I just played a game with the 0.97 beta. You're definitely almost there. All the major stuff is working fine, but there are a number of minor issues that need to be fixed.
- When you load the game, the images change too fast. Also, the credits scroll up the screen too fast.
- Joe user description: "wide ranging" should be hyphenated. Also, the last sentence is a run-on sentence. Suggest you split into two sentences after the word "ranging".
- I build an HQ in Texas appeared so far north and west that it looked like it was in OK.
- The description of a smear merchant says "... joining the 's election campaign". This is grammatically incorrect. Either remove the word "the", or remove the apostrophe-s.
- Political strategy is a great function, but to be useful it needs some way of being noted on other maps. Am not sure what a good way to do that is. A border of some sort, perhaps? A symbol in each state?
- The drop-down menu with list of maps should show all the maps. Currently it needs a scroll bar to go up and down to see the one map that doens't fit on the list.
- On the news, I can't click the box for "show weekly news wrapup".
- Ted Koppel question on finance reform: the answers don't fit on the line.
- The annoying pauses during the game still occur.
- On the big-screeen cheerleader announcement, the text below her picture doesn't fit.
- Sometimes the opponent moves an operative to a state, then immediately to another, and so forth. One turn my opponent moved the same operative 4 or 5 times.
When double-clicking on an ad don't make the "stop" button on the new screen so prominant. I have clicked on it several times thinking it was a "continue" button.
- The cheerleader has conflicting descriptions about her effect in different places.
- When a webmaster is moved into a state, he doesn't seem to affect the maintenance cost of ads previously placed there. Similarly, he can leave the state and the maintenance cost is still lowered.
- The webmaster's description says he lowers maintenance costs by 50%. In fact, he lowers newspaper maintenance by 100% and radio/tv maintenance by 75%.
- On the main map menu, clicking on West Virginia pops up the state info at the bottom of the screen. Due to the font, it looks like there isn't a space in the name. Suggest you force a second space to make it look right.
- A consultant flew so high in NH that it went off the top of the screen. I could no longer see or select it, but listing my assets said that it still existed.
- My running mate is listed as a "political operative" on the list of assets. Not sure if this is correct, but seems awkward.
- There is no explanation of what effect the running mate has. I can fly him/her around using my stamina, but doesn't seem to have any other useful abilities. I recall reading something online about their stats being merged with mine. If this is so, an explantion about that should be given somewhere. Perhaps when the running mate is selected.
- Halfway message: Several things. 1 - "our" should be "out" in the last line. 2 - "him" should be "his" in the first line. 3 - The last line specifies the wrong candidate name. I was winning, but it made it sound like my opponents were saying not to count out my candidate yet. I think my opponent's name was supposed to be there.
- What is the purpose of having a fixer wander around the map? Yes, moving it into an opposing space (with an operative) wipes out an operative. But why else put it on the map? Suggest that putting a fixer in with friendly operatives protect them--the fixer will be eliminated first should an opposing fixer show up.
- In interviews, the same questions show up over and over and over and over...
- A few times I could have sworn that my opponent took my interview. They generally appear in pairs, but sometimes after my opponent gets done moving all I can see is one interview for my opponent--nothing for me. Very strange. Will look into this further.
- Consultant description says it gives +5% awareness per week. In fact it gives just 3%.
- Intimidator description says it removes -5% awareness per week. In fact it removes just 1%.
- Consistancy issue: On the special interest menu in the purple area, "Endorsement" should either be lowercase, or "political operative" should be capitalized. Game concepts should be treated with the same capitalization rule across the entire game.
- In the menu scroll bar, I noticed a fundraiser description talking about "this weeks fundraiser". "Weeks" should be "week's".
- The 3/4 announcement is the same as the halfway announcement.
- In the final week announcement, "kisses" shoudl be "kissed".
- In the list of candidates, who is Jeffory Jackson? Should that be Jesse Jackson? I notice you've scrapped most of the candidate psuedonyms. Similarly, is Mike Forbes really Steve Forbes? You might want to change their names to the real name.
(By the way, I have no idea who Chloe Sulliven and Bill Mason are supposed to be. Can anyone enlighten me?)
--Aaron
