The game has been updated to version 0.225. [b]NOTES[/b] With any update, there is a rare chance of files getting corrupted. This can cause a black/white empty screen when starting the game, or it might prevent you from clicking any buttons. If you experience this problem, you can visit this forum post for instructions on how to fix it: https://steamcommunity.com/app/1184770/discussions/2/3085508296772338528/ If you experience any other problems, you can post a new discussion in the bug reports forum, by navigating to the community hub, clicking the Discussions tab, and clicking the Bug Reports link on the right side of the screen. If you want to continue playing a previous version of the game, you can right click on the game in your Steam library, click properties, then click betas and select the version you want to play. [b]ADDITIONS[/b] -Added an option to conditionally endorse candidates. For example, you can tell a candidate that you will endorse them if they change their minimum wage position to match your minimum wage position. If they accept your condition, their minimum wage position will automatically change to your position once you endorse them. This can be done in several ways: you can set default conditions – every candidate will have an “Endorse (Conditions)” button – if it is green it means they accept your default conditions; if it is red, they don’t. If you click a green button, it will endorse them and they will adjust their policy positions accordingly. If you click a red button, it will bring up a menu where you can “negotiate” conditions specifically for that candidate (without changing your default conditions). There is also an option in the Endorse Multiple menu to only endorse candidates who accept your default conditions. -If you threaten to run a primary challenger against a candidate (part of the conditional endorsement negotiation process), and they still reject your conditional endorsement, you will be prompted about whether you actually want to run one of your protégés against the candidate in the primary. -Added NPC Campaign Influence to the game. Voter policy opinions will change each election based on the policy positions of candidates in their district. Essentially, politicians change the policy opinions of some voters through their campaign efforts. This already happens in player elections, but now it also happens in elections that do not involve the player. The purpose of this addition is so that voter policy positions will change over time, making the game slightly more interesting. There is also a strategic aspect - the more proteges you run in a state, the more voters in that state will move towards your policies (assuming your proteges have the same policies as you). This option is on by default and is called Dynamic Policies. It can be turned off in the advanced options menu under the politicians tab or under the elections -> general tab. It can also be turned off when starting a new game, in the menu where you enter the city name. -Added advanced options to change various dynamic policy variables. -Added a “Policy Support History” button to the laws tab in the Metrics menu. It displays how policy support has changed compared to the initial policy support value and the previous policy support value. -Added a relationships mechanic that will allow you to gain relationship points with other politicians for things such as endorsements and attending rallies/fundraisers. Other events are planned that will add more ways to increase relationships. In future updates, it will be possible to use relationships to influence politicians. -When selecting a new protégé, it is now possible to select “None” as their district; this is essentially creating a protégé without assigning them to an election. You can also select "None" as a protégés next election, if you want them to sit out several elections. -Added an option to select “President” as a protégés next election. -Added Protégé Leadership Opportunities – on week 52, if any of your protégés have won an election in either state house, state senate, U.S. house, or U.S. senate, an event will appear in your schedule allowing you to select which protégés you want to run for party leadership positions (at the beginning of the next year). -Added an ‘Approval’ tab to the Rankings tab in the presidential politician menu. It shows an approval rating timeline chart for every president. There is a separate chart for each president, not a single chart with all presidents. -Added a “Presidential Approval” poll to the Polls tab in the Election Menu. This “poll” is updated every 10 weeks and simply records the president’s approval rating at that time. Currently presidential approval is unlikely to change as there are no events or metrics that currently influence approval; that will be added later. -Added a current news counter in parentheses as part of the News tab – so if there is any news for the week, it will show the number of news stories in parentheses – News (4). -Added (#) to Challenge tab to indicate how many challenges there are. -Added 1 new mouth type, 2 jaw types, and 2 hair types (1 male). [b]FIXES[/b] -Fixed an issue with election page county maps where senate and governor maps could show incorrect colors in states with non-partisan primaries – if both candidates in the general election belonged to the same political party. -Fixed an issue where the election calculations were using the wrong variables for middle income and upper income tax positions – creating an incorrect score for politicians. -Fixed an issue where endorsed gubernatorial candidates would still be endorsed even after the election had ended. -Fixed an issue where protégés would retire at the age of 70 even if the minimum retirement age was set above 70. -Fixed an issue where presidential candidates would withdraw before the primaries, even if there was only one other presidential candidate. There now has to be at least 6 candidates to cause candidates to withdraw before the primaries. -Likely fixed an issue where the All Governors automated marketing campaign would remain in the automated marketing list even after the election had ended. -Fixed an issue in dictator mode that froze the game at the “Updating Metrics” screen when clicking next turn on week 52. -May have fixed an issue where duplicate candidates would appear in certain elections (if those elections were in one of the player’s districts). -Fixed an issue where player elections would not appear in the Favorites tab of the Election Night Menu or the Election Page Menu. -Likely fixed an issue where the game would not save if the chair or vice-chair variable for a caucus was missing. (I don’t know why the variable might go missing, but if it does, it should no longer cause a problem with saving). -Likely fixed an issue where the game would not create senate/governor polls if there were only two candidates and one of them was an independent. -Fixed an issue where a candidate’s name would not be displayed correctly during presidential primary election nights, if the candidate had a middle initial. -Likely fixed an issue where the player would run against an incumbent even if the game said that the incumbent was not going to seek reelection. This occurred only if the player applied for the position on week 6. -Fixed an issue where the wrong candidates would appear in the player’s election night results if the player applied for the position on week 6. -May have fixed an issue where policy support goes above 100% (or below 0%). It does not actually “fix” the issue; it simple resets the support value to 100% (or 0%) if the value goes above 100% (or below 0%). This fix is only applied at the end/beginning of the year. -Likely fixed an issue with custom elections where only two custom candidates (from each party) would be added to the list of candidates who can be endorsed. -Fixed an issue where the portraits of custom republican candidates would not show up in the presidential primary election page. -May have fixed an issue where numbers would display as NaN (which could have also created a situation where the game would freeze when clicking the next turn button). This could occur during election campaigns if specific policy support positions were 0 (0% of voters supported a specific policy). [b]ADJUSTMENTS[/b] -Adjusted approval rating so it is more realistic. Party ID has a bigger impact on approval rating, and approval rating is adjusted each year so that previous approval is not as significant compared to new approval (an event that happened 20 years ago does not have as much impact as an event that happened yesterday). Currently presidential approval is unlikely to change as there are no events or metrics that currently influence approval; that will be added later. -Adjusted the User Interface (specifically in the Office -> Summary tab). Some events have been converted into messages (so it is no longer necessary to create a pop-up to see the event information). Some messages now include a portrait (of the person to which the message refers – or the person who is the source of the message – such as your chief of staff telling you something about an upcoming election). All events related to a specific legislation are now grouped together. It may take a while to get used to the new layout. -Moved the Challenge tab next to the Actions tab in the Office -> Summary Menu. More challenges may be added in the future, and it seems like it would be more convenient to keep track of them next to the other tabs in the Office Summary Menu. -The approval ratings of presidential candidates is now adjusted to represent their national approval rating (rather than their state approval rating – which could have given them an unfair and unrealistic advantage). This does not apply to the president, vice-president, or player. -Previously, 50% of support for a policy became permanent after an election. If you increased support by 10% (the max), 5% would become permanent. This value has been changed from 50% to 90%. So, now if you increase support by 10%, 9% will become permanent. This means that, conceptually, within 10 years (5 house elections), you could change support by 45% (previously it was 25%). But, it is unlikely that support would actually change that much. Development Notes: This update took longer than expected. I'm sorry for the delay. I spent a lot of time attempting to add some big features that did not work out as intended, so they have not been included in the update. The next few updates will add more events to the game. These will allow the player to make decisions about how to respond to the events, or they will add some narrative elements to the world to make it more interesting. I will attempt to release smaller, more frequent updates, so you do not have to wait as long for new content.