Matrix Games Forums

I'm struggling to deal with falling virtus. It seems that no matter what I do, it keeps falling. Even when I make decisions that say it should improve virtus, it still drops.

On the material side, the only thing I've noticed is a lack of recruits. I've set governor orders for 500 per turn but I'm only getting 200. Apart from that, there's nothing else noticable that appears detrimental.

So, what should I do? Is there anything I can do? Is Virtus just a form of entropy that has to be lived with?
I've never played a game that has resulted in some form of regime change so I'm also wondering what happens when it gets so low that there is some kind of coup?

Also, what is classed as 'low virtus'? I would have thought anything below fifty would be low but I started getting the warning somewhere between fifty and sixty.

P.S. I'm quite enjoying the new advanced politics. I was a bit sceptical about Republica but now I see it in action, I don't think I'll play Shadow Empire without it from now on:)

The manual strongly implies that you're supposed to eventually switch to another political system to bring your virtus back up.

On the other hand, staying in the same system a long time gives you the opportunity to gain political system feats, which stay around even after you switch to another system, and some of them look quite powerful. It also improves the frequency and quality of your political system stratagem packs.

According to the manual, for the non-radical political systems, you change into the corrupt form of the system if your virtus goes below 65, though a high Oligarchy or Tyranny score can result in a change even with high virtus.

Thanks for the advice. It helps.

It turns out I had been looking at an older version of the manual in which virtus wasn't mentioned. I've started a new game (after reading the section on virtus) and I think I'm beginning to understand the process a bit better in this playthrough.