Wasn't all that hard. I essentially replaced flat income tax with regular income tax, cracked down on crime, and kept to a fairly straightforward liberal/capitalist line after that. I was worrying about the Oligarchy getting angry sooner or later, but it turned out that they liked my changes a lot.

I'm fairly certain you can't win with assasinations enabled tho.

I'm still trying on a playthrough where I get rid of them, because I like the storytelling angle you've set up there, but this would have to be done early on, since I wasn't able to raise my political capital over 36 after my first term.

Ah good. I was worried that I'd made it a bit *too* hard.
The coming update should have a few more options/complications, most notably the line you choose to take on transhumanism.

Originally posted by Markus:

. I was worrying about the Oligarchy getting angry sooner or later, but it turned out that they liked my changes a lot.

Yeah, as long as the money keeps flowing to them and they stay in control, the oligarchs don't really mind what you do.

Originally posted by Markus:

I'm still trying on a playthrough where I get rid of them, because I like the storytelling angle you've set up there, but this would have to be done early on, since I wasn't able to raise my political capital over 36 after my first term.

The difficulty in raising capital after the first term is something of a problem since I'd like people to be able to slowly build up their powerbase before rebelling, but I'm not sure how to fix it as I don't want Assert Sovereignty to be too cheap since it's one of the most radical shifts you can possibly make as a governor.

I won with default settings (assasination enabled). Dodged a bullet or two along the way, mostly from the moral crusade.

I did it by cracking down on crime (police spending, intelligence, community policing and CCTV), scrapping the worst policies (human cloning and robotics research), implementing taxes on automation and narcotics, firing up rural grants and small business grants for GDP, then playing "socialism by stealth" to reduce poverty and racial riots - food stamps were particularly useful here - and boosting education via state schools and adult subsidies. Won the election by scrapping the flat income tax entirely a couple of turns before (which gave me a ~20% boost by itself), then putting in a proper income tax right after the vote for budget reasons. I got rid of the oligarchy shortly into my second term, which boosted the polls to 86% ish. I had to do another reshuffle to get to 50, but it was still possible. Main problem was the horrific expense of indpendence.

Excellent fun, and it took me a good couple of runs before I managed it (first time I got shot by the conservatives, second time lost the election 50-30). Thank you. I reckon the difficulty is actually about right: a challenge, but definitely doable. It was a nice change from my usual "butter up the socialists and environmentalists" method of play.

Originally posted by Name Withheld:

I did it by cracking down on crime (police spending, intelligence, community policing and CCTV), scrapping the worst policies (human cloning and robotics research), implementing taxes on automation and narcotics, firing up rural grants and small business grants for GDP, then playing "socialism by stealth" to reduce poverty and racial riots - food stamps were particularly useful here - and boosting education via state schools and adult subsidies. Won the election by scrapping the flat income tax entirely a couple of turns before (which gave me a ~20% boost by itself), then putting in a proper income tax right after the vote for budget reasons. I got rid of the oligarchy shortly into my second term, which boosted the polls to 86% ish. I had to do another reshuffle to get to 50, but it was still possible. Main problem was the horrific expense of indpendence.

Oh good. I'm glad to see that people found a few different viable paths to success.
I'm impressed that you managed to get your political capital to over 50 in the second term as, like Markus, I myself have actually been unable to do it.
Independence is designed to become cheaper over time as it's cost is reduced by the percentage of Patriots--which it boosts pretty dramatically. Did that not work in your game?

It did, reducing it from an initial 250 a turn to 130 a turn afterwards. Still painful though.

And I should say, I didn't manage over 50 - my cap was 50 exactly. And that was about turn three of my second term, so it probably wouldn't have been possible for much longer.

I seriuosly can't beat the North American Federation! I tried so many times with different strategies, but can't get above 38% on election day. Any tips / walktrough?

N.A.F. is really hard. I myself have lost it at least ten times as much as I've been successfully re-elected.
Currying favor with the Oligarchs, crushing crime, and steadily encouraging social equality/wiping out poverty, while simultaneously encouraging capitalism seems to me the most reliable strategy for the first term.
You could also try radical reforms from the beginning: launching a coup to build up a base of patriots, introducing a progressive income tax, and building up state schools and education--just make sure that you have the security apparatus to fend off assassination.

Originally posted by v1t:

First I'd like to say, this mod is sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo good.

It actually perfectly or nearly so captures the dynamics of the modern and near-future world.

The strategy of populist capitalism, strong nationalism and moderate socialism favoured by anti-Globalists like Trump, Le Pen etc is perfectly captured in this mod.

I'm glad you liked the mod.
To be clear, I did NOT intend this mod as a commentary on contemporary politics or any particular political movement, nor to compare it to the modern world.
If we continue the analogy though, I would point out that the post-coup/Assert Sovereignty country is not necessarilly better off, and could easily be a fascist dystopia.

The Alternative Media concept is an interesting one, particularly as I've been trying to figure out how you'd really build up to a coup via alterrnative routes, but it would need to be tweaked. In a cyberpunk world where Anti-Eco Propaganda is a common policy and the Oligarchs push for minimalist governments, I would find it hard to believe that "Alternative Media" would solely consist of radical libertarianism or Alt-Right outlets. I would think that the counter-culture would breed diverse strains of revolutionary communism, eco-fanaticism, and/or luddism.
Perhaps there could be multiple Alternative Medias.

Originally posted by v1t:

That is true. If you would put in an Alt-right and a (Green-)Left alternate media, that would capture most of the modern alternative media, in my opinion, and not risk overcomplicating things. Further, one thing all modern Alternative Medias have in common is that they are against (global) corporate centralisation and therefore against globalism, so you could create a sort of Nasserist or Peronist or Trumpist left-right alliance of nationalists.

I had indeed considered altering the interest groups and assassing groups to make a similar possibility, but as you say it is, as far as I know, impossible to mod.

I would also like to reiterate that this mod is intended to reflect the classic cyberpunk genre, not modern conspiracy theories (though a conspiracy mod could certainly be awesome in its own right) or an anti-globalist perspective. In cyberpunk the main authority is traditionally international megacorps who reduce governments to tatters, not make them strong, so I've sided towards setting them up as weak, ultra-minimalist states in the mod--with the exception of the KTSR which is arguable too big for its own good and is independent of the oligarchs. These oligarchs don't like strong governments because they would be a center of power that could grow beyond their control.

Side Note: Ironically, considering comparisons to Trumpist anti-globalism, if the mod could be said to be at all about politics today, then Trump himself could be considered one of Oligarchs-- a flagrantly decadent, hyper-narcissistic member of global ultra-rich who openly brags about using his money to manipulate politicians to his whims, and influences public opinion through doublespeak and hilariously transparent lies that play to the populace's most vile instincts and paranoias.

There is a Conspiracy mod, complete with policies for unmarked helicopters, chemtrails and iirc alien abductions.

Originally posted by v1t:

Not buying it. MAGA/MDGA ;)

Your opinions are your own, but this is a forum for discussing a game mod, not real-world politics.

Finially a mod that kicks my ass. First time I have had a chalenged. I managed to break the dystopia, but then got kicked out in the re-election. I did by ending poverty rolling into fixing crime.

Originally posted by Opos:

Finially a mod that kicks my ass. First time I have had a chalenged. I managed to break the dystopia, but then got kicked out in the re-election. I did by ending poverty rolling into fixing crime.

Interesting. I almost always start with crime first, then poverty. The anti-poverty measures tend to anger the oligarchs, and I try to avoid that until I have the strength to Assert Sovereignty.