Hola Capos! The Playtest for the Fight & Stash Update is LIVE! ːcartel_loveː
THE CODE FOR THE STEAM PLAYTEST IS: WeaponsAndCache2023 The Playtest Branch is called: playtest_combat
ːcartel_nothing_personalː IMPORTANT: 1) Full translations are not available, please play in English. 2) 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 \ AppData \ Local \ CartelTycoon \ Saved) 3) We encourage you to play in the Sandbox Mode, because the playtest wasn't tested in Survival and Story Modes!
Changes made since the first Playtest:
Combat changes
UI - Made a lot of changes to the Combat UI. Now it will be much easier to follow the combat and be prepared for any upcoming debuffs and changes.
Added additional UI to the buildings that can be used for healing injured Lieutenants.
Added additional UI to the buildings that can be used to speed up Endurance regaining.
Endurance - Now Endurance depletes a bit faster, and it takes a bit longer to replenish it.
Endurance will regenerate faster in any of your Residences, Hotels or city buildings with special loyalty events such as the Church or Charitable Foundation.
Endurance Debuffs - Now Debuffs like Power Loss and Injury won’t trigger before Endurance is very low.
There’s also a smaller chance of the debuffs happening.
The Arrest has been removed from the list of potential Endurance debuffs.
Abilities - Reworked multiple abilities according to your feedback
Updated and improved descriptions for all of the new abilities.
Renamed Supported Attack**. It’s now called “Suppressive Fire” and you no longer get any additional debuffs (Power Loss, Endurance depletion, higher Injury chance) for using it.
Drastically decreased the number of Lieutenants with the 'Chicken” Ability. There’s also a smaller chance of the ability triggering.
Weapons - Decreased the speed with which Weapons are depleted during Combat.
Additional Weapons UI on the Combat Progress Bar - now you can easily see how many weapons you have in a fight!
Made Weapons profitable to sell, added more price fluctuations for Weapons on the Market.
Caches
- Added another type of Cache on Tier 1 of Research Tree. It’s available from the start without the need for additional Research on the default settings. - Updated sizes of all the Caches (without upgrades): T1 - 45.000 $ T2 - 250.000 $ T3 - 700.000 $
Fight & Stash Update Playtest is LIVE!
Hola Capos! The Playtest for the Fight & Stash Update is LIVE! ːcartel_loveː
THE CODE FOR THE STEAM PLAYTEST IS: WeaponsAndCache2023 The Playtest Branch is called: playtest_combat
ːcartel_nothing_personalː IMPORTANT: 1) Full translations are not available, please play in English. 2) 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 \ AppData \ Local \ CartelTycoon \ Saved) 3) We encourage you to play in the Sandbox Mode, because the playtest wasn't tested in Survival and Story Modes!
We've also made a Feedback Form, and would be very happy if you could fill it out after playing for a bit!
Fight & Stash Update // Devlog 25
Hola Capos!
Cartel Tycoon in 2023 // Devlog 24
Hola Capos!
Today we want to talk about big things coming to Cartel Tycoon in 2023. A new map, a rework of the combat system, and a whole lot more...
Watch the devlog right now!
And get Cartel Tycoon with a 40% discount until January 30!
Prefer the written word? We've got you covered. The full transcript is available below:
Hola Capos! It’s me, Andrey! It’s been a hot minute since you last saw me, and I hope you missed me because I know I missed all of you. Today I would like to talk about our general plans for 2023, our upcoming updates, and the future of Cartel Tycoon. Let’s get into it!
NEW MAP ːcartel_loveː
First off, let’s talk about our general plans for 2023. We’ve been relatively silent in January, and some of you thought that it meant we abandoned the game and rode off into the sunset. Nope. Reality is much more mundane - we’re working on some big features and we can’t show them yet. For example, another map is one of the biggest things we’ve ever added to the game, and we’re hard at work to show it to you as soon as possible. And because we want to continue developing the game in collaboration with all of you, I can now announce that we’ll launch a public playtest of our next map very soon.
I don’t want to announce the date yet because the last few years have shown all of us that you can plan ahead all you want, but the world can throw all of your plans under the bus. We’ll get back to this later.
COMBAT SYSTEM REWORK ːcartel_loveː
As I said in the New Year’s Q&A we’re also working on revamping one of the major Cartel Tycoon systems that we find underrepresented and a little too simplified and want to make it more exciting and variable. I am talking, of course, about how fights play out in the game. We don’t want it to simply be “bigger number - better” and are working on a new design that will incorporate a lot more into the equation. For example, we want to make your Lieutenants even more meaningful in fights and are right now experimenting with some of the old abilities and new ones. Right now we’re working out all the kinks of these changes and are looking at how this will work in the game.
CONSOLE RELEASE ːcartel_loveː
Another big thing this year is a console release. We’re excited for all the Playstation and Xbox players to experience the game. We want all of you to get the best of Cartel Tycoon with whatever device you’re using to play it. At the end of last year, we also added support for GeForce Now, but the game hasn’t appeared as available there yet. But don’t worry - we’re working on it.
(GeForce Now support coming in February!)
All in all, we have a lot planned for Cartel Tycoon this year, including major updates and expansions to the game. And we will continue making Cartel Tycoon the best it can be. And now back to “plans going under the bus”.
MULTIPLAYER ːcartel_loveː
In 2021 we were planning to add multiplayer to Cartel Tycoon. We know that some of you were patiently and passionately waiting for this feature. Unfortunately, we decided to remove multiplayer from our roadmap for now. There are a lot of reasons for it, but the bottom line is - we’ve tried a lot of different implementations, and in the end, all of them required a major overhaul of the existing gameplay systems and a lot of time from a small development team. A lot of time. We’ve been on the fence for a long time. We thought: should we focus on a full rewrite of the game to allow the multiplayer or continue expanding the existing single-player experience, making it as fun and polished as it can be? We chose to keep the single player as our main focus for now, as it remains the core of this project.
That doesn’t mean the multiplayer is completely out of the picture - we just don’t want to make the same rash decision we made before and announce the date of its arrival. I can just cautiously say that we want to get back to the Co-op Multiplayer at the end of 2023 or in 2024. Once again, everything might change, and for now, we have removed multiplayer from the roadmap.
But on the bright side, we’re certain about the future of the Cartel Tycoon and the focus on single-player content will provide a fruitful year! And we can’t wait to show you - not just tell you - what we’ve been cooking up for the upcoming updates.
FIRST UPDATE OF 2023 ːcartel_loveː
We’re planning to release the first Cartel Tycoon’s major update of 2023 in February or March, and we’ll do a separate devlog about it closer to its arrival. But I can tell you one cryptic thing now - the Federales can’t find what’s buried underground… Guess what that means in the comments!
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Thank you for sticking with us for all these years, Capos. We’re passionate about Cartel Tycoon, and we think we have a lot more to offer to make the game even bigger and better in the coming months. We hope your 2023 will be great, and we want the time you spent with Cartel Tycoon to be one of the contributing factors.
See you very soon, Capos. Goodbye!
Our plans for 2023 // Cartel Tycoon Q&A (+ Giveaway)
The end of the year is approaching fast, and we didn’t want to leave you without a present! So we decided to make this video! We’ll talk about our plans for 2023, answer questions from our Discord community and have a surprise at the end of the video!
Prefer the written word? We've got you covered. The full transcript is available below:
First things first, let’s talk about 2022. It was a big year for us - with your help we’ve released Cartel Tycoon 1.0 and tons of updates. You helped us so much by …. playtesting, providing feedback, playing the game, leaving reviews both positive…. aaaaand negative. Thank you!
This year we’ve also been working on many things that are yet to come out, and we’re so excited to bring them to you next year. Speaking of “next year”… What are our plans for 2023?
The year is going to be packed - we’re working on the next free content update which will bring a whole new arsenal of things for you to do. And our second map is getting better and better, and we’re almost ready to show you a sneak peek... Oh, we’re ready now? Then let’s show them! The map will feature new ways of transportation, a bigger playing area, new characters, and a whole lot of new regions to explore! We can’t wait for you to try it.
And the console release is also planned for 2023! We can’t tell when exactly, because there’s still a lot to do, but we’re excited for more people to try out our game.
The bottom line is - we’ve got a lot planned, and we can’t wait for 2023 to come and for all of you to try out new content!
But let’s get to the second part of the video - answering your questions! We’ve gathered some questions from our Discord community (by the way, join our Discord), and are ready to answer them!
Will there be a new and more efficient way to launder cash in the future?
It’s not a “new” way per se but we’ve got a couple of ideas of new ways with interacting with Dirty Money that won’t lead to Terror rising or buildings getting arrested. I can’t say anything else, guess in the comments!
What new features are planned for the next major updates? If any? Also, will there be more story quests?
We’re absolutely going to add more story quests and content. As for the features we’ve got 4 major features that are in different stages of development. Not all of them might make it, but we’re excited to show you what we’re working on next year!
When is mod support getting added?
We’re still collecting data and gathering all the ideas for possible mods. It’s not in active development right now, but on our short list of possible features. So continue sharing your mod ideas on Steam and Discord and in the comments to this video!
Will there be weapon dealing in Cartel tycoon and a remake of the power system?
Well, okay, spoiler alert - one of the designs we’re working on right now - is a revamp of our combat system which includes weapons. It’s rough around the edges and needs some more brain processing to refine it, so it has the right complexity vs smoothness of the experience. We’re constantly thinking about making fights more interesting and will continue working in this direction.
What criteria does the team look at to decide which community feedback is valid and what is not?
That’s a great and tough question with a long and short answer. We’ll give you both. First of all, if something is broken - our QA team makes a bug, and we fix it! Secondly, if the player experience is different from what we have imagined - we go back to the drawing board to find ways to fix it. And If the feedback is regarding a system we ourselves want to change or improve - we take it into the consideration when redesigning this aspect of the game, which might take a long time, but it doesn’t mean that the feedback is forgotten! And the short answer is - it all depends on how many available resources we have to implement your ideas into the game. When you’re a small development team you have to prioritize some things. If we could implement all of your awesome suggestions - we would, but sometimes even a small change from the players' perspective takes a lot of time to implement and requires a lot of work from the whole team, so, unfortunately, it doesn’t get into the game.
Turns out it was two long answers, but I hope we were able to give perspective you understand! It’s no secret now that we’re gearing up for our next project, and we learned (and continue to learn) a lot from Cartel Tycoon, including your feedback.
How did the focus on drugs come into the team? Was it a core idea for the lore or an afterthought? Was the separation of both cash (clean and dirty) a cause or a consequence?
Well, in the early stages we were inspired by “Breaking Bad” and wanted to make an experience focused on struggling with maintaining an ever-growing criminal empire. But we decided to focus on the bigger theme so we would have more narrative and design choices. At that stage, we were thinking about the game as the complete opposite of Ghost Recon: Wildlands, where you would play as an antagonist. So the drugs were here from the beginning. The separation of money into Clean and Dirty was inspired by the story of how Pablo Escobar got caught and was added to the game in the first months of development.
But the structure and economics of the game were inspired by the great book called “Narconomics” which studies the bureaucracy of the drug empires
Why an unspecified country in Central America?
Cartel Tycoon takes inspiration from a lot of places, so we felt that sticking to a real country would close up a lot of opportunities in stories and game mechanics and we didn’t want the game to be “realistic” per se. That’s why we distance ourselves from real places and real people and want to focus on the player experience, and not the specific story of a specific location!
_________________
Whew, hope you liked it! We want to do these kinds of Q&A’s semi-regularly, so if you’re interested - tell us in the comments below!
And now for the giveaway. Holidays are approaching fast, so we wanted to give something away to a couple of lucky people from our community! And what’s better than a huge-$*@ Cartel Tycoon-themed mouse pad? Enter our giveaway on gleam.io (the link is in the description) and win a mouse pad of your choosing, and we’ll send it.. uhhh, I mean Santa will send it to you.
Fixed: Oculus users can experience longer loading times when starting the game if the Oculus App isn't open!
Patch Notes - Cartel Tycoon v 1.0.9.4703
Visual
Updated tree visuals for buildings
Bug Fixes
Fixed: Multiple localization and text issues
Fixed: Incorrect number of bonuses displayed on the University if Lieutenant with Researcher ability is there
Fixed: "Connecting to cloud" icons displayed in the Main Menu
Fixed: Lieutenants' nickname is not updated in dialogues
Fixed: Terror didn't grow when selling illegal products without containers in Seaports and Border Checkpoints
Fixed: Capo is considered a Lieutenant in the "Industrial Action" quest.
Fixed: Incorrect dialogue choices for some of the Gang Deals.
Fixed: Gang Deals stay active after subjugating or killing the Gang Leader
Fixed: Federales could arrest the quest residence during the "Detain III" quest.
Sacred Lamb Update is LIVE!
Hola Capos!
We’re excited to bring you our next Content Update, “Sacred Lamb” with major additions to the gameplay, a new end-game challenge, changes based on your feedback, and, of course, bug fixes!
Steam Weekly Deal is Live! Get the game with a 40% Discount! ːcartel_loveː
ːcartel_loveː A New Questline. Exciting new end-game content is accessible in Sandbox mode! Capture all of the Special Buildings to start a compelling storyline with new characters, twists, and difficult decisions! Get new unlocks for completion!
ːcartel_loveː New Settings for Sandbox! Play around with Market and Events settings! Make them as harsh and frequent as you want or turn them off completely!
ːcartel_loveː Research Tree Search Bar! Find any building or an upgrade using a new search bar!
ːcartel_loveː Characters List! Now all of the characters are easily accessible through a menu, not just your Lieutenants! Find Mayors, Gangs, and Story characters easier!
ːcartel_loveː New Lieutenant Abilities! You can now turn on or off certain Lieutenant Abilities, we’ve added a new one and changed some old ones like "Coordinator"!
Military Base upkeep changed. We got your feedback that the bonuses from supplying Military Base weren't lasting very long, so we updated their placement and expanded the Base storage!
Updated the Global Goals menu to show you which unlocks you can and can't get with your current settings in the playthrough
When you're exporting legal goods through Smuggling Points they no longer will be suspicious! Illegal goods hidden in legal goods can still be found, be aware!
We made the game a bit harder after the Tutorial ends. Be prepared for the real Cartel Tycoon experience!
Researcher abilities now can stack up to 50%!
Bug Fixes
Playtest fixed: Gil Gilmor couldn't move after destroying the quest Residence
Playtest fixed: Quest "Detain III" completed if Gil Gilmore was moved to any Residence, not the Quest one.
Playtest fixed: If Capo and Gil Gilmor were killed at the same time, next Capo would die instantly
Playtest fixed: "Make a deal: Heroin" was working incorrectly for Gil Gilmor.
Fixed: Dialogue wasn't playing before the "Postbureacracy" Mayor Quest
Fixed: In the "Needs and Fears" campaign Enemy Gangs could attack players early on
Fixed: Shooting sounds disappear during a city fight when you reload a save
Fixed: US Army UI is displayed under other UI Elements
Fixed: Missing indicator that research speed is increased in the University
Fixed: Incorrect Aerodrome I upgrade animation
Fixed: After Capo's Death some Event markers remained
Fixed: incorrect visuals during the building process
Fixed: Area Depot wasn't arrested after the US Army attack
Fixed: Incorrect product slot placement in Smuggling Points after reloading a save
Fixed: Capo's helicopter couldn't land at the CIA fight
Fixed: "Harvest Manager" ability didn't work with Chicken, Avocado and Quinoa
Known Issues
Some Localization issues
The dollar sign is missing in the Laundering building statistics menu
Lieutenants' nickname is not updated in dialogues
Localized subtitles for the Tutorial intro are missing
Animation spam after consecutive Lieutenant rerolls
The "Cultivator" Ability can trigger when there are no farms/plantations with the correct resource nearby
When the Lieutenant becomes a Capo, a preferred Terror level is still displayed in his menu
Gang Deals stay active after subjugating or killing the Gang Leader
Prison warden appeared in the recruitment pool (Go back to Prison!)
An incorrect number of bonus icons is displayed in the University if the Lieutenant with a Researcher Ability is active.
Sacred Lamb Update // Devlog 23
Hola Capos!
“The Sacred Lamb” Update brings you more end-game content, multiple quality-of-life changes, and bug fixes! Learn more about the upcoming update in this devlog!
Prefer the written word? We've got you covered. The full transcript is available below:
Hola Capos! It’s Andrey! It’s been a month since the Goals & Gains Update, and we’re here to bring you another one! “The Sacred Lamb” Update brings you more end-game content, multiple quality-of-life changes, and many-many bug fixes. Let’s get right into it!
Huh, just joking! Don’t forget to like, subscribe and leave comments down below! My Lieutenants are watching you do it. All done? Good, let’s get one with the devlog!
We’ll start with Special Buildings. “Why?” you may ask. They’re an essential part of the new end-game content coming with the update. In order to access it you’ll need to capture all of the Special Buildings, and a new questline will open to you. If you decide to pursue it, you’ll meet new characters, make tough decisions and acquire desirable unlocks. This questline will test you but believe me, it will be worth it.
As always, your choices will matter and will lead to different endings, but you’ll be satisfied either way!
We’ve also updated our Lieutenant List. It’s no longer a Lieutenant list, but a Character List - navigate to your favorite Mayors, Gang Leader-buddies, and, of course, Lieutenants with one menu! No more running your mouse through all of your cities looking for that one Mayor that didn’t give you a loan yet - just find them through the menu!
With this update, we’re also bringing a new type of Lieutenant Ability - the one you can toggle on or off, which gives you more wiggle room and creative ways to use your lieutenants. We want you to feel more in control of your Cartel, and we’ll continue to fight… I mean work in this direction.
And speaking of control, we’re bringing more Advanced Settings to the Sandbox Mode. You’ll be able to control the Events and the Market. You’ll be able to turn them off completely if you so desire, and you’ll be able to control the frequency of the Events and the Market “Difficulty”. Make the Sandbox truly special for yourself!
We’re also adding the search bar to the Research Tree! Find the desired building or an upgrade in seconds! You loved the Research Queue addition in the last update, so we’re making the Research Tree even more accessible with this update.
We’re also giving some love to those of you who bought the game called “Cartel Tycoon” but still want a family-friendly endeavor. Your legal packages with nothing illegal inside will no longer draw suspicion from the government which will make building a legal empire an easier task for you!
And, of course, there will be lots of smaller quality-of-life changes and bug fixes, some of which we spotted ourselves, and some of which you reported on our forums! Thank you for that!
The Sacred Lamb Update is coming very soon, and we can’t wait for you to check it out!
Thanks for watching! Subscribe to our socials, and join Discord to chat with the devs and fans and enjoy some exclusive content. See you, Capos!
