Would love these improvements

I picked the game up yesterday and it's a lot of fun, but after a couple campaigns, I've noticed a couple things that the game is currently lacking and I'd love to see added in. I'm going to try and mod my own game to make these possible, but I'd love to see them in an 'official' version.

Random Events

In every political campaign, there are outside events that affect the landscape. A few weeks ago there was the terrible shooting in Colorado, in 2008 there were the TARP negotiations in August/September that McCain suspended his campaign for, and there are a lot more under the October Surprise Wikipedia article. There should be random events that happen that make an issue or two more important to voters and swing their opinion for or against the topic. Possible examples being a nuclear reactor meltdown, causing all states with nuclear power stations to care a lot more about the Alternative Energy issue, sea levels rise a drastic amount after an ice shelf collapses into the ocean making all states with coastline care more about the environment, Israel being attacked, starting a war causing the Supporting Israel issue to be more important, etc. There should be some event relating to every issue that causes a large block of voters to care more about the issue and swing their opinion to opposing or favoring the issue.

Issue Ads

At the moment, ads can only either be about you or your opponent supporting or opposing an issue. There should be issue ads that raise the importance of an issue without affecting the candidate's opinion of the issue.

Endorsements

There need to be more endorsements. Maybe governor's endorsements for every state, raising your awareness and approval by 1% a week in their state, a former president whose endorsement buffs your credibility, possibly even random endorsements from celebrities that can be positive or negative, certainly though there should be more interest group endorsements and some of those should be neither democrat or republican.

Debates

Debates should be implemented.

Third Parties?

This one I'm not quite sure about, but it could make things really interesting and add a higher difficulty level for advanced players.

Map Cleanup

At the moment, the map can get pretty crowded if I send three or four political consultants to one state or have a bunch of political operatives in one state. This makes it kind of annoying when trying to click on your candidate in that state or when you're trying to move that one person to another state. There should be only one statue/bobblehead for operatives in a state that has a little (x4) marker by it if you have four people there, or (x2) for two people, etc. Clicking on that statue would open a menu with the full list of operatives you have in that state and an 'action' button by their name so you can use dropdown menus to "Send (2) (Moneymen) to (California)" If you're about to make a fundraising trip there.

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I also wanna see probably an implementation of "Faithless" Electors, electors who do not follow the majority vote of the state (Pretty rare currently so I'd say make it eh 1 or max 3 every election (Still a big threat for advanced players who are running a close election...

Also I think why not add "Foreign endorsements" which would be random based on what you're doing as in say "UK Prime Minister BLAH endorses the campaign of CANDIDATE to see as next US President"

Also, seeing there is no profit persuasion here; I honestly would pay for a say 5-7$ DLC/Expansion for all of this albeit free always made me happy too

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All of the mentioned things in the OP should have been in the game

Seriously, i can't even believe those thing aren't included in the game, they should be there with even more fun thing added, because you know, when you spend money on a product which happen to be a sequel, you kinda expect to have a better offer than the last incarnation of the game

Now, i just want t know if they consider the game done at this point or they hope to add thing that should have been there

Because if the game is done, i won't be coming here again with false hope that it going to be better in the future

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One change I would have made?

I would have LOVED to see the inclusion of a primary/caucus cycle. If you really wanted to go extra in-depth with this, you could include the state caucus meetings as well.

Granted, I know this would make the game even bigger, and it may be too much for some players, but you could set it up to where a person plays just a general election cycle, or a primary cycle, or a combination cycle.

I don't know. I think that would be even more fun.

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I am sort of disappointed in this game actually. I imagined that the game makers would have improved on this game and added new elements, but it seems to me that all the makers of this game did was update a few issues, make a few more candidates, and improve the look of the game. I am glad this game only cost 7 bucks, because if I spent 20, I would have been really disappointed! I guess I expected this based on the game price. It might have been easier to create an expansion pack for 2008 because really the only extra in this game is the 2012 scenario.

But I do like the improvement suggestions and if they were made the game would be a whole lot more attractive and the company making this game would make MORE money for sure! The idea of this game is truly amazing and I think this game is very fun. But a few more improvements would make this game even greater!

The only two other improvements I would recommend would be a few more historical and fictional scenarios like in 2008. I liked the Europa and Alien campaign. Not only was it fun, but it added more hours of game play! Also the 1860 scenario was a great idea too! Historical campaigns create new challenges that make the game more fun. And with multiple candidate options the 1860 scenario could be more realistic. Other good scenarios might include 1960- Nixon v. Kennedy, 1800- Adams v. Jefferson, 1824- 4 Way between Jackson, Adams, Clay, & Crawford, 1948, 1968, 1992, and 2000 are other good ones.

The other thing I missed is the campaign play! Why take it out??? I enjoyed facing against historical winners and challengers and unlocking more historical figures. What are the possiblities of a patch or extension pack that could include such features. I would pay for these improvements!

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All of the OP's suggestions are great and a few of them really should be in the game as it stands.

"October Surprises" or random events that raise the importance of a previously "niche" or low priority is a great idea. (e.x just have a news item come up that says "Instability in several oil producing nations has caused energy and gas prices to skyrocket. As a result high gas prices and Alternative Energy have gained importance as a campaign issue nationwide".

Issue ads are a good idea. It would be nice if there a way to elevate the importance of some of your platform issues that aren't even on the radar in most states but realistically should/could be. As much as external forces shape the top campaign issues, so do what the candidates choose to push. (e.x. Obama attacks Romney for his role in outsourcing jobs as a VC, thus outsourcing increasingly becomes a topic of contention).

Debates are a no brainier. How are these not in the game?! It doesn't seem like it would be hard to do. Just make it like an interview where a moderator asks each candidate for a stance/response on several issue questions and you can select a response and at the end you receive a boost or penalty. Debate are extremely influential is swaying undecided voters.

I would gladly pay for a DLC/Expansion to this. Steam makes it really easy and advantageous for developers to create DLC. I'm sure most people who play this game would buy a DLC pack that added features and if you're playing it through steam you'll get a notification when new DLC is released and it will appear on the "News/Updates" page for the game (which is coincidentally where the "PLAY" button is located (good advertising).

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