Plutocracy News

Greetings, Plutocrats!

Right now we are working on a new pack of events that adds and expands the lore of the game. We have a lot of cool ideas that will make the game’s world greater. And also, we would like to take into account the ideas of the Plutocracy community.

We have made a special form that will allow you to suggest events. Events that will be possible to implement now, will be adapted and added to the game. If we add the proposed event to the game, then your name will be mentioned in the credits.

Now you have the ability to directly participate in the development of the world of Plutocracy. Just use the form, and we will take into account all your ideas in the development!

https://forms.gle/QjxejcxVHxH7dxKb7

List of changes:

• Shareholders | Fixed crash when repeatedly quickly changing the way shareholders are sorted by price.
  
• General | Fixed a bug that occurs when starting the game in Chinese, German, Greek, Italian, Spanish and Turkish.
  
• Events | Fixed a bug that caused money to be added to the "Enhanced Security" event in variants 1 and 2, and not taken away as they should.
  
• Journal | Fixed incorrect log display when loading a save after exiting the game.
  
• Personal account | Added light from the fireplace.
  
• Journal | Changed the appearance of the timeline bar.
  

We thank you for detailed messages about the bugs found. At least one small bug-fixing update will be released soon.

[h2]Major features: [/h2]

[h3]New game mode “Challenge”.[/h3]



First challenge “Chasing the Rockfeller”

You are going to have to repeat the success of a genius entrepreneur John Rockefeller, who retired with the biggest net worth in the world by the end of the 19th century and who owned 95% of the oil industry in the USA, merging all of them into a single trust.


[h3]New agent added “The Pianist”.[/h3]


Agent can be applied only to a company.

If he succeeds, he will stop the ongoing strike in a company and temporarily decrease the chance of another strike.The decreased chance of the strike will be restored to the regular value during 4 quarters.

Though, if he fails, he will increase the chance of the possible strike twice.
The increased chance of the strike will be restored to the regular value during 4 quarters.


[h3]In-game events were improved and updated.[/h3]


Now you will experience many more different events that will occur in-game.


[h3]Negotiations redesign.[/h3]

• Shareholders now indicate their upside which they want to receive during negotiations
  
• In case of successful negotiations you can now buy shares at a lower amount then at the Stock Market. The maximum amount of discount that you might get, depends on the selected difficulty level of the game.
  
• Now “Diplomacy” skill affect the amount of opponent’s irritation, when selecting “Insist on my terms”
  
• If you irritate the opponent, who won’t leave negotiation, but will suggest to buy shares by his first offer.
  
• Loyalty fine, when leaving negotiations will vary from time to time during different negotiations.
  
• Now the amount of purchased shares will be determined by the price
  of agreement from the beginning of negotiations. The price that was offered will be fully spent, if that is possible.
  
• The better price is by the end of negotiations, the bigger amount of shares will be bought.
  

[h2]Minor features:[/h2]

• Character context menu | Now the cost of using a particular agent will be displayed on a hint while hovering over the “Influence” option.
  
• Candidate sponsorship | Added the display of increasing chance of candidate’s victory from sponsorship.
  
• Candidate sponsorship | Added the display of loyalty level on portrait of sponsored candidate and his opponent
  
• Company voting | Added to the header the name of the company and its location.
  
• Bank credits / Character loans | Fixed several bugs in the mechanics of the work.
  
• Updated agent images.
  
• Updated images of luxury items: horses, cars and parts of houses.
  
• The interior of the personal cabinet has been updated.
  

[h2]Balance:[/h2]

• Technologies | Now the “Diplomacy” skill of the CEO doesn’t affect the technological upgrades, but the “Economics” skill affects the technological upgrade twice then the regular value.
  
• Influence | The received influence from different sources is balanced, as well as the costs of influence on various actions.
  
• Companies | The distribution of the number and types of companies across different states has changed for all sizes of the world.
  

[h2]Critical errors:[/h2]

• Fixed a crash, that was caused while saving the game after active politic is bankrupt
  
• Bankruptcy | Added extra terms for bankruptcy of characters and companies.
  
  1. All outstanding debts are bigger than all assets owned
     
  2. Cash/reserves are less then quarterly debt payouts
     

[h2]Other fixes:[/h2]

• Influence | Fixed influence loss, that is caused by puppet-politic going bankrupt
  
• Ambition “Own company shares” | Fixed an error when the character wanted to buy more shares than he can afford. When completing such ambition shares weren’t transferred to the new owner.
  
• Companies | Fixed errors in graphs “Income”, “Market share” and etc.
  
• Company statistics | In the technology development card, only the portrait of the CEO is shown.
  Shareholder’s portraits who support other technologies are hidden to avoid confusion.
  
• Finances | Shares of other companies are now listed as assets of the parenting company.
  
• Chamber list | The chart is reorganized and contains only politics related info.
  
• Agents | Fixed infinite usage of “Debt Collector” to the debtor.
  
• Mail | Fixed the amount of unread news and mails by sections.
  
• Loans | Fixed an error when quarterly payouts are twice bigger than intended.
  
• Minor cosmetic changes.
  

Warning! Saves made in previous versions of the game may not work correctly or may not work at all. We recommend starting a new game.

[h2]Major features: [/h2]

[h3]Start settings [/h3]



Now, before starting the game, you can configure various game settings.

1. World size - the choice determines the number of companies of different types and the number of politicians in the legislatures and the US Congress:
   
   
   • A small world - 100 companies of each type, 25% of the real number of politicians in the legislatures and the US Congress.
     
   • The average world - 125 companies of each type, 50% of the real number of politicians in the legislatures and the US Congress.
     
   • The big world - 150 companies of each type, 75% of the real number of politicians in the legislatures and the US Congress.
     
   • A realistic world - 200 companies of each type, the real number of politicians in the legislatures and the US Congress.
     
2. Industry - the choice determines the types of companies represented in the game:
   
   
   • “All industries” - coal mining, transport, oil production, oil refining, ore mining, metallurgical companies.
     
   • "Oil" - coal mining, transportation, oil production, oil refining companies.
     
   • “Metallurgical" - coal mining, transport, ore mining, metallurgical companies.
     
   
   Warning! Settings above significantly affects the loading time of the new quarter, the saving time and the weight of the saved files, as well as the overall performance of the game.
   
   
3. Starting conditions - the choice determines the initial capital at the start of the game:
   
   
   • “From the bottom” - $ 100 in cash. The only previously available option.
     
   • “Experienced investor” - $ 100 in cash and shares of a random company in the starting state in the amount of $ 1 Million.
     
   • “Company owner” - $ 1M in cash and his own small company with a staff of 10 people.
     The type of company is determined randomly, but can be changed manually to the desired type available in the starting state. If you cannot choose the desired type of company, try changing the starting state.
     The name of your own company is randomly selected for the selected type of company, but can be changed manually by clicking on the feather to the right of the company name.
     

[h3]Assignment of officials by a puppet governor[/h3]



If the current legislation of the state makes the assignment to the post of an official by the governor, and the governor is your puppet, then you can assign one of your puppets to this post (the puppet should not occupy another post of a politician or official).



This will allow you to significantly reduce the amount of influence needed to obtain subsidies, conceal accidents or disperse strikes with the help of an official.


[h2]Minor features:[/h2]

• General | The performance of the game should be higher on weak machines.
  
• Luxury items | now add fame to their owner instead of influence.
  
• Lobbying | If your character holds a position in the chamber, then he will always be displayed at the top of the list of politicians during lobbying.
  

[h2]Balance:[/h2]

• The sales prices of products of different types of companies are balanced.
  
• Changed the requirements for completing achievements:
  
  
  • “Plutocrat”
    Level 1 - a fortune of $ 10,000,000
    Level 2 - a fortune of $ 100,000,000
    Level 3 - a fortune of $ 500,000,000
    
    
  • “Cashflow Generator”
    Level 1 - income of $ 500,000
    Level 2 - income of $ 5,000,000
    Level 3 - income of $ 25,000,000
    

[h2]Critical errors:[/h2]

• Fixed critical errors related to the ongoing elections in 1889, 1890 and 1910.
  
• Fixed a critical error related to the selection of opponents of current politicians during the elections.
  
• Fixed critical errors related to bankruptcy/dismissal of politicians and officials.
  
• Fixed a critical error related to the bankruptcy of a fixed company during a move to another state.
  
• Fixed a critical error that occurred when calculating the company's profit at the end of the quarter.
  
• Fixed a critical bug that led to the collapse of the game's economy.
  

[h2]Other fixes:[/h2]

• Fixed a bug where reputation was taken away when re-running for an already held post.
  
• Fixed a bug where the votes of US congressional politicians disappeared during the voting.
  
• Fixed a bug where companies in the list of state companies could be displayed incorrectly.
  
• Fixed errors related to the repurchase of shares by a shareholder-company during the issue of shares.
  
• Fixed a bug where company icons disappeared during the agent application.
  
• Minor cosmetic changes.
  

• [h3]Ability to become the CEO of the company:[/h3]
  
  
  
  If you own shares of the company, you can nominate your candidacy for the post of CEO in this company.
  In case of a successful vote, you will get the opportunity to manage the reserves of the company headed by investing them in shares of other companies. You can buy shares in the company's ownership, both directly from shareholders and on the stock exchange.
  All investments in other companies can be seen in the Finances tab, or directly in the list of companies if you head one of the investor companies.
  If the company is one of the shareholders of another company, then the CEO of the shareholder company participates in the voting of the invested company.
  Additional bonus is the salary received by the CEO for the post, and depends on the profit of the company headed.
  
  
• [h3]Ability to become a politician:[/h3]
  
  
  
  Now you can nominate your candidacy for election to any chamber (the posts of officials are still unavailable).
  If you win, you get not only a salary from the post, but also a good increase in renown, which in turn will increase your influence. In addition, you can submit bills for consideration in the chamber where you were elected.
  
  
• [h3]Sponsoring politicians:[/h3]
  
  
  
  The running of assistants for political posts has been replaced by the sponsorship of politicians.
  Each politician can be sponsored only once during the election campaign before the election.
  Sponsorship brings fame to a politician, increasing his chances of winning.
  Every politician dreams of getting additional funding for his political aspirations, so during the elections, the ambition of all candidates changes to a new one: “Get sponsored.” After the elections, the ambition disappears.
  For the sponsorship provided, the politician will thank you with a guaranteed increase in loyalty and a reward for the fulfilled ambition.
  The greater the increase in loyalty, the lower the chances of a sponsored candidate winning.
  The management of “manual” politicians has become much easier, now politicians run for positions independently, including they can run for positions higher than the occupied one. You only need to increase the chances of your puppets winning by sponsoring them at times when, in your opinion, they will not be able to win without your intervention.
  
  
• [h3]Redesigned lobbying of politicians:[/h3]
  
  
  
  Now only the voices of puppet politicians can be lobbied. This will cost you a certain amount of influence, depending on your skill level of “Politics” and the lobbied puppet.
  
  
• [h3]The new agent is the Shadow Financier:[/h3]
  
  
  
  In case of successful application, the financier reduces to 0 the taxes paid by the target company in the current quarter.
  
  
• [h3]The existing agents were updated:[/h3]
  
  
  
  The appearance of agents' dossiers has been redesigned: descriptions of application methods and the chances of application results have been added.
  The use of agents is now for influence and no longer requires money. The cost of applying all agents to the same goal is the same, and depends on the influence of the target characters or the size of the target company.
  
  
• [h3]Offices:[/h3]
  
  
  
  Assistants no longer affect staff availability. Now, in order to gain access to the state, it is necessary to build and maintain an office in it.
  Opening an office requires money and influence.
  The more offices are maintained at the same time, the more influence is required to open a new office.
  In addition, an amount depending on your assets in this state is spent on the maintenance of the office on a quarterly basis.
  Closing the office returns half of the funds spent on construction.
  
  
• [h3]Redesigned company credit system:[/h3]
  
  
  
  You can borrow from a bank or puppets on behalf of the company you head.
  The chance that a bank or a puppet will agree to issue a loan depends on the selected loan rate and the term of the loan.
  The loan rate reflects the lender's commission for the entire loan term.
  Loans taken out are now repaid automatically. The loan body is returned in parts, depending on the period for which the loan was taken (previously, only the commission was automatically paid). It is still profitable to repay the loan ahead of schedule, since with early repayment, the real loan rate will be much lower than it was when taking out the loan.
  
  
• [h3]Pinning companies in the stock exchange list:[/h3]
  
  
  
  In the list of companies or portfolios on the stock exchange, you can pin a company at the top of the list for more convenience of price tracking.
  
  
• [h3]A new ambition reward - Increasing reputation:[/h3]
  
  
  
  Now, if your reputation is less than the maximum, as a reward for the fulfilled ambition, the character can improve your reputation.
  
  
• [h3]Redesigned the starting contract during negotiations:[/h3]
  
  
  
  The option of choosing a price in negotiations has been removed, now you can either instantly buy shares at the opponent's price, or enter into negotiations, trying to convince the opponent to sell shares at the exchange purchase price.
  Instead of the number of shares, you now choose the amount you want to spend on the purchase of shares. The number of shares purchased depends on the final price in the negotiation process, but cannot be more than the number of shares of the opponent.
  
  
• [h3]Coal companies:[/h3]
  
  
  
  Transport companies now buy coal for their steam locomotives as raw materials.
  

[h2]Minor improvements:[/h2]

• Influence: added a quick transition to the tab from the personal account (globe).
  
• Map: Added hints when hovering over the state.
  
• Capitol: Added display of effects affecting officials.
  
• Tutorial: Updated to reflect changes in the game.
  

• [h3]Elections: [/h3]
  The character's reputation now affects the sympathies of the electorate, and therefore the chances of a candidate winning.
  
• [h3]Puppets:[/h3]
  The character becomes a puppet not only when blackmailing with compromising material, but also with maximum loyalty or successful use of a bandit.
  Puppets increase your influence depending on the position they hold.
  You can borrow from puppets.
  If loyalty is reduced in any way, the puppet gets out of your control.
  Changed the background of the portrait of the puppets to green.
  
• [h3]Friends:[/h3]
  The entity has been removed from the game.
  
• [h3]Assistants:[/h3]
  The entity has been removed from the game.
  
• [h3]Agents:[/h3]
  Bandit: can now intimidate the character and make your puppet, in case of failure, the character will become your enemy.
  Courtesan: Reduces all target skills to 1 for 90 days, after that the values return to normal.
  Detective: the chance of detecting compromising material depends more on the character's reputation: the smaller the reputation of the target, the easier it is to collect dirt on him
  Journalist: you can choose to increase or decrease the reputation of the target.
  When increasing, the reputation increases by 2.
  When decreasing, the reputation decreases to 0, but the agent requires compromising material on the character.
  Demolition man: can destroy up to 50% of the target company's jobs.
  Bishop: The chances of success have been increased to 70%.
  
• [h3]Compromising material:[/h3]
  The chance of successful blackmail by compromising depends on the character's reputation: the higher the reputation of the target, the easier it is to make him a puppet by blackmail.
  In case of unsuccessful blackmail with the help of compromising material, the character becomes your enemy.
  
• [h3]The “Need a credit” ambition:[/h3]
  The minimum loan amount has been increased from $ 1K to $ 25K.
  
• [h3]The companies:[/h3]
  The minimum number of employees in the company during generation has been reduced to 10. Now really small companies will appear at the start, which will potentially make it easier to get the first company under control.
  The renown gained by characters from owning shares of companies has been increased.
  

[h2]Bug fixes:[/h2]
[h3]Critical errors:[/h3]

• Fixed memory leaks accumulating during the gaming session.
  
• The code has been optimized. The performance of the game should increase.
  
• Takeover: Fixed a bug in which, after the takeover, funds in the amount of the total debts of both companies were mistakenly added to the reserves of the new company.
  

[h3]Other fixes:[/h3]

• Removed the evidence and the corresponding effect of the chief of police.
  
• System: On a system with a language that is not supported, the game will use English.
  
• System: Reduced scroll sensitivity for more convenience.
  
• Connections: Removed unused character type selection options.
  
• Favors: Removed mistakenly left mechanic elements.
  
• Assets/Influence: Improved appearance of tabs, fixed minor bugs.
  
• Fed. laws/state laws: Fixed incorrect supposed party support for some bills.
  
• Fed. laws/state laws: Fixed an error related to checking the requirements for the adoption of the law.
  
• Fed. laws/state laws: Fixed errors in saving submitted bills.
  
• Exchange: When exiting the exchange, the company's choice is now saved.
  
• Companies: Icons of some companies have been changed to new ones.
  
• Statistics: Fixed the missing progress bar of the “Security" technology.
  
• Statistics: The content of the Salary area has been changed, now the real salary value is displayed instead of %.
  
• “Strike” event: fixed incorrect calculation of the new worker's rate when selecting the first option of the event.
  
• Negotiations: Fixed a bug where it was possible to get a chance of agreement > 100%.
  
• Lots of minor cosmetic changes.