See, Cleveland didn’t actually serve two terms, his unheard of evil twin served the second time around
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Writer’s Diary #51 | Public Beta Update #3
September 22nd, 2024
Hi, all! I apologize for not being able to get out this update sooner (as I hinted in my last update), but writing in this additional content took much more research and planning than I initially anticipated. In any event, I have some exciting updates and edits to share!
Before I get into that, I figured I’d let you all know of an interesting event/exhibit going on in D.C. for those of you who live nearby or may be visiting! The White House Historical Association has a White House Experience opening tomorrow (also called The People’s House), which includes a scale replica of the Oval Office and a bunch of other cool re-created rooms. The link to their website is here, and it looks like an interesting exhibit if you’re able to get to it.
Updates & Edits
- I have fixed up even more issues as they’re flagged – I do still have going through Chapter 4 to fix tense issues on my to-do list since writing everything else for this update took much longer than anticipated
- All new content for TPH should be added! I mentioned two mini-crises at the end of my last update and both have been written in, these took a surprising amount of research and planning on my end, but I’m really happy with how both of them turned out
To-Dos
- I am still planning on adding the ability to choose who proposes to who in the prologue (this is a small thing and should be added in by next week)
- As I also mentioned above, I still have to go through Chapter 4 to fix issues with tenses and bring everything that should be into the present tense – also a straightforward task, just quite time-consuming
- I do appreciate all the suggestions about possible ways of adding in the ability to use pardon powers, though I am still unsure whether or not I’ll have the time to add them in; that’ll largely depend on how much energy (and time) I have when everything nears being ready for submission
- Smaller addition, but I am planning on adding in a few more achievements, specifically including one for every unique ending (if you have any other suggestions for achievements, please also feel free to let me know!)
In general news, I have unfortunately not heard from my illustrator in quite a while. Luckily, I haven’t paid for anything in advance so no money is lost, though I am afraid that I may have to delay my initial plan for publishing since I now have to go through the process of finding and working with an illustrator again. If you happen to know of any, or you are one yourself, please feel free to send me a private message! I can also be reached at my business email (rfkramer.writing@gmail.com) if that’s more convenient.
Regardless, just about all additions to the book have been made, and I am certainly very excited to be moving to focus more on edits. Where I could really use help is pointing out specific typos or grammar issues (copying and pasting text with the chapter number helps tremendously) as well as any issues with pronouns. A lot of scenes were written on Google Docs and then copied and pasted into CSIDE (what I use to write in), so there are some cases where I either used the wrong variable or completely forgot to put in a variable when moving them over altogether. The biggest instances of this are non-male characters being referred to as if they use he/him pronouns.
In all, a massive thank you again for your feedback and suggestions! I really do appreciate all of them as I’m nearing the polishing stage of this writing process. Here’s to hoping that we’ll be nearing submission soon!
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how to win 2 elections in chapter 5 with hoffman I tried 3 times and my result is 210-220 to 310 for hofman I play a republican
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Regarding the presidential debate with the opposing party candidate:
Does anyone know how to unlock the ‘defend plan with specifics’ and ‘share personal anecdotes’ choices? I’m not sure what you need to do to get those possibles.
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Depends on a couple things I feel:
Is your party unified or did you have the split? If you had the split and are losing against the internal opposition, did you accept or reject Cassidy’s deal? Did you have enough PAC money for last-minute campaigning?
For me, I feel like something in the code might have changed with the most recent update: Versus before I was comfortably getting electoral landslides with a liberal republican, it’s now razor-thin margins and I’m not sure why this is the case.
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I’m curious what an epilogue will look like? Will it be a sort of many years later someone is maybe looking into history and takes a particular look into our characters time as president or is it something else?
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Sorry if this has already been asked and I just missed it, if we make the right decisions or I guess wrong can our characters have an assassination attempt on their life?
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Currently, these are only unlocked if you purchase the debate questions ahead of time (which requires a certain media approval stat for the event to trigger). I might also change those options to be completely invisible rather than just non-selectable since I understand how it would look confusing as to why they aren’t available options.
This is very interesting – with the last update (two weeks ago), it should’ve become a bit easier to win the election, not more difficult. Maybe I’ll run a poll to see what kind of results people are getting to see the spread there.
Currently, there are epilogues for every ending except the one where you win re-election (there should be an epilogue for if you lose but if I’ve somehow forgotten to do this please let me know). The reason why there is no epilogue if you win is because there is a planned Book 2, and even if there wasn’t, it felt difficult to write an epilogue considering the story isn’t necessarily finished – your character still has another full term to go through.
Epilogues where you do lose/step down/resign do focus on the impacts of you/close advisors/family quite a few years into the future, and should also include how you’re viewed historically. This is the plan for epilogues in Book 2 also – an update as to what happened to all the major characters in the story as well as how favorably/unfavorably your Presidency was remembered.
This is something I’m considering for a plot point in Book 2. I figured since Book 1 has a lengthy impeachment sequence as a sort of accountability measure, an assassination attempt could be a similar counterpart for Book 2, but nothing is set in stone just yet.
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As a player of the game “suzerain” I like this game!
It’d be interesting for there to be a path in which you became president but never attended university btw.
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Btw I haven’t played all of the game but it’d be interesting and funny if I used memes to boost my political campaign or humiliate my rivals.
Besides that, I would really like it if I wasn’t forced to choose a partner and instead allow me to be single.
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But if you’re single, then there can’t be a sex scandal!
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Damn 
At least I can cheat on my wife 
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Sadly, you can’t do it the Donald Trump way (where you cheat on your wife, everyone knows it from the start, and nobody gives a shit because that’s what they were voting for in the first place).
Honestly, I think that a sex scandal being a serious issue feels unrealistic. They’ve never sunk a President before to my knowledge. Even what happened to Clinton was part of a campaign against the Clintons that had been going on before he was ever President - and he still pretty much laughed it off and nobody who was going to vote for him before actually cared that he had sex with an intern.
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Ok cool see I won the re election my first time playing I’m going to play and resign. I love hearing talk that there’s a sequel I was actually thinking what would be a lot of fun after this game is out and you’ve taken a break is a game where your character is the spouse to the president.
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¯_(ツ)_/¯ I mean, does it sink us? Last playthrough I did, I admitted to the scandal straight-up and proceeded to win big, no drop in national approval. I’m pretty sure it just has an effect on your relationship with your spouse (though I will restate that my spouse did not lose any approval when I played, which was weird).
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Sank me, though admittedly I also faced a primary and it just mulched that up worse.
Then again, one could argue that it’s not the crime but the coverup. The effort I had to put into kicking the primary guy ended up mucking me in the general.
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There a lot of interesting ways this could pan out, especially as a true test for your VP and cabinet…
A couple of days ago, I played through this game in full for the first time and loved it! I did initially play it when it first came out and this game has come such a long way! What I loved is that the major characters felt they had some depth to them, which is an impressive accomplishment considering how much stuff this game had to balance (and balanced well). Engaging characters along with gripping political drama is so good.
Also wanted to praise the character of the political spouse. Sadly the game doesn’t have the time to truly focus in on them, but they are such a fascinating character and I loved all the glimpses into their mindset and decisions. Imagine spending your entire life being raised to be president and then your partner ends up the better politician who goes all the way instead of you…
Also fascinated to hear that there will be a book covering a second term! Very interesting, wonder what all can happen in that… Maybe more of a focus on choosing a successor than in this one? (although I only have played reelection and voluntariely not running again).
Gonna have to replay in the next few days to check out the new content, thanks for writing!
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I think this is just an oopsie on my end – there should definitely be an approval drop here for all spouses with the Walters affair. Otherwise, being able to get through it pretty much scot-free in the long run was my intention while writing this sequence.
This is all great to hear – thank you! It’s always helpful knowing that the time put into making additions and fixes is paying off. I’m also happy to hear you’ve liked the characters – this is my first actual major attempt at writing a piece of fiction and I’ve definitely put a lot of time into them.
I’ve also really come to love Richter (the political spouse option). As a fun fact, very early on in the demo there was actually only one spouse option, and the decision of why you chose them only altered a few stats early in the game. From polls I’ve done here on the forum, it does seem that marrying for love is the most common pick (which makes sense!), but it is nice to hear that Richter is getting some attention too.
I definitely have planned a much longer sequence for grooming your successor in Book 2. You get a taste of what that will look like from the voluntarily stepping-down epilogue, but it will be far greater of a focal point in the second (and final) book. I don’t want to say too much about it (mainly since I need to do far more planning once I’m done with the first book), but there will be a lot of ways to get your family involved in politics as a way of bolstering your own legacy, too.
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Either way
I’d still rather have no romantic relationship with someone and even if I just decide to deal with it, the game forces me to have children too!
Like dude, if being forced to have a partner already sucks enough for me, it’d suck even more to be forced to have children!
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Ya, as I mentioned in my first post, they somewhat selflessly stand aside while clearly still wishing they were in your position. That is actually why I am hyped to be able to pick who proposes because that feels like a great character for them to choose to prioritize the MC’s career over theirs.
Hm… Considering the standing down ending, will be interesting if America ends up subjected to 16 years of Ritchers in the White House!
Quick question, does Ed Ritcher remain in the Senate during the MC’s term? Dunno if it was clearly stated but was curious. Makes sense that he would standown though so the family can focus on the MC’s first run for the White House.
General question, having only had VP Hill, are all the VPs kinda backstabbers? There is of course the event during Teddy but also I know that if you tie the Senate, I know Hill hands it to the other party.
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