Patch #1 Notes: Stability, AI fixes, Typing.

Hi everyone,

I've spent the last few days reading every review since launch, especially the critical ones. A lot of the feedback pointed to the same issues, and this update is focused on fixing them. Thanks to everyone who took the time to report bugs and share honest feedback.

Stability & Major Bug Fixes

The biggest fix in this update is a crash that could freeze the game and corrupt your save after a constitutional amendment passed the Senate. If you lost a save because the game locked up during one of those votes, that was the cause, and it's now fixed.

I've also fixed several issues where menus or pop-ups could leave you stuck:

• Decision screens now always have a working Close button and support the Escape key.

• Fixed the Menu button becoming unresponsive on certain screens.

• Fixed the vote-buying screen not visually reacting when an option was selected.

• Fixed the Introduce Bill button on New States legislation doing nothing.

• Fixed City Hall's second budget being mathematically impossible to balance.

• Fixed duplicate cabinet and appointee candidates appearing for the same position.

• Fixed legislation repeatedly offering the same bill (sometimes under a different name).

• Fixed consequence events getting stuck in endless loops instead of resolving properly.

Diplomacy Overhaul

One of the biggest pieces of feedback was that diplomacy felt too rigid. Countries would reject proposals with little explanation, and it wasn't always clear how to improve relations.

I've completely redesigned that system.

New features include:

• Every diplomatic action now shows a detailed scorecard before you commit, so you can see exactly what's helping or hurting your chances.

• Countries now explain why they're rejecting proposals and what you can do to improve relations (for example, lifting sanctions).

• Diplomacy now progresses naturally through stages such as Summits → Joint Statements → Trade Deals → Alliances, rather than jumping straight to alliance requests.

• Relationships now evolve over time based on your actions. Aid, sanctions and alliances all have lasting effects instead of resetting.

• Added a new Standing Report showing goodwill, recent trends and a history of what changed your relationship with each country.

Less Typing, More Governing

I've added quick-response buttons across every governing role:

• Mayor

• Governor

• State House

• Congress

• President

You can still type your own response if you want, but you're no longer forced to.

I've also fixed all 16 campaign trail actions that previously claimed to launch a minigame but didn't actually do anything.

Gameplay Improvements

• Fixed war-related news appearing when you weren't at war.

• Rebalanced unrest events so they now scale with your approval rating instead of firing at roughly the same rate regardless of performance.

• Approval ratings have been reworked to behave much more naturally, with diminishing returns instead of huge swings from every decision.

AI Improvements

The AI has received a significant quality update.

• Fixed occasional garbled or non-English responses.

• Fixed the AI contradicting your own decisions in its narration.

• Fixed incorrect political labels appearing during gameplay.

• Reworked answer grading so it focuses on the quality of your decisions rather than simply how much you typed.

• Faster startup—the AI model now loads only when it's actually needed.

Content & Polish

• Added a shuffled music playlist instead of a single looping track.

• Added a UI text size option for improved readability.

• AI-generated events are far less repetitive.

• Continuation events now correctly follow on from your previous decisions every time.

• The AI now has considerably more context about your game, resulting in more consistent responses.

What's Next?

I'm continuing to work through feedback and reviews one update at a time. If you run into a bug or something still doesn't feel quite right, please let me know here on Steam.

Thanks again to everyone who's supported the game so far. I really appreciate the feedback, and I'll keep improving POTUS Election Sim.

— Dackers Studios