President Forever: 2004

[Eilim]

I was curious if anyone has played this game, and their opinions on it. Here's a link to their site: President Forever (http://www.hotpotsoftware.com/p2000/p2000.htm)

Downloading the demo now to check it out. Been looking for a good election sim for a while now (the old Doonesbury one I have is getting a bit old now, and is a pain to run under xp.) and the urge has hit me again with all the primary hoopla going on.

Anyways, just wanted to see if anyone had any experience/opinions on the game or any other decent election/political sims I might have missed.

[Barkeep49]

I played the demo an hour... Seems decent enough. Anyone know what comes with the full version exactly

[Fritz]

yep. I bought it this afternoon. you get the last month of the game, and a candidate editor. that looks to be it.

oh yea, the minimal help files.

[Eilim]

From what I've read the full version comes with a candidate editor and the promise of a series of "Great Past Campaigns" to be mailed to owners in the next few weeks. I'll probably pick it up, as I liked what I saw in the demo and its only 12 bucks for the full version.

[tucker342]

hmmm I'll be checking out the demo...

[Eilim]

Just picked up the full version now. I like the candidate editor, although its almost un-needed. Just looked through the files and pretty much every variable in the game is in heavily commented text files.

After getting a little more familiar with the game I might try my hand at creating some scenarios myself. I see some fun replaying historical, and even creating some fictional future elections. Even all the game graphics are accessable<sp?> and in .bmp format.

So far I'm really liking the possibilities, and hell, it was only 12 bucks.

[tucker342]

pretty fun game:)

I'm enjoying making Bush lose the election:D

[Eilim]

hehe, my first game I just wanted to see how things played out so I took the libertarian party and pretty much just wen tafter one state. Almost did it too... Went after Vermont just for the hell of it (started 3% there, should have went for tennessee as I started with 8%.. ) Can't remember exactly how it ended, but I was second and only a few points behind Dean in the polls (in Vermont).

The overall election was alot closer than I thought it would be. Came down to Alaska with Dean having the edge and then Bush *eeking* out a slim victory by taking Alaska with Nader and myself as Browne barely being noticed nationally.

[JonInMiddleGA]

pretty fun game:)

I'm enjoying making Bush lose the election:D

Clearly this game does not produce accurate results :D

[Fritz]

With the Libs I was able to take Virginia, and come in second in Idaho and California.

hehe, my first game I just wanted to see how things played out so I took the libertarian party and pretty much just wen tafter one state. Almost did it too... Went after Vermont just for the hell of it (started 3% there, should have went for tennessee as I started with 8%.. ) Can't remember exactly how it ended, but I was second and only a few points behind Dean in the polls (in Vermont).

The overall election was alot closer than I thought it would be. Came down to Alaska with Dean having the edge and then Bush *eeking* out a slim victory by taking Alaska with Nader and myself as Browne barely being noticed nationally.

[Barkeep49]

Well I just finished my first game and I have to say the ending was more than a bit disappointing. No way (I think) of seeing how you did overall in percentage, hard to review. If you hadn't memorized states in your strategy you wouldn't nessecarily know which you ahd to win and which you didn't.

Oh well, still will play it again, I would guess.

[Galaril]

I heard this game wa s going to have the primaries as an addon.Anyone know when ?

[Young Drachma]

Yeah, I bought it with high expectations. Not a bad game, but not captivating enough to distract me from other games that keep me from working on stuff that matters.

[Barkeep49]

On the website it says today will be when the "Great Campaigns" add-on is released. Anyone recieve this yet?

[Young Drachma]

Mine just came today over email. It's a patch you can download or a whole new version.

[Barkeep49]

Yeah I got mine too... I think the future add-ons are exciting. They are promising a new election night which I think is much needed.

[Young Drachma]

Yeah, that's necessary above all. But I'm looking forward to the add-on, I haven't used it yet.

[wbatl1]

Anybody tried out the patch yet?
Is it good? what does it add?
Thanks

[Young Drachma]

I haven't tried mine yet, but I'll post when I figure out how it goes.

[Barkeep49]

Patch adds a few small enhancements. Foot Soldiers are now smart and will alternate between campaigning and fund raising based on your status in the state. There is now a dynamicism option which effects News Headlines in a way I didn't really get during the games I played with it. Big enhancement is the addition of 4 additional campaigns to run. I played a couple of games with the patch, found it more fun than the original, but also easier. When the patch with either a better election night or with primaries comes out I think I'll invest some more serious time with the game.

[Galaril]

Have they released the primaries yet?Waiting to get this when they do, if they do that is.

[Barkeep49]

They haven't done primaries yet and there's been no indication when these would get done.

[Galaril]

I haven't heard too much about htis game lately are they still going to patch this with an addon with primaries I will only buy if they do.But the support for this one seems minimal on their site.I don't think they even have a forum or message board for this game on their company page.Anyone I have anymore news on this or other better supported in depth political sims.I am waitng for the political machine to be released in May.It looks like it will be a good one from the guys that made Galactic civilizations;great game.

[Eilim]

Will have to check through my old files and get back to you, but after they released the "extra" campaigns a month or two ago they mentioned in the email 6 or 7 months until the primaries and other improvements would be added in if I remember correctly.

As it stands this is one of, if not the best politcal sims out there at the moment that I have seen. Sadly enough, thats not saying too much. :( Hopefully with the upcoming elections there will be some companies looking to cash in on the hype and hopefully put something new and indepth out.

[Barkeep49]

New Update with a bunch of stuff in it

Major:

- added new help system

- added regionalism

- finished candidate-relative starting percentages system

- decreased leaning voters for each party in 2004 electorate trends so more realistic

- election night shows popular votes

- election night shows cumulative national percentage for each candidate

- can click on regions at end of election night

- pauses after state results

- ad power now modified by attributes for attack or boast

- ad power now modified by regional issue centres, or national issue centre if playing with regionalism off

- attack ad get +1 to Power

- replaced Harold Browne with Gary Nolan for the Libertarian party in 2004, added Libertarian party running mate choices



Minor:



- each turn chance scandal news story set to can't spin

- can select multiple regions for running ads/selecting electoral strategy

- 'Are you sure you want to exit?' after x from main screen

- harder to research scandal on opponent if higher integrity

- added Hillary Clinton as Democratic candidates' running mate

- changed starting funds for Democratics/Republicans in 2004 to $74,400,000

- if party does not receive a general election block grant, can do background fundraising in the general election

- scenarios can now specify default parties turned ‘on’ when load scenario

- experience modifies likelihood of gaffe

- issue familiarity upgrade score now can add to success in interviews/debates

(issue familiarity upgrade score / 2 is percent chance will get +1)

- 1960 now everyone has background fundraising

- changed how insight system interface works (now standardized, click lightbulb after select issue for either speech or ad topics)

- reduced flicker on upcoming regions on election night

- McCain added as Democratic VP

- candidates cannot win if not in top 3 for electoral votes

- candidates cannot win if do not have > 0 electoral votes

- 'None' labels no longer displayed

- country name, capital, and logo are scenario dependent

- voter turnout now scenario dependent

- fundraising coefficient now scenario dependent

[amdaily]

Nice update this time. I like the regionalism element and election day coverage. Can't wait for primares and networking to be added though, they'll will add a whole new element to this game.

In my first game with the patch, my Bush team lost the popular vote by a tally of 60.4 to 57.3 million, but came away with an election day win. God bless the electoral college :).

[Sharpieman]

This game is the best, I've had it for awhile now and decided to play it again today. I ran as John Kerry and tied Bush with 269 electoral votes in a very heated and fun campaign. Of course the Republican Congress chose Bush. 4 more years of corporate hand outs.

[bhlloy]

Bit late on the scene but downloaded this today - can't get close winning though and I'm wondering what I'm doing wrong. Don't know much about US politics at all.

Does anyone who has played the game have any helpful hints?

[Barkeep49]

Momentum is the key. Spend action points to create foot soldiers in states where you have momentum as they will create faster. For instance if you have +10 momentum in a state it will take 1 turn veruses 10 for the FS to be created. FS then campaign on your behalf and can help swing the vote. Similarly getting a crusader at the start of the game is helpful as they too do work on your behalf with out further expenditure of Action Points.

[Karim]

Also, they've released Prime Minister Forever for any Canadians interested.
http://www.PrimeMinisterForever.com/pmforever/info/ (http://www.primeministerforever.com/pmforever/info/)

[JonInMiddleGA]

Okay ... somebody wanna tell me where/how you're supposed to get the patches/updates/addtional scenarios, etc?

I don't see anything on their website to indicate patches or anything else.
I don't think I've played this since, well, probably two weeks after buying it, but tried to figure out the other scenarios, etc. stuff several times since then.

So ... somebody just color me stupid & point me to the new goodies.

TIA,
Jon

[yacovfb]

Here:
http://www.80soft.com/pforever/updates/index.htm

[JonInMiddleGA]

Here:
http://www.80soft.com/pforever/updates/index.htm

Thanks much.

[Barkeep49]

I recieve email notifications at the email I used when buying the game. Dunno why you wouldn't get these Jon.

As for the changes, while they improve the game, it has not made it subsantially harder for me at least. I do look forward to the primaries being incorperated in August. A very exciting feature to say the least.

[JonInMiddleGA]

I recieve email notifications at the email I used when buying the game. Dunno why you wouldn't get these Jon..

Hmm ... makes me wonder if they're being spam-filtered or something. Heck, I'm at least happy that one of the patches (supposedly) fixed the graphics issues that were causing crash to desktop problems for me. It finally stopped doing that (even before the patch) but still, it's kinda unnerving to try to get into a game that has a history of crashing out (or, in my case, sometimes refusing to start at all).