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vcczar

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Some changes that are expected: 

  • So currently most Scripted Events that linger, linger for a specified amount of time. I think I'm going to change this by creating Scripted Events that end Scripted Events. This way the French Revolution isn't always so and so number of years. It could be 4 years or 20 years or something like that. 
  • I'm going to break up some of the possible regions that can be conquered into larger territories. For one, all Canadian provinces will be their own potential states. All Central and South American countries will now be their own states. Those larger than California in population will be broken up into California sized states. Mexico will also be broken up into states, but as Mexico is like 36 states or something like that, I may merge any that are low population and connected. @Patine might be happy to learn this because I think he had some issues with my original format. My main reason for not proliferating new potential states was because I assumed Anthony would ultimately opt against a super expanded map and I didn't want to waste my time spending too much time on it. He now seems to be fine with it. 
  • I need to do some tinkering with how Pres Actions work.
  • I need to add more options on Scripted Events
  • I need to create Scripted Events that change owner of expanded region potential states. 
  • Retired Ex-President office as a new "office"
  • Add more Era of the Future domestic and economic proposals. It's currently scripted event and foreign affairs heavy. Also heavy on science and technology. 
  • Gotta make some adjustments to Territories and also allow CA to split into two states. 
  • I also have some little rule changes
  • actually this to do list is pretty lengthy. I'm going to casually work on it while fundraising. I gotta feeling January is going to be a lot of working on these updates. 
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8 hours ago, vcczar said:

Some changes that are expected: 

  • So currently most Scripted Events that linger, linger for a specified amount of time. I think I'm going to change this by creating Scripted Events that end Scripted Events. This way the French Revolution isn't always so and so number of years. It could be 4 years or 20 years or something like that. 
  • I'm going to break up some of the possible regions that can be conquered into larger territories. For one, all Canadian provinces will be their own potential states. All Central and South American countries will now be their own states. Those larger than California in population will be broken up into California sized states. Mexico will also be broken up into states, but as Mexico is like 36 states or something like that, I may merge any that are low population and connected. @Patine might be happy to learn this because I think he had some issues with my original format. My main reason for not proliferating new potential states was because I assumed Anthony would ultimately opt against a super expanded map and I didn't want to waste my time spending too much time on it. He now seems to be fine with it. 
  • I need to do some tinkering with how Pres Actions work.
  • I need to add more options on Scripted Events
  • I need to create Scripted Events that change owner of expanded region potential states. 
  • Retired Ex-President office as a new "office"
  • Add more Era of the Future domestic and economic proposals. It's currently scripted event and foreign affairs heavy. Also heavy on science and technology. 
  • Gotta make some adjustments to Territories and also allow CA to split into two states. 
  • I also have some little rule changes
  • actually this to do list is pretty lengthy. I'm going to casually work on it while fundraising. I gotta feeling January is going to be a lot of working on these updates. 

Awesome!  I especially like the first bullet point.  

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@vcczar

I had an idea about slightly altering the committee chair eligibility requirements.

It would keep the same restrictions but allow a carve out for politicians with a higher legislative rating than any former member (and relevant expertise) to be able to become chair without having previously been a member.

This way, serving on a committee is still rewarded. But is does allow some potential for rewarding loyalty of senior members of a chamber with a spot as committee chair.

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42 minutes ago, jvikings1 said:

@vcczar

I had an idea about slightly altering the committee chair eligibility requirements.

It would keep the same restrictions but allow a carve out for politicians with a higher legislative rating than any former member (and relevant expertise) to be able to become chair without having previously been a member.

This way, serving on a committee is still rewarded. But is does allow some potential for rewarding loyalty of senior members of a chamber with a spot as committee chair.

I'll think about it. Thanks for posting this so I can go back to it, rather than putting it in the messages. 

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To Do List: 

*Tasks are arranged by estimate time of completion

 

Tasks that should only take up part of a day: 

  • Add scripted events for politicians marked “what if” to enter/exit a game. This way they sometimes appear but often don’t. Ex: “John F. Kennedy Jr decides to follow in father’s footsteps.”
  • Have some presidential actions and governor actions reset when activated after a period of time, rather than just wait for a president or governor to deactivate them. 
  • “Retired Ex-President” office. This allows former president to be kingmaker or key advisor, but they cannot be faction leader or hold any other office. They automatically get this title if they are retired during a retirement roll. This is mainly just so players know when ex-presidents die for flavor
  • Name Generator for Spanish, Portugues, French, Filipino, etc based-names so that generated players in outer regions have realistic names for those regions. 
  • Add to rules: Make it clear that a Scripted Event that requires a prerequisite Scripted Event can take place, so long as the prerequisite is also set to take place during that same phase. Obviously, the prerequisite must be responded to first. (Ex. Richard Henry Lee calls for Independence and the Declaration of Independence can–and historically did–occur on the same phase). 
  • Make sure to mention that for Scripted Events that an event can be triggered for the Scripted Event phase if the requirement has not occurred so long as the requirement event is also triggered on the same phase. Obviously, the requirement trigger must happen first.
  • Add to rules: Make it clear how a candidate for president is chosen by players and CPU prior to the Primary Era. This is stated within the presidential election section but needs to be moved up to the beginning of the section.
  • Rework or decrease strength of LW Media and RW Media cards in elections.

Tasks that should take only a day:

  • Make titles of Legislative Proposals, Governor Actions, and Presidential Actions self-evident so that I don’t need to type out descriptions for these, but perhaps allow for some historical relevance for those curious. 
  • Create events showing changes of rulership over outlying regions, possibly with the chance of major powers taking those regions if Monroe Doctrine is or is not initiated or if the US is weak (military prep) or not expansive. 
  • Recalibrate EC values of outer regions since I’ve now split up some of the massive superstates. Adjust the states and territories spreadsheet accordingly
  • Add some randomization to population that modifies the EC for states and for US Reps maybe based on success of industries, if indigenous tribes keep their land, etc. 
  • Finish Historical Achievements “First President of the US” “New Deal President” “Red Scare Senator,” etc. 
  • Add a few more Era of Independence legislative proposals

Tasks that should take more than one day but less than a week:

  • Get rid of set linger time for some Scripted Events and just create Scripted Events that end lingering Scripted Events. This way a player won’t know when the French Revolution ends, so can’t plan accordingly. 
  • Possibly allows advisors to give advice based on their personal ideology. Create this in the scripted events. Maybe only allow eggheads and advisors do this. Have interests play a role maybe? Integrity too? Controversial?
  • Add AMPU achievement for players at the end of each Historical Era
  • Add more Era of the Future legislative proposals, presidential actions, governor actions – especially ones that aren’t foreign affairs or military or science or robot technology-based, as these are prominent. 
  • Finish filling in Era of the Future entries

Tasks that could last over a week but not multiple weeks: 

  • Fill in descriptions and tighten up descriptions of Scripted Events
  • Add more events based on the American President A Complete History timeline. This gives a good list of important international news, mostly for flavor. It also adds domestic flavor. 
  • Add more hypothetical events in the event the game goes way off the historical timeline. Napoleon is rescued from St Helena, starts his own Louisiana Kingdom. US has all of Mexico, Mexico fights for independence. Go through the history of outlier regions to see what issues and problems that had to create actions, events, legislative proposals that would impact these regions more specifically. 

Tasks that could take several weeks to a month:

  • Add a tutorial or pop-up tips that help players navigate the game and screens @MrPotatoTed helps with this hopefully. 
  • Fill out politician bios (may require paying @ConservativeElector2 some money to help out)
  • Double check everything for typos, tight language, errors, obsolete terms, imbalances, etc.

Tasks with undetermined timeframe: 

  • “Apply Interest/Trait Bias +/- found in Historical Era spreadsheet -- fill this out if it hasn’t been filled out yet.” – @MrPotatoTed suggested this. Need to get back to him to figure out what he means by this as I've forgotten.
  • Consider @jvikings1's idea for committee chairs

Overall, I need to get all of this done minus the tutorial and politician bios before Anthony puts this into CPU form. 

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10 hours ago, jvikings1 said:

@vcczar

I had an idea about slightly altering the committee chair eligibility requirements.

It would keep the same restrictions but allow a carve out for politicians with a higher legislative rating than any former member (and relevant expertise) to be able to become chair without having previously been a member.

This way, serving on a committee is still rewarded. But is does allow some potential for rewarding loyalty of senior members of a chamber with a spot as committee chair.

 

9 hours ago, vcczar said:

I'll think about it. Thanks for posting this so I can go back to it, rather than putting it in the messages. 

I considered that when I rewrote the Speaker/Leader/Whip rules (which no longer require prior committee service).  But I couldn't find any examples in the real world of someone becoming Chair of a committee without having served on the committee before.

(It can still be done if nobody is available who has served on the committee before -- and as time goes on, there will naturally be much more people who do have prior experience so you'll have more than 1-2 people to choose from, as well.)

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9 hours ago, vcczar said:

 

  • “Apply Interest/Trait Bias +/- found in Historical Era spreadsheet -- fill this out if it hasn’t been filled out yet.” – @MrPotatoTed suggested this. Need to get back to him to figure out what he means by this as I've forgotten.

Hmmm...I could offer a guess, but without confidence.  Was it something I saw on the rule sheet, in a forum, in a text?  I'd probably remember it if I saw my initial wording or what the context around it was.

 

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9 minutes ago, MrPotatoTed said:

Hmmm...I could offer a guess, but without confidence.  Was it something I saw on the rule sheet, in a forum, in a text?  I'd probably remember it if I saw my initial wording or what the context around it was.

 

I really don't remember. I think it must have been mentioned in the doc, but I'm not 100% certain. 

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16 hours ago, MrPotatoTed said:

 

I considered that when I rewrote the Speaker/Leader/Whip rules (which no longer require prior committee service).  But I couldn't find any examples in the real world of someone becoming Chair of a committee without having served on the committee before.

(It can still be done if nobody is available who has served on the committee before -- and as time goes on, there will naturally be much more people who do have prior experience so you'll have more than 1-2 people to choose from, as well.)

In real life, every member of Congress has multiple committee assignments. Obviously, that would be far too burdensome for a simulation. But moving down to very small committees with only one assignment per politician overly restricts the committee chair process. It can make it very hard for party leaders to have much say in the decisions (with is very present in real life). The expertise restriction would keep politicians within their areas (so we don't have someone only interested in healthcare in charge of the judiciary) but also opens up flexibility a bit to better (and more accurately) reflect the power of party leaders.

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10 minutes ago, jvikings1 said:

In real life, every member of Congress has multiple committee assignments. Obviously, that would be far too burdensome for a simulation. But moving down to very small committees with only one assignment per politician overly restricts the committee chair process. It can make it very hard for party leaders to have much say in the decisions (with is very present in real life). The expertise restriction would keep politicians within their areas (so we don't have someone only interested in healthcare in charge of the judiciary) but also opens up flexibility a bit to better (and more accurately) reflect the power of party leaders.

That’s a fair point.  Maybe every congressman should be appointed to a committee, but that only certain committee members can propose laws?

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5 minutes ago, MrPotatoTed said:

That’s a fair point.  Maybe every congressman should be appointed to a committee, but that only certain committee members can propose laws?

My issue with this, and a reason I do short cut some real life mechanism of politics, is so that the game doesn't take a month to go through 4 years of game time. Imagine having to go through every US Rep and US Sen to select committees for them. Most players, I'd assume, wouldn't want to do that. I have to make some sacrifices. Basically, every phase of the game is a simplification of what is. I think the riskiest think about the game, as it is, is the length of it, from a casual gamers perspective. 

If either of you can come up with a way that this can be simply done, and done quickly, then I'll consider a change. Obviously, any major changes like this must be made by the time the campaign is over. I'm sort of at the point where I can only make minor adjustments. Anthony's made it clear that once the architecture is in place, it's really hard to go in and make a big change. 

Will tag @jvikings1 too. 

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59 minutes ago, vcczar said:

Anthony's made it clear that once the architecture is in place, it's really hard to go in and make a big change. 

In the case we get a player editor and the player community will be able to add their own politicians I had hoped for some more offices in the future. Do you think creating offices like lieutenant governor or more House seats at some point would qualify as a big change?

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55 minutes ago, ConservativeElector2 said:

In the case we get a player editor and the player community will be able to add their own politicians I had hoped for some more offices in the future. Do you think creating offices like lieutenant governor or more House seats at some point would qualify as a big change?

Yeah it would. Decision would have to be made shortly after campaign ends and about 10,000 more politicians added. Lt. Govs are very unlikely to be added. All US Reps seats are more likely, but I’d still say under 50% considering it would require a lot of manpower and hours to add all the US Reps and failed candidates. 

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1 minute ago, vcczar said:

Yeah it would. Decision would have to be made shortly after campaign ends and about 10,000 more politicians added. Lt. Govs are very unlikely to be added. All US Reps seats are more likely, but I’d still say under 50% considering it would require a lot of manpower and hours to add all the US Reps and failed candidates. 

Fair enough. In an ideal world I couldn't get enough offices to fill lol State Attorney Generals, State SoS, State Judges and Federal judges for example. But I guess we have to appreciate what's realistic to get.

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I don't really love the DC map photo that Anthony's been using as background in the images for the Kickstarter.  I thought at first it was just the street names that were bothering me -- but really, I think the map itself is too busy to be a good background for a text-heavy game.  

Maybe instead of the maps, there could be a different background for each phase.  So if it's the Executive Actions phase, show a picture of the White House.  If it's the Legislative phase, a picture of the Capitol Building.  Military phase, a picture of a tank or something.  

Ideally, these images would even change over time.  So in the Independence era, you've got an image of the Constitutional Congress.   And for war, it's a revolutionary war image.  And then those change over time as the eras progress to more modern imagery.

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16 minutes ago, MrPotatoTed said:

I don't really love the DC map photo that Anthony's been using as background in the images for the Kickstarter.  I thought at first it was just the street names that were bothering me -- but really, I think the map itself is too busy to be a good background for a text-heavy game.  

Maybe instead of the maps, there could be a different background for each phase.  So if it's the Executive Actions phase, show a picture of the White House.  If it's the Legislative phase, a picture of the Capitol Building.  Military phase, a picture of a tank or something.  

Ideally, these images would even change over time.  So in the Independence era, you've got an image of the Constitutional Congress.   And for war, it's a revolutionary war image.  And then those change over time as the eras progress to more modern imagery.

I'm sure the images will all change somewhat. I'll let him know that it might be too busy.

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On 12/19/2021 at 12:58 PM, MrPotatoTed said:

That’s a fair point.  Maybe every congressman should be appointed to a committee, but that only certain committee members can propose laws?

That could be a feasible alternative. The 4 would be the most important (sort of like most important reps) but others would be represented.

On 12/19/2021 at 1:08 PM, vcczar said:

My issue with this, and a reason I do short cut some real life mechanism of politics, is so that the game doesn't take a month to go through 4 years of game time. Imagine having to go through every US Rep and US Sen to select committees for them. Most players, I'd assume, wouldn't want to do that. I have to make some sacrifices. Basically, every phase of the game is a simplification of what is. I think the riskiest think about the game, as it is, is the length of it, from a casual gamers perspective. 

If either of you can come up with a way that this can be simply done, and done quickly, then I'll consider a change. Obviously, any major changes like this must be made by the time the campaign is over. I'm sort of at the point where I can only make minor adjustments. Anthony's made it clear that once the architecture is in place, it's really hard to go in and make a big change. 

Will tag @jvikings1 too. 

That’s why I thought of the higher rating one to simplify things. But I’ll try to think if there’s a way to cut this down. The one that comes to mind initially would be to randomize/automate the lower ones. It would reduce player control but at least give more options for chair.

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@ConservativeElector2 @Hestia @jvikings1 the three of you are my candidates for helping me proof some things on Legis Props and Scripted Events and Pres Actions if any of you have the time. It will take me a bit to type up what you need to do and how to do it, but just let me know if you do or don't have the free time to do this. It will help save me some time if you can help out.

Once the campaign is over I should have some paid volunteer work, since I'll presumably have some money from the KS campaign to help pay for making the game. This will involve filling out politician bios. 

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38 minutes ago, vcczar said:

@ConservativeElector2 @Hestia @jvikings1 the three of you are my candidates for helping me proof some things on Legis Props and Scripted Events and Pres Actions if any of you have the time. It will take me a bit to type up what you need to do and how to do it, but just let me know if you do or don't have the free time to do this. It will help save me some time if you can help out.

Once the campaign is over I should have some paid volunteer work, since I'll presumably have some money from the KS campaign to help pay for making the game. This will involve filling out politician bios. 

Currently I don't see much time for me to do this. It depends on what is to be done exactly, but  there is really much college work and Christmas stuff at this stage of the year. 

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3 hours ago, vcczar said:

@ConservativeElector2 @Hestia @jvikings1 the three of you are my candidates for helping me proof some things on Legis Props and Scripted Events and Pres Actions if any of you have the time. It will take me a bit to type up what you need to do and how to do it, but just let me know if you do or don't have the free time to do this. It will help save me some time if you can help out.

Once the campaign is over I should have some paid volunteer work, since I'll presumably have some money from the KS campaign to help pay for making the game. This will involve filling out politician bios. 

Depends on the timespan. I may have some time over break, but my next semester may be busier than the last one. It may not be as consistent as you'd want. 

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39 minutes ago, Hestia said:

Depends on the timespan. I may have some time over break, but my next semester may be busier than the last one. It may not be as consistent as you'd want. 

I think what I'm trying to delegate could take only a day but could also take longer. It just depends how much time is spent in the day and how natural it is for you to do it. I'll admit, 90% of making this game is doing really tedious stuff. 

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Just now, vcczar said:

I think what I'm trying to delegate could take only a day but could also take longer. It just depends how much time is spent in the day and how natural it is for you to do it. I'll admit, 90% of making this game is doing really tedious stuff. 

Oh okay! Yeah over break I should have some time. 

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