Plutocracy News

Greetings, Plutocrats!
We are in a hurry to please everyone with the long-awaited update!
Not all of what we wanted will be included in it. Some features require more time for testing and debugging. Therefore, we will try in November and December to please you with a few more updates with features that we are testing right now.

So, what has already been included in this update?

[h3]
1. Starting settings have been redesigned.[/h3]
   
   The information is structured and easier to read. We had to redesign because of point #2.
   
   [h3]
2. Added a game difficulty indicator.[/h3]
   
   We decided to add more of a competitive moment to any playthrough, and created a system for assessing the difficulty of the game session. Now all parameters affect the displayed difficulty level, allowing you to estimate how difficult it will be to complete the final goal in the allotted time. Higher difficulty - more respect!
   Write to us if some parameters seem unbalanced to you - and we will fix it in the next patch.
   
   [h3]
3. Director's orders.[/h3]
   
   Another window that has undergone a redesign. Now all orders are “packed” in the right part, and are not as chaotic as before. Do not worry - the changes are only visual without changing the very essence of the orders.
   
   [h3]
4. Other innovations introduced after feedback from our community of Plutocrats:[/h3]
   
   • Companies | Added dependence of the number of new workplaces and the cost of construction during expansion on the current number of workplaces in the company. The more places there are in the company now, the more places a new building will add, but the more expensive it will cost to build it.
     
   • Mail | Added notifications about the threat of bankruptcy of the player, controlled companies and loyal characters.
     
   • Achievements | Added a new achievement "Speculator"
     
   • Journal | Added notifications about completing tasks of the current game session
     
   • Credits | The formula for the maximum loan amount from the character has been reworked. Now the amount depends not only on the lender's cash, but also on the borrower's solvency, as well as the reputation of the borrower or the CEO of the company taking the loan.
   
   [h3]
5. Polishing:[/h3]
   
   • The "Get a loan" ambition | Added the income of the borrower character to the ambition and a hint on the ambition icon.
     
   • Gameplay | Event "Approve the initiative" | Hover hints have been added for the current developed and new proposed technologies.
     
   • Personal office | When you click on the card in the account, companies of the current location will now be opened
     
   • Stock exchange | Cosmetic portfolio changes.
     - The columns “Cost” and “Difference" have been swapped for greater convenience.
     - The name of the “Balance” block has been changed to “Purchased”
     
   • Parliamentary chambers | Schemes of chambers | The algorithm of the arrangement of colored dots of the composition of chambers has been improved.
     
   • Updated some of the loading screens, added a few new ones.
   
   [h3]
6. Balance:[/h3]
   
   • Companies | By popular demand, the number of shareholders in companies has been reduced by an average of 40%. Overall game performance slightly improved.
   
   [h3]
7. Fixed:[/h3]
   
   • Context menu | The unused "Compromise" button in the player's and opponent's character menu has been removed.
     
   • Map | The opponent's companies are not displayed when selected in the filter.
     
   • Statistics | Basic parameters are sometimes not recalculated when the technology being developed changes during the quarter.
     
   • Gameplay | Event "Threats from the ultra-right" | Fixed the difference between the result and the description in the negative outcome of the 4 variants of the event.
     
   • General | Fixed missing music when playing on Mac.
     
   • The "Buy shares" ambition | Fixed a bug that could generate an ambition to buy shares of a non-existent company after the election.
     
   • Company votings | Disabled CEO's offer to increase dividends.
     
   • Companies | Player ceases to be considered a shareholder when trying to receive subsidies or conclude a state contract after loading the savegame.
     
   • Elections | Fixed a vulnerability that made it possible for the player to become governor.
     
   • Loyalty | Fixed a bug that caused characters with full loyalty to periodically lose loyalty for no reason.
     
   • Laws | Fixed incorrect change in the popularity of laws after consideration of any bill.
     
   • Navigation | Fixed a bug that caused the "Select a new Director" window to be ignored when returning to the previous window.
     
   • Loans | Fixed an error due to which, when trying to repay a loan in a company with negative reserves, it was possible to set a negative payment amount.
     
   • Starting conditions | Fixed error, when a player got 4 free skill points when starting with own company.
     
   • Merger | Fixed a bug where the merger of companies was unavailable if the total reserves of both companies were < 0.

Many bugs have been fixed and continue to be fixed by us thanks to the help of our community - thank you for the feedback, and if you are not in our community yet - join to our Discord server (https://discord.gg/DjdxyrMZ)

[h2]A brief roadmap for upcoming updates.[/h2]
Friends, by your numerous requests, we are covering what we are working on right now, and what you will see in the next 2 updates.

Announced features:

[h3]
1. Upgrade of the building module.[/h3]
   
   It will be possible to build several buildings at once, and not 1, as it is now. They will differ as before - the construction period and price. And also, a new indicator is added - the deadline for the offer from the contractor. Each offer will be available only for a limited number of days. After that, it will change to a new one.
   This innovation makes you literally “catch the moment” when expansion is especially beneficial for your company, which brings more variety to the “gaming routine”!
   For those who do not like microcontrol, we will save the option of “automatic expansion".
   
   [h3]
2. Plutocratopedia[/h3]
   
   Another of the upcoming updates will include a guidebook in the game - Plutocratopedia. Now we regularly add all the information about the game world to it, and very soon we will release it, to facilitate the understanding of all the available game features.
   
   [h3]
3. Vertical holding[/h3]
   Also, we are work-in-progress on this long-awaited game module. The topic of the holding is quite extensive, and it would be more correct if we release a separate diary and tell about it in more detail in order to better understand the meaning of its introduction into the economy of our simulator, as well as what difficulties we, as developers, faced when implementing this idea.

Well, friends, that's all for now!

Thank you for staying with us,
Redwood Team

[h2]Main features:[/h2]

1. Changing the developing technology.
   You can now change the technology another CEO is developing by using influence. The cost of influence depends on your Economy skill, the CEO's Economy skill, your share in the company and the CEO's loyalty. Ofcourse, the CEO must not be hostile in order to be influenced.
   
2. Updated context menu.
   The context menu of characters and companies has been redesigned and improved. Agents can now be applied from the context menu. The description of an agent's ability, the cost of application and the duration of the preparation can now be found directly in the context menu.
   
3. The treasurer's subsidies have been reworked for the new loan system.
   The state now compensates the subsidized company for a portion of the interest paid on company loans. The subsidies do not affect principal payments.
   
4. The departure of hostile CEOs from the company.
   Now hostile CEOs will leave your company on their own and with some probability leave to work for a competitor. This only happens if you have a controlling stake in the company. A random CEO available for hire will automatically be hired to replace the CEO who left.
   
5. Four new events have been added.
   • "Approve Initiative" - The company's CEO proposes a 1-year change in the technology being developed.
     
   • "CEO's Salary Increase" - The company's CEO asks for a raise in his salary.
     
   • "Raiding Attempt" - A company in which you have a stake is in danger of being taken over by a competitor because of the actions of one of the shareholders,
     
   • "Threats from the Ultras" - unrest and conflict from the activities of a “White Brotherhood” threatens a catastrophic increase in turnover at companies in one of the states.
     

[h3]Minor features:[/h3]

• CEO | Removed the offer from the CEO to appoint another CEO to his post.
  
• Character Creation | The interface for changing your character's name has been modified to match other interfaces for changing names.
  
• Companies | You will no longer be able to participate in management votes in companies if your share is less than 2% of the shares.
  
• Stock Exchange | Now, instead of the average purchase price of an existing package, the portfolio displays the ratio of the average purchase price of the package to the current possible sale price in %. Thus, it will be easier to determine the right moment for the sale of an existing block of shares.
  
• Updated images of several loading screens.

[h3]Balance:[/h3]

• The pressure of events during the game has been reduced:
  
  • Some of the event results have been changed to more positive ones.
    
  • The chances of obtaining positive event result are increased in most events.
    
  • Random events will occur much less frequently.
• The distribution of company types by state has been changed to a more realistic one.
  

[h2]Fixes:[/h2]
[h3]Critical fixes:[/h3]

• Companies | Fixed crash when trying to view a company that was fully owned by another (bankrupt) company.

[h3]Other fixes:[/h3]

• Auction | Fixed incorrect display of the list of auction participants in 4K graphics settings.
  
• Character Creation | Fixed bugs in generating a new random character.
  
• Credit system | Fixed a bug due to which the received subsidies did not affect the loans of the updated credit system.
  
• Credit system | The maximum amount of early repayment of the loan taken is now limited to the reserves of the debtor company in order to prevent possible bankruptcy.
  
• Influence | Fixed a bug where loyal characters continued to transfer influence from the post after loyalty dropped below the maximum or their bankruptcy.
  
• Journal | Fixed a bug that caused the victory screen to be shown every time the game was loaded after winning the game.
  
• Skills | Fixed the periodic disappearance of free skill points after loading the save.
  
• Starting conditions | Fixed an error when changing the name of the starting company when the name of the previous selected company was displayed instead of the current one.
  
• State | Fixed a bug that incorrectly calculated the share of banks in the state's GDP.
  
• Stock exchange | Fixed a bug that caused shares to disappear from the company's portfolio on the exchange.
  
• Stock exchange | Fixed an incorrect hint about consumers and suppliers for bankrupt companies.
  
• The “Accident” event | Fixed an error due to which the fine could be added rather than deducted from the reserves of the fined company.
  
• Other cosmetic changes.
  

We remind you that game saves created before the update may behave in an unpredictable way. We do not guarantee their stability and recommend you to start a new game.

List of changes:

• System | Fixed crash when running the game on Linux OC.
  
• Finances | Fixed crash when opening the Finances tab after the takeover of companies, which occurred in some cases.
  
• Banks | Fixed a bug when after a merger/takeover between two banks, the deposits of the new bank became equal to 0.
  
• Scenario | Fixed a bug when banking companies were not generated in the scenario.
  
• Events | Events will now be repeated less frequently.
  
• Events | The amount of money spent in case of choosing the first option for some events has been reduced.
  

We see all your messages about the bugs found and will definitely fix them over time. Thank you for your feedback, plutocrats, we really appreciate your help!