Join the new world

The long called for manifesto! I apologise for its length but the government is in such a dilapidated state that there are so many areas that can be built upon and be improved beyond recognition. I’ll keep my intro to these policies short as there is so much below to get your teeth sunk into. These are real and tangible policies that will really shine a light on what’s not being done currently. But there is one key stone weaved throughout my approach to the Presidency - the government and the eUK should be free, fair and equal.



You are about to see a lot of information about policies and ideas, with some chunky paragraphs about rationale. I appreciate not everyone will want to read all of it, so take a look at No. 10 for the ideas below and which section to find them in.





Military

My military policies revolve around a re-thinking of the eUK’s battle ‘etiquette’/meta. There are no countries in eRepublik that apply as much meta to this area as the eUK does, and it has become a sink on the time and resources of Government.

My suggestion is that we replace our cumbersome etiquette guide with a T30 system. A T30 system has been adopted by several countries who have sought to manage battles and Battle Hero medals. It involves dissuading ‘third party’ (non-UK and non-TW-partner) fighters from participating in the first half an hour of a battle (via articles and contact). UK and TW fighters can overtake third party fighters during this period without hesitation, and after which we would ask eUK fighters to manage their damage and medal hunting with common sense.



This will also mean the bounty system becomes less relevant, and I suggest we scrap that too. The bounty system was intended as a ‘nudge’ approach to promote good behaviours, but at best has seen the Government mediate arguments with people who won’t care about any set of rules, and at worst punish our own citizens for not having read an article that was last published months ago.

I will redirect these funds towards a pre-epic rewards policy, whereby those who contribute epic-raising damage are rewarded. This will encourage coordination, and will complement a policy to proactively seek out an appropriate partner for epics to ensure they are frequent and at times best-suited to the eUK. This pot will be for players who help raise the prior epic damage by offering cash distributed by the percent of kills by each player which will be further discussed in the economic section.



Lastly, we need a Minister of Defence. This Minister should be monitoring our coverage of medals in our Training Wars. We need to be data lead when planning Training Wars, and we need to make sure eUK medals are going to eUK fighters. We are gaining a reputation for somewhere with absurd battle rules, rampant overhitting, and as a place where anyone can come and get medals to the detriment of ourselves and our partners. That is the reality of our alleged ‘good reputation as a TW partner’. Clear and simple guidelines, frequently communicated, and less ‘baggy space’ for third party medal hunters to get easy wins will actually turn our reputation around and optimise our Training war approach. I will task the Minister of Defence to improve tracking of medal coverage data to get a handle on statistics such as how many medals are taken by third party fighters or not claimed at all.



Foreign Affairs

The eUK needs an active Ministry of Foreign Affairs. They will be incharge of first and foremost in exploring options for “Training War+” partners. This is where we will approach similar strengthened neighbouring countries to conduct a war game in which we fight over a defined group of regions and try to win. This is a more engaging approach to training which I hope can give some respite from the monotony of regular TWs. It does depend on finding the right partner, which is why I have placed this with the MoFA. Of course there will be many articles and much fanfare around this as we look to engage as many players we have in a legitimate contest to hone our ability to organise and fight.



The minister will also do a full appraisal of alliances and options available to us. It has recently been brought up in congress about approaches for a “neutral” alliance but with next to no information to be able to form an opinion. This is not how government business should be done and people need to be given the full information to be able to make informed choices. Whether we choose to go forward as neutral, join an existing alliance or help found a new one, we need to make these decisions with no stone unturned.

The MoFA will be the one incharge of finding a consistent partner to optimise epic battle timings for broader participation and engagement, coordinating with countries in similar time zones aiming to get regular epics after the usual work time between 5 and 8pm. This is in an effort to get Epics at times that suit the widest cross section of players possible.



Domestics

The Government continues to flounder in its approach to education and new player support. Yes, there are several programs and yes a few guides have come out, but there is nothing tailored to new players and the current approach is so prescriptive and information-dense that it must scare off as many people as it helps.

Firstly, we need a single source of information and contact for new players. The Office for New Players felt tokenistic and I cannot see why we would direct people to it rather than to the long established Ministry of Education. The MoEd will be properly staffed in my Government and will work on creating and disseminating resources and getting people the support they need. These resources must be tailored to new citizens and not be prescriptive. Mr Woldy’s article for new players is the kind of tone and level of detail people need on day one. We need to let people soak in the play-environment and support their growth as citizens.

In conjunction with this I will streamline support systems for new players, focusing on universal grants with minimal application requirements and minimal off-site processing (if you can find out how to apply for current schemes, take a look at the forms people have to fill in - enough said!). New players will also be contacted routinely, firstly when they join to provide information on government assistance as well as followed up with to assist in any questions.



Engage, Support, Enhance. Everyone should be contacted with resources, everyone should know where to go, or who to ask, for help. Domestic ministries, and the Presidency itself, should do what they can to enhance the player experience. This will mean games and articles from the Ministry of Entertainment. It will mean that I, as President, will not sit back if I think people are being too caustic or unpleasant to each other. The Presidency should assert standards in public life, and should step in to address threats, abuse, people telling each other to get out the country, threats of coups, etc. Sitting back and watching is below the standards of the Presidency and has been one of the most uncomfortable things to witness from the onset of the eUK’s cabal.



Economics

The Ministry of Finance is, along with the MoFA, an area now much neglected in the eUK. I want to see a robust MoF, who understands how income and the country accounts work and can relate this back to citizens. Specifically, I want an MoF team to take a full review of the tax position of countries around the world and form some recommendations to our Congress on how we may improve our income.

In terms of spending, the homunculus of player support programs and rewards the eUK now ‘administers’ is getting out of hand. Players looking for help are greeted with entire essays on all the things they might apply for, all the rules they have to follow to do it, and worst of all when applying are greeted with forms that look as complex as visa applications. All player support and rewards will be streamlined if I am elected.



Firstly, rewards need to be fairer. The amount of money, earnt from all of our taxes, that goes to a small group of players is bordering on the obscene. Over 25% of January's tax revenue went to five players. That’s why I want to have a universal reward for all players meeting a low activity threshold. If you work and train, you qualify. This will be 5,000 cc a week and will be paid without the need to comment or message. The introduction of a universal basic income for active citizens is a foundational support system and will complement our other subsidies and rewards. This will provide new players with more cash from the government to spend on what they need as a reward for continued activity.

Fighter rewards need to be more fairly distributed too. As with many things our fighter rewards are actually separate programs devised years ago, jammed together and never updated. Elect me to update it. Rather than pay 5% of ground kills in guns (capped at 125 guns coming out at roughly 4cc a kill) and 6cc per Air Kill (capped at 15,000cc), my government will pay 10cc a kill, as currency, to Air and Ground fighters. There will be a cap of 10,000 cc a week. This will mean that for the vast majority of fighters their rewards will be much greater, and of the money spent on fighting rewards it will be distributed more evenly through the fighting population. This will be in addition to the 5,000 cc universal weekly reward described above. Players entitlement will be calculated weekly and paid monthly for both programs as they are already.



Then there’s specific financial incentives for new players and businesspeople. Again, we do not need to have several different schemes that amount to ‘we will give you money’. I would offer all purpose subsidies to new players via the ‘experience cash in’ initiative, and support to new businesses in the form of work tax rebates.

The experience cash in initiative will draw on elements of the rewards framework but will be based on everyone having an entitlement of 50,000 cc when they start. At any point up to level 35 they can ‘cash in’ their experience, i.e. ask for their current value in experience points to be paid to them as currency. This will operate as an incentive for activity as well as a grant for whatever they please.

Additionally to assist new businesspeople, my Government will return UK work tax to players in their first six months. They can provide their production reports and we can return the work tax. This will do much more to assist people in the economy module and allow them to sell cheaper manufactured goods. This tax break will also be extended to any fiscal programs, co-ops, communes, etc. which pool resources and share profits in the eUK. Such programs are not only creative but they also benefit everyone. I will look into support for commune’s, exploring ways the government can assist in improving outcomes, at least through providing guidance and resources.

Lastly, I will task the Minister of Finance to conduct tax reviews to optimise revenue streams, potentially learning from VAT implementation in other countries, and ask him to generate some metrics to assess the health of our Treasury and programs.



The Cabinet

The Cabinet will be a team of old and new faces and I very much look forward to working with them in the coming weeks!

vCP/Minister of Finance - Mr Woldy
Fluent in spreadsheets, Mr Woldy will be doing all the heavy lifting in terms of figures and finance.
Minister of Defence - DarkMantle
Recently with access to the API, DM will be looking at the tech side of things to try and maintain an easy system to track medals.
Minister of Foreign Affairs - Citoyen Vigneron
There's no better person positioned in the country than CV when it comes to the alliances. He will be on a fact finding mission so we can ensure we make the best decision for out future.
Minister of Education/Health - Mr Immanuel Kant
MIK knows how to administer health initiatives and is in frequent contact with new players. As we look to merge health under the umbrella of Education, MIK is the perfect candidate.
Minister of Entertainment - Garth Lidlington
Publisher of Garth's Good News, Garth is in charge of fun and merriment this month as well as handling games surrounding TW+!
Cabinet Secretary - Armorista
Armorista is fresh on the scene as a budding writer and journalist. I've seen comments where he'd like to publish reports on government activities and that's exactly what I want to see in my government this month so why not bring him in!
Junior Ministers - Liberak & SichimDragos
Two active members of the country and eager to learn the ropes, Liberak and SD will be assisting us in carrying out our duties this month and getting hands on experience!



I believe this manifesto and the team I have assembled speaks for itself. Vote Beta on the 5th. It’s time for change.