further beta feedback

from JoeUser Forums
Played another 2 games and these had no text problems or major slow downs. Both games also compelted to the end of the election without crashing.

Specific comments

- opponent is too fast. He almost always gets to question marks before you. On lower difficulty levels he should be slowed down.
- where's my war chest? I played as GWB and was dissapointed to only have 2M to spend. I wanted 200M!!!
- Operatives: Fixer has no icon. PR man has no icon. PR man has wrong label. Says webmaster
- Placement of candidate: Candidate appears to be missing the states that stretch on the eastern seaboard. Looks like he's not in the state. Can be very confusing when he's actually in Maryland but it looks like he's in Delaware
- I had a problem with Indiana. Awareness never changed from zero despite a HQ, 20 visits, 2 ads, and a media darling.

As for suggestions for VP. I would add him as an icon who acts like a HQ (+1 awareness, 10k donations, info on state). Random events could be added to affect the VP. Moving him costs money.

Paul.
24,075 views 20 replies
Reply #1 from JoeUser Forums Top
I had a problem with Indiana


I have a problem with Indiana as well...oh, you're talking about the game!

Totally agree with the too fast opponent on lower levels. At Cakewalk, he should be going as slow as I am (okay, maybe not that slow!) New players will need the extra time to figure out their moves without worrying that the opponent is getting all the good stuff.
Reply #2 from JoeUser Forums Top
It was a bit of a disappointment, considering how much hype came before the release.

I posted this on the GalCiv board (while this board was down!).

Overall analysis: The current beta isn't playable. I'm going to wait a month or two and play it again. I'd give the game a "nice try". It looks like it'll be a decent game when it's done. Let us know when it's actually playable.

Clicking on "Options" ends my game. There's no way to get back!

The "news" and "charts" buttons don't do anything!

I am running Windows XP, but it still crashes too often.

The various things to do are unclear. You need a "get started" guide.

Where is "District of Columbia"?
Don't they get 3-4 electoral votes.

In my game with the default settings, "more jobs" seemed
to be the only thing anyone cared about.

When a question mark appears, is it merely a race to see
who can click on it first? That appears to be frustrating
feature rather than a neat feature.
Isn't this a turn-based game?

It appears to crash sometimes when the AI grabs a question mark.

The AI got stuck in a pattern where he stayed in one state
for most of the game. Did he run out of money?

Make it more clear what the AI is doing on his turn.

One state got stuck in a state where both candidates had 0%
awareness, even though I had maximum HQ and an ad campaign in the state.

Awareness is way too important. You would think that after 20 weeks, both candidates would have 100% awareness in all states.

The game should be a bit longer. Either make the "# weeks"
adjustable, or make "stamina per week" adjustable.

When you don't have enough stamina for a given action,
the screen should more clearly indicate that this is the case.

You need more description of:
- why "fund raising" gives less each time you do it in a state.
How long do you have to wait before going back?

- There appears to be some sort of "adjacency bonus" for
building an HQ. It helps in adjacent states also.

- It seems like it make sense to build HQ mostly in poor states,
and do your fundraising in only wealthy states.

- It seems that optimal strategy in the opening phases of the
game is to build an HQ in as many states as possible, while
fundraising in the wealthy states. You'll
get a huge chunk of the HQ cost back over the course of
the game in income.

- It seems that it doesn't make sense to "campaign" until the
end of the game, because the effect expires over time.

- What happens if you have unused stamina at the end of a turn?

I'm going to wait a month or two before playing it again.

=====

Well, I do think that it'll be a good game once it's done. The current version still needs a lot of work. I'm suspecting that it won't be in the same league as GalCiv unless substnatial improvements are made.

I'm surprised this thread didn't gather more comments?

Also, the "political capital" seems useless as currently written. It takes 2-3 full turns to get enough capital to do anything.

On "election night", I thought that there should be some randomness. That is, if I'm leading 40%-39% in a state, I shouldn't be a lock-winner on election night, maybe only a 52% chance of winning. Further, the states should be revealed in order of closeness of outcome, rather than the same order every time. If a state is close, the first reveal should say "NY is too close to call", then "NY is still too close to call", and finally "NY goes to x", giving the results for several other states in the meantime. Also, on election night, there should be some indication once a candidate clinches victory.

There also should be something useful to do if you have 1-2 stamina leftover at the end of the turn, and you want to stay in that state for next turn.
Object Desktop - Get all of our enhancement utilities in one suite
Reply #3 from JoeUser Forums Top
fsk: Thanks for the feedback. I suspect you won't like the final game either. We like the game even as it stands (Bugs and all). So I wouldn't expect any massive playabilty changes between now and release.
Reply #4 from JoeUser Forums Top
fsk: You've done pretty good figuring out what the game mechanics. We'll look into the AI bugs that you reported. We'll also take a look inot randomizing the election process. We had planned to do something like you mentioned, where states that were toss-ups would either come up last, or we'd do something to add tension to those states.
Reply #5 from JoeUser Forums Top
fsk,
I currently find capital to be very useful. a single operative in a key state makes a huge difference and endorsements are hugely powerful.

Paul.
Reply #6 from JoeUser Forums Top
Also, I think alot of the annoyance comes from the little bugs that make the game a "Beta"...hopefully by the next build we'll have cleaned up the loose ends and the game will become more stable / playable.
Reply #7 from JoeUser Forums Top
I've only managed to play two games to completion so far but in addition to issues that have been reported elsewhere I found myself wishing for a way to extend the campaign season. Case in point is the current situation in the U.S. The effective campaign season is far longer than 41 weeks.

Cheers
Magus
Reply #8 from JoeUser Forums Top
I want to see adjustable stamina per turn, to allow for variable game lengths.
Reply #9 from JoeUser Forums Top
Game Length will be one of the adjustable stats in the "Fantasy Campaign" mode...I'm not sure about adjusting the "Stamina" directly, since that's a Candidate stat, but you will be able to make your own character and pump up their Stamina stats you you wish.
Reply #10 from JoeUser Forums Top

What do you guys think of the idea of not picking your vice presidential candidate at the start of the game but instead choosing him at week 20?

Then at week 20 you would have a second unit you could move around. Your overall stats would become the most significant rating that eitehr has. I.e. you would pick a VP who complements you.

What do you think of that idea?

Reply #11 from JoeUser Forums Top
Sounds like a good idea.

Would it be possible for the various vice pres candidates to also have awareness and vote bonuses in various states?

That way you'd have to choose between choosing candidate A for his fund raising ability or candidate B for those extra votes in Florida.

Paul.
Reply #12 from JoeUser Forums Top
That sounds good. Picking a VP with some complementary appeal would be both realistic and add an extra twist.

Building the tension in the close states also sounds like a worthwhile improvement.

Perhaps a candidate could spend a week at the gym in return for pumping up their stamina?
Reply #13 from JoeUser Forums Top
I like the idea of picking your VP at week 20.

It would also make the game even more re-playable if you had an option of playing with a wide array of fictional VP candidates, and they were very different from each other -- different levels of national appeal, different home states (of course), different levels of home state appeal, and different possibilities of a scandal being discovered in their background. Thus, the leader could pick a "safe" choice, but the trailer could go for a more daring choice of VP.
Reply #14 from JoeUser Forums Top
Brad,

Picking the VP mid-way through the season sounds like a good idea to me but, as Solitair points out , you should have a range of potential running mates to choose from, with different pluses and minuses for each.

Magus
Reply #15 from JoeUser Forums Top
The VP idea sounds really good, as long as you get to move him around.

Also, I think that the effectiveness of the campaign should not rest on the President. If anyone running for office ran their own campaigns, they would never get off the ground. The guy that runs a campaign is the Campaign Manager, the canidate is just his pawn. The candiate is what attracts the people, but the effectiveness of what he says should rely upon a Campaign Manager. Just an idea.
Reply #16 from JoeUser Forums Top
ABT:

Actually, that's the roll you (the user) plays...the Campaign Manager. The original name of the game was even "Political Campaigner", but in keeping with our "Corporate" Strategy game, we decided to go with "The Political Machine".

Also, for anyone that's curious, it looks like there'll be an official new build of TPM up this thursday. A few of the addressed issues....

- Issues fixed so the game will run faster (or even just run) on 9x, ME, and 2000 machines.

-You will be able to create your own personalized candidate, complete with your own image (if you so wish). Otherwise we have over 50 hand-drawn portraits for players to choose from (male and females included )

- Options screen implemented...no more screwed up games due to accidentally pressing the 'options' button.

- Several new "Pre-Made" candidates will be available, including Nixon, Lincoln, Hilary, and the ever popular Arnold.

-Exit Polling data shows up at the end of the game, allowing you to get a better picture of how you won or lost the election.

- Better Feedback following TV shows, letting you know how your constituents felt of your answers.

- Animated Intro to start the game off better.

- More Music put in.

- And Various bugs and tweaks to make the gmae more fun.

We'll have a complete and detailed list of everything included come Thursday's release.
Reply #17 from JoeUser Forums Top
Better Feedback following TV shows, letting you know how your constituents felt of your answers.


I'd like to see better feedback in almost all situations. At the easiest difficulties, the player should get the benefit of knowing the effect of his actions in advance.
Reply #18 from JoeUser Forums Top
We have a "News" screen in the works that'll give the player feedback on a weekly basis (or every 5 weeks, whichever is less annoying). Also, be sure to utilize the "Effects" section of action screens..the thums down and thums up images will give you some feedback on how the public will accept your ads, campaigns, ect. It's not alot of data, but its enough to figure out if what youre about to do will hurt or help your campaign effort.
Reply #19 from JoeUser Forums Top
Ok, thanks BoogieBac. I guess I was just confused on the role. I kinda assumed that we were the president, but now that I think of it, that makes sense.

And I am glad I will be able to make our own canidates. Look forward to it and the other add-ons.
Reply #20 from JoeUser Forums Top
Looking forward to trying out next version of the beta.

Any chance of independant candidates being added?

Paul.