My current project is an American politics/history sim. The closest analogues are Civilization and Crusader Kings. The player will play the role of a single person, with unique skills and traits, and have the ability to run for office (county to federal level), work in unelected government, or focus on achieving party/interest group goals.
What playstyles, if any, would you like to see represented? Any particular features you think the game could not do without?
I plan on starting at 1787 with the adoption of the Constitution. Policies can be set at 3 levels: local, state, and federal, with a specific policy “legal supremacy” determining which of the three takes precedence. Borders of states and territories will be flexible as well, as long as certain other policies are within specified bounds. Policies themselves are just values from 0 to 10, and each AI agent (the player is not alone of course) has specific desire values (also 0 to 10) for policies they care about. Agents can work together to achieve mutual goals, or betray each other's trust via conspiracies (which ideally will be "remembered" by participating agents, allowing for the potential for blackmail on uncovered but still not public plots).
Foreign policy will clearly be necessary, at least to model the acquisition of the West, and ideally more later. I'm not particularly passionate about FP in this game though. My main focus is on letting the player reshape history under alternative visions. What would have happened if slavery had been abolished earlier? Or if the South had won out? (Don't answer these questions, please, just demonstrating my vision)