Hello everyone! I would like to share with you the latest news about the development. In the last report, we explored the extended behavior of NPCs. In this report, we will explore the World Impacted by Player Actions. Note: The Nightly Build is in active development and is not yet available to the public.
As stated in the last report, the job performance of all NPCs within a company influences the profits it can generate. Consequently, a company with a workforce of incompetent people will experience losses month after month. Only large companies that sell software and hardware are public and allow players to buy shares. When a player acquires more than 50% of a companys shares, they will take control of it, unlocking various management options as well as additional information about each workers performance through their employee profiles. If a player is not the majority shareholder, this information will be hidden. However, it can be discovered by reviewing the NPCs conversations and emails to learn more if desired. Once a year, in-game time, companies will offer to distribute dividends among shareholders, allowing them to earn a portion of the companys profits. The total profits will be distributed proportionally to the success each company is experiencing at that moment. To avoid inflation by introducing more money into the world, in this case, the companies profits will be obtained directly from players purchases. For example, when a player buys a piece of hardware in any store, that money will accumulate and can be collected by all the company owners at the end of the year (in-game time) proportionally, reusing the already created money. If a players companies gain a significant advantage over their competitors, they can adjust store prices, potentially impacting other players. Remember that to gain an advantage over your competitors, you can either do it cleanly or interfere with their networks to create chaos.
Players can also create their own stores as an alternative to NPC stores controlled by other players, where they can sell both hardware and software, with the profits going directly to the player selling them. Due to these changes, coupons will have much less prominence and usage in order to adapt to the new mechanics and not devalue the hardware. Additionally, other secondary changes and additions will be introduced, such as a new type of highly competent administrator who can detect overflow attacks and interfere with returned objects, as well as a very expensive service that will be revealed during the public nightly build, which can only be acquired by the guild with the most influence at that time, promoting rivalry between guilds to gain access to certain exclusive features. As always, all these new additions are subject to change and will be adjusted based on the feedback received during the public nightly build. Although there is still work to be done, we are more than halfway there, as the core of the new systems is almost complete. Thanks for reading! More news soon!