I like the idea of a goals-focus.
I played the game eRepublik for a while, and it has "formal" goals that candidates select around election time: goals like "conquer (list of regions)" or "population increase to X." Always tangible, measurable things. The game gave tangible rewards if they were accomplished.
BM couldn't work like that. We don't want to give random tangible rewards, and such formal goals seem difficult.
However, maybe a more structured bulletin.
What if, in automated elections, a candidate would be asked to "Post a bulletin" that would serve as a replacement for the current banker bulletin if elected, and be viewable during the referendum. And, when elected, the bulletin would auto-update.
Moreover, what if the game subdivided the bulletin into "Goals" and then "Other." Goals could only be changed at elections. So they get set, and stay the same. The rest of the bulletin as is.
The goals field could be either free-form, or maybe tangible? For the banker, maybe, "Realm tax revenue exceeds X" or "No more than X regions starve before the next election." Simple goals that don't require lots of new code would be best, of course, but might not be meaningful. Goals for a general could be "War chests exceed X" or "CS exceeds X."
If freeform, it'd be simpler, but less powerful a motivator, I think. If formal, it'd be trickier to code, but might be a good team motivator. An info page could be made with "Realm Objectives."
