Readme.txt Oval Office
====================================
This is the 'readme' file for the PC game 'Oval Office' made by positech games.

This game was designed and coded by one guy, working full time - Cliff Harris, an indie developer from the UK. He used to work at Elixir and Lionhead, and before that he built boats and taught people to play the guitar. 

disclaimer:
==========
we make no warranty whatsoever that this software is safe to run on any machine. even though is almost entirely impossible that our software would cause you any problems, we accept no responsibility if it indirectly burns down your house or causes you to spontaneously combust or any other problems of any kind whatsoever. You run it at your own risk.
But seriously, it doesn't do anything unusual, The chances of this game interfering with other software you have is pretty much zero.

licence and legal gubbins:
===========================
The user is granted a licence by us to run this software, enjoy it, and even show it to friends. You don't have the freedom to make copies for other people. The software is copyright 2007 positech computing. its an original work, we made it, don't steal it.  The artwork and sounds in this game are protected by copyright. It is strictly forbidden to re-use any of the artwork or sounds created for this game in commercial or freeware products.
You can freely copy the DEMO version for your friends. If you want to back it up onto CD for your own use, that's fine.
but don't rip us off ok? We aren't Sony or Microsoft, we need the money. If you like the demo, please buy the game. My cats need food and so do I. Sales of this game literally pay my rent. If you like the game, persuade your friends to buy it too. This game is pretty cheap, by ensuring people do not pirate it, you ensure that we can afford to make more games like it in future. Please don't support piracy of games, most developers are leaving the PC for the consoles due to PC game piracy> help convince me I'm doing the right thing by sticking with the best games platform out there -> the PC.

Credits:
========
Character Artwork -> http://narcissisticstudios.com/
Logo -> http://spriteattack.cator.de/
Music -> Jesse Hopkins
Everything else -> Cliff Harris.

PR & Press
==========
The game designer is a shameless attention seeker who is happy to do interviews etc, contact him at submit@positech.co.uk if you have a website or magazine or global TV network and want to feature this game, its creator etc in any way whatsoever.

Political Notes:
===============
This game was designed to be politically neutral. If you think that the designer is a pinko-liberal bearded communist or a cigar-chomping eton-educated capitalist swine, then you are likely just reading too much into it. Everyone has political views but I've tried to keep mine out of the game. Feel free to debate which of the policies and bits of code in the game are wrong at our website. You can easily mod the game (the data is just text) if there are one or two things in it that offend you.

build notes
===========
beta 1.0
--------
	initial release
beta 1.01
---------
	Fixed missing top gui strip and pop bar in the play guide.
	Added support for number pad keys to enter reg codes.
	Clarified some of the tutorial text.
	Added readme.txt.
	Fixed some typos.
	Fixed bug where the polls bar and top gui strip appeared overlaid on the new game screen
	Added tooltips for the situation icons on the start dialog.
	Fixed shutdown bug
	Enabled player to skip a hint window on the menu screens using the escape key.
	Prevented minister;s loyalty going outside 0-1
	Removed redundant terrorism icon and added missing antisocial behavior icon.
	Changed to a more sensible order of menu buttons (cheers Juul)
	Prevented right click menu from appearing in wrong place, and fixed it's text.
	Disabled right click menus next turn button when dilemmas are active.
	Sped up some translation code.
	Added option to toggle voter graphs to show membership as well as happiness.
beta 1.02
---------
	Added dept name to minister chooser.
	Fixed mouseover highlighting on minister chooser.
	Changed literacy so it has a more sensible effect on productivity.
	Fixed missing description for carbon tax.
	Fixed mouseover for party hint window.
	Fixed bug where you can click hidden icons in the tutorial.
	Fixed exploit where escape key closed election window.
	Fixed bug where people mentioned in dilemmas have 2 names.
	Edited some values for Zambeezia.
	Newer graphics for various GUI elements.
	Fix for wrongly disabled right click button, and fixed text.
	New screen after an election shows who voted for you.
	Fixed bug where buttons were always clickable on new policy screen.
	Stopped showing connections whose effects were negligible.
	Fixed bug where policy costs and incomes were zero on loading in a game.
	Made tobacco tax take longer to reduce smokers frequency.
	Fixed fluctuating population and party membership bug in save games.
	Fixed bug where term length, custom slider edits and currencies were not saved if player had altered them.
	Added extra firework sound.
	Support for swapped mouse buttons.
	New installer graphic.
	Adjusted influences on church attack event.
	Added ability for player to edit country names.
	Fixed missing text on manifesto window.
	Adjusted free eye tests policy. contagious disease and church attacks effects.
	Fixed Esc key policy adjustment exploit.
	Removed some debug buttons.
	Added tooltip to popularity bar.
	Added clearer explanation of policy implementation.
	Made sim value icons change color when mouseovered.
	Fixed missing image for terrorists captured event.
	
1.0
----------
	New Exe Icon.
	Renamed exe to Democracy2.exe.
	Added some more policy slider text.
	Removed some files from installer that were no longer used.
	Spell checking!
	Fixed bug where election win music would never be triggered.
	Prevented some double fade effects.
	Prevented multiple resignations per turn.
	Made Gods Kingdom Achievement harder.
	Fixed bug where you could re-employ a resigend minister.
	Fixed bug where high C02 emissions seen as a good thing.
	Numerous policy effect tweaks.
	Changed a lot of mission settings to add variety, and adjusted numerous situation influences and effects
	Added support for more than 10 missions through modding.
	
1.01
---------
	Fixed bug where you can click the wrong buttons during tutorial.
	Fixed missing images for demo dialog.
	Fixed bug where mouse clicks failed after you lost an election.
	Fixed bug on loading save games (manifesto option not found).
	Added variable political capital for each action.
	Player can now set initial slider value for new policies as they choose without penalty.
	Fixed nonsense results on post-election window where a voter group was reduced to zero members.
	Fixed bug where mouseover effect failed on dilemma option buttons.
	
1.02
---------
	Fixed bug where election was seen as imminent on reports just after an election was won.	
	Changed election text to not say 'years' in case 1 year term was selected.
	Changed the description of violent crime.
	Fixed bug where save and resume buttons dissapeared if you had started by loading in a saved game.
	Fixed crash bug when banning tobacco adverts.
	Changed load game screen to use last modified time rather than creation time.
	Fixed bug where some simulation values could go below 0 when they were suppsoed to have a 0 minimum.
	Fixed bug where the values of some taxes could be scaled wrong the first turn after loading a game.
	Added new option to browse potential ministers withou firing someone first.
	Fixed bug where slider values could be wrong with sliders that have discrete notches in them. (also loading in invalid values)
	Added support for new names files, and added russian and spanish names to existing missions
	
1.03
---------
	Fixed bug that meant ministers were more miserable than they should have been.
	Fixed unlimited power mode for new policies.
	Fixed bug where loading save games seemed to half-randomise ministerial sympathies.
	Fixed crash bug (unscripted function) in approval of alcohol advert ban.
	Changed bus subsidies so they affect usage of cars but not air quality directly.
	Reduced font size for ministers name on policy screens.
	Fixed bug where security isnt assessed correctly just after a load.
	Proper loading of pressure group membership now.
	Fixed crash bug with certain video cards.

1.04
---------
	Fixed bug where text from an intel report is visible through the manifesto window.
	Fixed bug where certain dilemma effects were wrong when first selected.
	
1.05
---------
	Made minimum wage law increase chances of a cheap imports problem.
	Adde pre-requisites system and changed numerous policies and situations for greater balancing. including...
	Increased child care costs and linked them to GDP.
	Border controls can now affect tourism boom.
	Added complacency and per-voter cynicism.
	Linked Married tax allowance costs to GDP.
	Increased ID card scheme costs.
	New Positech Logo!
	Save games now save out overall vote histories.Fixed typo in maternity pay slider (thanks tom)
	Winter fuel now reduces poverty (thanks tom)
	Fixed typo is satellite road pricing (thanks tom)
	Fixed typo in foreign president dilemma (thanks Bip)
	Added slider for sound effects volume (thanks Bip)
	Policies now quote amounts per turn not per month which was incorrect (Thanks Bip)
	You can now click the entries on the pie chart key to go to an item, and the old window is underneath.(Thanks Bip)
	Added Term limits to the game, adjustable in new game screen. (Thanks tom)

1.06
---------
	New firework effects
	Fixed bug where policies income that was tied to certain group sizes did not calculate correctly.
	Fixed bug where some people could be liberals and conservatives or socialists and capitalists at the same time.
	Fixed mod loading code so that events in the mod directory are loaded in correctly.
	
1.07
---------
	Better performance on some lower-end cards.
	Fixed bug where events and dilemmas with pre-requisites were never triggered.
	Added new /mods/bitmaps directory to keep mods more organised.
	Fixed bug where situations did not save and load their history.
	Added support for loading sliders and situations from the mods directory too.
	Fixed bug where the fireworks would sometimes cause the election screen to freeze.
	Added some very basic mod tools 
		Ctrl + SHIFT + E shows events, or S shows situations and D shows dilemmas. click one to see a breakdown.
	Fixed a bug which sometimes generated an assasination warning with empty text.
	Fixed demo bug where after playing through the demo you could not go through it again without restarting.
	
1.08
---------
	Fixed bug relating to assasinations with no text
	Fixed bug where escape key let you keep playing after election defeat when hit on the detailed results screen


1.09
--------
	Made small business grants gradually reduce number of socialists
	Support added for scrolling for modded-in achievements
	Fixed bug where fireworks did not show any more on the achievement screen.
	Tweaked various policies to effect the number of capitalists and socialists.
	Better effects for speed camera policy and carbon tax
	New effects to prevent contradictory situation showing up
	
1.10
-------
	Fixed things so situations with recursive inputs load in properly.
	
1.11
-------
	Fixed some formatting and input issues with the mod tools (ctrl+shift S and D and E).
	Adjusted the effectiveness of free eye tests and free school meals to reduce effects on poverty and the poor.
	Recycling now improves air quality slightly.
	Reduced effects of pensions and free bus passes on happiness of retired people.
	Added support for modded (new) simulation values, and changed formatting of csv file so they can have inputs defined as well.
	Added Internet Crime Situation.
	Adjusted community policing so it represents a lesser, and slower-acting policy.
	Raising speed limits now slightly increases carbon emmissions.
	Clarified some order page text and only allow player to enter numbers and dashes, not letters.
	Minor graphical tweak to policy selection list.

1.12
-------
	Change title.bmp to a jpg and changed compression on some files to reduce filesize.
	Fixed bug where the timeline progress bar didnt work on a loaded game with a long term ength, and other problems relating to that. Sadly this b0rks savegames.
	
1.13
-------
	Reverted jpg back to a bmp for intel cards
	
1.14
-------
	Fixed crash bug regarding loading a saved game that used non standard voter names, and then accessing voter group details. Sadly this also renders older saves unloadable.
	
1.15
-------
	Fixed some code that caused graphics corruption on some intel video cards

1.16
-------
	Added new optional system for decreasing political capital 'honeymoon' period so as to make the game easier at the start and harder as you stay in office.
	Fixed a rare crash bug where there are modded bitmaps and the player has a long windows username (and thus mydocuments path).
	Fixed crash bug relating to laoding save games and viewing voters, and where multiple games started after each other screwed up the names voters had.
	
1.17
-------
	Added in support for modding entirely new voter types using text files!
	Added in converted D1 USA mission
	
1.171
-------
	Performance optimisations for the choose game screen, to improve frame rate on low-end cards.
1.172
-------
	Fix for graphics glitches on minister screen.
	Slight optimisation of the main interface for when most icons dissapear.
	Collapsed 8 of the icons into 1 texture to speed up main interface slightly.

1.18
-------
	Fixed bug where dilemmas cant be ignored but F6 ignores them anyway,.
	Fixed text for the royal scandal dilemma.
	Fixed some poor choice of values for the rail strikes situation
	Added links between alcohol tax and law and the crime and violent crime rates
	upgraded sound engine

Cheers

Cliff.

