The third step in completing a campaign is to create the political units that will be in the campaign. A political unit is usually a unit like a state, province, or country. For example, Florida is a political unit in President Forever 2008 + Primaries official scenarios. So is the District of Columbia. There is a national political unit, The United States of America.
Map
You can move the abbreviation labels for the Political Units by clicking and dragging on the label.
- Add: Makes a particular geographic area (defined by the area currently selected) into a new Political Unit.
- Add To Existing: Adds a particular geographic area (defined by the area currently selected) to a Political Unit. This requires that the geographical area selected is not already part of another Political Unit.
- Remove Point: Removes a particular geographic area (defined by the area currently selected) from a Political Unit. For example, you can click Hawaii’s northernmost island, and click Remove Point. This removes that island from the Political Unit Hawaii.
- Remove: Removes the Political Unit (for example, if Texas is selected, this will remove Texas from the campaign).
- Remove All: Removes all the Political Units (except for the national Political Unit).
- National Data: Displays the national Political Unit (for example, The United States of America) in the Details box.
- Issue Centers: Displays the Regional Centers/Profiles dialog box.
- Selecting a Political Unit from the List Box: Displays that Political Unit (for example, California) in the Details box.
- Load Map: To load a new map, click the Load Map button. The image will automatically be resized to 501 x 381 if it is not already that size. The image must be a bitmap. You can save and create images as bitmaps in Windows Paint, among other graphics programs. See the section ‘Creating Your Own Map’ below for more details.
Details
- Name: The name of the Political Unit.
- Abbreviation: The abbreviation that shows up on the map for the Political Unit.
- Nickname: The nickname for the Political Unit.
- Population: The population of the Political Unit.
- Eligible Voters: The number of eligible voters in the Political Unit.
- Motto: The Political Unit’s motto.
- Capital: The capital of the Political Unit.
- Flag Blurb: Currently, this variable is not used by President Forever 2008 + Primaries.
- Year of Entry: Year of entry into the national Political Unit.
Flag Image
Flag Image: The flag image. To load a new image, click ‘Change’. The image will automatically be resized to 76 x 57 if it is not already that size. The image must be a bitmap. You can save and create images as bitmaps in Windows Paint, among other graphics programs.
Details Continued
- Cities: Cities in the Political Unit to be used for news stories about candidates campaigning in that Political Unit. To add a city, type the name into the box below “Cities:” and click the > button. To remove a city from the list, select the city and then click the < button.
- Media Market Name: If this Political Unit and another Political Unit share a common media market, type the name of the media market here. If two or more Political Units share the same media market, any advertising a candidate does in one of the political units will automatically also be done in the other Political Units in the same media market.
- Poll Open Time: The time that the Polls close on election night for that Political Unit. Uses a 24 hour clock, so 1200 is noon, 2400 is midnight.
- Seats Type: FPP (First Past the Post) or PR (Proportional Representation). If FPP is selected, the candidate who gets the highest percentage on election night wins all the seats in that region. For example, if Florida is set to FPP, on election night the candidate with the highest percentage wins all of Florida’s 25 seats in the Electoral College (which is used to vote directly for the President).
- Seats: The number of seats for this Political Unit.
A discrete geographical area in a map must be completely surrounded by a pure black line (in Windows Paint, you can select the black color to get this color). These discrete geographical areas then can be associated with a Political Unit (some Political Units only have one geographical area, such as Arizona - others, such as Hawaii, have multiple geographical areas associated with them).
This page has the following sub pages.
From scenario expert Zion:
“When creating an original map from scratch, be sure to color the regions in with a light blue colour, like the one found in the TheorySpark original USA map. If you fill the regions in with red, or green, it seems to confuse the tool. I guess it must be linked with the fact that when you load a new map into scenario creator, and click on an area that is surrounded by black, and has no political_unit assigned to it, it turns red and then green once you click “add”.”
There seems to be no option to switch from a FPP to a PR system in the campaign editor. Is this deliberate?
If so, when will the ability to edit a change to a PR system be added?
Hi Francois,
PR is only available in the primaries for a party’s political event (primary or caucuses). I do not know when PR will be added as an option for the general election.
I’m trying to create a new map, and I can’t figure out the whole “adding new political units” thing. Once I’ve added one, the whole rest of the screen turns green and seems to be preventing me from clicking on anywhere else in particular and thus from creating any other units at all. Any ideas on how to fix that problem? Thanks!
Hi Robert,
Make sure there are solid black lines separating your political units. If this doesn’t work, please contact us ( http://www.theoryspark.com/interact/contact.htm ), including your map as an attachment.
Are “eligible” voters = registered voters?
What’s the maximum number of political units there can be in a scenario?
Hi Robert,
The maximum number of political units for the President Forever 2008 + Primaries game engine is currently 150.
Hi Matthew,
The “Eligible Voters” number is intended to reflect the total number of people who could, in theory, vote. It is used in conjunction with the “alienated” percentages (that is, people who are eligible but don’t vote).
Where do I find the images and how do I put them on?
Hi Sean,
Which images are you referring to (region flags)?
What are the requirements before one can go on to the next section, create ads?
both region flags and US
Also, where would I be able to get pictures of Sarah Palin and the potential candidates for 2012?
Even though it’s not utilized, what it the “flag blurb” supposed to do?
@Acemaster,
The flag blurb is used to describe the national flag. It’s displayed when the nation is selected, and the user hovers over the flag on the main screen.
@Sean,
You can probably get pictures of potential 2012 candidates by searching on the web.
@Sean,
You can make your own flags (using a program like Paint), or get them from the web.