New Beta Available (Version 0.24)

[Verlumino]

A new Beta version of the game is now available (Version 0.24).

If you want to participate in the beta, you can right click on the game, click properties, and then click the beta tab. There should be an option called v024beta. If you click on that, it should start automatically downloading the beta version. If you want to revert back to the normal version, you can go back to this menu and choose to Opt out of any beta version - which should cause the default version to start downloading. (Note: any game saved while playing the beta version will not be compatible if you revert back to the default version).

If you encounter any problems with the beta, please report them in the Bug Reports forum - it is listed to the right in the Sub-Forums section. Or, use this link to the forum: https://steamcommunity.com/app/1184770/discussions/2/

ADDITIONS
-Added redistricting to the game. This will happen automatically every 10 in-game years.
-Added an option for the player to redistrict congressional districts. This happens on week 47 of redistricting years (2021, 2031, 2041). If the player (or the player’s protégé) is the governor or a majority leader of the state legislature, the player will have the opportunity to redistrict for that state. If the player decides not to redistrict (or progresses to the next turn without redistricting), the state legislature will redistrict automatically without the player’s input. (The redistricting process is probably not what you are expecting, so don't get too excited about it.)
- Added state-specific redistricting laws to the advanced options. The most significant law is whether the state used an independent commission or the state legislature to redistrict. If an independent commission is used, the player will not have an opportunity to redistrict for that state.
- Added redistricting variables to the advanced options - these can be found in the Nation tab, located under the section for election laws. If you change these and find good settings, please let me know. I may do some more balancing in terms of the default redistricting variables.
-Added an option for protégés to run for governor in any state (previously it was limited to the player’s home state). Protégés must reside in the state where they want to run for governor.
-Added advanced options that allow the player to change the number of congressional districts each state has.
-The game now creates “aggregate” state legislatures for every state (and not just the player’s home state) – these aggregates list the number of politicians that belong to each party, but individual politicians are not created. They will be adjusted every election cycle based on relevant information, and they will be used in the redistricting process.
-Added advanced options to change the state legislature aggregates (for non-player state legislatures). These aggregates are used to calculate election results for state legislature elections (in non-player states). They are also used in the redistricting process – if either party has a majority in both chambers of the state legislature aggregate, plus a member of their party as the governor, then they will be able to gerrymander during the redistricting process. These aggregates can be changed at any time during the game by going to the advanced options, clicking the state house or state senate tab, and then click the “Other States” button at the top of the list of districts.
-County data is now saved and loaded.
-County population demographics are updated at the end of every in-game year.
-Added counties to the advanced options – you can now change variables specific to each county. In the advanced options menu, navigate to the States tab; at the top of that menu, there is a button called [State] Counties. Clicking on that will open a new menu to adjust county variables.
-Added an advanced option to change which counties belong to which congressional districts. The counties in a district are used to determine that district’s demographics every 10 years during the redistricting process.
-Added an option to save Advanced Option Presets in the middle of a game. It is still not possible to load presets in the middle of a game.
-Added a close (X) button to the options menu, so it is no longer necessary to scroll to the bottom to exit the menu.
-Added an option to save/load spouse presets.

FIXES
-Likely fixed an issue where a politician would not leave their current office if they won a special election.
-Fixed an issue where an incorrect variable was used; it was unlikely to be encountered
-Fixed an issue where new candidates in governor elections had their voter enthusiasm calculated based on the policy positions of voters in the player’s home state, rather than in the home state of the candidate.
-Fixed an issue where several variables could become NaN if the poverty rate was 0%.
-Likely fixed an issue where the poverty rate could become 0% when updating advanced options in the middle of a game. This could have caused issues where variables became NaN.
-Fixed an issue where a candidate’s fiscal and social ideology would not be updated after their policies had been updated during the conditional endorsement process. This could create situations where a candidate could have very liberal social policies, but still be labeled as socially conservative.
-Fixed an issue where state cabinet members would not update when moving to a new state; the game would have continued using cabinet members from the previous state. (It is unclear what will happen to protégés who are state cabinet members when the player moves states.)
-Fixed an issue where Massachusetts state senate district 30 was not saved.
-Likely fixed an issue where candidates would not be updated correctly when customizing elections. This was specific to player elections (elections involving the player) that were customized between week 6 and 19. The candidate customized would not be the candidate used in the primary; instead the initial (un-customized) candidate would have been used.
- Likely fixed an issue where the game would not save because the ranking member of a state senate committee could not be found.

ADJUSTMENTS
- Slightly increased republican voter demographics in Florida.

NOT YET ADDED
These features are planned for this update, but have not been added yet:
- Redistricting of state house and state senate districts (in the player's home state).
- Player redistricting of state house and state senate districts in non-player states (if protege is the governor).
- A redistricting analysis to see how districts have changed.

Update - January 31, 2023:
The beta has been updated to version 0.241.
-Fixed an issue where county election maps would appear black after loading a save file.
-Fixed an issue where county election maps would appear black after loading an advanced option preset.
-Fixed an issue where the game would freeze on the Calculating Metrics screen.
-Fixed an issue where the player could not do any redistricting if any of the player’s protégés were governors.
-Fixed an issue where protégés would be placed into the wrong election after redistricting.
-Fixed an issue where the player’s districts would not update after a redistricting year.
-Fixed an issue where student populations decreased drastically at the state level.
-Might have partially fixed an issue where gained seats did not display correctly.
-Fixed an issue where typing a non-number into the add/remove districts text-field would cause total districts to become NaN.
-Fixed an issue where Avery County, NC did not belong to any congressional districts. It has been added to NC-5. Any game saved prior to version 0.241 will automatically have Avery County placed into NC-5 when loading. (This fix has been applied for loading saved games, but has not been applied for loading advanced option presets – I will have to do that in the next beta update).
-Fixed an issue in the advanced options where moving the “Redistricting Range (Player)” slider would cause the “Redistricting Range” text display to change instead of changing the “Redistricting Range (Player)” text display.

Update - February 2, 2023
The beta has been updated to version 0.242.
-Added an option for the player to redistrict state house and state senate districts (in the player’s home state).
-Added an option for the player to veto districts (if player or player protégé is governor, and the player was not involved in the redistricting process). The veto menu is somewhat simple; I might add more info to it later.
-Fixed an issue where campaign funds would become NaN in U.S. House, State House, and State Senate elections after redistricting. The problem was that the counties in player districts were being updated incorrectly. Any game saved in version 0.241 (after any redistricting) will not work correctly. There is a workaround: when you load the saved game, go to advanced options, click the ‘U.S. House’ tab, click the ‘Adjust District Counties’ button, and then click the ‘X’ button to leave the menu. That should correct any problems with the player’s congressional district. To fix the player’s state house and state senate district, you will have to go to the profile tab, and Move to a new county (it can be your current county); this will reset your districts so they work properly. If you have a saved game where your campaign funds are NaN, you can go to the profile tab, click the customize button, click the Advanced tab, and change campaign funds to a real number. If you are in the middle of a campaign, your opponent’s may still have NaN campaign funds, which could cause your funds to revert back to NaN. After the election/campaign has ended, go to the profile tab and customize your campaign funds to a real number. In your next election, all campaign funds should work correctly. (It might be easier to just start a new game). If you saved any advanced option presets in version 0.241 (in the middle of a game, after redistricting had occurred), there could conceivably be problems with player districts in those presets.
-In older versions of the game, Avery County, NC did not belong to any congressional districts, which means it was not saved into any districts as part of advanced options presets. Any advanced option presets saved prior to version 0.242 will automatically have Avery County placed into NC-5 when loading. If you already manually placed Avery County into a district as part of one of your advanced option presets, you may want to remove the automatically added one.
-Fixed an issue where state legislatures would not take into account competitive districts when deciding whether to support player redistricting. This could have created situations where the opposition party would accept districts that hurt the opposition party even if they had the power to reject the new districts.
-Fixed an issue where the state poverty rate would not update correctly.
-Likely fixed an issue with advanced options where Alaska counties would not load correctly when loading advanced option presets.

Update - February 9, 2023
The beta has been updated to version 0.243.
-Added a Redistricting Analysis – it will appear in the player’s schedule on week 49 of redistricting years. It is also available in the Politicians -> Federal -> U.S. House -> Districts tab.
-Likely fixed an issue during the redistricting process where 1 voter block would remain even though every district had reached its voter capacity. This would have prevented the player from completing the redistricting process.
-Fixed an issue where politicians would not be replaced as committee chairs/ranking-members if they vacated their position for any reason. This created a situation where committee chairs/ranking-members could become empty variables, which could prevent the game from saving.
-Fixed an issue where party leadership positions would not be replaced if the player appointed a party leader to a different position as part of filling a vacancy. This could cause issues where the game would not progress to the next turn (if the game was trying to access a party leadership variable that no longer existed).
-Fixed an issue where poverty and per capita income at the state level were calculated incorrectly (or rather were calculated based on incorrect variable values).
-Fixed an issue with advanced options where the state population would not update when county populations were updated.
-Fixed an issue where certain schedule events would disappear if the player resigned from office, even if it was not appropriate for them to disappear. This could have caused problems. For example, if the player’s protégé was governor, and the player resigned as a senator, a schedule event would be created where the protégé would ask the player who should fill the senate vacancy. But, this event would be deleted before the player had a chance to complete the event. This would cause a situation where the player’s character is not replaced as senator.
-Fixed an issue where the house majority leader would not be elected if both parties had an equal number of politicians in the house (this could only happen if the number of house districts was adjusted in the advanced options so that it was an even number).
-Adjusted initial governor calculations so that initial governors are more realistic. The new calculations are more consistent with how governors are elected throughout the game.

[Oberstgruppenfuhrer]

so excited to try been checking the discussions tab for the past hour looking to see if there was an update. Thanks Verm. I'll give my feedback as soon as i've played.

[Oberstgruppenfuhrer]

quick question, it says county demograhics update every year. How dynamic are they? Ie. is it possible to see a swing D county shift likely R in 20+ years?

[basedlawyer]

SO EXCITED! I'm loving it right now. Thanks Verm!

[King of the Beasties]

Yay! So glad that we have another Beta. One request, now that redistricting is in the game, is it possible to update the settings to include the new electoral vote counts that will be present in 2024, and then also the number of districts that correspond to that post-2022 midterms? Thanks!

[theanswerisme]

Hell Yeah!

[violin3271]

First of all THANK YOU! This is amazing. The beta is working pretty much as it should be but one issue is that after I loaded a save of different advanced options the county maps stopped working and now they're all black and in the election history they're grey. Thank you again!!!

[zach684]

is there any legislation (federal or state) for redistricting or is it only in the advanced options for now?

[Verlumino]

Originally posted by Oberstgruppenfuhrer:

quick question, it says county demograhics update every year. How dynamic are they? Ie. is it possible to see a swing D county shift likely R in 20+ years?

At the moment, only the county's population updates, party demographics stay the same. But, there is random variability in how much population increases each year, and the variability is different for each county, and the variability changes each year. That means that in 2023, county A population could increase by 5% and county B population could increase by 2%. In 2024, county A population may increase by 1% and county B population may increase by 4%.
At a state level, this variability could cause a state to become more democratic or republican. For instance, if a democratic county has a large increase in population, while republican counties only have small increases, then, for that year, the state would become slightly more democratic. But I assume that this variability will usually average out.

[Verlumino]

Originally posted by King of the Beasties:

Yay! So glad that we have another Beta. One request, now that redistricting is in the game, is it possible to update the settings to include the new electoral vote counts that will be present in 2024, and then also the number of districts that correspond to that post-2022 midterms? Thanks!

In the future, I may add a new starting year to the game, which would likely include the updated congressional districts that are accurate for the new starting year. But that will not be part of this update.
Until then, it is possible to change electoral vote counts and congressional districts in the advanced options.

[Verlumino]

Originally posted by violin3271:

First of all THANK YOU! This is amazing. The beta is working pretty much as it should be but one issue is that after I loaded a save of different advanced options the county maps stopped working and now they're all black and in the election history they're grey. Thank you again!!!

Thanks for reporting the problem. I encountered the same thing when testing, but I wasn't sure what caused it. And then I couldn't recreate it. Sounds like it is related to saving/loading advanced options. On Monday I will start doing some investigating.

[Verlumino]

Originally posted by zach684:

is there any legislation (federal or state) for redistricting or is it only in the advanced options for now?

For now it is only in the advanced options. I will add it to my list of legislation for the Legislation Update.

[trey.braid]

Is there any sort of notification in-game letting us see what states gained or lost any seats in redistricting. If there is, I haven't seen it yet in my game.

[CharlieRouth]

Bug: The "Gain" indicator is broken. So in redistricting when democrats gained seats, it now says Republicans gained one despite it clearly marking that dems gained the seat

[PopePasta]

Hi verm I was wondering if you would fully add previously partially worked on things
-Adding ability for State AG's, Treasurers, mayors to be generated so they can run for state office
-Letting AI run third party if losing a primary in ai only elections

and with this update please add
-Election change per county/state from last election for party
-Archive tracking of county results
-detailed changes and archive analysis of redistricting

[scaryterry38]

Hi, as far as I understand, independent commissions are part of the advanced options, but is there legislation included in the game to create or dissolve an independent commission?