Electile Dysfunction Reborn

[Elok]

Okay, for reasons beyond my comprehension, my first thread vanished without a trace or an explanatory PM from a mod, so I'm guessing it was a glitch.

Progress so far:

I've decided to more or less eliminate food from the scenario, to prevent cities being "besieged" into starvation by campaign workers, which makes no sense, not that any part of the election process ever does. Campaign advisor wonders so far include Charlton Heston, Rush Limbaugh, Rupert Murdoch, and Pat Robertson; Gloria Steinem, Michael Moore, Al Gore, and Howard Dean (Sun Tzu); Bill Clinton, Jesse Ventura, Ah-nuld and Jimmy Hoffa (Jr., not the one who's been missing since before most of us were born); and a final set of Legends, including Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf, Jesse Jackson, Ross Perot, and Oprah Winfrey, who, as the SETI program, doubles your voter outreach by exerting her malevolent will over emotionally vulnerable housewives everywhere. I looked up the FEC's website and found a list of electoral vote distribution, but I cut the numbers in three so I didn't have to squeeze over 500 objectives onto a map. The state of California is still going to need 18 objectives tho.

Comments, as always, welcome.

[Mercator]

The thread is till there, but it seems to be lurking in the void between 2 pages:

http://apolyton.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=110840

I find it hard to envision this concept... What does the map look like? Is it a "regular" physical map, more of a political map, or even more abstract? What civilizations are involved, and how are the different political parties represented?

[Elok]

The civilizations, so far, are simply Democrats and Republicans, with other parties represented by the barbarians. Each party starts out with a handful of states they more or less control IRL, e.g. Boston is going to the democrats, and the rest of the objectives are barbarian controlled. I'm planning to use something as close to the real U.S. map as possible. Electoral Votes will be assigned to individual cities; this won't fit the actual "winner-takes-all" system, but at least Wyoming will be just as useless as it is in the real world. I plan to make airports plentiful and, as all units are land, nobody will have the fighter ability, so the AI's usual blockade strategy won't get in the way. And every unit will ignore ZOC. I think that should be enough to ensure a relatively free campaign trail. The geographical setup will still be weird, but you can't have everything.

I should note that units are various sections of the voting base, like Union Reps, Racial Agitators, and Sweet Sad Old Ladies (available once you discover The AARP voting base, naturally). Attack and defense are basically just rhetorical oomph versus actual ability to stand up to scrutiny. So celebrity endorsers are basically cannons, since they can make a lot of noise and get mucho attention but their support is ultimately meaningless. In a real election, you can only win by attacking your opponent's credentials, so attack will be relatively high compared to defense. It'll be a madhouse, and the player will be forced to choose which spots he really wants to defend most heavily.

That's what I have so far...

[POTUS]

You should have a few units that are basically invulnerable, but make them air units, so that they exert a presence that makes it near impossible for the region to be captured, but unable to exert a strong showing outside that area. Some examples would be Bill Clinton, Jeb Bush, Michael Moore, Rush Limbaugh, etc. People that can make their base almost impenetrable, but don't have a lot of power outside that.

[Elok]

Bill, Michael, and Rush are wonders of the world, which is what I intend to do with all the "heavy-hitters." While famous supporters do go on the campaign trail, they're more valuable as symbols to attract a certain demographic, or help with credibility. For example, Rush is the Oracle, doubling the power of all Local Radio Stations to keep local voters from thinking for themselves. As Copernicus's Observatory, Gloria Steinem helps you increase your support base by appealing to the local militant-feminist ethos. And so on.

[Mercator]

I see... Very nice. (don't have much to add I'm afraid)

[Elok]

Thanks, Mercator. Now for a tricky question: does anybody care if I get rid of Alaska and Hawaii? They'd be one objective each, in exchange for making the map huge and adding an unrealistic element of geographic constraint. Hawaii would be basically impossible to take without naval units, for example. I could try paratroops, but that just means posting a unit on each square of the Hawaiian islands to make it untakeable again. I don't want Naval units. I'd have to either make Hawaii part of the mainland, which is silly, or remove it entirely. Similar story for Alaska, though it wouldn't be as bad because it actually is attached by land.

[POTUS]

I wouldn't care.

[Elok]

Good thing, because in the past few hours I said, "screw it," found a map that fits me perfectly, modded it a little, and now have most of my city spots picked. Anchorage, Alaska is now a few miles north of Seattle, and Hawaii is a peninsula off Baja. Problem solved.

[Mercator]

But what about all the other overseas territories, or Americans abroad? Don't they get to vote?

[Elok]

No, but they get a consolation prize of a year's supply of Freedom Fries. Maybe I should have trade units, and make those a commodity...

[Elok]

Oh, and does anybody know who I can credit for the awesome "BDawn" map I'm using? It's on the first page of Poly's maps archive, but I couldn't find a maker, which is a pity because, having actually plopped down city locations on it, I've gained new appreciation for the psychotic amount of attention it shows to detail. I mean, it shows almost all of the tributaries of the Mississippi. That must have been an armor-plated biznatch to pull off.

[Mercator]

Originally posted by Elok
... a year's supply of Freedom Fries.

And the author of the BDawn map is unknown, unfortunately. I'll have another look through my collection later, but I'm pretty sure.

[Mercator]

DP

[GoPostal]

Originally posted by Mercatore Uno
But what about all the other overseas territories, or Americans abroad? Don't they get to vote?

You could have some sort of wonder or unit which is Forces Vote (Republican) and Expat vote (speaking personally, Democrat)