POTUS Election Sim 1.5: The Political World
Hey everyone! Update 1.5 is finally here. A lot of this update has been about making the world around your presidency feel more alive, especially when it comes to politicians, historical campaigns, diplomacy and modding. There are also many smaller changes and fixes behind the scenes, so let's get into it.
Real Political Figures
One of the biggest changes in 1.5 is the addition of a much larger roster of real political figures. The game now includes hundreds of real officeholders, including all 50 governors, all 100 senators, state legislative leaders and committee chairs, state capitol leadership, mayors from the playable cities and a selection of major national political figures. These aren't just names that get randomly thrown into events either. The game can now remember encounters with political figures and carry them forward as your career progresses. Someone you clash with as a state legislator can still matter when you eventually reach Congress. The system also reaches into elections. If you're running for Governor of Ohio as a Democrat, for example, Mike DeWine can now actually appear on the ballot rather than the game creating a fictional opponent. We've also been pretty careful with this system. Where we can't reliably establish who held an office, we'll use a fictional name rather than pretending a real person held it.
Historical Candidates Now Have Portraits
Historical campaigns have also received a pretty big visual upgrade. All 69 historical candidates covering elections from 1980 to 2024 now have portraits. We've also rebuilt the way the game matches portraits to candidates. This means things like "Gov. Reagan" and "Pres. Reagan" can correctly resolve to the same person instead of being treated as completely different people. There are also multiple candidates with the same surname, so the new system uses additional information to make sure the correct portrait is being shown.
Historical Eras
Historical campaigns are now much more than just changing the election year. 1.5 introduces seven historical eras:
1981
1989
1993
2001
2009
2017
2021
Each era has its own political and geopolitical setup. Countries, alliances, nuclear powers, military strength, populations and relative wealth can all change depending on the period you're playing. The AI is also given the historical context for the period. So an early 1980s campaign should actually feel like an early 1980s campaign, rather than just being the modern game with an older date attached to it. For example, the 1981 world now reflects the Cold War much more closely, including the countries and political relationships that existed at the time.
Diplomatic Portfolio
Diplomacy has also been expanded with the new Diplomatic Portfolio. You can now build personal relationships with leaders from 16 different countries. (More to come) You'll be able to make diplomatic calls, arrange trips, use private channels and deal with foreign governments while building up your diplomatic standing. The important part is that these relationships don't just disappear when the scene ends. If you eventually become President, some of the relationships you built as Vice President can carry over into your presidency. There are also several new diplomatic situations and events, including a security conference, diplomatic events and a dinner at the Naval Observatory.
Vice President to President
The journey from Vice President to President has been expanded quite a bit. The old system relied on two hidden random rolls. There are now five different possible routes to the presidency. We've also added more events around succession, including Cabinet succession, Congressional votes and situations where you can temporarily become Acting President. There's now a new "One Heartbeat Away" panel which gives you a better idea of the risks surrounding the presidency. We've also added Section 3 acting president periods, the January 6 joint session where you read out your own election result, and a shadow campaign that can influence a later presidential run. The idea is to make being Vice President feel like an actual political career rather than simply waiting around for the President to leave office.
Cabinet
The Cabinet has received some attention too. You'll now have foreign counterparts for different departments, interagency disagreements and more control over how resignations happen. You'll also have more people to answer to, including the Vice President and other departments.
Third Party Modding
The modding system has received another big addition. There's now a dedicated Parties section where you can create and customise third parties. You can define things such as:
Name
Short name
Abbreviation
Colour
Icon
Slogan
Founding date
History
Ideology
Coalition preferences
Regional strengths
Caucus archetypes
Ballot access
Third parties can then actually be played, with their political characteristics flowing through into the third party caucus. We've also made it possible to reskin the two major parties. That means historical scenarios can do things like turn the modern parties into their historical equivalents. You could, for example, recreate the Whigs without having to completely rebuild the game's underlying political system.
Code Mods
For more advanced modders, 1.5 also introduces an experimental code mod system. Code mods are off by default and require explicit approval before they can run. Before trusting one, you'll be shown information about the mod, including its size and source hash, and you'll be able to read the code yourself. If the code changes later, the mod needs to be approved again. We've also added a code mod template and documentation covering the available hooks and the publishing process. This is aimed at people who want to create things that aren't possible with normal data mods, so it's definitely the more advanced side of the modding system.
National Programs
Auto starting National Programs is now a setting. You can choose whether programs should automatically start when their conditions are met or whether you want to start them manually. The setting is available through both Settings and the National Programs screen. The default is still enabled, so if you liked the old behaviour, nothing changes.
Other Changes
There are also plenty of smaller changes throughout the game.
Improved state selection so the same states aren't repeatedly selected.
Social posts can now go beyond the previous limit.
Senate 50/50 situations are handled correctly.
UN decisions now use the correct world context.
Bills now properly respect party selection.
State of the Union events have improved scheduling.
Written crisis events now generate responses based on the actual crisis.
Political networks now decay outdated information over time.
Election simulations are now much better isolated from normal campaigns.
Quick Simulator results no longer leak into later campaigns.
Election Night is more reliable when clicking through results quickly.
Testing
We've spent quite a lot of time testing this update before release. We've also run hundreds of simulated elections to make sure the new changes aren't causing problems elsewhere.
What's Next?
1.5 is a pretty big step for POTUS Election Sim. The main goal with this update was to make the game feel less like a collection of separate systems and more like you're actually moving through a living political world. There's still a lot we'd like to add, and as always, your feedback and bug reports are a massive help. Thanks to everyone who's been playing, reporting bugs, making mods and following the development of POTUS Election Sim. Update 1.5 is available now on Steam. Thanks for playing!
- Dackers Studios