Get Cartel Tycoon with 40% off until June 2!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1220140/Cartel_Tycoon/
___
Hola, Capos! Long time no see ːcartel_loveː
A couple of weeks ago, we gathered your questions, and today we will answer some of them! While we're doing this, the team is hard at work on our next update, which is shaping up to be quite big, and maybe today, we’ll reveal some of the features that are coming… Maybe!
Let’s get right into it!
Prefer the written word? We've got you covered.
The full transcript is available below:
There were some repeats from the last Q&As, so I’ll answer those questions briefly at the start!
Multiplayer
As we said before, with a small team, we have to have priorities, and right now, we want to make Singleplayer the best it can be, so Multiplayer is on the back-burner, and we hope to get back to it at the end of 2023.
Mods
Same thing with Mods - implementing them into our system is a hefty task that can potentially bring development to a halt, so right now, we’re searching for the best possible way to do it without damaging and derailing our other plans for the game! We saw all of your awesome suggestions for mods. Don’t you worry about that!
And now, let’s get into other questions!
Q: Just out of pure curiosity, what's a feature or part of the game that you thought would be simple or straightforward but that turned out to be difficult or confusing to make?
I’ve asked around the dev team about that, and I’ve got several different responses! The top two were: Combat Update and Quest-Events.
Combat Update was pretty minuscule when we first talked about it. We simply wanted to introduce stamina into the game, but it quickly became apparent that this wasn’t going to cut it. So we made a new building, 20+ new abilities, added Weapons, new status effects, and so on and so forth. The design document for the Combat Rework had so many iterations that the end result is completely different from what we envisioned as a small balance change at the start!
And the second feature is Quest-Events. What started as “Hey, let’s create 4-5 events to make the game more interesting” turned into developing a completely new system under the hood with 100+ events inside that adapts to player actions and expansion to make the gameplay more interesting and the world of Cartel Tycoon more lively!
Q: Are you planning any changes to the combat system in the future? Buffs possibly?
If we’re talking about the Combat future as a whole, we currently don’t have big changes planned for the system, but we continue monitoring your feedback and ideas on that matter! On a smaller scale - we’re planning a few balance tweaks to the Endurance and Gang Power across various modes and difficulties. And if we’re talking about the components of the Combat System, like Abilities and Weapons - we have some buffs and changes in the works, and we hope to deliver at least some of the changes with the next update! We’ve got a lot of feedback since the update release, so we now have a more clear picture of what works and what doesn’t from the player’s perspective!
Q: Are you planning to nerf diplomacy in some way?
After the Combat Update, we’ve noticed that many more people are trying to peacefully resolve conflicts with Gangs - by trading with them, talking, and eventually acquiring. Before the Combat Update, that feature was largely overlooked, safe for some insane speedrun strategies and among our more experienced players. Combat Update changed that, and we’ll also be updating our Tutorial to introduce these mechanics better.
On that note, we don’t want “Diplomacy” to become the go-to strategy, and we want to make both of the routes contextually viable from the early game to the end game, to make either of them make sense in the circumstances because we want players to decide between both of them during their gameplay. So we’re looking at slight balance tweaks that make the peaceful route a bit harder and the combat route a bit more desirable. Jumping into our next question…
Q: Alliances with other gangs are possible soon?
I don’t know about “soon,” but it is something that is on our radar! We want to add more ways for players to engage with the world and its characters, so Alliances are something that has come to our mind! We’re working on an initial design, but as you know from question number one - it can be a long road from the design to actual implementation!
Meanwhile, Alliances aren’t the only new way of engagement we’re thinking about. We’re also playing around with the idea of government forces attacking Enemy Gangs, not just your Cartel. We’re trying out different ways of implementing it and are just thinking if it’s possible to make this cool and exciting without breaking the balance and, you know, the code of the project. We hope that we’ll be able to talk more about it later, but right now, I just wanted to give you a small sneak peek into what types of changes we’re considering for the game!
Q: What are your plans for survival?
Survival Mode is the foundation of Cartel Tycoon as a whole. The development started with it, and everything else came after. But at the same time, the core of Survival Mode hasn’t been changed. Right now, we have several ideas of our own and are consulting with some of our experienced players to find a way of making Survival Mode more engaging. Unfortunately, I can’t tell you more about it, but I can just say that we loved some of the ideas that we were trying for Survival Mode and are going to implement them in a new campaign that will be a part of the San Rafaela expansion! Oh, that reminds me…
Q: Is the new map coming on the next update?
Our new map, San Rafaela, is still being worked on and won’t be a part of the next Cartel Tycoon update. It’s the biggest expansion we’ve ever created for Cartel Tycoon, and it will be available on its own as a DLC. The map isn’t the only part of the DLC - there will be new playable and non-playable characters, a completely new story campaign, and more! We’re aiming to release it during the summer. Before the release, we really want to organize another playtest because we’ve got a lot of very valuable feedback from the first one, and we want to give you all a chance to try out the map completely free close to the release! And we just love sharing work-in-progress stuff with all of you! Creating a new map is one of our hardest endeavors because we want the gameplay to differ between the two of them, and we want San Rafaela to feel truly special! Be on the lookout for future announcements regarding San Rafaela! We can’t wait to share more with you!
Q: If you don't release console edition soon I will send the DEA on you so fast!!! Do you have an estimate date for console edition???
Whoa-whoa, slow down there, partner! I put my hands where you can see them! The Console edition is moving at a steady pace with the help of some awesome people from tinyBuild! Right now, we expect it to be ready by the Fall of 2023, and we can’t wait to share more on this topic in the future!
Now, lower your gun, please, and don’t shoot me…
Q: Do you try to aim for the largest install base for a chance of high profit; or does the platform itself inspire the core design of Cartel Tycoon's idea?
I’ll be honest here; me and other devs reread this question multiple times but still have no idea what is being asked. Sooooo…. Yes? Maybe?
___
I hope that you learned more about the game, about upcoming releases, and a bit about us during this Q&A!
That’s all for this Q&A session, Capos! If you just thought of an awesome question that you want to be answered - head to our official Discord server! Me and other team members are there every day so that we can answer it there!
Just to recap and add a bit more context, our plans for this year are as follows.
Summer:
- A major update
- San Rafaela DLC
Fall:
- A major update
- Console Release
Of course, some things might move around, and we also might add more updates down the line, but right now, our plans look like this!
Have a great day, Capos! More news and announcements are coming! Our next update is coming this summer, and we can’t wait for you to see it!
