Society Model

So basically in the time between discovering this forum and signing up to it I did a lot of thinking about the sorts of ideas that I could bring to the table. It seems I overlooked the bit where you guys decided to drop the pops system. Bugger I had so many brilliant ideas and insights with regards to that. Though to be fair I can see why you would choose a simpler system, and the pops system in Victoria 2 that its based on could be ridiculously broken at times (20% of the population in this province are priests).

I do have a few questions though:

How do we simulate international migration?

How do we simulate unemployment?

What about police and other forms of security?

All three of those are particularly important especially once capitalism starts to develop. Labour migration is vital for providing a flexible and cheap source of labour, unemployment would start to rise and is useful for disciplining labour (you are less likely to go on strike if there are 10 other people willing to take your job), and a functioning police force is vital for maintaining the property rights and social relations that underpin capitalist production.

P.S. Also I know this argument is out of date but the theorist in me is screaming. A capitalist is someone who owns productive capital (stuff that is made to produce other stuff i.e. land, tools, machines and the labour power of their workers), and uses that productive capital to make commodities (things that are made to be sold on the market). This distinguishes them from merchants who make their money from buying something in one place and selling it in another where it is more valuable )buying low and selling high). The capitalist is involved in a process that creates things of value, the merchant moves value around. What distinguishes a capitalist from an artisan or a member of the peti-bourgeoisie is that a capitalist employs others to work for them, whilst the artisan is directly involved in the labour process, although they may also hire additional workers to help them.

There will be no migration. Rather, cities simply grow or decrease, based on food levels, happiness, health, housing capacity, etc.

Any specialists that aren't operating buildings are part of the pool of units the player has access to to deploy, move around the map and give orders to, and then populate (put back into a city). For example, if the player has 200 free Worker Specialists in his city, he can deploy a certain amount and then order them to build a series of buildings. There will not be a penalty for free specialists that are not currently engaged in a task.

Police basically serve as a replacement for military garrisons. As cities start to grow, the player will receive penalties to happiness for not maintaining a military garrison in a city. However, constabularies and police stations can mitigate or entirely eliminate this penalty. And, if a revolt does break out, they will dispatch their own military specialists to deal with the situation (non-lethally).

Alex J G wrote:

P.S. Also I know this argument is out of date but the theorist in me is screaming. A capitalist is someone who owns productive capital (stuff that is made to produce other stuff i.e. land, tools, machines and the labour power of their workers), and uses that productive capital to make commodities (things that are made to be sold on the market). This distinguishes them from merchants who make their money from buying something in one place and selling it in another where it is more valuable )buying low and selling high). The capitalist is involved in a process that creates things of value, the merchant moves value around. What distinguishes a capitalist from an artisan or a member of the peti-bourgeoisie is that a capitalist employs others to work for them, whilst the artisan is directly involved in the labour process, although they may also hire additional workers to help them.

If only you had been here to explain that a year ago, when a user on the forum consistently denied that definition of a capitalist.