The Political Machine v1.02 preview

from PolMach Forums

We're putting the final tweaks on v1.02 of The Political Machine.

Amongst the tweaks and changes come in the endorsement area. Based on player feedback, we've decided to make conservative special interest groups harder to win the support of if you're a Democrat and vice versa if you're a Republican with the liberal special interest groups.

Most of our energy has been trying to make sure the game works on the widest variety of hardware.  The game should run fine on pretty much any hardware out there (and fortunately it does). But there are some notable exceptions including some of the older integrated Intel video adapters. We have not found a solution to this. It should be working on there. DirectX 9 is still relatively new and we use some features in it that have noting to do with horse power but a lot to do with presentation such as true type fonts and sprite manipulation stuff.  Since this engine is going to be used in Galactic Civilizations, we'll definitely be working on it.

The big "bug" fix in this is an endorsement crash bug that occurred on Windows 98. For you techies out there, the cause of this was that our endorsements are stored in an INI file and Windows 98 handles them differently than Windows ME/2000/XP. 

As some of you know, Stardock continues to enhance and support its games for the long haul so we will be releasing more updates as time goes on and incorporate features and fixes based on your experiences.

Have fun!

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12,616 views 12 replies
Reply #2 from PolMach Forums Top
Can you give us an approximate estimate of when it will come out? I am sick and tired of this excellent game being ruined by a bunch of stupid bugs (so far I've had "Can't progress past first level in campaign mode" and "Damn thing crashes whenever I try to win an endorsement as a Republican (strangely enough, when I play as a Democrat, nothing bad happens)").
Offworld Trading Company
Reply #3 from PolMach Forums Top
The change to the endorsements is perhaps the most significant quick-fix I could have imagined. There is no way certain candidates should be getting minority support or gun rights support. I think something should be done, eventually, to include a third-party candidate possibility and something reflecting the DEBATES...how could this have been left out?!

-D
Reply #4 from PolMach Forums Top
Please consider fixing this bug.

With more then zero points of stamina, select your Vice President. Next, right click somewhere in the current state of the VP. The VP will fly to the new location in the state. This will also cause the awareness of your candidate to go up by 1% without ant monetary loss and without any stamina loss. It is free awareness. It is too tempting to abuse this bug in single player mode so please fix it.
Reply #5 from PolMach Forums Top
I know this would be difficult to do in an upgrade, but the running mate should function as another player. Once you have a running mate, you should get to use them both on each turn. The VP's impact could be only half of the Pres's or something, but he should be more than just another operative.
Reply #6 from PolMach Forums Top
On the topic of endorsements, I think we should remember that Howard Dean, a democrat, got the best governor's rating of the NRA. Just consider that. And it didn't hurt him.
Reply #7 from PolMach Forums Top
On the topic of endorsements, I think we should remember that Howard Dean, a democrat, got the best governor's rating of the NRA. Just consider that. And it didn't hurt him.
Reply #8 from PolMach Forums Top
Whoops, sorry about clicking the submit button too many times!
Reply #9 from PolMach Forums Top
I just wanted to add an idea about the endorsements, If not in this patch that's coming soon, perhaps one later?

I understand that the endorsements are going to be fixed in such a way that if my republican candidate gets the Union endorsement for example, it's going to affect their party support in a negative fashion. I fully agree with this. But if the endorsements are going to be fixed this way so that a democrat can only get so many endorsements to his party that are favorable and the Republican as well, how about adding in 2-3 more endorsements that could be gotten reasonably by either candidate without penalty? Surely there exists a organization that could swing either Republican or Democrat.,Something to reflect the independent vote. As to what that would be?, I don't know at the moment, but wanted to put in my 2 cents worth for the idea.
Reply #10 from PolMach Forums Top
Hey, I am going to add a rather inconsequential wish, but one mentioned by my wife and 12-year old son, both of whom like the game. We wish there were more character portraits to select from when designing your own Character. This would seem a pretty easy one to add to a patch; just draw some more pictures. We enjoy game.... it's fun and educational.
Reply #11 from PolMach Forums Top
Frogboy I would of strongly suggested that in the next version that there actually be debates between the candidates. This would make the game so much more fun
Reply #12 from PolMach Forums Top
Somewhere in these posts I read that you were selling a version that included an "issues editor". No such feature in my copy as far as I can see. Is there an "upgrade" or some such available?