Forthcoming updated demo - functionality pt1

Geopolaris is a game that models geopolitical interactions between world powers. With the coming demo this part of the game gets enhanced and in this week's update I will describe in more details how it is going to work.

The game world is divided into 50 regions. Every region by default is either neutral or belongs to one of the players (representing world powers). Regions owned by players can either be fully integrated core regions (basically part of the country) or puppet regions (semi-autonomous regions run by their puppet governments). At some point a puppet region can be annexed to become a core region, thus become part of the country.

Competing powers try to make a region (neutral, puppet or core) shift from its default status quo into a state of leaning towards a certain player. When the region is leaning towards a specific player it means this region is acceptive to player's attempt to win this region over. Region that is leaning towards a player, does it with a certain flipping chance %. When flipping chance hits - a region changes its allegiance. If a neutral region or enemy puppet was leaning towards you - after a successful flip these type of regions become your puppets. If successful flip occurred in an enemy core region that was leaning towards you - such region gets liberated by your effort and becomes neutral again.

So how does a player get a region to start leaning and eventually flip to his side? In the upcoming demo this will happen following a 2-tier process.

Make region leaning towards you

You do this by exercising influence over the target region (costing you geopolitical power).

The amount of influence you need to exercise to force a region to lean towards you depends on two factors. First of all you need to overcome region's resistance level. The region in the below image has resistance of 3, so you have to throw at least 4 influence to overcome it.

The second factor is any competing influence exercised by another power over the region in question.

You should always have the amount of your influence in a region greater than any highest competitor's influence value plus region's resistance level combined. In our example resistance is 3, competing influence is 1, so that's why you need at least 5 influence to make this region leaning towards you.

Now the region is finally leaning towards you with a chance of flip equal to 3%. This is a change from a previous demo, where it was 33%. Of course 3% is also somewhat of a chance to flip a region but it was decreased intentionally for 2 reasons.

Reason #1 - to change game dynamics from a quick expansion towards a more balanced gameplay. Since now it becomes slower and more expensive to flip a region it increases the incentive to focus on the internal state of affairs by annexing your puppets and developing your regions more. Reason #2 - to leave space for the new Additional Geopolitical Interactions mechanic that is described in the chapter below.

Make region flip towards you

Having just 3% region flipping chance is nothing good so there is a way to step-by-step increase this chance. In order to see your options you hit the Increase Flipping Chance button.

This button is available only in the regions that are already leaning towards you. It opens a menu that lists your options to increase flipping chance.