I've played PF before and it has similar game mechanics from an overall point of view.

I think The Political Machine could use more specifics in terms of what units do.

Having given this some though ttoday here are some examples:

1) The advertisement screen doesn't ever explain what the difference between the difference types of ads. We need to have a place on the screen that displays what the ads do (example):

TV ads: +/- 2 points to your position on a given issue + 2% change each week + 2% change in awareness in the state and 1% each week in awareness in adjacent states.

Should also say something like "lower's candidate's appeal with Democrats" instead of "lowers democrat appeal" which is vague. Or better yet Raises your appeal with Democrats. And when you target opponent it should say "Lowers opponent's appeal with Democrats".

2) Same thing when you make a campaign speech. No information is given about what they dy.

3) Units should have a "details" button that brings up their screen which explains what they do.

4) The fund raising screen should display how many times you've fund raised that state since that greatly affects how much money you'll get from that state.

5) Campaign HQ needs to be more clear too. Example: Level 1 HQ raises your awareness in state by +1% per week. Level 2 does +2% per week and +1% to adjacent states. And level 3 does 4% per week and 2% in adjacent states.

6) State details screen needs an area that shows why one player is winning.

Key factors that need to be shown: Population that is Dem, Rep, and Indie. Your awareness vs. Opponent Awareness. And your points on the various issues vs. his points.

The Political Machine does model those things. The problem IMO is that it doesn't display this clearly enough to the player.

The status screen isn't in yet which will come up every game month (every 4 turns) letting you know which isues people are really getting riled up about and what each campaign has done.

The mechanics are fairly straight forward:

You have awareness which is the % of people who have heard of you.

You then have your position on a given issue: 0 means you're neutral. - points means you're against it and positive points you're for it. The higher your points in any direction the more aware people are of your position on that.

Meanwhile, the people in the various states have the same thing based on their political persuasion (Democrats, Republicans, and Indies). - means they're against it + means they're for it and the higher the number in either direction the more they care abou tit.

When you take out advertisements on a given issue, you do the following: You add an immediate point out (+1, +2, or +3 based on the ad in the state but with radio and TV ads giving a bonus value nationally) to your position on the issue plus a % each weak adjustment to it.

So if both candidates have 100% awareness at the end of the game you then go down on each issue and count up the points.

i.e. let's use Michigan and Abortion Rights.

Democrats in Michigan: +15 on Abortion Rights

Republicans in Michigan: -12 on Abortion Rights

Indies in Michigan: +2 on Abortion Rights

Bob Republican's position: -4 on Abortion Rights

Joe Democrat's position: +3 on Abortion Rights

And finally in Michigan 42% of people are Democrats, 33% are Republicans and 25% are Independents (making this up for this example).

So you then multiplay these various factions together and end up with a score on each. The bigger the difference in scores, the bigger the lead.

The issues DO matter becaue the operatives and other things magnify them.

The AI in the builds you have are basically just running around fairly randomly. We're getting the game rules finalized before we put too much energy into the AI.

The issues you pick have popularity with Democrats, Republicans and Independents. You have to pick what issues you back carefully to have maximum impact.  Obviously, when the AI is weak, you don't have to be very careful.