August 2023 Balance Playtest

Hola Capos!

We’re back from vacation, and we want to jump right into business! Join the playtest this week to test the balance improvements and changes we’ve cooked up!

This time we decided to focus on Terror, Combat, and Management. With the introduction of Laundering Modes, we want to make the laundering process more fine-tuned for early, mid, and late game, making it easier for you to control the flow of Dirty Money into Laundering buildings.
Balance tweaks to Terror and Combat duration are aimed to lessen the pressure on the player but to keep this part of the game engaging.

THE CODE FOR THE STEAM PLAYTEST IS: playtest2023
The Playtest Branch is called: playtest_balance_update

Playtest time:

• Aug 17 - Aug 24

Purpose of the Playtest:

• In this playtest, we decided to focus further on Terror, Combat, and Management. With the introduction of Laundering Modes, we want to make the laundering process more fine-tuned for early, mid, and late game, making it easier for you to control the flow of Dirty Money into Laundering buildings. Balance tweaks to Terror and Combat duration are aimed to lessen the pressure on the player but to keep this part of the game engaging.

ːcartel_nothing_personalː IMPORTANT:

• Full translations are not available yet, please play in English.
• We strongly encourage you to make a reserved copy of your Cartel Tycoon save files before entering the playtest! We don't want you to lose progress! (Your save files should be located here: C: \ Users <your computer> \ AppData \ Local \ CartelTycoon \ Saved)
• Don't use your save files from the playtest when you return to the main branch!

Changes

• Laundering Modes. Finetune your Laundering Building with new Laundering Modes! Choose the amount of money they will launder based on your current needs and limitations, and to improve the automation of your building chains!
• Added Hotel to the Research Tree and removed the Hotel building limit. Build as many Hotels as you like after unlocking them in the Research Tree, and research Hotel Upgrades to make the building even more useful as your empire grows!

Balance

• Reduced Terror from overflowing buildings by 33%. We feel that after the Combat Update, Terror became a bigger threat, so we continue to monitor and reduce its ‘income’ from different sources. Overflowing buildings can become a problem, especially in the late game, so we wanted to lessen the pressure on the player.
• City Encounter duration reduced by 20%. With the Combat Update, we wanted city encounters to become much more dramatic, but we feel we’ve overdone it a little. Now they will be over a bit faster while still being challenging, but not that challenging.