The People's House (WIP) (UPDATED: 2/19/24) - Presidential Sim

Hosted Games Works In Progress
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I just don’t think this is possible. I’d need to create a system of calculating results nation-wide (while accounting for states that split their electoral votes like Maine and Nebraska), and it’d require a ton of game-testing to figure out what the maximum landslide was possible, what a maximum defeat would look like, and it’d need to make sure that special results: 269 - 269 split and a case where no candidate reaches 270 (if independents are running) were possible.

These are features that exist in fully fleshed-out games that have teams of developers, a full coding language, and a lot of code. For every campaign event, I’d need to figure out how to calculate how your actions impact every individual state. It’d also complicate the chapter as the player would need to be actively looking at polling data for roughly 10 - 15 states. This isn’t an issue with a more linear chapter as it’s all determined by a 1 - 10 value, and that will allow me to write condensed election advice into the story.

I would’ve loved to include individual results for each states, and I think it’d be a great feature for replayability, but I just don’t see a possible way for me to code it into the game in a way that reads like a story. The only way to do this would to have a sort of mini-game scene where you click “rally in State” or “fundraise” or “run ads in State” and you have a certain amount of turns to get to 270. This would have the other problems as mentioned above, and I think it’d really break the flow of the story to include it in this way.

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Thank the lord. I couldn’t have been the only one getting sick of this thread devolving into a politics sermon every time someone went off topic.

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The Zombie Exodus series (and Tin Star, but ZE and ZESH have the ones that are more “gamey”) has several turn counter segments in between the major plot beats (you can use the time to fortify (and develop) your base, make items, boost relationships, and even go on special missions). However for most of these, you can only pick 4 actions. You could set it up in a similar way (ex. spend money on ads, hold rallies, attend parent-teacher conferences/high school graduation/college graduation for your child, etc.).

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It’s too bad you can’t just integrate the campaign trail game election mechanics into this as that could indeed be a system that enables you to get highly specific results depending on the candidate, aka, the mc in this case. As at its core it already is a multiple choice text game, just with a fairly complex election mechanic integrated into it.

Hypothetically if you could use mechanics like those I figure my mc would get a +20% performance in Oregon over the baseline Republican and the unusual coalition with some disaffected Dems such as Williams could add another 10-15% on top of that, thus making the state flippable for my mc. Same for Hoffmann and Montana on my map. But, yeah, as it stands those sorts of mechanics would be too much to ask a single person to integrate into the Cog engine.

Headcanon…my mc will always win Oregon and shake up the electoral map though. :wink:

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TCT’s great, especially with mods, but I do imagine it is a step too far. I don’t know how to mod it, but I understand there’s some pretty substantial coding behind it all which takes into consideration policy positions and not just your responses to the questions.

There are some interesting ideas from there though, like how some scenarios let you prioritise regions, the aggressiveness of your tone (as part of the question set), which I hope to be part of this game’s election mechanic. The different starting percentages based on your VP, too.

Certainly it’s far closer to being achievable than something like The Political Process or the PI series, I imagine.

Theoretically you could get some more in-depth electoral mechanics, e.g.:

Mechanics Brainstorming

There’d be an approval variable for each state, the starting number of which depends upon your party and VP. Your PC’s ideology would give a flat bonus or malus, along with personal popularity.

Campaigning could be split into four or so sections (representing pre-primary season, primary season, post-convention, final stretch) where you could target a region or a particular plank. That would change states’ approval variables. Maybe you’d get a flat boost here from having enough charisma.

It would all be whole numbers based on prior choices, at most there’d be differences based on whether you meet a breakpoint for a stat e.g. for a very liberal PC, they’d get a +2 bonus in a very liberal state, a +1 or a 0 from a less-liberal or swing state.

There might be events that add a flat bonus to score across the country (e.g. if you get a very big legislative/foreign policy achievement) or regionally.

If you get it over 20 (or an appropriate number) you win the state. A big enough margin over that for Nebraska and Maine would mean all the electoral votes.

Generic election nights based on rough margins of victory, perhaps some fudging to make it so that a deadlock is impossible. Some mention of your home state.

But even with this, it would probably be inferior to dedicated election games since you wouldn’t be able to look at a map real-time, and doing deep electoral strategy and targeting would balloon coding significantly. A shame though, as it would greatly help with immersion.

And honestly, there’s a great deal of election games out there and far fewer covering the actual business of government.

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Keep going man, nice job

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So how much of a space programme does our mc inherit from Hoffmann? And will it matter if our Hoffman is Dem or Rep?

It seems the US is getting serious about it again but these sorts of things will, by necessity, span multiple administrations. All I’m saying is that if this is (still) a thing in the game then the mc’s choice of NASA administrator or Space Force chief could well be potentially important enough to mention too.

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Hi all, wanted to make a quick post as I will not be posting a weekly update for the first time, but still wanted to let you all know that the story is still 100% being worked on.

My sister moved into school this past weekend, and I’ve been incredibly busy packing and preparing for my own move in at the end of the week. I can also promise that next week’s update will be out for everyone, and I’m excited to update you all in more detail then.

Also wanted to quickly reply to this since I have some free time! This portion is not included in the public demo, but it is mentioned later in the story that Hoffman opted to continue to decrease NASA’s funding. I think I’ve mentioned in a few writer’s diaries that I am planning on adding in the ability to set the budget, so the ability to reinvest in programs with NASA will exist later in the story.

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Happy moveing to you mate have a great time moving.

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Writer’s Diary #15
September 4th, 2022

Hello one and all, and welcome! It’s been a while since my last public update, so I’m excited to be getting back into the swing of things for you all!

For my lovely Patrons: an extra hello just for you!

The Updates

  • A lot more work into Chapter 3 has been completed these past few weeks; Western Europe and Eastern Europe have been completed 100%, and I’m now about halfway through the trip to the Middle East.

  • For the Middle East, the state visit to Egypt has been written, and have just started work on the trip to Saudi Arabia, before I’ll finally be writing in the Israel/Palestine summit.

  • I have also finished the outline for Chapter 3, with a few fun ideas for scenes to include after the initial visit abroad & the UN Summit, which I’m excited to write.

  • Finally, while I did announce this on Patreon & on the September Writer Support Thread, I’ve recently got in touch with an illustrator! It’s a bit pricey, but I’m confident that we’ll be able to get custom made cover, icon, and chapter headers once I eventually get close to finishing TPH. I’ve also got a lot of cool ideas for my next project, which I’ll be happy to share with you all at a later time!

Updated Word Count: 145,000 words

Progress Update: 25%

This week has been so hectic between getting supplies and books for classes, as well as moving in, so I’m quite happy with what I have been able to get done in my free time. It’s also insane that we’re now getting close to the 150k word milestone, something I am very proud of! I really have to thank you all for your support and kind words – I wouldn’t have made it this far alone.

Finally, with that being said, I’m very happy to say that there’ll be two big updates coming soon! Firstly, I’ll be updating the public demo to include a bit more of the story (likely all of the Prologue through the end of Chapter 2) by early October. I will also be doing a 50% off sale on my Patreon the following month in November, in honor of election day for the 2022 midterms!

A lot of work has gone into TPH, and I hope that between these two things I mentioned above, I’ll be able to share all of that work with a lot more of you all.

Patreon Link: RFKramer is creating The People’s House | Patreon

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Hi there! I just finished up until out meeting with the Secretary of State I believe and Cabinet, as that is where the WIP ends. I had a question though: my MC is a woman, would that then, in this world, make her the first female President? Will this have a further impact on the story? I assume it won’t as she’s already elected, which is the biggest obstacle a female candidate has to overcome I think. I would like it as an additional challenge for players to have voters question her abilities during tougher times, cause you know, woman president bound to go wrong and all that. Anyways I really enjoyed the WIP!

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Well this is the 2060s so I would hope that it’s not their first female president lol but now that I mentioned it I wanna know how much the world changes in this universe I mean Florida would probably don’t exist in 2060s cuz of global warming!? Is there a human-like robots going around town? So many questions :smiley:

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This isn’t really mentioned mainly because it’d be impossible for me to cover all the potential ‘firsts’ when it came to U.S. Presidents. First female, first openly gay/lesbian/etc., first transgender, first Asian American, first Native American, the list of potential firsts is a long one, and each would require a unique set of writing that would take a while to write into the story.

So, for simplicity’s sake, there isn’t really a point in the story where this comes up. Afterall, as you mentioned, the biggest obstacle that any of these groups would face is the getting elected part, which you’ve already managed to pull off by virtue of clicking the play button! I am, of course, only about 25% of the way through this story, so a lot can and will change from now up until the time when it’s ready to be sent in to try and publish it.

There won’t be too many futuristic things, and this is mainly to avoid giving the story too much of a sci-fi feel. Even if we could, realistically, have things like hover cars or more advanced robot assistants in the next 40 or so years, I feel like those elements would take away from the story I’m trying to write. I wanted the game to feel almost timeless, which is why there’s no set year that it takes place in – you just know that you’re number 50.

Obviously, there will be more advanced technology that will be at your disposal throughout the story, but there won’t be anything too crazy like Atlantis Florida or a cyborg Secretary of State!

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But will there be certain geopolitical changes? Let’s say at least in a state where a new Cold War with China seems to be brewing.

Because I think that the player and the MC in trying to redefine US domestic politics would also do the same when trying to redefine the position of the United States in the world, perhaps rethinking its relations with Ibero-America now that the wave of nationalist political left is being very attractive and having attempts to leave the OECD (Maintain the old position of intervention or a new paradigm of relationship with Ibero-America), rethink the position of NATO in search of new members, or even forge new trade allies such as India or Indonesia.

All while debating whether to maintain a hostile or diplomatic posture with nations that threaten the interests of the United States.

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I just wanted to say that I loved the game.

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Bloody hell Queen Elizabeth II is Dead. May God Bless And Rest her soul

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@RFKramer I believe the visit to Western Europe is supposed to have a stop in the UK. It may be too soon to ask given today’s events, but will the visit to the UK feature a named monarch, or will it just refer to them as the King/Queen of the UK?

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Given the fact that this story takes place in no specific year, all foreign rulers will have completely fictional names. The only exception to this is the King of Saudi Arabia, who is of the Saud family for obvious reasons. Even still, their first name is completely made up, and the character isn’t a person that exists in real life.

There are still obvious comparisons that can be drawn, and in many cases, fictional rulers are based off of real politicians, but there will still be no real individuals serving as foreign leaders to meet with.

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Howdy it’s me again. I tried to read it again, but the saves keep getting deleted. This might be a problem with the Brave Browser. Either way I’ll try and read it all the way through before shipping out on November 14th. I definitely like the changes I got to see.

Something I don’t like however is the Democracy 4 trailer. Weird thing to complain about but the wonderful stories told by the marketing for Democracy 3 it’s absolutely pitiful. Luckily this WIP is much better.

Edit forgot to link to it. here

Edit 2. It doesn’t want to link to the correct video for some reason. Just look up
“Democracy 4 trailer” and you’ll find it, or better yet “Democracy 3 Trailer.” Because the new commercials are way too over-commercialized.

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Writer’s Diary #17
September 19th, 2022

Hello everybody! To my lovely Patrons: an additional greeting on this fine Monday night!

Before I get too far into this week’s update, I wanted to give another huge thank you to everybody. Our Patreon just hit 14 active Patrons, and I was very happy to release a special post detailing some of my future story ideas to celebrate that goal reached. Now, enough of my blabbing and onto what’s new!

The Updates

  • The portion of the visit to the Middle East in Saudi Arabia has been finished! While not by any means a large part of the story in terms of word-count, the amount of research that every interaction requires has been much more intensive than previous parts.
  • I am (admittedly) beginning to rush a bit through the remainder of this chapter as I am getting tired of the amount of research and repetative nature of it, but will return to add in more detail and unique scenes once the story has progressed more.
  • On the topic of research, I’m now beginning what I assume will be an incredibly lengthy process of reseraching the history and progression of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
  • Also as a general update – the amount of days that I am able to write has dropped significantly, which is why the increase in word count from week to week might be a bit less. Over the summer, I was able to put in a good hour or two of writing daily, but now with classes and work, the only free time I have to write is over the weekend once I’ve finished homework.

Updated Word Count: 152,000 words (!!!)

This past week has been an excellent one and I am incredibly happy to no longer be writing about Saudi Arabia (as fascinating as it is). I’m hopeful that starting new on Israel/Palestine will help the writing process quite a bit, but there is of course a ton of research that I have to do before I can get into writing too much of it.

We’ve also reached 150,000 words which is incredible (for perspective that would be 300 pages single-spaced). For any patrons reading this who haven’t seen my special post, I’ll be sure link that below. And if you have any suggestions for special things I could do to celebrate when (or if) we reach 20 Patrons, please let me know. Some things I’ve thought of would be writing a mini-story where you follow a day in the life of Jackson, your Chief of Staff or your spouse, though I’m absolutely open to other ideas and comments.

As per usual, I eagerly await your feedback, comments, and questions!

Patreon Link: RFKramer is creating The People’s House | Patreon

Special Post With Future Stories: https://www.patreon.com/posts/future-story-72041388?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator

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