Prime Minister Forever - Canada 2006

[Taft 0]

Well, the key is that those levels don't sustain themselves at all. You collapse back to where you came from unless you can sustain the ad barrage, and that's not going to happen much.

[Bane 0]

I'm waiting to buy the game until finals are done, but it sounds like there's some erratic stuff in it. 90 seats for the NDP? Not quite realistic. Still, I wants the game badly...so I'll get it.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Well, no game's perfect, and if you find the right formula you can manipulate the system.

Like those times when the Tories got two seats or less in the British Game.

If you just play normally, I don't imagine there'd be much to worry about.

[TonyJones 0]

I'm waiting to buy the game until finals are done, but it sounds like there's some erratic stuff in it. 90 seats for the NDP? Not quite realistic. Still, I wants the game badly...so I'll get it.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Well you want there to be some unrealism to it. It is a game after all...

[RonnieRaygun04 3]

Well you want there to be some unrealism to it. It is a game after all...

Yes of course. I think what I was getting at was the question that are these kinds of situations (like the NDP getting 90 seats) fairly common in the new game or still quite rare?

I wasn't trying to knock the game, I'm more theorizing over whether once I buy it I'll have to campaign against Layton harder as the CPC.

[progressivedem 2]

I'm waiting to buy the game until finals are done, but it sounds like there's some erratic stuff in it. 90 seats for the NDP? Not quite realistic. Still, I wants the game badly...so I'll get it.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

It was on easy - so definately not real life.

[Taft 0]

And I just disproved my previous statement. 103 seats and 25% as the NDP.

What happened: I kept the flow of ads steady, not overloading at the beginning. I also kept the ads strong in Ontario, the Maritimes, the Arctic (sans Nunavut), Saskachewan, Manitoba, and BC, while just pretending that Alberta and Quebec weren't there. This resulted in relatively few 'wasted votes' in those provinces, and enabled me to keep more ad time up. I also used the last-day exploit (that is, to overspend at the very end of the campaign when you don't have much to spend on). As a result, the mid-game slump for the NDP (when most of the middle-of-the-road voters you grab with an early-game blitz fade out of your column) wasn't nearly as damaging as usual, and was almost non-existent in rural Ontario. As a result, I managed to get a majority of the seats in Ontario, providing me with most of my seats. The rest primarily came from BC/Vancouver, with about 13 from the Atlantic and only 4-6 from Sask. and Manitoba (and 2 from the Arctic).

[Taktikz 0]

I played one where I played as Martin, and due some behind the scenes "sabotage" lol, it resulted in the Liberals getting only 5 seats total... while the Tories got 200 something

[RI Democrat 41]

I still see a "2" for the CPC in Layton's Toronto District. Anyone else have this, or did I just do the upgrade wrong?

[SaskGuy 16]

I still see a "2" for the CPC in Layton's Toronto District. Anyone else have this, or did I just do the upgrade wrong?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

It probably means the CPC doesn't have a candidate there yet.

[BastienL 0]

For a more realistic game experience, I wish this game's release would have been delayed until all the candidates has been nominated.

When do all the candidates have to be nominated by?

[SaskGuy 16]

For a more realistic game experience, I wish this game's release would have been delayed until all the candidates has been nominated.

When do all the candidates have to be nominated by?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

January 2nd at 2:00 p.m. I guess they thought we'd want more then 21 days to play it.

[Anthony_270 1,165]

We will be issuing updates to owners of Prime Minister Forever - Canada 2006 throughout the campaign - probably once every two weeks - with the latest candidate information, events, and so on.

Hope this helps and sincerely,

The 80soft.com Team

[K-uglen 2]

I had a problem with the ads. I had researched Government Ethics, and clicked on the insight to use it in an ad. Then I clicked cancel, as I wanted to check something. When I clicked my way back in, the lightbulb had gone and hence no insight for me to use

I've also noticed the 'Create Now'-option going away after the first game you play. Surely an anomaly too?

[Anthony_270 1,165]

Hi K-uglen,

Thank you for the report about insights - it's noted.

The 'Create Now' button should only be available on the first turn of play - this could be what's happening. It represents ads that the campaigns have made before the election starts (and so before they know what is happening in the campaign).

If that isn't the case, and it isn't available on the first turn, please contact me.

Sincerely,

Anthony Burgoyne

80soft.com

[K-uglen 2]

'Create Now' is available on the first turn

Are there any plans to make the layout more navigationable?

Things I think would improve the game:

- A toggle-option for percentage-points gained absolute and relative to the leader/second-placed in all of the ridings. That'd make it easier to see where one's campaign is sliding and where it's coming to the fore.

- More seats on each screen. Thankfully the new map (usermade I hear?) has meant fewer ridings, but it'd still be great to have for instance six or eight ridings on each page.

- In connection with that, it'd be nice to be able to toggle, so you could view all parties at a glance (without the candidate's name for instance, clearing space for more party names).

- As countless others more grandeur on election night. One relatively easy thing to implement would be an option to export results to an HTML-file or a txt-file. Then people could compare results on here. It'd be even greater if that file included the percentages etc. from before the campaign began, so one could see where one's progress was made.

- I can't speak for others, but before I begin a campaign I like to check out what my platform looks like compared to that of the other candidates/parties. Wouldn't it be possible to make a comparison screen, so I could see how my candidate/party compared to the others?

- Connected to that, maybe a similar screen where you see your party's platform compared to the stances of various regions, with the region's number of seats (and number of voters) included?

[progressivedem 2]

Great ideas K-uglen! I'd like to also throw out there for future games a button where we could view all the ridings in the nation in order of "closeness." It's difficult to use targeting points now because you can't tell exactly where it's needed most. This would make them more effecient and effective.

Great edition to your series btw, just got a Green majority government! Oh the excitement...

[RI Democrat 41]

Well, I just pulled off an NDP blowout somehow:

I swept Yukon, NWT, Nunavut, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick, with huge majorities in Toronto (both sections), Southern Ontario, and British Columbia (where the Greens took 2, incidentally).

Other breakdowns:

NE Ontario: NDP 18, Conservatives 10, Liberals 7

Saskatchewan: NDP 8, Conservatives 4, Liberals 1

Vancouver: NDP 9, Liberals 5

Quebec: Bloc 66, Liberals 9

Alberta: Conservatives 27, Liberals 1

Strategy-wise, I ran on Crime, Integrity, and Provinicial Powers, hitting Martin on Crime and Harper on Provincial Powers. (BTW, are the NDP actually in the center, and to the right of the Liberals, on Crime?) Anyway, I ran some positive ads right away to try to grab as many undecideds as possible, then held back with the advertising for a while, mostly just running cheaper ones here and there. I tried running Environment ads on all three candidates in the middle of the game (hoping to pick up ground in Ontario and BC, basically), but I think that made just a small dent, actually.

I ignored Alberta and Quebec (until the end when I just had money to burn), and won no seats in either. I also mostly ignored Manitoba since there don't seem to be that many close races there. I did target the two that seemed close towards the beginning, but I think I lost both of them narrowly.

What probably made the difference is that Martin lost a fair amount of ground early, with Harper moving ahead and polling around 110-120 seats, and then suddenly Harper took a huge nosedive as well. I'm not sure why, if it was a scandal or multiple attack ads or what, but by the end, Harper and Martin both had major negative momentum while I was around +5 or +6. The final poll only had me at 114 seats and 24%, with my final totals being 144 and 28%, so either the poll was just off a bit (quite possible -- I'd turned off private polling by then), or I continued to make major gains on the last day. It did seem like I won most of the marginals, so maybe some of both.

What was really surprising was that I hadn't spent even close to all of the money (though Broadbent starts with $15 mil, unlike other NDP candidates who seem to start with $10 mil), so I would have been broke if I'd been running with Layton, for example. Honestly, I think a lot of this was just luck, with Harper and Martin both going into a tailspin at once and neither of them, as far as I could tell, managing to attack me successfully, while meanwhile I had hardly any backfires or scandals. Anyway, interesting turn.

[SaskGuy 16]

Well, it' not hard to win as Broadbent. I think I may have given him a few more regional bonuses then I should have.

[BastienL 0]

We will be issuing updates to owners of Prime Minister Forever - Canada 2006 throughout the campaign - probably once every two weeks - with the latest candidate information, events, and so on.

Hope this helps and sincerely,

The 80soft.com Team

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

When will the first update be released?

And will it include the proper riding names for the ridings that changed their name between 2004 and 2006?

[Anthony_270 1,165]

Hi BastienL,

The first update will be released either Friday or early next week. It will also include any riding name changes that haven't been included already.

K-uglen,

Thanks for the suggestions - they are noted.

Sincerely,

Anthony Burgoyne

80soft.com

[RI Democrat 41]

A couple observations. Even in "Hard" mode, the computer players don't seem to use the Create Now option on the first turn with ads. I don't know if that's intentional, but I just thought I'd mention it, in case it was an advantage you didn't mean to give to the human players.

Also, at one point I was going to give a speech and was clicking through different subjects, and after I clicked on one that had insight, the little insight lightbulb kept "following" me as I clicked on different options before making my selection. I'm guessing you didn't mean for that to happen, as it basically makes Insight transferable to any option the player wants.