This post applies to President Infinity and Congress Infinity.
Up until now, barnstorming has involved two basic decisions.
The first is what to set your theme as.
The second is where to barnstorm.
Then, a barnstormer would barnstorm on the issues set in the theme (so 3 separate barnstorm Power activities, one for each issue set in the theme).
This made the barnstorming decision relatively straightforward, and mimicked what often happens (a candidate will have a stump-speech, for example, and use that in various places).
The problem is that it isn’t realistic in various situations – a candidate might campaign on very different issues in Iowa as opposed to Massachusetts as opposed to Mississippi, say.
One possible way to change this is to keep the background bonuses a theme gives a player (such as with creating ads), but to make barnstorming be on one issue, which a player selects (or can have on automatic) for a given region.
Then, when a leader campaigns in Iowa, say, the leader might barnstorm on the Energy issue, where they have a (say) 8 Power activity. However, if that leader has a theme bonus of +2 on Leadership, then they would also have a 2 Power activity on Leadership which is added to their barnstorming, and so on.
I think this increases the realism, makes it more interesting for a player when barnstorming (by allowing barnstorming to target specific issues in specific regions), while also keeping barnstorming relatively simple (which becomes more important when President Infinity includes a 7 days a turn option in primaries).
Feedback welcome!
This would be a much welcomed change to the way barnstorming works in both games. And it makes sense to change it this way…yes, this is a very, very good idea!
I think I said this before, but we need an automatic debate button or an option to not participate in the debates.
automatic, like not having to click it every turn.
@Erik,
Yes, an automatic debate prep button is a good idea – thanks for this.
I love this idea. I’ve wanted it for a long time.
You mentioned the 7-day per turn option. …when do you think we can test the option? I did not own P4E2008, so, I am not sure how it would work.
No ETA on when the 7 day per turn feature will be implemented. The main difference as far as the user interface is that, when you click to barnstorm (and so on), it will have a date associated with it, and there will probably be a menu that allows you to reorder or delete barnstorming activities for the upcoming week. For example, sometimes you will want to barnstorm in Iowa on Monday and Tuesday, then New Hampshire Wednesday to Friday, say.
One thing I think you should look into is a more dynamic pricing feature for advertisements. Candidates have an advantage when they book advertising early. They are generally more effective as well. It was be an interesting feature to have campaigns book advertising in advance at cheaper rates. It would also make a significant investment to jump late into a state. For example if a republican tries to dump cash into Pennsylvania in late October it should cost much more and be less effective than if they were placing or running the same ad in July or August.
I like the idea of more flexible barnstorming. Will the 7 day per turn option be able to be changed mid-game (for example, after you lock up the nomination), or if you start the game with it on/off is that setting final for the entire primary?
So to clarify, under this new barnstorming system a barnstorm on a specific issue (like Energy) would have an effect on energy but ALSO give bonuses to any theme issues like Leadership/Experience?
@Kevin,
Yes, the feature should allow players to switch between weekly or daily turns at any point in a campaign.
Yes, barnstorming on a specific issue gets the player a Power activity on that issue, and Power activities on their theme issues equal to the bonuses in the player’s theme.
@James,
Thanks for this – good point. We’ll see.
I like the idea, but am wondering if it is possible to set the auto to a range of percent ahead or behind? I tend to end up barnstorming in places that I am either 10 above or 10 below, usually. Or have that be an option you can turn on.
If you set up that change from daily turns to 7 – day turns, what kind of limit will there be for number of barnstorming/fundraising/rallies per turn? Would it be safe to assume the limit would be increased from the current three/turn maximum that currently exists?
@DJP,
Yes, the idea is that you could schedule up to 3 per day. So, in theory you could schedule 21 Barnstorming activities for a coming week.
@Allan,
Feedback noted about automatic barnstorming – thanks for this.