What's up Sheikhs,
This is a massive update. I have been working hard under the hood to bring you a networking system, smarter AI, and entirely new strategic mechanics. This is the first step moving away from a pure solo experience.
Here is what’s new in Oil Sheik 1.1: China In Your Hands.
An incredibly hard challenge awaits in the campaign mode.
Unlock Requirement: Earn 15 Stars in previous missions (or puzzles) to unlock.
The Reward: Completing this mission awards the exclusive "Dragon's Breath" Card Back, with a cool particle spirit that orbits your card and dives onto the board when played!
Is a company getting too big to control? Use the new Spin-Off mechanic to shake up the board (available in Quick Game/Custom Rules).
How it works: If you are the Majority Shareholder of a massive company (15+ tiles), you can force it to split.
The Result: A chunk of the company breaks away to form a new entity. Shareholders receive mirrored shares in the new company, but the "bridge" tiles connecting them are destroyed, lowering the parent company's value. Use this to generate capital or sabotage a rival's net worth!
You can now host and join games directly via Steam and play against your friends.
Steam Lobby Integration: Create Public, Friends-Only, or Private lobbies.
Bot Support: Fill empty slots with AI opponents of varying difficulty in online matches.
Note: This feature is experimental. I have written the synchronization logic from scratch to ensure smooth gameplay, but please report any issues you find!
The Advanced AI has gone to business school and learned some new things:
Relative Wealth Calculation: The AI no longer just looks at its own profit. If a move makes you richer than it makes them, they will act smarter.
Defensive Blocking: The AI will now more actively block mergers or expansions if it knows you are about to cash out a massive majority bonus.
Frost Effects: Added a new "Winter Storm" particle effect for the Frosty Card Back.
Dragon Card Back: China Mission reward with particle effect.
Right-Click Cancel: You can now cancel a card drag by right-clicking.
with the implementation of the networking logic the majority of game systems have been completely rewritten.