This Grand Life 2 News

The social and relationships overhaul is turning out to be more extensive than anticipated, so once again I've released the update on the experimental branch first.

Every character now has three possible relationship types with every other character - biological, legal and romantic. When starting a new game there is a new setup page for specifying these relationships:



In addition to the existing opinion value, a new "attraction" value has been added. When the relevant interaction choice is activated, potential partners will observe and judge your every move.

If a potential partner loves Spirituality, then sitting on a bench will make you more attractive to them. If they hate Eating, they will be disgusted by excessive food consumption habits.



The attraction system naturally extends to the jobs you might be motivated to pursue - has someone with a Prestige addiction caught your eye? Find work as a Surgeon or Investment Banker and they will fall madly in love.



Finally, the new Marriage passion gives you options for starting and ending a government-recognized union between two people.

The default branch has been updated and is now the same as the experimental one. I have also added a new branch "v0.59.09" in case you want to play existing saves without the new endgame changes.

In addition to the changes mentioned in the two previous posts (Post 1, Post 2), this update replaces the Tourism industry with the Government industry. Many industry tags have been adjusted to suit. If you are loading an existing save you will see slight discrepancies, for example the "Hotels and Resorts" stock market companies being affected by the Government instead of Entertainment industry.

You can also embrace the new Mass Protest passion. Take up the Lead Protest goal to generate Influence points for a more grassroots method of influencing government policies.



Now that the endgame has been fleshed out, I'll be turning my attention to the not-so-financial aspects of life such as a proper family tree and "romantic attraction" system.


[h2]v0.61.01[/h2]
[h3]Rivals, Influence And Policies[/h3]

• Overhaul Rivals, Influence and Policies window
  
• Add rivals and rankings
  
• Add business and real estate competition from rivals and public
  
• Competition affects business awareness costs and real estate rental prices
  
• Rivals support or oppose proposed policies
  
• Rivals buy / sell stocks, real estate and businesses depending on economic conditions and competition
  
• Influence points generated from player business influence operations
  
• Influence points generated from stock ownership shareholder activism
  
• Influence points generated from some jobs and activities
  

[h3]Stock Market[/h3]

• Change stock market generation to have more evenly distributed and lower market caps at game start
  
• Increase maximum ownership of stock in one company from 20% to 25%
  
• Add sorting stocks by market cap
  
• Buying / selling stocks immediately changes market price caused by player's trading
  
• Prevent player from buying more stock than they can afford, taking into account market price change and trading fees
  
• Fix dividends not being removed from the market price of stocks the player doesn't own
  

[h3]New Content[/h3]

• Add DEGREE:Communications education
  
• Add jobs Radio Host, Journalist, Accounts Manager, Music Director, Public Relations Specialist, Private Investigator
  
• Add business Online Radio Station and Investigation Services
  
• Add Speaking Made Easy course to Town Hall
  
• Add Mass Protest passion and related goals/activities
  

[h3]Content Changes[/h3]

• Replace Tourism industry with Government industry and change a bunch of industry tags for jobs to match
  
• Add Energy industry impact to Plumbing and Electrical related jobs and business
  
• Add industries related to each job and business in City Explorer
  
• Add industry tags to Sales Legends! and Influencing People 101 courses
  
• Rename Executive Assistant job to Office Manager
  
• Rename Supply Government Buildings contract to Supply Government
  
• Removed Join Protest from normal activities and added it to Mass Protest passion
  
• Player business work hours multiplier at 0% Brand Awareness lowered from 20% to 5%
  
• Player business increase max work hours for Mortgage Brokerage, Financial Planner, Medical Clinic, Music School, Cafe and Hair Salon
  

[h3]Other Changes[/h3]

• Game force pauses when rename business popup appears
  
• Alert indicator added if player business has work hours remaining but no work activity for over 160 hours
  
• Improve site highlighting animations
  
• Birthday preference choices algorithm adjusted to avoid repeating the same preference change in two different choices
  
• Birthday status choices decreased by 1 and preference choices increased by 1
  
• Lowered interest rate on Certificate Of Deposit
  
• Fix happiness/health change arrows from character panel animating on top of other windows
  
• Fix Recording Equipment asset not consuming Electricity
  
• Fix tooltip sometimes becoming semi-transparent when sites on map being highlighted
  

The Rivals, Influence and Policies overhaul is now available on the Experimental Branch and the relevant Discord channel is open again.

I have added a temporary mod "Instant Millionaire" which can be enabled if you want to skip to the new stuff on a fresh game. Note your old saves are still compatible, but the stock market will go through an adjustment period.



In addition to the mechanics mentioned previously, there are some other notable changes.

Some jobs and activities can generate influence points. This simulates things like a Religious Preacher telling their congregation to support a policy proposal, or a University Professor debating the merits of a policy with their class.



Each business and real estate type has a Competition Index representing the strength of competitors in the city. Higher competition makes business brand awareness more expensive and harder to maintain. It also lowers real estate rents.



To complement the new mechanics, the Online Radio Station is a new player business with exceptional influence point generation capabilities, especially if your household members perform the work of Radio Host and Journalist themselves!

Today I'll be talking about the next major feature currently being worked on - an overhaul of the endgame Rivals, Influence and Policies system.

The new features discussed below are still in active development and details may change. Similar to the previous Passions update, it will be put on the Experimental branch first (I'll make a separate announcement when that is ready in 2-4 weeks).

[h3]Rivals[/h3]

We start with the introduction of Rivals.



These are other households or groups of investors that spawn once you pass the "rich" threshold and unlock the Rivals, Influence and Policies window. They own varying amounts of stocks, real estate and businesses and make investment decisions based on economic conditions.



Each rival has different views that will affect their support or opposition to proposed policy changes.



In general, they will support industry policies in their own self interest. For example, a rival who owns Cafes will support investment in the Food Service industry.



On the other hand when it comes to city policies, you'll see a wider variety of views. Some rivals might believe raising employee wages will hurt their competitors more than themselves and thus support Union Encouragement. Others might feel strongly about issues affecting the general public, like better Universal Healthcare. Don't assume all rivals will act like ruthless capitalists!


[h3]Influence[/h3]

Currently, the amount of influence you have is directly proportional to your net worth. This will be changing so influence becomes a value that must be actively generated. There are a few ways to generate influence.

Firstly, you can enable Influence Operations at your businesses.



This represents anything from plastering supportive posters at your Gym to angrily ranting as a radio host at your Online Radio Station. Not everyone will agree with your views, and over time your business reputation will be damaged by these operations. It might be prudent to only mobilise your businesses for influence generation when you have a policy outcome in mind.

Similarly, you can enable Shareholder Activism once you own at least 5% of a company listed on the Stock Market.



Shareholder activism is where a shareholder uses their equity in the company to influence the company's actions. Similar to Influence Operations, there is a cost associated with interference and the company's earnings will suffer in the long term. This opens up a potential strategy where you can purchase a stake in a company that a rival is also invested in, then enable Shareholder Activism to generate influence for yourself while destroying the company from the inside to hurt your rival!