Hi all, we hope like us you enjoyed checking out all the new demos at Steam Next Fest. Our own demo is still live and will remain playable until June 24th - so if you haven’t checked it out yet, please do so over the next few days. And if you haven’t heard the news yet, City of Gangsters will be released on August 9th!
We’ve also got another developer update for you, and this time around we’ll be looking at character traits and how they help to create distinct personalities amongst the countless inhabitants of the cities that you’ll be exploring.
Character traits and personalities
In City of Gangsters you frequently interact with other people, whether they be business owners, small-time troublemakers, crew members, cops, or rivals. Everyone that you encounter possess between 1-3 character traits, and those influence their behavior, social relationships, and individual abilities.
There’s a whole bunch to discover but for now, let’s take a closer look at just a few of these traits and see how they influence gameplay:
Cautious - No unwanted attention or risks here please. Their natural tendencies make them do things in such a way that avoids police attention.
If you encounter a cautious business owner, their relationship level must be raised higher than normal before they will agree to start trading illegal goods with you. However once you have built up that relationship, you’ll find that less police heat is generated during each illegal trade action with these businesses.
Hardworking - Need things done quickly? Here's who you're looking for. Put them in charge of an operation that makes things and they'll find a way to get it done faster.
If you want to improve the production efficiency of your back room operations you’ll need to install a manager with the hardworking trait. This, along with the right crew skills, will allow you to purchase expansions and upgrades to vastly improve your production output.
Slow - Not too quick on the uptake, this one is. You've got to be more patient as it will take them longer to gain experience on the job.
A character with the slow trait will quickly forget about negative social actions such as extortion, intimidation, and violence. A crew member with this trait will also gain experience much more slowly and as such will level up less frequently.
Strong - They can handle a weapon and load a truck with ease.
Characters who are strong will gain a damage bonus when attacking either unarmed or with a melee weapon.
Traits and crew composition
When expanding your crew you’ll need to consider how traits fit in with the roles that you have in mind for your new recruits. It’s always worth looking over a list of potential hires before making a decision.
While there are no fixed roles in the game, we have some suggestions for specific crew member ‘jobs’ and how you can match certain traits to these specializations:
Delivery drivers and errand runners - Focus on traits that minimise heat when doing deliveries, and which boost relationship levels with businesses that are interacted with.
Recommended traits: Cautious, curious, friendly, short
Socialites - Think about traits which can help to overcome delicate social interactions and can improve relationships that have already gone sour.
Recommended traits: Confident, mellow, kind, sociable
Fighters - Look for traits which improve combat effectiveness, add damage bonuses, and increase hit chances with both melee weapons and firearms.
Recommended traits: Aggressive, agile, cruel, sharp eyed
Back room operation managers - Consider traits which support upgrades and expansions to boost production efficiency, while reducing heat on nearby corners.
Recommended traits: Hardworking, intelligent, organized, quiet
Speakeasy managers - Select someone whose traits encourage patronage to owned businesses and support upgrades and expansions which improve profitability.
Recommended traits: Attractive, friendly, intelligent, sociable
A final note that procedural generation plays a big role here - traits follow family lines, and family members are likely to have some traits in common. So if you meet someone who is, say, an excellent fighter or operations manager, see if you can get introduced to their family - their relatives might be similarly effective. We hope you’ll have fun trying to track down the perfect mix of crew members for your outfit!
That’s all for today but we’ll be back very soon with another update, and as always thanks for stopping by.
Matt & Rob
Co-founders - SomaSim