Dev Blog: Get schooled, kid!

[p]Hello again![/p][p]We hope all of you are enjoying zooming around Calicornia in the transportation options we introduced in our last update, as well as investing unwisely in the Stock Market to see your hard-earned money disappear to appease the bankers. We're aware that the new systems require a bit of tuning and we'll be making some fixes to them in the next days.[/p][p]But we're not here to tell you about some tweaks to existing systems - yawn-o-rama, am I right?[/p][p]We're here to tell you about some of the new stuff we're working on! Specifically a system that we feel is a bit undercooked at the moment. Raw, even, and not in a "this dude is raw!" sort of way, but more of a "this chicken is raw and I'm going to die" sort of way.
[/p][p][/p][p]So far, the education system has mostly been a gating mechanic to unlock more advanced jobs and to gain score at the end of the game. The system is boring, shallow, and doesn't offer any interesting choices.[/p][p][/p][p]To spice things up, we will be introducing diploma courses in our next update — a new feature for each school tier that will give you different benefits, but will not impact your scoring or access to jobs. The different schools of education will also be shifted into different chambers, where you will have access to each education tier as well as the diploma courses you can take.[/p][p][/p][p]Completing each education tier will reward you with a diploma from that school which you can use to purchase access to a special diploma course. Each school will have two diploma courses, randomly set up at the start of each game, that you can select between, as these courses will cost you the diploma. If you’re not interested in completing these courses, you can always head to the pawn shop and pawn your diploma for some extra cash, but this will allow other players to purchase your diploma and use it to enter a course themselves![/p][p][/p][p]So why bother with these diploma courses if they don’t offer any score or further your education? Well, each one will offer you a special trait that will benefit you in the game, be it extra salary, decreased attribute hits for working, or decreasing the time it takes to manage your beloved pet to name a few. [/p][p]We have also added requirements to the more advanced school tiers, where in addition to completing the preceding school to start the next one, you will also need to have certain things in your home to participate in the more advanced classes. A computer is required for the 2nd tier of education, and a computer and the home library is required for the 3rd tier of education. How annoyingly immersive![/p][p]This is just a preview of one of the things dropping with the next update, so stay tuned! Until next time, you can wonder about where you will encounter the following action:

[/p][p]See you again, sooner than you'd prefer![/p]