Author already confirmed that you can’t run independent
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Great point, @Frankex_2272! I’ll be adding Latin America as a destination for your first trip abroad. (I can also name the President of Mexico in the game after you if you’d like!)
The more I read over the feedback, the more I think I’m going to rework the travel system to focus on chunks of countries rather than individual ones. Instead of individually visiting three countries out of twelve, for example, you’ll be able to choose to visit Western Europe (Germany, UK, France, etc.), Eastern Europe (Russia, Ukraine, Turkey), the Middle East (Saudi Arabia, Israel/Palestine, Egypt), or Asia (China, South Korea, and Japan).
These two stats are related but are a bit different. Your media stat relates to your relationship with journalists. When we look at the Trump Administration, for example, he had a very poor relationship with the media regardless of where his approval ratings were at.
The main reason that these are different is mainly because you will have the opportunity to bribe, threaten, and to praise journalists throughout the story. These actions will have an impact on how much the media likes you (and how hard questions might be in interviews), but won’t really impact your approval rating directly.
This may be something I write in the future, but as of right now I don’t see it as something I can realistically do. A lot of the family elements of the story are centered around the fact that the player has a spouse and one or two kids. While I might be able to use variables to cut some scenes out, an unmarried player would miss out on a lot of the plotline I have planned.
This is far off but I do have planned an Epiologue where you get a review of all your major choices at the end of the game; what your VP did after office, how you were remembered, what your children ended up becoming, and even how you were viewed after your death, etc.
This is a great idea, I’ve been looking for ways to write more humor into the story while still keeping it more serious and realistic – and this is a great way to do that.
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Not much nastier than many other things. And the molten salt/thorium reactors would solve many of the current problems. So I’d like a prominent nuclear scientist as energy secretary option too.
Which would make it, for game purposes, the most centrist option. Moderate boost with centrists and non-fossil industry groups, small boost with conservatives, small to moderate negatives with progressives. Though there are indeed some progressives and people further left, like myself, who are (fiercely) supportive of nuclear energy.
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Will definitely be focusing on China/Southeast Asia as the main sphere of influence I want to affect in terms of foreign relations. Would be cool if one of the options for that region would be encouraging and helping Japan to remilitarize in order to better manage Russia and China as potential threats ( pretty much something we’re doing right now after Russia’s attack on Ukraine ). Would love to be able to create an official alliance for that region. Basically an Asian/Pacific version of NATO as it were.
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So a pro-fossil fuel SoE (Option 1, similar to my original post); a clean(er) energy advocate SoE who wants nuclear to take over the majority of energy production (solar, wind power, etc. of course get support, but the tech isn’t there yet for them to match nuclear long-term for power generation) while phasing out fossil fuels, for small boosts of popularity with both conservatives (or perhaps a small decrease with conservatives) and progressives (due to the pro nuclear (or “nuclear is better than fossil fuel”) vs anti nuclear divide), a big boost with centrists, still an approval increase if you set up a climate change task force; or a lobbyist from Ampere Motors (which is apparently a real company. Whoops) for SoE (and bribe money and corruption).
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holy damn, this is really my cup of tea! just wondering if there’s any good presidential/politicians theme and this pop up, really gotta say that this is a good wip, keep up the good work
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Wow. I’m surprised that this was newly written because the demo was really good actually. I cant wait for more updates to come!
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Yep, don’t forget research into it too…we are just on the cusp of practical molten salt/ thorium reactors and an America committed to it could even officially join with France (and potentially others) to pool research into that most holy grail of practical, safe and commercially viable fusion power generation.
Don’t forget the other clean(er) sources such as hydro, geothermal and tidal energy among others. The US is awfully big and certainly has room for them all, but as I see it nuclear would be the mainstay of the administration if we can tap a prominent nuclear scientist as energy secretary.
While on the subject of nuclear there is also the US nuclear arsenal and potentially reforming the US first strike doctrine to be more in line with this and not at the sole discretion of the President.
So for a practical reform I was thinking about at least potentially including the VP and joint chiefs into the mix to bring US first strike doctrine more in line with our changing times and technology.
Which would also mean the famous US “nuclear football” would get a redesign.
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Some really great ideas for energy policy!
I’ve been working around how to prevent too many choices right at the start of the story, but I believe a good workaround for this is to have the Energy Secretary resign midway through Chaper 2. Chapter 2 is going to be mostly focused on your first trip abroad and on getting your primary piece of legislation passed in your first 100 days, but I think nominating a new Energy Secretary shortly after that would be a good way to introduce some energy policy without making all these decisions right at the beginning.
I think this would be a really interesting thing to have brought up. Chapter 3 is going to be much more focused on foreign affairs/potential conflict, so that would be a great time to bring up defense policy such as nuclear weapons.
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While some support reforms to nuclear strategies as you claim, there are those in the United States who make the opposite.
They claim that the US’s weakening of its commitment to nuclear retaliation would send a false message to the world as Russia and China modernize their nuclear weapons.
They also argue that unnecessarily complicating the chain of command can lead to the loss of second-strike capability due to enemy attacks.
They further claim that since it takes only seven minutes for an enemy submarine-launched missile to reach the U.S., five minutes of which are used to detect and communicate orders, only two minutes are available for decision-making, making collegial decision-making impossible.
Rather, they insist that the United States should also modernize its nuclear weapons.
Specifically, it insists that missiles and warheads, early warning systems and command and control systems should be updated.
They argue that this will increase the safety and deterrence of US nuclear weapons by enabling more accurate and quick decision-making and the efficient and reliable destruction of US enemies.
The most radical of those who make such claims argue that Asian allies, such as South Korea and Japan, should have nuclear weapons.(For example, by providing tactical nuclear weapons through nuclear sharing, or by allowing and promoting the development of allies’ own nuclear weapons)
This is because, they say, it will strengthen the self-defense capabilities of allied nations and, in turn, the security of the United States.
I don’t agree with all of their opinions, but I also want such an option for the game.
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Although it is a trivial technical matter, I think that the reality of the game event will increase if the secretary does not resign but appoints a formal secretary who is not a job agent to a blank position.
Nearly none of the governments have resigned early in just 100 days, but there are some governments that have left unimportant secretary positions blank.
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About the bribes, I wonder what will happen if we take the money…and do what we were bribed NOT to do/not do what we were bribed to do.
On the flip side, I wonder, if we cultivate our administration’s reputation as “incorruptible” (both by politician standards and normal standards), we can hear about someone attempting to buy intel and getting the vital information…that they have wasted their time and are about to be arrested for attempted bribery.
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In terms of policies, I wonder if it will be possible to play as a progressive conservative like Theodore Roosevelt, meaning someone who is socially conservative but also cares about the environment and is fiscally liberal?
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I… absolutely would not say Teddy Roosevelt was socially conservative. Perhaps by today’s standards, but he was a social progressive by the standards of his time.
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I do hope we’ll be able to mix policies like this throughout the whole game. I want to be responsible for substantial prison reform, yet I do want to enact some big economic packages, etc.
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This will certainly be possible, at every policy decision, regardless of your party, you have the ability to choose from progressive, centrist, or more conservative options.
This will also be possible!
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Well, it surprises me that the pursuit of agricultural prosperity in a nutshell American autarky is a conservative policy. I mean I understood that the economic right usually seeks the industrialization and mechanization of the economy to be an efficient and productive market economy even if this leaves many workers and peasants unemployed. Perhaps the policies of the political and economic right and left as well as their notion of them is different in what we call the first and third world?
But well moving on to another topic and since you talked about the external threats of the United States, do you plan to make certain policies that we take may have risks to face some type of internal threat?
For example, when Black Lives Matter happened in 2020, there was a lot of concern about the internal security of the United States that even Donald Trump was willing to use the armed forces to reprimand the protests and not seek dialogue to end the strike or at least send the National Guard to prevent looting and riots that would hurt more people.
Or if you want to add less controversial events, it would be the debate on the role of Puerto Rico in the United States, will it be a new state of the United States or will it be an independent nation?
Or intervene militarily in another country apart from Africa and the Middle East because in 2020, due to the protests in Venezuela, Donald Trump had the proposal to invade Venezuela to overthrow Maduro.
According to analysts, a hypothetical invasion of Venezuela would have been a war of attrition with many costs like Afghanistan, as well as many diplomatic protests by neighboring countries because the invasion would worsen the Venezuelan refugee crisis that had already surpassed that of Syrians in Europe.
I know that it is difficult for it to happen in reality, but it is what they said before the First and Second World Wars or before the invasion of Ukraine. Sometimes things can get out of control or outside of what anyone would expect from reality because it is unpredictable.
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There will absolutely be some internal threats. While it won’t be BLM in the game, there will be a series of protests surrounding a certain issue for you to deal with. I am also planning on having Puerto Rican and DC Statehood become a debate later in the story.
I am still doing some brainstorming to figure out what I want the first conflict to be. I was considering both the Middle East and Venezuela as potential areas, but still not 100% sure. I do think that starting in Chapter 3, there will be the option for various “game overs”.
This is something I’m still thinking over, but I’d appreciate feedback if you (or anyone else) has any. Some examples of “game overs” would be
- Launching nuclear weapons, resulting in a “Nuclear Fallout” Epilogue
- Impeachment if a corruption investigation goes through and it passes in the House & Senate
- Potential assassination if your approval falls too low with other factors
- Losing re-election, making you a one-term President
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Attempted (or successful) assassination could also be a possibility if you are adored by the people. After all, the two most famous assassinated presidents were very well loved even while they were in office. What they did was make a decision that was controversial, but on the right side of history.
Could we also invoke the Bull Moose re: assassination attempts?
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That case happened the same to the last emperor of Brazil Pedro II a year after abolishing slavery within his empire he was overthrown and exiled by a military clique supported by landowners and wealthy bourgeois people.
Perhaps the overthrow of your government by a coup could be another type of Game Over in your story, but of course you must have a certain social and political context for something unimaginable like that to happen in the United States of America.
In other words, the United States can still join a war against another world power, but can there be certain contexts for it to still be a conventional war and not a nuclear one?
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