The game has been updated to version 0.249. Main Features: Redistricting. [u]NOTES[/u] With any update, there is a rare chance of files getting corrupted. This can cause a black/white empty screen when starting the game. 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. (The most recent version was version 0.239). [u]ADDITIONS (Redistricting)[/u] -Added redistricting to the game. This is applicable to congressional, state house, and state senate districts. Redistricting will happen automatically every 10 in-game years on week 47. (Redistricting occurs 1 year after the beginning of every decade - 2021, 2031, 2041). If the player - or the player’s protégé - is in a relevant position of power, the player will be given an opportunity to participate in the redistricting process. Redistricting can be turned off in the Advanced Options, under the Nation tab. -Added a Redistricting Analysis – it will appear in the player’s schedule on week 49 of redistricting years. It is also available in the Politicians -> U.S. House -> Districts tab. -Added Information about Redistricting to the Concepts Menu. -Added an option to change districts from the Profile tab (if it is not an election year). The purpose of this is to change districts if the redistricting process made your current district unfavorable. You can move districts without losing your current position. -Added a mechanism that adjusts approval ratings of party leadership based on gerrymandering. If a state commits gerrymandering, voter approval among independents and the opposition party will decrease (for the governor, and state house/senate majority leaders); voter approval among voters of the majority party will increase. -Added New Advanced Options: -Added advanced options to adjust many redistricting variables. -Added advanced options that allow the player to change the number of congressional districts each state has. -Added an advanced option to change which counties belong to which congressional districts. The counties in a district are used to determine that district’s demographics every 10 years during the redistricting process. -Added advanced options to adjust redistricting laws for each state (or at the national level), including whether the state uses the state legislature or an independent commission to do redistricting. -Added an advanced option to mandate Independent Redistricting Commissions at the national level – this will require all states to use independent commissions during the redistricting process. -The game now creates “aggregate” state legislatures for every state. These aggregates list the number of politicians that belong to each party, but individual politicians are not created. They will be adjusted every election cycle based on relevant information, and they will be used in the redistricting process. -Added advanced options to change the state legislature aggregates (for non-player state legislatures). These aggregates are used to calculate election results for state legislature elections (in non-player states). They are also used in the redistricting process to determine if the state legislature has the power to gerrymander districts. These aggregates can be changed at any time during the game by going to the advanced options, clicking the state house or state senate tab, and then click the “Other States” button at the top of the list of districts. [u]ADDITIONS (Other)[/u] -Added an option for protégés to run for governor in any state (previously it was limited to the player’s home state). Protégés must reside in the state where they want to run for governor. -Updated the protégé selection menu so that it now shows the current incumbent for each district and it shows if the incumbent is running for reelection (only applicable between weeks 2 – 6 during election years). -Added the possibility for protégés to face primary challengers, if the protégé is not an incumbent. (Currently this is not applicable for school board or city council elections – so that protégés have an easier entry point into politics). -Adjusted presidential primaries so that protégés will not withdraw before the first primary. -County data is now saved and loaded. -County population demographics are updated at the end of every in-game year. -Added counties to the advanced options – you can now change variables specific to each county. In the advanced options menu, navigate to the States tab; at the top of that menu, there is a button called [State] Counties. Clicking on that will open a new menu to adjust county variables. -Added an option to save Advanced Option Presets in the middle of a game. It is still not possible to load presets in the middle of a game. -Added an option to save/load spouse presets. -Added an advanced option to change the birth rate at the national, state, and city levels. -Reduced the age penalty for city elections. Previously, anyone under the age of 35 was penalized by -5; now, anyone under the age of 22 is penalized by -2. Many players probably start as young characters, and start at the city level positions; it does not seem fair to penalize them when running for these positions when there are not any alternative positions for younger characters. -Slightly reduced the democratic presidential incumbent turnout bonus for competitive states. For wave elections it was reduced from 0.38 to 0.3; for non-wave elections, it was reduced from 0.34 to 0.26. The expected outcome is that democratic presidential incumbents will perform worse in their reelection compared to their first election (instead of performing better). Another consequence is that democrats are less likely to win a congressional majority during democratic presidential reelection years. If you want to adjust these values, you can go to the advanced options, elections --> All States --> Turnout tab (under the section titled “Variables for Balancing Elections”). -When the player is asked to fill a vacancy, the game now generates at least one random character, so that the player is not forced to select a current politician (or protégé) if they do not want to. -Added a “Longest Serving” section to the Politician Summary page (similar to Oldest and Youngest Politicians). -Adjusted initial governor calculations so that initial governors are more realistic. The new calculations are more consistent with how governors are elected throughout the game. -Added a close (X) button to the options menu, so it is no longer necessary to scroll to the bottom to exit the menu. -Added an advanced option to update city, state, and national populations in the middle of a game. Previously this was not allowed because it caused problems with economic variables, but those problems have been addressed in this update. A warning has been added to these advanced options to indicate that they are “experimental”. Once they have had sufficient testing, without any problems, that warning can be removed. [u]FIXES[/u] -Fixed an issue where incumbent protégés would not be displayed as incumbents during elections. -Likely fixed an issue where protégés would continue to run for reelection as a governor even if they were told to run in a different election (or no election at all). -Fixed an issue where politicians would not be replaced as committee chairs/ranking-members if they vacated their position for any reason. This created a situation where committee chairs/ranking-members could become empty variables, which could prevent the game from saving. -Fixed an issue where party leadership positions would not be replaced if the player appointed a party leader to a different position as part of filling a vacancy. This could cause issues where the game would not progress to the next turn (if the game was trying to access a party leadership variable that no longer existed). -Fixed an issue where initial senate elections would not calculate correctly after loading an advanced option preset. The game was using default state demographics to calculate initial senators, instead of using state demographics saved in the advanced option preset. -Fixed an issue where special elections would not run if the same candidate had been used to fill more than one vacancy within the same year. The solution was to prevent candidates from being selected for another position if they had already been assigned to a special election. -Fixed an issue with the presidential primary election night where it would show the incorrect vote percentage when hovering over the national map. -Fixed an issue where new candidates in governor elections had their voter enthusiasm calculated based on the policy positions of voters in the player’s home state, rather than in the home state of the candidate. -Fixed an issue where several variables could become NaN if the poverty rate was 0%. -Likely fixed an issue where the poverty rate could become 0% when updating advanced options in the middle of a game. This could have caused issues where variables became NaN. -Fixed an issue where poverty and per capita income at the state level were calculated incorrectly (or rather were calculated based on incorrect variable values). -Likely fixed an issue where a politician would not leave their current office if they won a special election. -Fixed an issue where national name recognition would not update correctly – under certain circumstances – while using the easy or very easy election difficulties during presidential elections. -Likely fixed an issue where the game would create a death event for the player’s character (as a former president) even if the player was still playing as the character. -Likely fixed an issue with advanced options where Alaska counties would not load correctly when loading advanced option presets. -Fixed an issue where certain schedule events would disappear if the player resigned from office, even if it was not appropriate for them to disappear. This could have caused problems. For example, if the player’s protégé was governor, and the player resigned as a senator, a schedule event would be created where the protégé would ask the player who should fill the senate vacancy. But, this event would be deleted before the player had a chance to complete the event. This would cause a situation where the player’s character is not replaced as senator. -Fixed an issue where a candidate’s fiscal and social ideology would not be updated after their policies had been updated during the conditional endorsement process. This could create situations where a candidate could have very liberal social policies, but still be labeled as socially conservative. -Fixed an issue where state cabinet members would not update when moving to a new state; the game would have continued using cabinet members from the previous state. (It is unclear what will happen to protégés who are state cabinet members when the player moves states.) -Fixed an issue where Avery County, NC did not belong to any congressional districts. It has been added to NC-5. Any game saved prior to version 0.241 will automatically have Avery County placed into NC-5 when loading. -Fixed an issue where Massachusetts state senate district 30 was not saved. -Likely fixed an issue where candidates would not be updated correctly when customizing elections. This was specific to player elections (elections involving the player) that were customized between week 6 and 19. The candidate customized would not be the candidate used in the primary; instead the initial (un-customized) candidate would have been used. -May have fixed an issue where governors would run for president and senate at the same time, creating the possibility of duplicate politicians. This could have also created an issue where a president would run for a third presidential term if they were duplicated as a senator. -Likely fixed an issue where state (and national) populations would significantly increase under specific conditions (the result of a significant increase to the Medicaid eligibility rate). The increase to population would have come exclusively from senior citizens.