Playing as an independent

Why not jsut create a custom character?

such bad advice it really has nothing to do with the character as much as the political assosiation.

With a custom character you can pick yoru stance on the issues . . just like an independent.  What did I miss?  Or . . did you want to run as a third party against the other two?  If so I can tell you how that game would end . . you would LOSE! {Just like in the real world}

lmao touché... would be sweet if there were an England campaign with all the different parties represented there... and real issues. would be very difficult but fun.

I would like to say that I am disappointed in the lack of third party support. There are several political parties with enough clout to have a chance at a national election. Unfortunately, the media and the election laws in various states *cough*Oklahoma*cough* are geared toward keeping the Republicans and Democrats in power.

I would like to see custom candidate support in the game.

It's there.

Here's a "work-around" that will let you appear as an "Independent" candidate:
(Please see NOTE at end of post)

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Open c:/program files/stardock/TotalGaming/The Political Machine 2008/Data/English/Scenarios/USAModern.PM2ScenarioXML in a text editor.

Find the line that says:
<ScenarioName>Campaign 2008</ScenarioName>

Change it to say:

<ScenarioName>Campaign 2008 - Indy vs. Dem</ScenarioName>

Now, find the section that begins with
<PolParties>
and ends with
</PolParties>

Replace that section with this:
<PolParties>
 <Party ID="Left">
  <PartyName>Democrat</PartyName>
  <PartyNamePlural>Democrats</PartyNamePlural>
  <PartyImage>Democrats.png</PartyImage>
  <PartyColor COLOR="Red">10</PartyColor>
  <PartyColor COLOR="Green">10</PartyColor>
  <PartyColor COLOR="Blue">255</PartyColor>
 </Party>
 <Party ID="Indy">
  <PartyName>Republican</PartyName>
  <PartyNamePlural>Republicans</PartyNamePlural>
  <PartyImage>Republicans.png</PartyImage>
  <PartyColor COLOR="Red">255</PartyColor>
  <PartyColor COLOR="Green">10</PartyColor>
  <PartyColor COLOR="Blue">10</PartyColor>
 </Party>
 <Party ID="Right">
  <PartyName>Independent</PartyName>
  <PartyNamePlural>Independents</PartyNamePlural>
  <PartyImage>Independent.png</PartyImage>
  <PartyColor COLOR="Red">128</PartyColor>
  <PartyColor COLOR="Green">128</PartyColor>
  <PartyColor COLOR="Blue">128</PartyColor>
 </Party>
</PolParties>

Now save the file as USAModernIndyVsDem.PM2ScenarioXML

Reload the original c:/program files/stardock/TotalGaming/The Political Machine 2008/Data/English/Scenarios/USAModern.PM2ScenarioXML file

Change the <ScenarioName> line to say:

<ScenarioName>Campaign 2008 - Indy vs. Rep</ScenarioName>

Replace the <PolParties> section with this:
<PolParties>
 <Party ID="Indy">
  <PartyName>Democrat</PartyName>
  <PartyNamePlural>Democrats</PartyNamePlural>
  <PartyImage>Democrats.png</PartyImage>
  <PartyColor COLOR="Red">10</PartyColor>
  <PartyColor COLOR="Green">10</PartyColor>
  <PartyColor COLOR="Blue">255</PartyColor>
 </Party>
 <Party ID="Right">
  <PartyName>Republican</PartyName>
  <PartyNamePlural>Republicans</PartyNamePlural>
  <PartyImage>Republicans.png</PartyImage>
  <PartyColor COLOR="Red">255</PartyColor>
  <PartyColor COLOR="Green">10</PartyColor>
  <PartyColor COLOR="Blue">10</PartyColor>
 </Party>
 <Party ID="Left">
  <PartyName>Independent</PartyName>
  <PartyNamePlural>Independents</PartyNamePlural>
  <PartyImage>Independent.png</PartyImage>
  <PartyColor COLOR="Red">128</PartyColor>
  <PartyColor COLOR="Green">128</PartyColor>
  <PartyColor COLOR="Blue">128</PartyColor>
 </Party>
</PolParties>

Save this file as USAModernIndyVsRep.PM2ScenarioXML

This will give you 2 new scenarios where you can play as:

+ independent vs. a republican
+ independent vs. democrat

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You could do a similar trick for all the other scenarios too.

NOTE: This only renames one party as "Independents," so it will look like states will have a large support for "Independent" candidates.
For example, if it's the "indy vs rep" scenario, NY would have high support for Indies since it is mostly a democrat state, and it would look like it supported Indies more than Democrats.  Also, it would look like the party that replaced the independent party might support or disapprove things they normally wouldn't.

So it may not be perfect, but at least you can get the appearance as running as an independent.

Also, having extra scenario files may prevent you from playing multiplayer.  The game will detect it as modified files.
If you only play single player, it wouldn't be a problem.  You could always move the files out of the scenario folder when you want to play multiplayer, too.

Is there any chance of having three possible candidates in a single game, one for each party and the Independent?

Also, for my "independent" scenarios, I went with the Green Party vs. Republican and Libertarian vs. Democratic, and changed each parties' colors.

I'm afraid not.  Without a major coding change, there is no way to have 3 candidates on the map at the same time competing against each other.

 

What planet is this on?  Here they have no chance.  They don't put in the work on the statewide level to get candidates there.  In Canada and England the third parties have people in their parliaments.  Don't complain about the system and do nothing to change it.  Let's see some state legislators and national congressmen before you think we have to hand a national election to you.

And in English politics, the Liberal Democrats (the major third party) still aren't seen as a serious party. It's all very well having promising parties which have good policies on paper, but unless you get amazing circumstances like George W Bush being the Republican bet for reelection this year, you will never have a major rebellion in either party where they set up a third group. Even if they did, it would only last one election.

 

Third parties are nice to think about, but as far as a strategic game goes, they're only aesthetic. It would be nice to see areas where third parties are more dominant harder to turn from independant. For instance, the Green Party could make California harder for a Republican to pull off a coup without really embracing the environment. But how many third parties even come near to winning a single state?

No independent has taken a state since '68 with regional candidate George Wallace taking several states in the south.  Since then there have been only two instances of an independent having any effect on the election.  In '92 Ross Perot took nearly 20% of the vote nationally but not enough to win any states.  He got about half of that support in 1996 but was really not a spoiler in any states.  In 2000 Ralph Nader had less than 3% of the vote nationally, but in certain areas he syphoned enough votes from Gore to give those states to Bush, notably Florida, Nevada and New Hampshire.  In '48 Strom Thurmon took some southern states, but those would have gone to the eventual winner Truman normally.  Probably the most famous third party movement of the 20th century was actually a power struggle within the Republican Party between TR and Taft in 1912. 

No third party has had a movement to become a force within American politics on a grass roots level by building a base of candidates for local, county and state elections since the days when the Republican party split from the Whigs in the 1850's.  Until they make this effort, it is correct to leave them out of any simulations except as disaffected voters who do not choose either of the major party candidates.

I would like to be able to have third partys agenst me. It would make it harder to win which would be more fun.

Unfortunate that it is hardcoded this way.   I think there is enough interest from a players standpoint that it should have been included.   

That said, as a bloc of combined parties, the third party candidates do influence the election somewhat.  They siphon a percentage of votes from the democratic, republican and the independent parties.   This creates a certain degree of uncertainty, particularly in close races and possibly in some areas where independents have a higher than usual strength or awareness levels of the major party politicians are lower.  

Is there any way to modify a file to represent this by setting maximum awareness levels, or other means?