Work on the overhaul is moving forward at a steady pace. Here are some of the things that have changed since last.
Servers
You can now develop your own server products and use them for hosting your software, or use servers already on the market.
A server's bandwidth, durability, power usage and security will depend on which features you select during development. The security attribute will lower the impact of DDoS attacks.
DDoS attacks will happen more frequently the bigger your company gets, but can also be carried out by other players in multiplayer. Your IT staff will work to mitigate any attacks.
Pre-marketing
Target audiences
3 audiences have been added to the game, each of which interact with your products in different ways. Some will be more or less likely to refund, more or less sensitive to pricing, or increase or reduce support tickets, etc.
Each type of software will affect the target audience, based on how you balance the market targeting. At a base level each audience is targeted equally and will not affect your product, outside of how it already works now.
Hype
You can now hype products during development. Hype will increase total audience reach, but also audience expectations, so you better not make too many promises!
Process simplification
Hype, press releases and press builds are out and have been replaced with:
Pre-marketing: Basically like the old hype task, but it doesn't just stop you from losing followers, it will be your only way to gain followers and hype during development.
Messaging: You will be able to update your messaging about 4-8 times during development, which will hone in on your target audience and increase your reach, but also allow you to hype your product and nudge your target audience.
Other miscellaneous changes:
- Entire IPs can now gain their own following, separate from the companies' fans
- You can now gain business reputation from licenses, patents, frameworks, publishers and awards, and business reputation has been added back to impossible difficulty
- Support ticket simulation now happens separately from support task
- You can now place trash cans below tables and desks
- We've started adding ads for products in-world to make it very apparent what is happening in the market and how well you are doing