Party Whips

The whip system lets parties and caucuses coordinate both player and NPP voting without turning every vote into a hard override.

Overview#

Whips currently live on:

• national party Whip Room
• state / regional party Whip Room
• caucus Whip tab
• bill detail Whip Panel

Whips are stored in billWhips and can target either:

• character audiences
• npp audiences

Scope#

National Party#

National party leadership can issue whips for:

• federal chambers
• eligible local chambers where the national party still has whip authority

State / Regional Party#

State / regional leadership can issue whips for NPPs in their own geography.

Caucus#

Caucus whips are scoped to caucus members only and behave like a smaller internal whip bloc inside the national party.

Player vs NPP Whips#

Player Whips#

Player whips still support two modes:

• soft -> notification / guidance
• hard -> immediate forced vote write, though the player may later change it

NPP Whips#

NPP whips are intentionally different:

• they interact with autonomous NPP behavior
• soft and hard affect NPPs differently
• they now feed the live bill-voting model instead of relying on a single old compliance threshold

NPP Bill Whips#

Hard Bill Whips#

Hard NPP bill whips are the strong tool.

• they perform a hidden loyalty / stubbornness success roll
• on success, the vote is written immediately in the whip direction
• on failure, the NPP falls back to its normal autonomous bill-voting logic

The hidden roll is intentionally generous so same-party NPPs usually comply, while stubborn or disloyal NPPs still have a real chance to balk.

Soft Bill Whips#

Soft NPP bill whips are advisory.

• they do not immediately force an NPP vote
• instead they add weaker pressure into the NPP's autonomous cross-pressure bill-voting verdict

Soft whips are meant to tip close calls, not fully dominate neutral NPPs by themselves.

Autonomous Bill-Vote Pressure#

When an NPP votes on a bill autonomously, whip pressure is one signed force in the larger cross-pressure model alongside:

• ideology
• home-state / home-region sentiment
• donors

Whip pressure currently follows these intended rules:

• hard party bill whips keep the stronger legacy magnitude
• soft party bill whips use a lower advisory magnitude
• local/state whips take precedence over national whips where both could apply
• caucus bill whips remain scoped to caucus members only

Leadership Elections#

US congressional leadership elections are currently player-only in live NPP behavior.

• NPPs do not autonomously vote in Speaker, House leadership, or Senate leadership elections
• NPP leadership whip helpers still exist in shared code, but NPP congressional leadership voting is not part of the desired current ruleset

Player-facing whip surfaces may still include leadership coordination for player votes. The important intended rule is that NPP congressional leadership votes are not an active simulation system right now.

Defiance#

Whip history is intentionally modeled as a defiance watch, not a permanent compliance ledger.

What Appears#

Only active non-compliance is shown:

• the whip exists
• the target has cast a vote
• that vote currently contradicts the whip

What Clears It#

An active defiance entry disappears when:

• the target changes back into compliance
• the whip becomes irrelevant
• the underlying target closes or is withdrawn

That keeps the surface focused on who is currently defying the line, not on permanent historical shame.

Access Patterns#

Current intended access:

• party members can see the internal whip room on pages they are authorized to access
• state / regional whip rooms are local-scoped
• caucus whip tooling is available from the caucus surface

Related Docs#

• bills-legislation.md
• caucuses.md
• npp-system.md
• parties.md