Update 4.1 is live
As always you can find the short bullet list of changes in the GDM discord here: https://discord.gg/WfbXE4cDVA This also marks the start of the next month's leader boards. This patch should not break old saves if you wish to continue a current play through. However, only saves created from Oct 1 + will post scores to the new leader boards.
If you are still here reading this then lets get into the more detailed break down of the changes made.
Fixes
- Fixed the 1 million fans milestone not firing correctly. I thought I had already done this but, I got confused by the 100,000 fans milestone. The game was actually completing that milestone twice and never looking for the 1,000,000.
-Several small typos / HUD formatting issues were corrected, as well as a few additional company names were added to the list of companies that compete for small, med, and large awards.
Changes / Reworks
- Removed the elevator animation when transitioning from main office to sub offices in Office 4. I left the initial animation when you start a game in office 4 cause I think it looks cool. I love the look of the elevators opening and closing when going between sub offices. However, in order to cut several seconds of time off the transition to make it smoother and faster I had to cut it. Overall this makes going to sub offices feel better, and once your teams have 100/100/100 stats you never really go back there anyways.
- Removed trash game option after a delay. I had removed trash game as an option a few patches ago, but I forgot there was an option after a delay to trash the game. It has been removed so now you must live with your choices. Releasing a bad game still makes more sense then every trashing a game, the game is better without that as an option. If people disagree let me know and we can consider a return, but I think it is better atm.
- Reworked a few areas of the breaking news tool. There was an issue found where you get receive empty breaking news. This has been addressed through some reworking of the systems. However, I still want to change the animation to a fade in and out or something faster to shorten the run time of a breaking news. Currently it takes about 20 secs to run, which when you have several news breaks waiting to run can back log you to where the breaking news you get is already old. I will change this in the future to be much faster to remove back log stress.
-Reworked banking and removed high interest accounts. I love the idea of high interest accounts, but they just are impossible to balance in a video game world. So, for the games sake I am pulling this feature. I have also changed the do a long term investment milestone to a tier 1 "make 5 games" milestone instead.
When the game was first launched on itch.io as a tech demo we had cash on hand / bank and what not as well. However, this ended up just feeling weird, and everyone was just banking all and have a - on hand balance at all times. This ended up just being tedious and it was pulled in favor of just the 1 bank balance in favor of game-play. I feel like high interest accounts fall into this category as well as not really improving game-play, and they have gone from Overpowered to useless to why bother over time. So, its time we pull this feature in favor of a new option.
Balance Changes
- Adjusted milestone scores. In particular there has been a change to how much of a difference time plays as a factor on scores. This will better emphasis completing milestones early for high scores. Overall milestones have been largely increased in value, instead of 5 mil we may see 50mil this season. I feel this will help reward really good play, and keep the best players on top of the boards for a long time to come.
-I have reduced the number of research points you gain when doing research. This was a little to good in the early game when doing early research for engines / topics. It was common to finish a research with more points than you had before you started. This has not been removed, it has just been reduced. I believe the balance lands in a good place, but let me know your opinions.
-Commercial engines have been majorly brought down, especially in late game. The rework for commercial engines in Sept had a huge impact on game balance, they were way over tuned. I didn't want to knee jerk react nerf the engines due to leader boards and people already setting scores. However, they have been very broken this month.
Through a lot of simulations that have been run on the math, I believe they are in a very good place atm. It will still be worth paying x2 to commercialize, especially if you are on low difficulty for that slider or have maxed engine studio perks. However, it will only be a nice reward now not insane levels like it was. After a few successful engine uses you will have made the money back, and be on your way to making some profits, but this will not replace actual game creation like it was. Dedicating to engines is still a viable path to money, but its much more reasonable now.
Additions
- Added a crypto market link in the banking tab. This feature is not yet ready and the button is currently disabled, but this will be coming very soon. I think a nice weekly changing crypto / stock type market run by good algorithms fueled by just the right amount of procedural generation could add a lot of extra little fun to the game. It will be an optional feature as well so players wont feel they need to use this market, but I have some really good ideas in the works for this I think it will be a lot of extra fun, and maybe big money for those who play it well.
- Added main stage and custom conventions to the game.
Main stage conventions can now be run and require 3 large + games that are less than 5 years old to be in your archive. This will generate a substantial amount of fans, however it does not technically add sales yet as the ability to add sales to a game not on the market does not yet exist. However, the next big feature coming Nov 1 takes care of that, and when completed will tie back into conventions to receive sales boost.
Custom conventions can be run once per year and cost quite a penny. They require 5 large + games that are less than 6 years old, as well as 1 game must be currently in development to be showcased. Custom conventions come in 3 sizes of venues which alters price / gains. These very expensive conventions will bring in fans in major ways. They also increase the hype of the current game being developed. They will also increase sales post Nov 1st patch as previously stated.
Note that the combined quality of the games (3 for main / 5 for custom) is what determines your fan / sales gains. With custom this is also modified by the venue size. Let me know what you guys think of the balance when you get there. My own testing so far seemed pretty solid, but time was limited. I will be doing a run when I launch the patch to look for issues and set a good score as always :P
Conclusion
This was a smaller patch due to time limitations. Between giving a week to make "ScumTopia" for BigFry's game jam as well as the Sept 1 office 4 addition was large and needed multiple hot fixes. Time for this patch was limited. This month I will be working on a huge new feature drop for Nov 1 "Store Fronts" this feature will tie into early and end game and will grant the ability to sell games for longer periods / run sales / update games and more. Come to the discord if you want to talk / contribute to development in meaningful ways, but also I am open to all opinions offered via steam pages as well. If you have thoughts, feedback, or suggestions. Don't hesitate to drop them, I will consider them all. Thank you for your continued support, and I can't wait to show you what Store Fronts will do.