Today I'll be talking about the next major feature currently being worked on - an overhaul of the endgame Rivals, Influence and Policies system.
The new features discussed below are still in active development and details may change. Similar to the previous Passions update, it will be put on the Experimental branch first (I'll make a separate announcement when that is ready in 2-4 weeks).
Rivals
We start with the introduction of Rivals.
These are other households or groups of investors that spawn once you pass the "rich" threshold and unlock the Rivals, Influence and Policies window. They own varying amounts of stocks, real estate and businesses and make investment decisions based on economic conditions.
Each rival has different views that will affect their support or opposition to proposed policy changes.
In general, they will support industry policies in their own self interest. For example, a rival who owns Cafes will support investment in the Food Service industry.
On the other hand when it comes to city policies, you'll see a wider variety of views. Some rivals might believe raising employee wages will hurt their competitors more than themselves and thus support Union Encouragement. Others might feel strongly about issues affecting the general public, like better Universal Healthcare. Don't assume all rivals will act like ruthless capitalists!
Influence
Currently, the amount of influence you have is directly proportional to your net worth. This will be changing so influence becomes a value that must be actively generated. There are a few ways to generate influence.
Firstly, you can enable Influence Operations at your businesses.
This represents anything from plastering supportive posters at your Gym to angrily ranting as a radio host at your Online Radio Station. Not everyone will agree with your views, and over time your business reputation will be damaged by these operations. It might be prudent to only mobilise your businesses for influence generation when you have a policy outcome in mind.
Similarly, you can enable Shareholder Activism once you own at least 5% of a company listed on the Stock Market.
Shareholder activism is where a shareholder uses their equity in the company to influence the company's actions. Similar to Influence Operations, there is a cost associated with interference and the company's earnings will suffer in the long term. This opens up a potential strategy where you can purchase a stake in a company that a rival is also invested in, then enable Shareholder Activism to generate influence for yourself while destroying the company from the inside to hurt your rival!