1.10: 1991, election balance and markets

1.10 brings together the changes released since 1.9. It changes how parties expand, how votes become seats, how failing institutions affect the economy, and how company earnings affect valuations. The 1991 changes cover population, currencies, institutions and the government decisions that shape Europe.

Election and government balance

• •UK Commons eligibility falls from 20% to 10%. The party-pooled seat threshold is lower in ordinary and snap elections. Structural support now follows a party's current regional registration, removing the advantage inherited from its starting-era share.
• •US House eligibility follows delegation size. The threshold remains 20% in states with one to four seats, gradually falls for larger delegations, and reaches 10% at nine seats. Projections and final results use the same rule.
• •Presidential campaigning has a smaller ceiling. Under the active v3 rules, campaign strength approaches a maximum 25% vote boost instead of 100%. State lean is no longer applied a second time after votes are allocated. Incumbent approval blends national and state approval equally. During the closing period, 5% of new ballots for candidates outside the local top two move toward the nearest viable candidate. Ballots already cast keep their recorded totals; older v1 and v2 races retain their rules.
• •Institutional failure costs votes and growth. The ruling-party penalty from low Democratic Health doubles, and a sitting President can face a combined penalty of up to 30% at complete failure. Below 60 health, the economy loses up to four percentage points of annual potential GDP growth. That loss reaches employment and tax bases, and election screens explain it.
• •Snap elections reset the term clock permanently. Later parliaments follow the new schedule rather than reverting to the original calendar. Dissolution vacates outgoing MPs, and election retries preserve the correct winners, offices and presidential terms.
• •Past presidential results stay historical. Previous and next links work again, and completed races show the result recorded at resolution rather than being recalculated against today's political map. Wiki history also labels snap elections and shows the correct game year.

Non-player politicians now fill recurring direct-election contests across the supported election families, reducing races that reopened without candidates. Divergent Supreme Court justices also receive a much lower departure risk: roughly 0.1% per active turn instead of 1.5%, calibrated to a fifteen-year median after the protected tenure period. Historical departure dates retain their separate rules.

Parties grow from their existing base

Recruiting or relocating a politician now follows a party's growth frontier: regions where it already has a member, politician or officeholder, and their neighbours. Player membership follows the same regional presence rule, with an exception for players who cannot be placed anywhere on the frontier. A party with no presence anywhere can still start from any region. Recruitment and relocation pickers explain which regions are reachable.

UK parties can reach Major status after qualifying in three regions. That is three of the UK's twelve regions; other countries retain their one-third rule.

Party, state-party and caucus treasuries with two different seated officers can pay a member five times the base per-turn limit. One person holding two seats still counts as one officer, and each treasury earns its own increase. Any two different officers can provide the two approvals a transaction needs. Approved transfers pay once even when officers approve together or a request is retried.

Anyone can contribute to a presidential candidate's campaign strength again, and the control is usable on a phone.

Corporate earnings and market balance

• •The revenue ramp starts at turn 1213 and targets +20%. Operating revenue ramps to a 20% boost, replacing the originally planned 15%. It begins at turn 1213 and reaches its target over 192 turns. Financial sectors keep their additional 10% revenue multiplier.
• •The valuation ramp starts forty turns after revenue. It starts at turn 1253 and lasts 192 turns. The existing targets remain 30% higher sector NPV and 50% higher bank income NPV, with the financial risk premium easing from 6% to 4%. These are gradual multipliers, so the full increase does not arrive at once.
• •More autonomous investors buy equities. Computer-controlled investors participate more broadly, while cash, share inventory and fund reserves still constrain what they can buy.
• •An IPO lists the whole selected float immediately. Every available share can be bought without waiting for a market-pool placement. The corporation receives proceeds as buyers pay. Old pending issuances no longer block new proposals.
• •Building respects national dominance. Plant expansion now applies the same national market-dominance checks as the other investment paths.
• •Critical shortages can attract new suppliers. Automated corporations can close essential supply gaps. Their investment decisions account for demand, capacity and available funding.

The stock market gains candlestick charts using recorded intraday prices, comparison lines with aligned timestamps, and a mobile layout. Corporation Financials and market views update financial labels and use consistent historical currency values.

Banking and investments

• •Countries without a traded currency price new sovereign bond sales at their historical exchange rate, so coupon and maturity payments keep processing.

The Banking page now presents private and central banks in sortable tables, with your balances, bank leaders, rates and direct deposit or loan actions. Bank CEOs get a console built around the next turn's outlook and the controls that can change it.

Savings withdrawals work again, including balances still linked to a private bank that has been removed. Subscribing to or redeeming a fund preserves the original order when a response is lost, so retrying does not create a second order. Funds preserve their cash reserves when quoting liquidity bids and complete backed subscriptions and redemptions consistently.

Interrupted bank transfers, line-of-credit payments, central-bank facilities, reserve transfers and interest payments recover the original settlement. Sovereign bond placements deliver proceeds and record the corresponding debt together. Corporate operating losses, fund dividends, treasury accrual and rounded bond payments now leave matching cash records.

Historical worlds and 1991 institutions

• •Era-correct institutions. Historical worlds use the selected era's country roster, policies, executives and chamber sizes. The 1991 Commons starts from the 1987 result on its historical seat map; Japan's Diet has the era's seat allocation and a populated upper house. The US executive is seated in 1991 and 2019 worlds, and countries absent from an era are consistently excluded.
• •Dated population inputs. China, Nigeria, France, Spain, Sweden and Turkey receive reconciled 1991 populations and regional allocations. France and Spain also start with age and sex population stocks. Background country estimates regain the variation lost in their previous sampling.
• •Money stays in its historical units. German marks, Irish pounds and euro displays convert the amount together with the denomination. 1991 GDP uses the era's exchange rates, and East German and Soviet income benchmarks restore profile loading and campaign income.
• •Campaign costs and income scale together. New historical worlds apply the same era basis to action prices, manager upgrades, maintenance and income. Existing worlds keep their configured pricing.
• •European integration is decided by governments. The European Community continues until members ratify Maastricht. Domestic negotiating mandates are distinct from treaty ratification and membership. Eligible legislatures can propose euro adoption; membership fixes the conversion relationship and connects common monetary policy to national financial accounts.
• •Devolution needs an enacted settlement. UK governments can debate it from the 1979 decision window, including in 1991. Regional executives and their elections follow the institutions established or abolished by law.
• •An unpopulated political start is available. The 1991 reset can leave player-enabled countries without seeded parties or political officeholders, ready for player-created parties, while keeping the era's economy and institutions.

The 2019 budgets for Spain, Italy, France, Sweden, Turkey, Greece, Austria and Finland now use explicit 2019 inflation, wages, growth and debt assumptions rather than carrying older figures under a rewritten year label.

Contemporary worlds also get corrected 2027 party rosters and fresh opening states for seven living crises.

Crises have lasting consequences

Northern Ireland peace now needs public ratification after parliamentary approval. The settlement and any suspension affect devolved authority, security spending and regional politics.

Yugoslav displacement and war damage reach labour, GDP and background output; reconstruction restores capacity. Military intervention needs readiness, logistics and domestic support, and coordinated arms sanctions restrict actual trade. Crisis participants remain distinct, and decisions open on the correct phase and recurring schedule.

Financial rescue, guarantees, stimulus and austerity affect banks, households and treasuries, with parliamentary approval for sovereign responses. Euro-area contagion follows membership and holdings. Pandemic policy, counterterrorism, European security choices and Arab uprisings also retain their economic and political consequences. Arab regional paths respond to local choices between reform, repression, transition and war, including displacement at origin and destination.

Alliances and underground unions

Countries can found their own geopolitical Bloc, choose its map colour and build a new alignment pole. Influence, accession, defection, strain and Bloc resolutions work around that new pole.

Article 5 is a mutual-defence commitment for any Security or Bloc organisation. An attack on a member brings the other eligible members into the war on its side. Raising the posture during a member's war or joining an Article 5 alliance during that war brings eligible allies in on the next turn. Lowering the posture does not withdraw countries already fighting. Truces, conflicting alliances and a previous departure can keep a country out.

Wars no longer end merely because a front briefly returns to the defender's starting line, and armed blocs can vote on protecting a new member in an existing war.

Banned unions gain underground actions: limited slowdowns, wildcat resistance and organizing drives face investigation, raids and prosecution. Stronger enforcement costs labour approval. Detection scales with activity, organizers face action limits, and exposed cells and organizers cannot evade restrictions through another union action. Cell information stays private, and raids and turn retries preserve their original fines and outcomes.

Maps, sign-in and everyday play

• •The US map adds state inspection, seated officeholders, political and economic layers, electoral votes and a sortable data view. Background countries have distinct borders and labelled macro summaries.
• •Navigation search restores autocomplete and adds a results page. Profile switching and the mobile menu use updated layouts. Actions uses the same spacing and text size as the other mobile menu items.
• •Sign in with Apple can create, sign into or link an account. Apple, Google and Discord sign-in continue directly to the game after success.
• •Profile campaign songs open in YouTube's visible player when you press Play. They no longer autoplay, and the phone app hides them.
• •Race entry asks for confirmation. Election, banking, market and news screens show prices, reporting scope and game dates. UK ministers can hold Deputy Prime Minister or First Secretary alongside a departmental office.
• •The phone app hides browser-only purchase links and the unsupported Lakeside sign-in option.
• •Opted-in analytics and authenticated player surveys help identify confusing flows and game errors. The older OpenReplay integration is removed.
• •Turns and pages do less repeated work: election tallies, politician decisions, corporate histories, fund processing and status polling read smaller records and reuse shared results. Long-running worlds receive the indexes those reads need, and market updates use bounded recent history.