President doesn’t have the explicit authority to declare war, that’s the job of Congress, but they can use emergency declarations to send in soldiers for small amounts of time. Even now, I don’t see a full-blown war happening in the second game, but broader executive action involving more use of the commander-in-chief power, almost definitely
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Haven’t sent out a formal update as I’ve been busy with job applications and I haven’t had much exciting news to share. I’ve finished my in-depth read-through of my own code up through Chapter 4 and will be continuing through Chapter 5 as quickly as I’m able!
I’ve also been (once again) having issues with images appearing in Dashingdon even though I’ve written the code exactly as it appears on the wiki and uploaded the images to Dashingdon, too. At the very least, all the illustrations are just about finished and I should be able to publish as soon as I finish my own testing!
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Good luck with job-seeking!
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Sorry if you already said this and I just missed it have you sent it the game to the choice games people (not sure what you call the people who receive new games and put them out) or is there more you need to do before giving it to them?
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I haven’t yet – I’m working on adding in chapter headers and will be doing a few playthroughs of my own to finalize things! Once that’s done (I estimate within a week), I’ll formally submit the story for publishing.
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Recommend adding more events for a full enticing presidential simulator, for reference, try looking at This Is Your President since they got tons of events as a U.S. President.
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Oh and perhaps… Improve the SEALs capturing al-Masri event, I believed there are no consequences on civilian casualties… perhaps negative relations on abroad…?
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Civilian casualties should impact the calculation of how much your approval rating changes, though I’ll double-check this since it’s possible I forgot to add that in. Thanks for flagging this!
If you have any specific suggestions for events, I’d also be happy to hear them! While this book is pretty much near completion, there is a second book planned (focusing on the second term of your character if they win re-election).
Mini Progress Update
I figured I should also send out the update that I am only a few days away from submitting the story for publishing! I have finally received all the art needed and am just taking the time to really hammer out any small grammar issues that still remain before submission. I’m almost done with the in-depth read-through of my code, once I’m done with that I’ll do another few playthroughs before submitting.
I’ll of course send out a more formal post when that happens, but my best guess is that I’ll be sending over the text files for submission by this Friday (the 25th)!
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I’m afraid when I check the choicescript_stats.txt on dashingdon, there are no consequences of having civilian casualties and the approval rating is solely based on whether you kill or capture al-Masrid AND the number of casualties (either wounded or deaths) the SEAL Teams got
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I think the CIA should play a huge part in the 2nd term
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Can anyone tell me how many of our actions actually effect national debt and whether it is possible to reduce the deficit and even balance the budget by the end of the game
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We don’t know. Economy stuff is all gonna be a second-term thing.
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To echo @Sujan_Dhakal, the economy and the budget won’t be a focus until what I have planned for Book 2, the main reason being that any substantial changes to the budget would require their own chapter given the branching I have planned.
Your choices in Book 1 will impact the debt and economy, but it won’t be until Book 2 that you’re able to change expenditures and raise/lower taxes to balance the budget.
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Thank you for the reply, I have some questions regarding the sequel and I would be grateful if you answer them, I know the game isn’t in development yet but even a general answer would be helpful.
1: What effect does the candidate that we choose to endorse in the midterm have? For example if I choose to support a Rockefeller Republican then would that make it easier to pass Progressive bills as a Democrat?
2: Can we influence the selection of the speaker and Majority leader, Whip in our second term if we have good party support and won by a comfortable margin, I’m asking this since I noticed the guy who tries to extort us to pass our bill through committee (forgot his name) becomes minority Whip after midterms and I don’t want that guy near higher office.
3: This is not related to the second term but I’ve noticed that getting a good result in midterms doesn’t really do anything since we don’t get to pass any bills after midterms,so does it have a real use aside from bragging rights?
4: Can we groom any of our VPs to be our successor or are there certain one’s who can’t or don’t want to become president.
5: Kind of a random question but is it possible to win Illinois as a Republican, I’m bout to play as a Progressive Republican and I want my MC to win their home state.
6: Will we be able to visit other continents like Africa or South America in our big foreign visit during the second term?
7: Will you add issues like Gun control as bills to pass in our second term?
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Oh, question i have had for awhile: Is the midterms mostly about how much money you can give to the party? I had very high approval ratings but then still got crushed in the midterms because I did not have the money to spend. And when I took a bribe and did, the VP (who I had a good relationship with) gave control of the senate to the opposition.
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Your approval ratings also matter, if I’m not wrong having approval rating of above 50% gives +1 to midterms meter, and having above 55% gives +2, choosing Moore for fundraising event also gives +1, and so does taking bribes for construction contracts and vetoing the Opioid bill, tho be aware that if you have bad Business relations and refuse both bribes then the Billionaire will fund your opposition party and make it harder for you to win
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I’ll do my best to share what I do have planned, though it’s all subject to change of course.
This is a decision with pretty minor consequences and is ultimately a way of shifting your character’s ideology by signaling which part of your own party you want to highlight.
I am planning on allowing the character to get Kern out of leadership, but that will be the only race that you can directly impact.
The only major impact the midterm result has is related to the impeachment sequence. Having more of your own party in Congress is greater protection against getting impeached and convicted. In all midterm outcomes, the opposition party will control the House, which is why you aren’t able to pass any major legislation after the midterms. The best-case scenario is keeping control of the Senate.
You will have a lot of options regarding grooming a successor towards the end of Book 2, and your VP will be one of them. The only exception to this will be if you ran a unity ticket and your VP is of the opposing party.
On the presidential level, no. The results of your re-election are on a 1-10 scale and are loosely based on the partisan leans of states in 2020. Since they’re calculated as a whole and not on a state-by-state basis, there’s unfortunately no “home state” boost you get.
I do believe that you can have your character be elected Governor of Illinois as a Republican as a part of their background.
I can say that Asia will be the main focal point of Book 2, but I’m not opposed to including other state visit options. I did have the idea of allowing a state visit to Antarctica as a way of bringing attention to climate change.
Yes! Book 2 will involve more policy areas that weren’t available including gun control, taxation, and defense spending. I (may) also include a portion of the storyline focusing on statehood for D.C. and Puerto Rico.
Instead of a ‘First 100 Days’ piece of legislation, however, most of these policy changes will take place during the budget sequence, allowing you to do a lot more than just one bill. I’m also planning on including the possibility of a government shutdown and (of course) flack from the military-industrial complex if you try cutting defense spending.
Mentioned by @devil but approval ratings do also play a role in the midterms.
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Very excited for the weird relationship drama that’s gonna come with picking my wife over my VP and grooming the wife as the potential successor…
Do love the Climate Change idea! I did pick that as my main bill so that would love to continue building on that for arcs.
Interesting about Asia being a focus, makes sense. Also interesting since that is the state visit I had picked. I had assumed that there would be a separate foreign policy arc in book 2 based on your visit but the slow build up to a confrontation with China does seem to be being built up considering the reelection question (unless that is dependent on your state visit. I should have played more routes…)
Budget focus sounds very interesting. And I like the idea of more splashy things to do in the second term. Based on the first term, the MC does feel like a fairly average President, not particularly history defining but that is interesting in its own way.
Thanks for responding! My continual need to piss of Cassidy does in fact backfire! Good to know! Also being poor…
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Picking Asia will have the most direct benefit in Book 2, but it’s the plan that each state visit will give you bonuses in other ways. Each state visit in Book 1 also has opportunities to impact the budget, giving you more or less money to use when the budget sequence comes in Book 2.
The question during the re-election debate is the same regardless of what route you pick (keeping in line with a buildup with China).
This was the plan in my outline—keep the first term relatively “average” while making the second term more legacy-defining.
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Hm… maybe I should have taken the china deal because I kinda just did every possible opportunity to spend in this book so that will be interesting…
Thanks for preview of what is to come!
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