Conservative Party
 
The Conservators are losing popularity slower, but their mayors can not regulate the level of municipal taxes and fees. Presidents-Conservatives spend less by 15% on development of villages and small towns
 
Income and costs of the party are divided in the proportion of 50/50
50% share of income and costs is on the executor (as in the individual scheme)
50% share of income and costs is divided among the members of the political council of the party. The council includes the chairman and all of his/her deputies (advisers)
Inside the council income and costs are distributed in proportion to the assets.
 
Liberal Party
 
The cost of all municipal projects for Virtonomics money is decreased by 20%, of all regional projects - by 5%, however the party cannot vote "against all" in the elections. Liberals spend less budget money by 5% on the development of villages and small towns.
 
Income and costs of the party are on a specific executor
Costs of campaigning are on the owners of the city representative offices (villas) which are in charge of the campaign
Costs of the municipal projects funding are on mayors
The proceeds from sponsors from the city budget are also obtained by mayors.
 
Socialist Party
 
The socialists are gaining popularity more quickly, instead of committing to provide increased level of social payments. Presidents-Socialists spend less by 15% on maintenance of transport infrastructure.
 
Income and costs of the party are distributed among all members of the party in proportion to the assets of the companies of these members.
 
Patriotic Party
 
The patriotic slogans attract additional percentage of electorate (the most popular in the city patriotic party receives 10% of votes; if some parties have the same popularity, they divide these 10% equally), however representatives of one patriotic party can't be mayors or governors in the different countries. Besides, the patriotic parties which don't have the mayor or the governor in any of the countries and, therefore, not decided on a choice of the native land, can't support candidates from other parties. Governors-Patriots receive by 20% more of the votes in the State Council for their governorship.
 
Income and costs of the party are on a specific executor
Costs of campaigning are on the owners of the city representative offices (villas) which are in charge of the campaign
Costs of the municipal projects funding are on mayors
The proceeds from sponsors from the city budget are also obtained by mayors.
 
Innovative Party
 
Popularity is more difficult to be gathered and hold for parties of scientists, however its representatives spend funds for education and special educational programs more effectively. Besides, the production expenses on the electric power in regions, where representatives of innovative party came to the power, are reduced by 5%.
 
Income and costs of the party are distributed among all members of the party in proportion to the assets of the companies of these members.
 
Monarchist Party
 
The Monarchists have a small bonus for municipal taxes and fees, and small decrease of expenses on development of the region and infrastructure maintenance. The Monarchists will never vote for members of other parties. Governors-monarchists receive by 20% more of the votes in the State Council for their governorship.
 
Income and costs of the party are divided in the proportion of 30/70
30% share of income and costs is on the executor (as in the individual scheme)
70% share of income and costs is on the chairman of the party.
 
Anarchist Party
 
The Anarchists are against the government. They can initiate the impeachment, regardless of the rating in any city, where they have representation, but cannot nominate their own mayors and governors. However, anarchists can't initiate impeachment against the mayors, who has already defended once the post in the city and having popularity higher than realm average (the mayor is in the top half of the general list of all mayors sorted by decrease of popularity). Besides, if the anarchist entering into Governor's Council, votes against the acting governor, his voice has the doubled weight at determination of popularity of the governor. Similarly, the votes of anarchists are being considered in the State Council.
 
Income and costs of the party are distributed equally among all members of the party regardless of their assets
 
Agrarian party
 
The cost of all regional projects is reduced by 20%, additional growth of agricultural farms and plantations productivity by 15% when financing "Regional Agricultural Aircraft" project. However representatives of agrarian party cannot be proposed to a position of mayor. On assuming office, President-agrarian automatically (and for free) implements the "Law on catering"
 
Income and costs of the party are divided in the proportion of 50/50
50% share of income and costs is on the executor (as in the individual scheme)
50% share of income and costs is divided among the members of the political council of the party. The council includes the chairman and all of his/her deputies (advisers)
Inside the council income and costs are distributed in proportion to the assets.
 
Clerical party
 
The clerical party can propose the candidates for a position of the governor even without having representation (villa) in the region. Besides, if the clerical entering into Governor's Council, gives support to the acting governor, his voice has the doubled weight at determination of popularity of the governor. Similarly, the votes of clericals are being considered in the State Council.
 
Income and costs of the party are on a specific executor
Costs of campaigning are on the owners of the city representative offices (villas) which are in charge of the campaign
Costs of the municipal projects funding are on mayors
The proceeds from sponsors from the city budget are also obtained by mayors.
 
Ecological party
 
The production expenses on the electric power in regions, where representatives of ecological party came to the power, is reduced by 10%. The expenses on the electric power in the cities with the mayor-ecologist are also cut by 10%. However governors-ecologists spend by 20% more budgetary funds for ecological needs. If a representative of environmental party becomes the head of state, automatically (and for free) the "Law on national environmental service" is implemented;
 
Income and costs of the party are distributed among all members of the party in proportion to the assets of the companies of these members.
 
Protectionists
 
The Conservative Party, which is based on the ideas of protectionism. Governors protectionists are added to the list of candidates for the post of head of state without checking the level of party representation (villas). In this case, the protectionists cannot raise taxes, rents and electricity tariffs, as well as substantially limited in their ability to regulate the duties.
 
Income and costs of the party are divided in the proportion of 30/70
30% share of income and costs is on the executor (as in the individual scheme)
70% share of income and costs is on the chairman of the party.
 
Libertarians
 
Ultra-Liberal Party rejecting violence and all forms of state intervention in business. Libertarians may be nominated for mayor without party representation in the city, but they cannot increase any fees, taxes and tariffs – only reduce them.
 
Income and costs of the party are on a specific executor
Costs of campaigning are on the owners of the city representative offices (villas) which are in charge of the campaign
Costs of the municipal projects funding are on mayors
The proceeds from sponsors from the city budget are also obtained by mayors.
 

Virtonomics is a game about business, management and finance in a first place. We didn’t come here to play politics but many of TOP players after 5-7 years of doing business stayed in game only because politics was added. Some people may say that politics is an expensive toy for bored, old and rich players and this is partly true. Politicians can do two main things: 1 – permanently change global variables (such as education, salary, energy price, etc), 2 – temporary activate “projects” which going to benefit players who doing business there or will give some benefits for further political actions. Projects are expensive, sometimes their price is more than 5-10 billion, and sometimes it’s something like 300+ billions. So basically to be able to go into political area you should have stable income and have some reserves.

Paying real money is not necessary. To become a mayor you need a villa of 2nd size (for 10 points) and you have to be in political party. You can create for 3 points, or better try to enter an existed one. How can you get a 10 points villa without donating real money? You can win some points in contests (Contest of managers, directors, etc), it is not very hard and 90% of new players can easily win first contest and get 10 point + 3 if you regularly entering the game. You can also win some tenders; it is possible to win 3-5 points even in 1st month of playing. For 2-3 month you can win 10+ points only from tenders. If you already rich in game you can just go and buy 10 virts from stock exchange. Also sometimes you can get a villa from an auction. There are many ways to get these 10 points with which you can take over your first city.

Well, there are 2 key factors. 1st – a city should have people (virto-people) who willing to vote. City should have 50%+ of them, otherwise you can’t win. Usually if a city has negative budget there will be 50%+ people. 2nd – you don’t wanna choose a very horrible city with -500 million deficit per day, do you? So in conclusion – pick a city with negative budget, but manageable to make it profitable soon. So it should be like -10, -50 million per day. There you can win. How can you find out about city’s budget? Well, look at Wealth level, unemployment and the most important compare population to demography. Demography is = population + immigrants. Immigrants are bad for city budget. So if city has like 100k people and like 900k total people (800k immigrants) it is a horrible choice. Such cities called production cities and they usually have low wealth and low salary. It is very hard to make such city profitable; it can take years of real time effort and a lot of money. So as a start, pick something small or medium with decent wealth and not a lot of immigrants (new added countries are perfect choice).

 

 
Budget example[/center]
 
1 – Change local taxes. +-5%. You can decrease this value (true for many other values) only if the city has a positive budget. When you became a mayor local taxes will be 100%, this income based on population (excluding immigrants). I’d suggest always raise it because there is no long-term negative effect (as far as we know…) but you have to spend a bit of popularity on it. You can get popularity by launching projects. When you leave you chair (if) local taxes will set to 100% and a new mayor have to start over.
 
2 – Change rent. +-5% Requires popularity. Rent is a long term source of income and by raising it you will increase city’s profits. Players don’t like it (obviously) and sometimes leave a city with greedy mayors who always raise rent. Players will get a personal massage when you do it. You can decrease rent if you had a profit last day. Sometimes it is smart to not touch it, imagine that you have 200 stores in you city and you raised rent only on 5%. People get angry and 10% of them left (moved). You’d lose much more money that you will gain. So raise rent relatively to wealth, so people could pay it by making decent money. Some mayors on Vera made rent so high, so now it is literally impossible to have a profitable business there. You don’t want to do that.
 
3 – Improve retail (boost). By spending popularity and money you can improve one of the retail markets. Boost is quite big and if you choose a specialization (going to improve only 1-2 areas like food and cars for example) after a while you will see how wealth going to go up. Players love when a mayor doing that but this can be expensive. Before effect was temporary but we convinced administration to make it permanent and now it will decrease local’s prices and will increase market size of chosen goods forever.
 
4 – Education +5%/10% . This is a very tricky thing. Education is a very important thing for businesses and people like cities with high education but it has its own negative sides. First is that as more education level city has as more expenses it going to have. +5% will make expenses on education about 105% of previous value and this can cross over all other things you did to make you budget positive. Other thing is that very high education can be bad for players, especially for new players with low qualification. The thing is that you can’t have employers with education much lower than in the city, well, you can have them but you can’t train them and untrained workers need high salary. This can be crucial for production and livestock subdivision with low technology. So be very careful before you decide to raise education, think twice. High education is very good for players with high technologies, qualifications and for laboratories but might be bad for new players in a way.
 
5 – Population +3%/+5%. Population is very important for business, population means market and market means profit. Also people are potential workers and in big city sometimes you not going to have a lot of immigrants (and immigrants are bad for a budget). If you have money in 99% cased increase population. It is good for players; it is good for a mayor and for city. The only one case you shouldn’t increase it when city has very high unemployment (15-20% and more). In that case more people will only increase you expenses (because not 100% of population is will work, there are some categories of people which not going to be hired anyway and they need social payments). In majority of cities increasing population is very good thing to do and an important step for development.
 
6 – Salary +-5%. Now we came to very important part. Players can’t decrease salary lower that certain % of city’s salary, if you do that some people going to quit and training not going to be effective. So by changing salary a mayor can set up an expected level of players who work in the city. You rarely will find a lot of farms and factories in cities which have salary of $500-1000 and more because prime cost there would be very high. So if you want to make a “retail city” keep salary high (but not very high!) and you won’t have many immigrants. By changing salary you determine how hard it is for players to have a profitable business there because salary expenses are often one of the biggest types of expenses. Another interesting thing about salary is that if city has salary lower than realm’s average, you going to have high cost of Improvement and the maintenance of public order which is usually the major expense. Raising salary is a good way to get rid of immigrants (who are the main problem and the biggest expense) and make you city bad for production. Also high salary has influence on wealth and improves retail. Try to think about it like in real life, if salary is big people have a lot of money and service and retail market going to be big, but for production high salary is your enemy #1 and you going to build your farms and factories in a place with cheapest labor cost possible.
 
7 – Ecological projects. Every city has 4 ecological variables which determine a multiplier of all projects. The basic multiplier is 1 (100%) but sometimes it can be 3-4 or more. In this case it will be very expensive to run projects and you have to think about solving these ecological issues. Eco projects are quite expensive and they have only temporary effect but they give you popularity. Activation of such projects is a good way to get high popularity when you need it (Like for increasing sponsorship of political party you have to have and spend very high popularity). It is important for a president and governor to spend at least 100% on Ecological service, health, infrastructure development and such, preferably more than 100%. All these expenses determine ecological situation in cities and after all make life of mayors easier.

If you have a villa of 2nd size for 10 points and are the Chainman in the party (you have power to do so) you just choose a free city and start election there. If there is someone already you should wait until next election (unless you doing an impeachment). There are 2 main ways to attract virto-people to vote for you. 1st is to start agitation in you villa and you should do it. Also ask some people you know who have villas there to start it as well and vote for you after. Power of agitation depends on size of the villa and with 2nd one you can get around 10% of votes. This is rarely enough, especially if someone wants to take this city as well. Second stage is to get some votes from profits of your stores and service sector. This part can get real. You need support from big players who can sell a lot at a time with big stores and high qualification. If no one wants to take this city but you, just send a PM to major traders in the city (influential persons) and ask them to vote for you. If you are a decent person they will gladly vote. You need to have majority of votes to win. If 50%+ people do not want to vote, you have a problem. This city probably has a positive budget and there are few ways to “fix” it.

The idea is to make budget negative. As you know main expenses come from immigrants and main income come from rent (usually). So you should open many (MANY!) factories and farms in the city and bring there a lot of immigrants. If city have unemployment of 0-1% and population of 100-250k you can do that! Troubles come when it is a big city (500k people +) and it has huge unemployment (5-15% and more). Then you need help from other players, probably more than one TOP player to launch 100-300 factories (if not more). The second step is to ask people close their stores in the city. Big store can give up to 5 million from rent to city budget. If you can bribe few people to close their stores, budget going to go down. If they don’t want to close it, open your own store and start selling goods they selling but for super cheap price. Kill the market. They might not like you for that, but you asked nicely already. 3rd way is to ask governor to reduce transfers to cities, he can do so. It can take time if it is equal to 25-15% but this is a good way. For a governor increasing transfers to cities is a tool of protection from capturing. If you can ruin ecological situation in the city, do so, and then region will stop giving money to the city. Politics is a creative thing, so you can come up with something else to achieve your goals. Funny thing is that even a huge villa might not guarantee you to get the city if like 80-90% of people just not come to elections. Making city profitable can even turn against you one day. When you finally will make a positive budget, people won’t come to next election and they ll kick you out. Luckily there is a way to save your city.

You can’t rule a city forever, sometimes next election will come. To stay in the city you can do a very powerful trick. Just before votes going to be counted (1-2 days left) run all possible projects which increasing popularity. That way you can get up to 50% people vote for you, even if before most of them didn't plan to come on elections. That way you can protect your city from an attack of other players as well. You need even more popularity, decrease transfers to your party from city’s budget. It’ll give you a lot of popularity. Therefore it is very hard to capture a city where someone already sits (if he knows this “trick”), but it doesn’t work well for big cities (and if your opponent has a bigger villa). After all it all usually comes to who can sell more at a time so open some stores and services in your own city, it is not only good for re-election but also it going to help city’s budget and make you understand what is like to do business there and what are consequences of your actions as a mayor. But even if you lose you can always make his life harder by opening factories there or doing some other nasty things. If you don’t want to play dirty, you shouldn’t try politics.

 

 
Budget example[/center]
 
A governor is a person who controls a region. It is more interesting position then mayor. People who have votes in Governor’s Council determine who next governor going to be and actually for some cases you can even become a governor without any villas. Most of votes are given to mayors, other given to business and energy providers. A governor has more tools to play with, and the most important of all are profits tax and energy tariffs. Budget there is positive much more often than in cities so it is possible to get some money from a region to your party but competition is much harder (depending on realm). They also can run projects some of which are very helpful for all players (like an increase of fishing and sawmill’s productivity, quality of farm etc). If a governor going to run all of it in regular basic player will support him more likely. Politics is rarely game of one person, a big and active party is much more powerful so when you competing for regions you have to negotiate with other powers in a region, ask help from your team mates and ask for votes of independent players (write a PM), promise to do good things and do them, when you going to be elected.

There are only 2 moral reasons to change a regional tax. First is if you have a deficit and this one is fine. Many regions were basically set up with negative budget and this is not your fault. No one wants to pay billions every day to cover the whole country’s budget from their pocket so you can raise them a bit if a region struggles from losses. Beware that taxes more than 25-30% are high and many players will avoid the region and do business somewhere else. Second reason is that you a greedy person and you want to leak money from the country. Well, it is your choice, but be ready to face consequences such as angry players and political enemies. If you bought a palace for $1000 in small country, sure you can do with it whatever you want, raise taxes, tariffs, fees, energy, rent, salary, everything. But wouldn't it be better to create something interesting and unique for everybody, instead of being a bad person? People have tools to make your like harder, they can open 1000 of factories in your city and you going to pay for it from your pocket, they can close all stores and restaurants there or even they can kick you out even if you have a palace, and no one going to help you after. With great power comes great responsibility.

 

 
Budget example[/center]
 
A head of a country is the highest political position available but actually governors often have more power than a president. Mechanic of elections is similar to governors. There are votes of governors, top players in the country and top players of the realm. You have to have a villa for 125 or 250 points to run for a president, that’s why many countries on Mary and Lien are empty. On Vera tho, now, all countries have their leader and in some of them with many regions competition for the chair is interesting and tense. There is a sneaky way (I tried it myself) to be elected. You have to create a party with protectionist platform and if you are a governor in the country (and you can became a governor without any villas) you can run for a president. That way you will spend only 3 points on party, but such platform won’t allow u to change many things, so as soon as u elected, leave the party. I did it on Cuba and it worked. Even sneakier way is to create Libertarians first, win elections in all cities in the country, win a governor chair and then create a protectionist party. No one did it yet and it is kinda annoying to do, but it is a possible way to temporary capture all country with spending just 6 point for registration of 2 parties. President can run projects which are very helpful for everybody and he can change transport tariffs and custom duties. This will have a long-term impact on the economy.

Many subdivisions (usually which don’t have rent, which you build) consume energy. They buy energy from either region or from your/your corporation power plants. Also cities buy energy from region as well and/or from player’s power plants which supply cities. There are 2 main suppliers of energy, 1st is a “world supplier” and 2nd is players. Price and level of safety is average of realm value which changes time to time. So as a governor you can raise tariffs and this will increase your income but it not going to be good for players who consume energy because they will pay more for it. Good thing about raising tariffs tho is that in regions with high tariffs player will be willing to build more power plants and compete with each other for market share (region and city buy the cheapest energy available). Energy business is a hard business and very costly so players want to sell energy for highest price possible. Also for politicians energy is a key to get some seats in Governor’s Council to become a governor so after all energy is powerful political tool. Power plants require expensive resources from mines and often used for political purposes.

[/center]
 
Sure. You can pretend that you going to politics to make the world better place, but we all know that is the real reason behind that. You want to get some money, don't you? Well, it is possible, but not easy. For a mayour, governor and a president there is a "Sponsorship of political parties" part of the budget. These money goes to your political party relatively to the size of assets of each member (depend or party type). To increase "Sponsorship of political parties" by +5% as a mayour you have to spend very high popularity (start many projects together). Then, after about a month you can to that again till you get 50%.
 
In current game reality mayors don't have a lot of surplus but governors are! So to get money you have to be a governor, preferably of a big region. As a president you would have a nice positive budget (often not as big as governor's) from which you also can steal some money. Although don't be happy about all that, in game there are just few political powers who managed to have overall surplus from politics, other people just spending their money (and spending a lot) from their own pockets, so to get something from politics, you have to capture rich regions and countries, and to do so you have to get support from mayours (who have a negative bidget...) and you will probablly need a big villa to do so

The most political action happens on Vera, there are many parties, strong competition and a lot of action. Unfortunately on other realms politics is not that active and can seem to be boring part of game. It is not boring at all when you have competition and when you can play as a big party of 20-25 people, support each other and earn decent money from political action. I am saying that you have to play on Vera, i am saying that people on other realms should be more active and i hope this guide will help. You can became a governor without any villas, you can take a city with just 10 points which you can get from tenders or contest, so what the problem? People don't understand what is politics here about and how to deal with it but they missing one of the greatest game areas and a chance to make change the game world.