Darkest Hour - Dev Diary #19 - Generic Decisions feature

Darkest Hour - Dev Diary #19 - Generic Decisions

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Hello everyone, today we're going to talk about a new concept of Darkest Hour: the Generic Decisions!

As the Head of State and leader of you country, you have the power to take some important decisions that affect different aspects of your nation. The generic decisions (their name due to the fact that they're usually not country specific) can be divided into 3 different categories:

1. economic decisions;
2. decisions regarding your domestic policy;
3. military decisions;

Before taking a closer look at the generic decisions, please let us explain why we decided to introduce them:

• first of all, we wanted you to feel like an Head of State that has to take important decisions for his country: you're at the helm and you have to guide your country through these dark times!
• we also give to give more opportunities to medium and small nations: obviously they will have a harder time to take some of these decisions, but they will help them grow and fill the gap from the major powers!
• since these decisions usually require a good quantity of money, now money is a more important resource, especially since it's also a good idea to invest money in espionage, at least to have a better defense against the enemy;

So, let's see what important decisions you can take to lead your countries to victory!
Economy

• Issue Currency: you can print new money if you're don't have enough; however, this move has the negative effect of increasing inflation which has the concrete effect of hurting your industry;
• Money Devaluation: this is the reduction in the value of a currency with respect to those goods, services or other monetary units with which that currency can be exchanged. As a consequence, your economy would be more competitive in foreign markets, slightly boosting your industry;
• Public jobs: this is an expensive program that aims at creating useful job for unskilled men. Even if expensive, this will result not only in reducing the unemployment and therefore pleasing the population, but also in creating new companies under the control of the government; free market economies cannot take this decision;
• War Bonds: war bonds are debt securities issued by a government for the purpose of financing military operations during times of war. War bonds generate capital for the governments which therefore usually appeal to patriotism and conscience to get its citizens to buy war bonds; this decision is available only for some specific countries;
• Ersatz Conversion: a shortage of rare materials can be overcome thanks to this process: the Ersatz Conversion is a costly process to produce rare materials in times of need; this decision is available only for some specific countries;

Domestic policy

• Press Censorship: democratic countries can enforce censorship in the press in times of war in order to hold back information that may harm the government; this also allows the government to exert control over the population and prevent free expression that might foment rebellion;
• Invest in National Infrastructures: by investing in infrastructures, you're going to extend your road and railroad networks; this is will not only help and please the population, but it will also increase your capacity of transferring men and supplies for the Army in case of war; you will be able to choose between a limited, a comprehensive and a large investment; free market economies cannot take this decision;
• Invest in National Research: by investing in your universities and research centres, you will provide your scientists with funds and state-of-the-art tools, thus increasing their ability to discover new technologies; you will be able to choose between a limited, a comprehensive and a large investment; free market economies cannot take this decision;

Military

• Purge the Army: forcing the disloyal and unreliable officers in your army to resign will make sure that only the better and most trustworthy officers can lead your soldiers; this will raise their morale, even if the public opinion will not like it; this decision can be taken only by authoritarian governments (and not by Soviet Union if they've already taken the Great Purge decision);
• Wargames: you can train the officers in our Army thanks to use of wargames like Kriegsspiel; the simulations of war will make them increase their skills;
• Allow Foreign Volunteers: democratic countries can allow foreign volunteers in their army, and thus increase the number of recruits and the quantity of available manpower; however, these foreign recruits may have troubles integrating in their armies and this will lower the morale of their units;
• Purchase Licensed Unit: purchasing licensed units means equipping your armies with vehicles sold by other countries instead of produced by your own industry; this is a quick solution to equip new units with materials that your industry is not able to build or doesn't have the time to; this decision is not allowed for major countries (and for countries with large armies) and will allow the purchase of a limited amount of motorized divisions, armor divisions, interceptors wings and tactical bombers wings;
• War Propaganda: the aim of war propaganda is to influence the attitude of your population toward the war; this will make them stand united to support the government and endure the hardness of war and some of them will also be convinced to join the army;

And now a screenshot of a generic decision, with South America in the background.
Oh, the "Reform Military Service" decision that you can see there will be introduced in a further DD as our mobilization system is based upon it.