Congress Forever 2010 Version Info

[ayamo 19]

Just a question: Will we get the eleciton night before the relase?

I've played again and managed to get even in the polls with the Democrats, with projected seats being 221-207 with seven toss-ups.

The game is fun as he**, but it's a bit disappointing if you can't enjoy the fruits of your work.

EDIT:

Something please has to be done about "access violation" when leaking local/(sometimes) national scandals.

And maybye the scandals have to be weakend. I leaked a "medium damage" on the Democrats, and kept spinning it for almost a week.

Democratic incumbents fell 10-20%.

[RFK/JFKfan 11]

An error comes up about a week in when i play it.

[admin_270 834]

Can you say more about this (does it happen after you do something in specific, does it happen consistently)? Also, can you confirm you are using the latest version (1.0.9)?

Anthony Burgoyne

http://www.TheorySpark.com

Games that spark the political imagination!

An error comes up about a week in when i play it.

[RI Democrat 39]

A couple things regarding platforms:

While I see the statistic on "platform distance" when I bring up an individual district, I don't see an option to actually display the platform centers for that district on an issue-by-issue basis. Am I just missing it? If not, it would be helpful to be able to see that so as to decide what kinds of ads to run in those districts.

Also, it looks to me like every district in any given state has the same platform distance from the two parties. This seems unrealistic to me - in fact, what you'd tend to see is a range within any given state. In Missouri, for example, MO-1 (which includes part of the city of St. Louis) would tend to be more liberal, while MO-7 (in the southwest corner of the state) would be more conservative.

[RFK/JFKfan 11]

Can you say more about this (does it happen after you do something in specific, does it happen consistently)? Also, can you confirm you are using the latest version (1.0.9)?

Anthony Burgoyne

http://www.TheorySpark.com

Games that spark the political imagination!

My mistake. I was using the previous version.

However, i get a "List Index Out of Bounds" right before Election Night on the latest version.

[Abe Lincoln 9]

My mistake. I was using the previous version.

However, i get a "List Index Out of Bounds" right before Election Night on the latest version.

There is no election night yet, that's why.

[yougo1000 4]

I didn't get the download

[RFK/JFKfan 11]

There is no election night yet, that's why.

It says in the opening post of this thread that there is.

[Abe Lincoln 9]

It says in the opening post of this thread that there is.

Well it isn't working for anyone and I believe that admin stated in here somewhere that it hadn't been added yet.

[kenDC 0]

My only real critique so far (and I've only toyed with it for a short bit) is that the level of detail is immense. That makes it a very daunting challenge to try to manage all the races you need to worry about - and that's even when focusing mostly on the tossups.

I found P4E+P to be a challenge to stay interested in fighting all the way through all 9 weeks of the official campaign, and Congress Forever just adds to that by a factor of 10. And this says nothing about the possibility of creating custom scenarios on this gaming platform.

I'll try playing on a day off, like the weekend, and reassess.

That said, I am quite impressed by the details. It almost really does feel like you're the DCCC or NRCC chair, which is kinda cool.

[admin_270 834]

That means for some reason the e-mail didn't get through. Please e-mail us ( http://www.theoryspark.com/interact/contact.htm ) and say you didn't receive the Beta.

Anthony Burgoyne

http://www.TheorySpark.com

Games that spark the political imagination!

I didn't get the download

[admin_270 834]

Taft, do you get this error when you press the button to deploy, or at the end of the turn? Also, can you tell me which party you were playing.

Anthony Burgoyne

http://www.TheorySpark.com

Games that spark the political imagination!

Ok, I get the following message when I try to deploy a local scandal in FL-8: "Access violation at address 0045BE49 in module 'congress43.exe'. Read of address 00000018."

[admin_270 834]

Opossum, incumbency is indicated by an 'x' in front of the candidate's name on the Seat Info screen.

Did you mean something to indicate this on the Strategy screen?

Anthony Burgoyne

http://www.TheorySpark.com

Games that spark the political imagination!

I'd add that being able to identify who currently holds the seat (whether it's an incumbent running for reelection or an open seat) could be helpful information too, so we can know how much is spent on offense vs. defense. Maybe an extra blue or red dot?

[admin_270 834]

Probably.

Anthony Burgoyne

http://www.TheorySpark.com

Games that spark the political imagination!

Just a question: Will we get the eleciton night before the relase?

[admin_270 834]

RI Democrat,

"I don't see an option to actually display the platform centers for that district on an issue-by-issue basis."

I don't understand what you're saying here. The local issue centers are indicated by the white I bar on the spectrum. Can you say more about what you're looking for, or is it just that it isn't obvious what the I bars indicate?

"it looks to me like every district in any given state has the same platform distance from the two parties. This seems unrealistic to me"

Yes, it's set that way right now. We'll change this to give different centers for specific districts in a state.

Anthony Burgoyne

http://www.TheorySpark.com

Games that spark the political imagination!

A couple things regarding platforms:

While I see the statistic on "platform distance" when I bring up an individual district, I don't see an option to actually display the platform centers for that district on an issue-by-issue basis. Am I just missing it? If not, it would be helpful to be able to see that so as to decide what kinds of ads to run in those districts.

Also, it looks to me like every district in any given state has the same platform distance from the two parties. This seems unrealistic to me - in fact, what you'd tend to see is a range within any given state. In Missouri, for example, MO-1 (which includes part of the city of St. Louis) would tend to be more liberal, while MO-7 (in the southwest corner of the state) would be more conservative.

[RI Democrat 39]

I don't understand what you're saying here. The local issue centers are indicated by the white I bar on the spectrum. Can you say more about what you're looking for, or is it just that it isn't obvious what the I bars indicate?

Oh, okay - I guess I just missed the I-bars for some reason. I see them now.

Yes, it's set that way right now. We'll change this to give different centers for specific districts in a state.

Sounds good. I think that is something that will really distinguish this from all the different versions of PM4E that are out there right now.

[admin_270 834]

The election night error if playing as Republican has been fixed, and will be included in the next Beta release.

[admin_270 834]

Hey everybody,

I'm trying to recreate the bug from creating an ad and am unable to do so yet. Any specifics on how or when this bug appears appreciated (specific party? specific sequence of actions? specific issue? ...).

Anthony Burgoyne

http://www.TheorySpark.com

Games that spark the political imagination!

[admin_270 834]

Same with local scandal bug - any details on how or when this happens appreciated.

Anthony Burgoyne

http://www.TheorySpark.com

Games that spark the political imagination!

[Opossum 1]

Opossum, incumbency is indicated by an 'x' in front of the candidate's name on the Seat Info screen.

Did you mean something to indicate this on the Strategy screen?

Anthony Burgoyne

http://www.TheorySpark.com

Games that spark the political imagination!

Thanks. Yes, I did mean something on the strategy screen, but after looking at my post I realize what I meant is not clear at all.

I'm talking about some kind of indicator of which party currently holds the seat on the strategy screen list. The same (or another) indicator could show whether an incumbent is running or it's an open seat.

The text of the district's name (e.g., "AL-2") could be colored or you could add a blue filled dot for a Democratic incumbent, a blue open dot for an open seat that is being vacated by a Democrat and similar red dots for Republican-held seats. This is in addition to the current dots that show which party is ahead (which is of course more important).

For example, at startup all we see on the strategy list for ID-1 is a lighter blue dot indicating that the race slightly favors the Democrat. With a few more pixels, the list could also show that it's a Republican held seat, and that the incumbent Republican is running for reelection. Same in reverse for LA-2.

At the least, using a red or blue font to indicate party on the strategy list would show for AL-2, CA-4, LA-4, MD-1, OH-15 and VA-5 that those toss-up races are potential pickups for the Democrats, even if it doesn't distinguish between VA-5 (a Republican incumbent in a tight reelection) and the rest (open seats vacated by Republicans).

[ayamo 19]

Same with local scandal bug - any details on how or when this happens appreciated.

Anthony Burgoyne

http://www.TheorySpark.com

Games that spark the political imagination!

Can't really give much details.

I'm able to research scandals, but when I want to leak them it tells me "access violation" once I click the button "leak".

Same goes 99% of the time when wanting to leak national scandals.

[admin_270 834]

Do you have multiple scandals researched before you are about to release one?

Anthony Burgoyne

http://www.TheorySpark.com

Games that spark the political imagination!

Can't really give much details.

I'm able to research scandals, but when I want to leak them it tells me "access violation" once I click the button "leak".

Same goes 99% of the time when wanting to leak national scandals.

[ayamo 19]

Do you have multiple scandals researched before you are about to release one?

Anthony Burgoyne

http://www.TheorySpark.com

Games that spark the political imagination!

No.

On district level I am researching a scandal, wanting to release it and I'll get an "access violation" error.

On national level I get this error most of the time.

Once I've researched a scandal, I'll immediately release it.

So no, no multiple scandals.

Edit:

I've testedit.

I won't have any problems with leaking national scandals as long as I am not researching local scandals.

A word about the scandals:

It takes an afwul lot of time to research them, but once you've get them, they can give you're opponent a real headache!

But I can't really tell if I wanted to release scandals on national and local level.

Will check that.

[admin_270 834]

Are you playing as a specific party (do you get the error regardless as Dem or Rep)?

Anthony Burgoyne

http://www.TheorySpark.com

Games that spark the political imagination!

No.

On district level I am researching a scandal, wanting to release it and I'll get an "access violation" error.

On national level I get this error most of the time.

Once I've researched a scandal, I'll immediately release it.

So no, no multiple scandals.

Edit:

I've testedit.

I won't have any problems with leaking national scandals as long as I am not researching local scandals.

A word about the scandals:

It takes an afwul lot of time to research them, but once you've get them, they can give you're opponent a real headache!

But I can't really tell if I wanted to release scandals on national and local level.

Will check that.

[ayamo 19]

Experienced those problems while playing GOP.

Haven't played the Dems yet.