Questions About the Game

[Verlumino]

If you have any questions about the game, ask them here.

[von_das]

Do you ever plan to simulate states other than the one the player character is currently attached to in greater detail?

Also, this is admittedly a very spontaneous thought, but have you given any thought to the possibility of multiplayer? Running against a human opponent or bickering over legislation sounds like it could be fun, in theory.

[SMILEY ATTACK]

Will there be more immersion with positions? Will I be able to declare a state of emergency if I’m governor in times of crisis, or be able to read to kids at a local elementary school as a congressmen (kind of like the thanksgiving parade). Will I be able to present my bill to a committee and discuss with them why they should back it (similar to a debate). Is there going to be a social media aspect of the game eventually? Things like an official page that you have control over what you post (can effect voter enthusiasm for next election) Finally, will I be able to back my protégés? Fund them? Rally with them?

[von_das]

Oh yes, it would be very nice to have events or event chains to simulate crises. Dealing with unexpected emergencies as well as the governmental routine seems like it would add a lot.

[Verlumino]

Originally posted by TSU.PilotRaccoon:

How do I open Field Offices?

You can open field offices by going to the volunteer tab (which is a sub-tab under the Campaign tab). If it is a presidential election, you will have to hire a state director before you can open field offices (hiring a state director is also found in the volunteer tab). If it is a small election (i.e. small district population), it may not be possible to open a field office. The number of field offices you can open is based on the population of the district. It may also be based on name recognition. I hope that clarifies things.

[Verlumino]

Originally posted by Beany Farts:

-When I am swaying public opinion on issues in a governor's race, am I also swaying opinions in every district within the state?

-Would it be possible to have shifts in party registration over the span of decades as support for policies shift, and prominent politicians influence voters?

-This is probably not feasible, but Nebraska is actually a unicameral state, and it would be really cool to see that properly represented in game

-I feel like people should have a harsher reaction to having both a flat tax and a progressive income tax at the same time, even if it does wonders for budget deficits

If you are running for senator or governor, it will influence down-ballot public opinions. But, if you are running for something like the house of representatives, that would not influence down-ballot elections such as state senate districts (because the game does not know which state senate districts are within the borders of the congressional districts).

I would like to have shifts in party registration. The difficulty is trying to figure out how to implement it in a realistic/interesting/fun way. I plan to give it some more thought in the future.

Making Nebraska a unicameral state would probably be fairly complex, but there is no harm in asking. I want the game to be accurate/realistic, so I will add it to my list, but I don't know if I will have an opportunity to work on it.

Currently there isn't much of a reaction to taxes other than the tax approval rating might go up or down, causing the government approval rating to go up or down. It could also influence the approval rating of politicians who are in office at the time that taxes change. How you vote on taxes also changes your approval rating, which can influence elections. It is the total tax rate that influences tax approval rating - so if you have a low flat tax and a low income tax; that would be preferable to a high income tax on its own. Do you have any suggestions for making the response "harsher"? Do you think the tax approval rating does not change enough? Once I start adding events to the game, some of those events could be related to tax levels.

[Verlumino]

Originally posted by mickeyraay559:

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE, add lieutenant governors and lieutenant mayors, ofc add VP, all of those 3 for resignations, but also please add in retirement,i am enjoying the game lots! add impeachments, and corruption.

All of those things are planned for future updates. What kind of gameplay elements would you want if you could play as vice president?

[Verlumino]

Originally posted by Richard Grayson (RageMaster05):

Do you plan on adding mod support

I hope to add modding tools to the game at some point.

[Verlumino]

Originally posted by von_das:

Do you ever plan to simulate states other than the one the player character is currently attached to in greater detail?

Also, this is admittedly a very spontaneous thought, but have you given any thought to the possibility of multiplayer? Running against a human opponent or bickering over legislation sounds like it could be fun, in theory.

I am thinking about simulating governor elections for other states. I don't know about simulating other aspects of other states. It would be neat for the player to hear about events that are happening in other states, so I will have to think about how to implement it.

I have given a little bit of thought to multiplayer, but if it is added, it will not be for a "very" long time. I want to focus on adding all of the single player features before I think about the possibility of multiplayer. Even if I do finish adding all of the single player features, I do not currently know how to implement multiplayer, so it is something I would have to learn. But I agree that multiplayer could be fun, so it is something I am willing to research once I have completed the major single-player updates.

[Verlumino]

Originally posted by SMILEY ATTACK:

Will there be more immersion with positions? Will I be able to declare a state of emergency if I’m governor in times of crisis, or be able to read to kids at a local elementary school as a congressmen (kind of like the thanksgiving parade). Will I be able to present my bill to a committee and discuss with them why they should back it (similar to a debate). Is there going to be a social media aspect of the game eventually? Things like an official page that you have control over what you post (can effect voter enthusiasm for next election) Finally, will I be able to back my protégés? Fund them? Rally with them?

Those are all great ideas. I have an entire major update planned for adding events to the game, like the Thanksgiving event. I also hope to add event-chains, if feasible, so that your response to one event can cause other events. I like the suggestion of declaring a state of emergency (in cases of randomly generated crises) and the idea of reading to kids. I have added those to my list. When I get closer to working on the events update, I will probably create a discussion asking the community for event suggestions.

Some sort of negotiation element for gaining support on legislation would be nice. I have some vague ideas about it, but I have not given it a lot of thought yet. Suggestions for how to implement it are welcome.

A social media aspect to the game would be fun, especially if other politicians use it as well. That would be a good opportunity to show of the traits of the politicians. I will add it to my list.

Having more options to support proteges is also a good idea, such as choosing to hold rallies with a specific politician, or giving funds to protege. I would have to figure out how to calculate the effect of funds given to the protege.

Thanks for all of the suggestions. :)

[The Minister of Silly Walks]

Could you make the New York State Senate have two year terms, for realism's sake?

[talique31102]

Huge thank you to Verlumino, one of the most hardworking and responsive game developers I've ever seen. That's it!

[allyn]

One thing I've thought about but am not sure of:
If I'm playing as a Democrat and have high approval among Republicans, does that boost their turnout, even though they'll inevitably end up massively supporting my opponent? Do I want to have low enthusiasm among the other party's voter base, in order to suppress their turnout?

[Mercury64]

is the mac version canceled?

[i8u4lunchk]

Originally posted by Gerballs:

Originally posted by allyn:

One thing I've thought about but am not sure of:
If I'm playing as a Democrat and have high approval among Republicans, does that boost their turnout, even though they'll inevitably end up massively supporting my opponent? Do I want to have low enthusiasm among the other party's voter base, in order to suppress their turnout?

Honestly, that's a good question. Cause the polls are the only place I believe you can find out how base of support among the opposition and, in my experience, it's always at 5% maximum despite the enthusiasm being at 50% and above regularly.

I believe I know the answer. I like to play as a conservative Democrat in Alaska (year 2145 right now). Whenever my enthusiasm with the GOP is under 50%, it's a tight race that's too close for comfort, (52% - 48% was particularly nail-biting, but I prevailed. Happened after I pursued higher taxes to reduce deficit + reduced military). If the Republicans have high enthusiasm levels for me, than it's an easy blowout of 65% to 35%. If the opposing party has a high enthusiasm with you, they will not turn out for their candidate, because they don't view you as a 'threat' as much, like in my case, me being a conservative democrat means the GOP supporters may just not vote in my election, or swing towards me.

I've noticed even when hyping up progressive democrats and rallying with them for the house seat at-large, they don't win due to being too progressive, and therefore, the republicans are more 'enthused' to vote for their party. So yes, from my experience at least, higher enthusiasm means the republicans will NOT go out to vote for the Republican. They are 'enthused' for you.

Also that '5%' seems to be a glitch. Often times I'll carry 30-40% of republicans in Alaska when I have a blow-out race for U.S. senate. I think it just caps at 5%, as the polls are designed to be slightly misleading. For example, one race I won 438,000 to 235,000. Only about 275,000 democrats voted, even after rallying to the max (found this out as it coincided with presidential election, in which the GOP won Alaska). Attracting voters of the other party is important when being a Democrat in states like Alaska, because as the population increases, it gets harder and harder to compete with the GOP in the state because they will indefinitely grow at a faster rate than your party. I am currently testing how long I can hold on, however it seems that the rallies do increase with the county population, so it won't be for hundreds and hundreds of years in-game.

This game is surprisingly realistic with many of it's calculations, and with me winning ~98% of Democrats, ~74% of Independents, and ~37% of Republicans in my last senate election, that's about what i'd expect a conservative democrat's results to be. Through playing for a long time in my game, I've noticed the state shifts towards you if you serve at state-level office for awhile. For example, Alaska now is a swing state at the presidential level due to the voters supporting some of my policies, which is super cool that the game can simulate that. I remember one particular election, they went 57.3% for the democrat, definitely threw me off guard as I was not running that year, so I could barely rally support.

Again, high enthusiasm for you is always good, no matter what party. Means that they'd consider voting for you, or at least maybe not vote for your opponent.

[js29095]

Originally posted by Mercury64:

is the mac version canceled?

Yes.