20-03-2004 21:11									#1
	Electile Dysfunction Reborn Lose 30 kilos (of popups)

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.

	20-03-2004 21:40									#2
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The thread is till there, but it seems to be lurking in the void between 2 pages:
http://apolyton.net/forums/showthre...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?

	21-03-2004 04:27									#3
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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...

	21-03-2004 05:14									#4
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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.

	21-03-2004 18:36									#5
	Tired of ads?

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.

	21-03-2004 18:43									#6
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I see... Very nice. (don't have much to add I'm afraid)

	22-03-2004 01:15									#7
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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.

	22-03-2004 03:35									#8
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I wouldn't care.

	22-03-2004 06:27									#9
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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.

	22-03-2004 15:11									#10
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But what about all the other overseas territories, or Americans abroad? Don't they get to vote?

	22-03-2004 17:37									#11
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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...

	22-03-2004 18:02									#12
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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.

	22-03-2004 21:36									#13
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quote: 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.

	22-03-2004 22:03									#14
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DP

	22-03-2004 22:55									#15
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quote: 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)

	23-03-2004 00:21									#16
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You should include some sort of explanatory file on everything, because we non-Americans are likely to lose track.

	23-03-2004 00:50									#17
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Do you mean about the Electoral College? I intend to include a pedia.txt file for anybody who doesn't know the significance of Rush Limbaugh (actually, even I don't know that, but I can explain him in the sense of gameplay, if not philosophically). Oh, and you probably want to know about the democrats and republicans, since we don't have multiple labor parties, socialists who are taken seriously, and all the other stuff going on over there...anything else you'd need to know? This is a largely satirical work playing off of stereotypes, so being informed should be secondary to the fun, but just FYI.

	23-03-2004 01:05									#18
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I'm aware that it is a satire, but without first-hand knowledge about the American political life, it's hard to understand the humour. I mean, the electoral campaign in America differs dramatically from that in Germany, for instance. I'm roughly aware of the electoral college, the two-party system (and the "third parties"), the candidates and what they stand for, and that's about it. If I'd make a satire about elections in Germany, you'd not have a clue what I'm talking about either until I explain it.

	23-03-2004 01:18									#19
	Inflate your Upload Space

I think I may have found the name of the author (not 100% sure). It's Louis Norton.

There are several similar versions of the map floating around, but the "bdawn" one seems to be the oldest. Furthermore, it seems to be the map of a scenario called "Black Dawn: The Prophecy", also in the 'poly archives, and that is created by Louis Norton.

I can't be sure whether he actually made it, because there isn't any readme with the scenario either and he could have adjusted it from another map, but it seems likely.

Edit: Oh, the name in the 'poly archives is actually wrong... It's Blood Dawn.

And some more Edits: Holy crapola! He made it after some RPG, which you can see here:
http://www.ssdc.com/Games/BloodDawn.html

That site also contains a download of the scenario, with a note from Louis Norton... Though still not mentioning anything about the map, but maybe that's because there was nothing to note. I.e. no other person to credit...

Whoa! Even more ... He's actually the lead designer of that game (see the "contact" link on that site).

Last edited by Mercator on 23-03-2004 at 01:36

	23-03-2004 04:54									#20
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Well, in Italy we don't know so much about USA election but......



what about the good, old LYNDON LAROUCHE ??????

	23-03-2004 17:20									#21
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Holy crap, Mercator, when you dig up info, you really dig it up! Thanks! Louis Norton shall not escape crediting, despite his wily ways!

Stefan: Sorry, I was just under the impression that Europe in general was highly aware of the flaws in the American election process. Probably just because of the strong opinions over there about certain political figures *coughDubyacough*...

	23-03-2004 23:25									#22
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Well, here in the UK, I find most people are very confident of their knowledge of W's misdeeds, but know very little else.

	22-04-2004 21:06									#23
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quote: Originally posted by Elok Maybe I should have trade units, and make those a commodity...

Trade units could be "Campain Contributions".

Nukes could be "Negitive Media Blitz"

Wonders could Include
Carl Rove
George Soroes
Labor Movement
Abortion Rights Activists
Right to Life
NRA
Pharm Lobby
Mafia
Hollywood
RIAA

	22-04-2004 22:26									#24
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Nah, wonders are all people/"campaign advisors." Support from specific voting blocks is represented by civ advances. Abortion Rights, to use one of your examples, would get you the Gloria Steinem wonder. Jimmy Hoffa stands in for the Labor Movement.

I'm undecided about trade units and nukes. Nukes are good for offensive campaigns, which this is, but population-halving sounds iffy for a scenario based on objective cities. Regardless, I think they'd be Scandals; the media is more of a tool for this particular "war," as evidenced by the Media Deathgrip for City Walls. Since the Modern-Era wonders are "Legendary Figures," I'd have to pick the founder of smear tactics, which is tough. McCarthy, maybe?

I've been stalling on this scen, partly because of increased workload at school, but partly just because, as my endless whining testifies, nobody plays my first scenario, so I'm wondering if this will just be so much wasted effort. Also, the idea of making all those icons makes me ill, helped or not...but it's time to kick this back into gear, as it's gotten a lot more interest than BK ever did.

	22-04-2004 23:14									#25
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With the new coverage of the SL group, this is a good time to get scenarios off the ground.

And don't forget to announce your scenario as news, via the civgroups page!