Hi,
Just finished my first game on the new version. Much improved! Played on challenging level. Democrats won Texas but lost California. Go figure.
I found a LOT of issues in the game. It's a beta so that's to be expected though. I'm pleased with how the game is developing and look forward to playing more games.
- Several options in fantasy play start at 0. Better to start them at the midpoint.
- Fantasy play still isn't operational. Or at least the "ready" button never lit up.
- When you build level 1 HQ, there is an "\n" in the descrption.
- Fixer text doesn't fit (also smear merchant).
- Most operatives have reduntant text with their description listed twice, once in white and once in purple.
- Political quips should be lowercase in smear merchant text.
- In the endorsement of NOSCP text, African American should be hyphenated.
- Endorsement for NCLU, the Constitution isn't capitalized. It should be.
- Also, you don't capitalize First Amendment, Second Amendment, etc. in the various endorsement descriptions. Not sure if FA, SA, etc. should be capitalized.
- The Christian Confederation description is a bit... ahhh, loaded. It says something about "traditional American values." This isn't entirely accurate. As with every generation, there are more than one competing set of values which that generation embraces. Not to mention that Jews (among other groups) have been present in America since before the Revolutionary War. I suspect most Jews would disagree that traditional American values are inherently Chrisitan. I suggest "conservative Christian values" as replacement text.
- The electoral votes in the different states are off. I think you used 2000 values when setting the points for states. California is 55, not 54 for example. NY should be 31, Texas should be 34, etc. I am very into polling data and have been building a new website all about this year's electoral contest. I'll e-mail a map of the electoral college to you.
- The radio, tv, and newspaper ads now have descriptions of their effect. Unfortunately, I favor, I oppose, He favors, etc. all list the same effect.
- Television ads are overly potent. In reality, putting tv ads in one state have little effect in areas outside of that market. The only time most are aware of the ad are if CNN (or whomever) shows it as part of a news article. I suggest lowering the national effect. Perhaps doing +25% for neighboring states (under the argument that television ads carry over into that state) and +10% for the rest of the country.
- I suggest a lower price for travel. In my game I basically bankrupted myself and found myself barely able to travel starting halfway through the game. My opponent outspent me 3:1 in the game and had about 4x as many tv ads as I did. Even my few ads sucked away most of the income I brought in from my headquarters. So even if a person has little money left, it would still be nice to be able to travel a bit.
- Newspaper ads for supporting a position still say, "X Blasts Y in..."
- Giving a speech stil doesn't list the effect of various speeches.
- Graphics appear a bit off. Candidates and operatives and such sometimes appear in the ocean.
- The graphics sometimes appear extra-large. A double-sized operative or plane, for example. One time I saw a large plane fly in from thte left side of hte screen. Did a speech (at twice the normal graphic size), then flew back off the left side of the screen. The ticker indicated he flew to California.
- In the "news" function, there are blurbs about "SCOTT" and "SCOIT". I have no idea what these mean.
- In the "news" function, it sometimes say something about speeches on the environment, gay marriage, or whatever. It wasn't clear what this was talking about.
- I bought a fixer. Sent it to Florida, where it removed my operative, not my opponent's.
- My opponent did not pursue endorsements. This may have just been my game, my skill level (challenging), or coincidence. He did buy lots and lots of operatives though (usually smear merchands and spin doctors. At least one fixer).
- Does the intimitador have an effect? That's the guy that lowers the enemy percentage by 5% per week. I put it in a state but it seemed to have no effect. I want to study this further though.
- Jaded consultant text doesn't fit (or is missing a "." at the end).
- My opponent campaigned on against my judgement, compassion, etc. I found no way to do that style of campaigning myself.
- At the start of election night a newspaper suddenly appeared saying my opponent was blasting me. He then took CA which I thought I had. Could the computer have gotten a free turn?
All in all, it's a good improvement. And a challenge now. Still needs work, but your efforts are definitely paying off.
--Aaron
