by selecting the law. This could be explained in game terms by needing the political capital--or influence--to sway lawmakers to sign your proposed law. The next three turns, you don't pay the upkeep, as you already up-fronted it. This would regrettably allow players to enable a law just before gaining a pop, and maybe save a few influence, but in the grand scheme of things that value seems insignificant. 

This would give some incentive for players to think carefully about which laws they would need in 3 turns, 5 turns, 10 turns, etc., but also not completely preclude them from dropping the law if they need space for another one.

I totally agree that there are already some instances in the game where the laws are easy 'enact this for one turn to get the benefits'. Another instance other than the militarist law you mention is the new colony law. As you say, this change would resolve these existing issue, and I think provide more scope for designing new laws.

Honestly, I like your suggestion a lot. It fits a middle ground between how laws used to be and how they currently work. The element you miss out on is having to stick with that law for three turns (essentially losing the slot for this amount of time). But maybe that is too prohibitive.

Another alternative would be to 'charge' the player influence if they drop the law too soon. It would work as you suggest, but rather than paying 3x the upkeep upfront, you pay it if you make the change before the three turns are up. In other words, exactly how tactics cards work.

Any of these suggestions would work well, and achieve the same outcome. 

WeLoveYou wrote:

minurominerwin wrote:

 The players dont need more turns for think about a law, because the player decides how long is each turn. 

This doesn't make any sense.

lol

Like the basis of your idea. But before implementing this, you should consider how it interacts with actual inf law upkeep. You should ask for having at least inf necessary to maintain the law for all its duration or something, to avoid exploits like enacting the law when you got only the cost to enact the law and then it simply goes away next turn cause you can't pay the upkeep (hard to coordinate, but doable).

Upvoted, cause I like concept behind this, but not sure how to fit it properly.

lo_fabre wrote:

Like the basis of your idea. But before implementing this, you should consider how it interacts with actual inf law upkeep. You should ask for having at least inf necessary to maintain the law for all its duration or something, to avoid exploits like enacting the law when you got only the cost to enact the law and then it simply goes away next turn cause you can't pay the upkeep (hard to coordinate, but doable).

Upvoted, cause I like concept behind this, but not sure how to fit it properly.

Thanks!

I hadn't thought of this. I assume the current system is that the laws get 'deactivated' when you run out of influence. I've never actually run out of influence with the law upkeep before (although I have run negatives for short amounts of time).

I think the way to get round this is to attach the rule to the law slot, rather than the law itself. So the law slot can only be changed every three turns (for normal). This might require some finicky programming though, as the law slots tend to move about after elections. 

I noticed something in game the other day. The laws actually have a "turns until free deactivation" timer. I checked a law, I think it was militarist or industrialist, from my list of active laws, and it said 6 turns until free deactivation or something like that. I deactivated it early, and did not have to pay the early deactivation cost. I guess what that tells me is that the framework is there, they just haven't decided on what the cost to drop a law early will be.