From protest to coup
Discontent climbs a ladder — calm, protest, uprising, revolution — and if it reaches the top, or if a powerful faction snaps, your government can be overthrown outright. This is how a stable regime falls apart.
How it works
Each tick, Sim.uprising() builds an unrest meter (_uprising, 0–100) from a pressure term: low stability, low legitimacy, low approval, high polarization (above 26), food shortage and repression backlash all push it up, capped between −11 and +16 per tick and applied at 40% weight. Above 62 the uprising actively erodes stability, GDP and the Populace's mood. For the player the ladder is: 40 triggers a protest notice, 66 opens an uprising response event (at most once every 48 ticks), and 90 rolls a 32% chance of revolution that forces your leader into exile.
AI nations climb the same meter but resolve differently: at 70+ there's a 45% chance of outright revolution and regime change, and above 36 they auto-respond by either crushing (authoritarian regimes lose legitimacy but cut unrest ~22 and add repression backlash) or conceding (gaining approval and legitimacy while cutting unrest ~26).
Separately, Events.aiCoup() models an elite putsch rather than a street revolt: if any faction has influence ≥ 25 and mood < 14, a coup can fire with base probability 0.12 × the regime's coup multiplier × a legitimacy multiplier (up to 1.6× when legitimacy is low). A successful coup slams stability −25 and approval −15, dissolves the entire cabinet, and installs a junta. Finally, if stability ever falls below 8, Gov.triggerExile() overthrows you regardless of the uprising meter.
Formulas
pres = (48−stab)×0.42 + (42−legit)×0.26 + (45−appr)×0.15 + max(0,_polarize−26)×0.32 + food + reprBack_uprising += clamp(pres, −11, 16) × 0.4P = 0.12 × regime.coup × clamp(1.4 − legit/100, 0.5, 1.6)stability −25, approval −15, cabinet dissolved → juntaKey numbers
How to play
- ▸The coup path and the uprising path are separate threats — a single furious faction (mood < 14, high influence) can putsch even while your unrest meter looks calm.
- ▸Because pressure keys off polarization above 26, closing the gap between factions is often more effective than raising average mood.
- ▸Once the meter passes 62 it actively eats stability, creating a downward spiral — intervene at the 40 protest stage, not the 66 event.
- ▸Never let stability dip under 8: that's an automatic overthrow with no dice roll.