Empire of Sin News

[h3]Bio[/h3]
Maxim Zelnick is a compulsive problem solver. If he wakes up facing Doomsday, he has it in a vice by breakfast and turning a profit by lunch. In the chaos of prohibition Chicago, he’s the eye of the storm. An accountant for organized crime, there’s no room in his head for a hot temper, that just overcomplicates things. He deals only in two currencies: money and violence. It’s all business.

It didn’t matter to Zelnick that he was born poor, success was always going to be the outcome. As a butcher’s son, he got used to blood and bones from a young age and saw the direct relationship they had with earning a living. His was a head better suited for what he calls ‘real-world numbers’ and he dropped out of school young to hustle a floating dice game around the streets of Brooklyn. By sixteen, his enterprise had him earning more than his father, though he was just as reliant on the butcher’s knife.

He began bookkeeping for the family business after noticing his father’s accountant was skimming their already meager profits. When the accountant disappeared Maxim drew the attention of a local criminal gang. Seemingly the Zelnicks were not the accountant’s only clients. With his handiwork leaving no trace of a body, and his obvious intellect talking around the local heavies, Maxim was offered a new job as an accountant for Murder Inc. The instructions were straightforward, cook the books and trim the fat from the organization.

Zelnick excelled at both. Within a year his sharp eye had doubled their profits and sniffed out the dead weight, leaving no sign of a paper trail. Now, Zelnick’s at the top of his game, but for all his success, he remains tight-lipped about his business and values discretion. Still, he knows what he wants and Chicago is next on the chopping block. As far as he’s concerned, his new venture in this city is just another opportunity with ‘blank cheque’ written all over it.



[h3]Maxim Zelnick’s Choice Cuts[/h3]
The following is a letter taken in evidence by Chicago P.D. It is an alleged correspondence between Mr. [REDACTED], a high-ranking alderman, and Maxim Zelnick. The packages cited in the letter have never been found.

60603 21st Place LK,
Loop, Chicago.

Dear Mr. [REDACTED],
I trust this finds you well. I hope you don’t mind, I took the liberty of procuring your home address. The personal touch may have been lost in transit had this arrived at your office. Worse still, it may have never reached your desk, and with the sensitive nature of this message, I could not risk that happening.
I’m sure you understand. Mr. [REDACTED], I hope you can tell from my decision to contact you directly that I am a fair man, interested in upholding the utmost discretion, provided we can reach an agreement. 

I appreciate that I must be something of a novelty around the city. Having just moved here, there must be some interest among you locals as to my intentions and potential business ventures, so I can understand your inquisitive efforts to find out more. What I do not appreciate, however, is your insistence on plunging your nose into my business. My affairs, business or otherwise, are of no concern of yours, and if I may be direct for a moment, Mr. [REDACTED],to find your employees snooping around my establishments appeared highly unprofessional on your part. 

Still, I was sorry to hear of their disappearance afterward. Missing over four days now, and still no clue as to their whereabouts? It's a shame to think that three grown persons can disappear like that in broad daylight. It’s audacious, really. I can imagine it must be deeply unsettling for you, a high-ranking city official, to feel so defenseless at present, to know that no one in this city is truly untouchable. 

It is why I feel it necessary to forge good relationships having just moved here. In a place as wild as this, it would be helpful to know that there are allies amongst us, that we can help each other out when the time comes. As I’m sure your little birds told you, I was a butcher in a past life. To show you there are no hard feelings between us, and that I know you will not be dabbling in my affairs again, please accept the enclosed as a little peace offering. 

Package #1: Some may recoil at the thought of eating tongue, but I assure you, Mr. [REDACTED], it is a fine cut of meat. Given the quality of this one, in particular, I imagine it was used extensively prior to finding its way to my butcher's counter.

Package #2: Admittedly, limbs are generally the tougher cuts of meat, but I went to the effort of tenderizing this leg for you before dicing and sending it. This is perfect for a stew if you don’t mind a little gristle.

Package #3: This little piggy seemed to be fed well. I took this cut from the shoulder, you can see an abundant marbling through the meat. One for the slow roast, if I may offer a suggestion. 

Package #4: Honestly, there’s not much that can be gleaned from the head, but it could make a nice centerpiece at your next high falutin dinner party. I feel it really makes a statement, don’t you think?

Now Mr. [REDACTED], I’m sure there is a part of you that is only crying out to make a song and dance about all this, but please, there is no need to thank me. There is plenty more where that came from, should I ever find myself in an excess of meat again. Perhaps you and I could do business once I’ve fully settled in. Until then.

Sincerely,

M.Z.


[h2]Introducing the Fixers[/h2]
Maxim Zelnick isn’t the only new face around Chicago. Along with him is a whole new type of gangster that specializes in making problems disappear without raising a bullet storm. Though they may offer roughly the same service, each of these fixers has a different background, traits, and are more diverse than the last. Let’s allow them to introduce themselves.

[h3]Judge Ma “The Pillar” Miller[/h3]
A judge from Arkansas, Judge Miller earned the nickname, “The Pillar”, for being such a pivotal part of her community. Little did the public know, she was a pillar of the criminal underworld, too, using her connections to enrich herself and her criminal compatriots. She believes she can get anywhere with slick talk and the life she’s made for herself has proven it. After being run out of Arkansas by a crusading, idealistic young lawyer, she’s come to Chicago to get back to her old ways. 

[h3]Gertrud Brandt[/h3]
The daughter of a Herero government official and a German artist, Gertrud’s family came to America when she was young. A trans woman, she flourished in New York’s underground scene. The strong community she found fostered a sense of kindness in her as well as a belief in finding one’s tribe. Used to creating spaces for her and her chosen family, through less than legal means, she is a skilled organizer. Brandt has a warm open heart matched by her cold ruthlessness in dealing with those who threaten her and those she cares for. 

[h3]Rachel Steinman[/h3]
Rachel Steinman grew up poor in New York’s Lower East Side and was the only Jewish kid in an Italian neighborhood. Before long her shrewd mind and sharp tongue had her working as a teenage drug dealer, loan shark, and as a numbers runner for a Sicilian crime syndicate. Still, she found her Jewish heritage made her an outsider among the mafia. Rather than letting this destroy her, she turned it to her advantage and moved to Chicago, using her underworld connections to develop with all of the criminal communities in the city, becoming a friend to all, but loyal to none but herself. 

[h3]Dr. Ada Santos Souza[/h3]
Dr. Ada Santos Souza grew up in São Paulo to a wealthy family that fell on hard times. Though her circumstances changed, her tastes did not, and Dr. Souza used her high-class connections to commit high-class crimes, selling museum artifacts on the black market. But, she found a sense of adventure that pushed her to take even greater risks. This resulted in one of her co-conspirators turning her in for their own skin and she tumbled down to the underground where her circle of influence grew larger. Now, with the high-stakes thrill that such a life brings, she has found she may be exactly where she belongs. 

[h3]Dixie Chan[/h3]
A resident Chicagoan, Dixie is the only son of decent law-abiding parents. As lawyers, they worked hard to get their son a good education, though, after years of watching them fight injustice to gain nothing more than squalor and early graves, Dixie vowed never to forgo a good payday in favor of doing the right thing. Becoming a lawyer solely for profit, Dixie found his niche representing criminals desperate to avoid prison and willing to pay anything to find a loophole. As the owner of several properties, with several high-profile criminals on his Christmas card list, Dixie has never looked back. 

Well, that’s all we could squeeze in for this month. While you get yourself acquainted with the new blood, our moles will be out there getting more information for next month’s update. See you then, Boss!

Hey Gangsters!

Everybody still Sinning? Great!

With Make it Count and The Precinct updates getting ever closer, we devs are only dying to know: what are you most excited to see in the new updates?

In previous Dev Diaries, here and here, we let you in on some details about what’s in store for Chicago. Any features in there that you’re really looking forward to? I’ll bet some of you are already thinking of strategies. Tell us all in the comments below or hop over to our forum to leave your thoughts.

Oh, and before we go, we’ll have another Dev Diary coming real soon that’s gonna put the spotlight on one of Chicago’s newest residents. Y’hear that whistle? Sounds like the hype train is rolling into Platform 1.

All Aboard! 😎

Hot from the streets of Chicago we’re back with another bulletin from a city in flux. Bosses are claiming their territories and setting up supply lines. Meanwhile, the police are preparing for a new way to engage with gangs. It’s all about to go off in Chicago, and there’s a bunch to get through. Here goes!

[h2]Precincts[/h2]

As we found out in a previous Dev Diary, precincts are subdivisions of the neighborhood that you control. With a larger chunk of the neighborhood to win or lose in one fell swoop, your decisions and strategy hold a lot more weight.

Right now, you can open a racket anywhere in the city. Gather enough rackets throughout your time in Chicago and it’s fair to say that losing one or two won’t have a major impact on your overall empire. Give the bosses larger territories to compete for, however, and suddenly the stakes are a lot higher. Every inch of the city becomes a valuable asset that nobody can afford to lose.



What’s more, not all precincts are equal. Some are larger than others, are better located, and stand to make more cash, so there are advantages to occupying certain precincts. The AI is aware of this and will look at the number of buildings a precinct has, as well as the number of connecting precincts, before making its move to strike. With more calculative factions to consider, it’s going to mean more strategy from you, too. Having more on the line will demand more interesting and meaningful choices from you in how you run your empire.

Well, that’s maintaining your empire covered, but what about expansion? When it comes to taking new precincts, there are changes to combat, too. Every precinct has a depot, which is the control building for the whole precinct. Claim the depot, claim the precinct. Depots are heavily guarded and when under attack, draw reinforcements from surrounding rackets to help with the onslaught. This gives you two options when taking over a precinct: attack and loot the rackets to get rid of those reinforcements or go right for the depot. Attacking the depot offers a longer, more tactical fight, with a bigger risk. Although, if you win, gaining a whole precinct could potentially swing the balance of the larger game in your favor.



You can also use Sal’s taxi cabs to your strategic advantage. To accommodate the turf wars, Sal has made more taxi ranks available, but still, not all precincts have them. From the World Map, you can see that taxi ranks link the neighborhoods. When moving to attack a new neighborhood, you go from a taxi rank you control to the rank it links to. This makes taxi ranks vital real estate as controlling the taxi ranks means you can control where the AI attacks you. Also, controlling the ranks will provide you with the links to expand further into the city.



[h2]Supply Lines[/h2]

A quick recap on supply lines: when you own two adjoining precincts, you set up a supply line. Supply lines are essential to your empire, providing a path for you to get supplies out to your precincts while ensuring your money has a safe trajectory back to you.

Breaking a supply line can really disrupt an empire. If your precincts are cut off from the rest, then you have no way of supplying them with product and the negative effects of this are immediate. Beyond that, the introduction of supply lines means the AI has become a lot more focused on how it operates and is making some clever deductions. Currently, the AI can attack any of your rackets across the city, and depending on the health of your empire, losing one or two of these buildings may not be a critical loss for you.



With precincts and supply lines, the AI now has fewer options to choose from in where it attacks and has a larger focus on breaking supply lines specifically, creating another reason to ensure you keep a firm grip on your supply lines. When you take over another precinct and break a faction’s supply line, don’t expect them to forget about it too easily. Once the line is broken, the AI works to value that broken line and puts all of its efforts into claiming it back.

Supply lines also demand a more involved strategy. As soon as a chain is set up, precinct positions become a factor, which in turn affects what type of upgrade you choose to invest in for each precinct. For example, supply lines mean there are frontier precincts that are most likely to be attacked first. In that case, it’s worthwhile to beef up security in those precincts, leaving more protected precincts to pick up the slack with more financially lucrative upgrades.

[h2]Police[/h2]

Precincts also affect how the police interact with you. By introducing Police Activity to the game, the crew in blue are not only more present as you build your empire, but their intentions are a lot more transparent. The suspicion value that police have on your rackets can be a little hard to decipher at times. Given that it affects each racket differently it’s difficult to keep on top of and requires you to rely on your own judgment. With precincts, Police Activity is a precinct-wide value that is easier for you to keep track of and easier for Police Chief George MacDonough to collect bribe money.

Bribing police through the diplomacy screen will directly improve your standing with law enforcers and turn them off raiding your rackets. This has made the connection between the police on your diplomacy screen and the police on the street more apparent and offers clarity on how to navigate your relationship with the police while taking over Chicago.



Why is the Police Activity number so important? The more active the police are in your precincts, the harder it is for you to make money. Customers are less likely to indulge their vices when police presence is strong and your racket profits will dwindle. With every upgrade and racket you invest in, it becomes harder for police to ignore the illegalities involved. That’s why it’s good to manage your relationship with the police just as you manage the rest of your empire.

That about covers it for this bulletin. We’ll be sure to get back with more updates as soon as our moles manage to uncover more. Let us know what you think of the upcoming changes and what you’re most looking forward to seeing in the comments below.

Until next time, Happy Sinning.

Join us tomorrow, crew, as Maezza and Fiona return to 1920's Chicago!

It will be our last sitdown for the summer. Our goals?
💲 Buy Goldie the Golden Tommy Gun (because she deserves to shoot in style)
👊Take back our rackets lost from our last session.
🐝Be the Queen Bee.

5PM CET at https://twitch.tv/paradoxinteractive

“Friday night they’ll be dressed to kill, Down at Dino’s Bar & Grill”

It takes all sorts of criminals to build an underworld. Since launch, they’ve formed crews, double-crossed each other, and made money from their specific skills, but there’s about to be a shake-up. Combat designer Ian O’Neill has started a fight club behind a speakeasy in South Loop where some of the city’s mobsters are gearing themselves up to be a whole new type of gangster. These guys and gals ain’t interested in guns. They prefer doing things the old-fashioned way, with a lead pipe and some elbow grease. They call themselves Brawlers. Here’s what we know so far.



Unleashing themselves upon Chicago later this year, Brawlers will arrive in a free update independent of any DLC content. You, the community, are going to help sculpt these Brawlers into their new profession. There are no figures set in stone just yet, so keep in mind that anything mentioned here is liable to change.

A Brawler is a straight-up melee attacker, scouted from a few of our Hired Guns who always considered themselves too brutal for range weapons. Their talent tree is based around some of the existing core talents of Enforcers, so it’s worth mentioning here that Enforcers are going to see a bit of an overhaul in the next few months. The new and improved Enforcers will make their debut around the same time as the Brawlers.
[h2]Profession Bonus[/h2]

What can you expect from a Brawler’s profession bonus?

• Born Fighter: Increases your melee attribute by +20.
  
• Fight Light: Gain a bonus to your initiative and movement based on your loadout. This ensures that Brawlers who stroll into combat without a secondary or primary weapon are granted bonuses to their initiative and movement. Now, that’s straddling the line between brave and crazy!
  
• Adrenaline Rush: Critical hits from melee attacks grant a free bonus move action. Adrenaline Rush rewards a Brawler’s critical hit on an opponent, by granting them an extra move afterward, which should be plenty to get them back into cover after an attack. However, this is only for critical hits, so it’s essential to keep an eye on each Brawler’s critical hit chance when hiring them.
  

Lastly, there is a brand new profession talent for all Brawlers. This is a talent that the Brawler already has when you hire them:

Flurry of Blows: Allows Brawlers to rearrange faces by hitting the target 3 times with their current melee weapon.


[h2]Talent Tree[/h2]

Now, let’s get to the part where you folks come in. In Empire of Sin, the talent tree has five tiers of active and passive abilities. In the case of the Brawler, these talents are all melee-based, some of which are shown below:



Anything that’s shown in white won’t change as these are the core abilities for each tier. Tier 1 is already baked in with talents taken from the Enforcer talent tree. See all those question marks? That’s where you get to have your say and choose the talents that should fill those slots.

Starting with Tier 2 - Passive Abilities, here are the potential talents that brawlers can choose from:



The core ability for Tier 2 is going to be Revenge; a knee-jerk reaction for any Brawler, sure, but also a useful skill to access early in the talent tree. The remaining talents are open for you to vote on.

There are five glorious new options to choose from, but only the top two will make it to the Brawler’s Talent Tree. Let’s take a closer look, shall we?

• A - Shattering Impact: Any melee attack, from Meat Hook to Bull Rush has the chance to deal armor damage to an enemy.
  
• B - Bloodsport: Any unlucky sucker who’s nursing a bleed during battle is going to have a lot more to contend with when your melee attack deals another 20% damage to them.
  
• C - Slugger: Plain and simple, this allows melee attackers to stun the opponent. As stunned opponents have less AP during their turn, this could come in handy if used strategically.
  
• D - Gore: Bull Rush applies bleed to the target, which complements Bloodsport nicely if you were to say, hire two Brawlers and bully your opponents to death.
  
• E - Thrill of the Kill: For the sadist Brawlers out there, Thrill of the Kill will restore 10% HP for every melee kill they make.
  

Onto Tier 3 - Active Abilities, with the core talent, Uppercut. This brand new talent, unique to Brawlers, is guaranteed to deal critical damage when used. For the clued-in among you, you’ll know this pairs well with the Adrenaline Rush profession bonus mentioned above. Using Uppercut guarantees your brawler gets an extra move to make their escape after shattering an enemy’s jaw.

Again, the remaining talents are up for a vote. There are five choices, and the most popular two will be chosen for the tier. They are:

• A - Big Kick: The first ability to guarantee knockback. Useful if you were to kick the enemy into your ally’s Overwatch cone, or a poison deposit.
  
• B - Sledge Blower: A heavy-handed attack that’s guaranteed to knock out the poor soul who’s gonna be eating it.
  
• C - Brace Yourself: Allows the Brawler to withstand the next attack on them, without dealing them any damage.
  
• D - Head Smash/Glasgow Kiss: Good Brawlers fight with their heads. Head smash is a case in point. A brutal head butt that deals 50% bonus melee damage.
  
• E - Arm Cracker: This is essentially a disarm ability for Brawlers. Taking the fight to an opponent’s arm ensures they can’t use it to hold up their primary weapon.
  

Tier 4 - Passive Abilities, has the core ability Executioner, which rewards brutality by reducing the cooldown of all brawler abilities every time you give an enemy a grisly end.

As for the rest, you know the drill by now, five options, the most popular two are chosen.

• A - Prowl: With plans to make more bespoke versions of Hunker Down, using it as a Brawler will boost your melee and initiative by 50+ for the following round. This has the potential to max out your melee attribute and place you much higher in the combat queue for the next round.
  
• B - Grudge: Focusing the fight on the same target increases the chance for a critical hit, which goes a long way towards granting you that extra move we mentioned earlier.
  
• C - Double Down: Got an opponent who keeps dodging punches? Using Double Down guarantees that you will beat the smirk off their face if you target them a second time.
  
• D - Low Blow: Brawlers can be dirty fighters, and Low Blow increases the chance of a critical hit through melee attack by 20%. It’s all about getting that bonus move!
  
• E - Cut Man: All that bare-knuckle boxing gives Brawlers a thick skin. Cut Man puts it on show, making them immune to bleeding and rupture effects.
  

[h2]Profession Keystone Ability[/h2]

At the end of every gangster’s talent tree is their keystone ability. These are the talents that every gangster is working towards to really cement them as a badass.

For Brawlers, three brand new talents are up for grabs, but in true Royal Rumble fashion, they have to duke it out and only one will make the cut. Here are the talents contending:

• A - Brutal Challenge: Call out any enemy, boss or otherwise, for a one on one fight and they will only target you in combat until one of you dies.
  
• B - Warmonger: Every fighter has a war cry. Warmonger reduces all damage taken by 50% and increases melee damage dealt by 50% for two rounds. Not only that, but any execution performed within these two rounds prolongs Warmonger effects for an additional 1 round. Keep executing enemies, keep Warmonger ticking.
  
• C - Zig-Zag: A multi-target charge. Select three targets and dash between them, delivering a melee attack that’s a guaranteed hit. What if some of those are critical hits? You guessed it, you get a bonus move to return to cover after the attack.
  

[h2]How to Vote[/h2]

So you’ve seen the talents and know the ones you want your Brawler to focus their energy on, what now? Well, voting is open for each tier and you can have your say by following this link and clicking your preferred abilities. We will announce the winning talents in the coming weeks.

Still in the mood for some fighting talk? This video takes a detailed look at the new Brawler profession and talent tree, guided by none other than the Brawler coach himself, Ian O’Neill. Now, get out there and fight for the abilities you want to see in the game!

Until next time, keep Sinning!