Hello,

Apologies for a slight delay in posting, but I hope you're having a good weekend! Version 17 proved to be a really work intensive and challenging update, but it is now available. The second half of the update focused on two inter-related additions: rackets and the gang strategic AI.

Rackets are bonus providing enemy facilities, which are located in city districts. There are currently eight racket types. Three of these are main bases, of which each gang starts with one, and the remaining five rackets can be purchased and built by the gangs throughout the city. Each racket provides different local (adjacent tile) and global bonuses, and income.

The Gang Strategic AI directs the gang's actions on the strategic, city map level. We wanted to avoid giving each gang a set of rigid orders, (such as acquire upgrade x on day Y) which they would follow regardless of what the player is doing. Instead, we invested some time to build a system which would allow the gang to use their financial resources to react strategically to the player, choosing which upgrades and rackets best suit their current needs.

If you'd like to get more information on this update, you can find out more in the development video below. Apologies for the slightly choppy footage, I accidentally opened and activated a second video capture program during recording.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mzNSm_yXmw

Thanks for reading/watching. If you have any questions, comments, or observations, please leave a comment - we'd be happy to talk!