Reference: Formulas

Complete formula reference for A House Divided. All values are sourced directly from game code. Formulas marked with (*) use diminishing-return normalization curves: see the normalization section below.

Primary score formulas

State-level primary score

Used for: US House, US Senate, US Governor, US State Senate, UK Commons, UK Regional Council, DE Bundestag, JP Shūgiin, JP Sangiin.

Maximum: 100 points (raw), then multiplied by an penalty.

Component	Range	Formula
(state)	0 to 25	`max(0, 25 − (
Alignment (party)	0 to 15	`max(0, 15 − (
	0 to 35	`(favorability / 100) × 35`
	0 to 25	`normalizeNPI(politicalInfluence) × 25` (*)

Alignment splits into two: 25 pts on the state's cached economic/social , 15 pts on party platform.
When the state has no cached lean, scoring falls back to a single 40-pt party-only alignment: max(0, 40 − (|econDiff_party| + |socialDiff_party|) × 2.0).
Final score = raw × (1 − 0.05 × min(100, max(0, infamy))/100), a 5% reduction at infamy=100.

Quick alignment reference (state-vs-state-lean OR state-vs-party):

Manhattan distance	State alignment (0 to 25)	Party alignment (0 to 15)	Fallback (0 to 40)
0	25	15	40
2	22.5	13.5	36
5	18.75	11.25	30
10	12.5	7.5	20
20	0	0	0

penalty: When at least one player is in the same party's primary, all NPP candidates in that primary receive a ×0.5 multiplier on their total score. An NPP with a raw score of 70 competes at an effective 35 against you. NPPs aren't subject to the infamy penalty.

Presidential primary score

Used for: US President only.

Maximum: 100 points

Component	Range	Formula
Alignment (party only)	0 to 40	`max(0, 40 − (
Party Influence	0 to 20	`normalizePartyInfluencePresidentialPrimary(partyInfluence) × 20` (reference scale: partyInfluence 150)
National Reach	0 to 15	`normalizeNationalReachPresidentialPrimary(NPI) × 15` (*)
Favorability	0 to 25	`(favorability / 100) × 25`

Same infamy penalty applies on the final score. Key differences from the state formula:

No state-position alignment: presidential primaries are national, only the party platform matters.
Alignment stays dominant at 40 pts, so parties still favor candidates who agree with them.
Favorability is worth 25 points, high enough to matter but never enough on its own to outweigh alignment.
Party influence and national reach split the rest (20 and 15 pts), with party influence still outranking raw reach.
NPI normalization curve is different: uses a diminishing-returns curve 1 − exp(−NPI/45) (normalizeNationalReachPresidentialPrimary), not the sqrt curve that state PI uses. The diminishing shape keeps favorability and reach meaningful against a moderate NPI gap.

Canvassing formula

Cost: ₳100 + 1 action. Home state / region only.

baseBoost        = 0.05 (percentage points)
distance         = |charEcon − demoEcon| + |charSocial − demoSocial|
alignmentMult    = max(0.1, 1.0 − distance × 0.15)
seasonMult       = isCampaignSeason ? 2.0 : 1.0
rawBoost         = baseBoost × alignmentMult × seasonMult
adjustedBoost    = rawBoost × (1 − |currentModifier| / 20)   // diminishing returns
newModifier      = clamp(currentModifier + adjustedBoost, −20, +20)

Campaign season = election active with endTime within 4 hours (4 turns)
Cap: ±20 percentage points turnout modifier
Decay: 2% of current value per turn toward zero

Alignment multiplier table:

Manhattan distance	Alignment multiplier
0	1.0 ×
3	0.55 ×
5	0.25 ×
6.6+	0.1 × (floor)

Campaign ops trees

Fundraising, Ground Game, Media Spending, and Opposition Research are each a branch tree on the campaign page (/campaign/[id]), not a flat level ladder. Each tree unlocks a starter node, then up to three further branches (for example Media Spending's Broadcast and Television branches, Opposition Research's Dossier, Scandal Leak, and Counter-Intel). Branch magnitudes stack with the starter and with each other. Maintenance is deducted from campaign funds each turn; branches that can't be covered auto-downgrade rather than collapsing the whole tree, with no refund.

Full per-tree cost and effect tables, current to the live constants: Campaign Strategy and Campaign Manager.

Campaign season multiplier: All campaign passive effects (Media Spending, Opposition Research, Travel Presence, Primary Campaign bonus) double during the final 4 turns of an election.

Vote accumulation (general elections)

Per-turn vote pool weighting

Early band:
  turnPool = 0.50 × totalPool / earlyTurnCount

Ramp band (up to 8 turns before the final band):
  turnPool = 0.20 × totalPool / rampTurnCount

Final 4 turns:
  turnPool = 0.30 × totalPool / 4

The final 4 turns collectively deliver 30% of all votes cast in an election. Races of 4 turns or fewer split the pool evenly.

Total appeal pipeline (per demographic group, per candidate, per turn)

reach         = normalizeNPI(influence)         // sqrt curve, capped at 1.0 when PI/NPI reaches 100
positionRaw   = max(0, 50 − |econDiff|×5 − |socialDiff|×5)
positionScore = 25 × (positionRaw / 50)^1.5 + 0.5
direction     = up to 5 per aligned ideological axis
influenceAppeal = includeInfluence ? normalizeNPI(influence) × 12.5 : 0
appeal        = positionScore + direction + influenceAppeal
effectiveFav  = clamp(favorability + groupApproval × 0.5, 0, 100)
approval      = (effectiveFav / 100)^0.8
orgShare      = statePartyOrg / sum(all party Org in the state)
partyOrg      = orgShare^0.2
personalFloor = 0.1 × reach × approval
effectiveOrg  = max(partyOrg, personalFloor)
infamyMult    = 1 − 0.05 × (min(100, max(0, infamy))/100)
weight        = appeal × reach × approval × effectiveOrg × infamyMult × other configured general-election factors

State races use influence for reach but not influenceAppeal; presidential generals include it. Directional bonuses are continuous around the center and may be suppressed when a leaning candidate points against their party on that axis. General-election factors also include registration resistance, seeded registration baseline, candidate Support, campaign presence, NPP and regime multipliers, and race-specific coattails where configured.

Office strength multipliers

Office	Strength weight
Governor	1.0
President	1.0
House / State Senate	0.9 / 0.85
Senate	0.8

NPI normalization (*)

Political Influence (PI) and National Political Influence (NPI) pass through normalizing curves before use in formulas. normalizeNPI is a sqrt curve clamped to [0, 100]: meaningful spread at the high end, hard-capped at 1.0:

PI value	normalizeNPI output
0	0.00
25	0.50
50	~0.71
85	~0.92
99	~0.995
100	1.00 (cap)
200+	1.00 (clamped)

normalizeNPI is used by state-level primary scoring AND by general-election reach (state and presidential).

Presidential primaries use a separate curve (normalizeNationalReachPresidentialPrimary): diminishing returns via 1 − exp(−NPI/45). NPI=25 → 0.426, NPI=55 → 0.706, NPI=80 → 0.831, NPI=100 → 0.892, NPI=200 → 0.988. Above the high end the curve continues to creep toward 1.0 but never reaches it, so the celebrity-bonus regime is naturally bounded.

Party organization scalars

(0 to 100) affects:

Effect	Formula
General election vote weight	`(ownOrg / totalStateOrg) ^ 0.2`
Personal floor	`max(orgWeight, 0.1 × reach × approval)`
Presidential primary score	Party Org does not enter; party influence and national reach are separate components

An empty state Org map gives every party a neutral 1× fallback. In a populated map, a party with 0 Org has 0 Org weight before the personal floor. A 3:1 Org lead produces about a 1.25:1 Org-weight advantage because of the 0.2 exponent.

Turnout modifier decay

Each turn: newModifier = currentModifier × 0.98

Effect accumulates over turns:

Turns since	Modifier remaining
0	100%
4	~92%
10	~82%
20	~67%

Reference: Turn Order: phase execution order.
Election Mechanics: full election structure and vote accumulation.
Primaries: declaration rules and NPP dynamics.
Canvassing: turnout boost formula in detail.
Campaign Strategy: upgrade tables and action allocation.