After a long pause, I'm ready—just as promised—to share the details of the upcoming update. We're now in the final stage before delivering it to you, and just a few days after we finish internal testing, you'll be able to download it.
So, what awaits us in the new update:
Endless Game Mode
First, some good news for those who asked us to extend the game beyond 1947, even at the cost of losing historical accuracy and transitioning into a new era. We’ve worked on it — and now, you’ll have that option. The game will no longer be interrupted, and you’ll be able to continue playing in endless mode if you feel there just aren’t enough years in the timeline. The political system and economy will continue functioning after 1947, though without a historical vector.
Media
And the headline feature of this update is, of course, Media Companies! A brand-new type of company, which I previously teased.
What are they for?
Well, it’s hard to imagine a true Plutocracy — a world of politicians and big money — without the so-called Fourth Estate. The influence on the minds of readers has always been powerful, and starting from the late 19th century with the rise of mass printing, it reached dangerous levels for anyone standing in the way of media tycoons.
Want to influence election candidates? No problem! Change public opinion on a law? Go ahead! Destroy or revive the business reputation of a company? Just pay a visit to your media company’s editorial office!
There’s just one condition — you must own a controlling stake in the media company.
The effectiveness of influence depends on the newspaper’s circulation. The higher the circulation, the broader the reader reach — and the stronger the effect. Don’t expect a small-town rag with limited copies to make any serious impact.
Also, keep in mind that the influence of a media company is limited to the region where its office is located. To exert influence across other states or the entire country, you’ll have to work hard — consolidating scattered companies into a media empire through familiar tools: trusts, media cartels, mergers, and acquisitions.
While editing an article, you’ll have to decide how and by whom the chosen media target will be influenced. You can opt for a soft approach — with a mild effect and minimal risk for your media company — or go aggressive, which may lead to lawsuits, financial penalties, or reputational damage.
The system also takes into account who you are targeting. Influencing a well-known public figure or a major enterprise will be significantly harder, as they are more likely to respond with a public rebuttal or even spark a scandal.
Advertising as a New Lever
This update also brings changes to the game’s economic model. To properly integrate the media system, we had to revise how all companies operate economically — making the role of media companies more impactful than just spreading compromising news about competitors or glorifying friendly politicians to boost their reputation and renown.
A key change: all companies will now purchase advertising from media companies instead of investing in R&D. This, in turn, will affect product pricing. If a company's advertising investment exceeds the sector’s average, its product prices will receive a bonus markup. If it falls behind, prices will be penalized accordingly.
Integration with Holdings
By owning a media company within your holding, you'll gain preferential advertising rates when promoting through your own media assets — effectively reducing your advertising expenses. This opens up a new layer of strategy in market monopolization — adding another lever of pressure against competitors.
All other changes — including the many bug fixes you’ve reported to us — will be detailed once the update goes live. We expect that to happen within the next week.
Thank you all for your concern and your dedication to the future of Plutocracy. We continue working toward everything we’ve set out to deliver for the final version of the game — and your support keeps us inspired!
Stay tuned for more news coming soon! ___ CEO.
Patch 0.250207 is available for update!
Changes:
Improvements:
Optimization and general improvement of game performance
In the settings, it is possible to disable animation in the game, for greater performance on computers with a low-power configuration
Changes have been made to the logic of managing subsidiaries to simplify their management.
Now, in order to influence anything in any subsidiary company, you do not necessarily need to be the CEO of this company, and even be the CEO of the parent company.
Critical errors:
Crash associated with negative production
Crash after an attempt to create a trust in the coal industry
Crash when closing an application from a gaming session
Other crashes
Fixed a bug where the number of characters grew over time, which led to significant game slowdowns
Other errors:
Error reducing the new share of the owner of the company after the takeover of another company (new shares were issued on the stock exchange during the takeover)
The share release button is blocked after cooldown
The icon for using the pianist agent does not appear or disappear on time
Cannot provoke a strike again after the agent cooldown
Incorrect figures when paying interest on a loan
Inability to borrow from loyal characters due to lack of money of their own
NaN in loans, and stock exchange line in the list of shareholders
The history of repayment of issued loans disappeared from the company’s finances during bank bankruptcy
Minor edits to layout and texts
“Characters who were issued loans and went bankrupt are stuck in the notebook; they cannot be deleted, but “???” is shown instead. “
Announcement
In the next update we plan to add a new type of company - Media. This will significantly expand the ability to control politicians, popularize laws among the population, and provide more tools for targeted influence on the desired characters and companies. Follow the news!
And as usual, thank you for your support, suggestions and bug reports - thanks to you, we find vulnerabilities faster and improve the game. You inspire our small team!
Holdings!
Hello all plutocrats!
We have added vertical integration to the game. I'll tell you what it is.
A holding in the game is a supply-related company in which the owner has a controlling stake. Very often in your wishes I came across ideas about greater automation of various processes in the game, be it economics or politics. Therefore, it was decided to ease the role of the company owner and focus on the main thing - creating a competitive advantage in the purchase of raw materials and transport services.
First of all, this is a search for supplier companies with the lowest prices for raw materials. Let's say you have an oil refinery. Cheap oil from your oil production company, coupled with low transportation tariffs, allows you to get significant savings, which improves the final margin of the refinery, and therefore its competitiveness in the market!
This is what vertically integrated Holdings are created for!
So. Before creating a Holding, buy out at least 1 company. By default, all companies in the game purchase raw materials and services from third-party companies - i.e. at market prices, based on the average price in the country. You can see this in the Holding tab.
To replace third-party suppliers with your companies, buy a controlling stake in a company that sells its products below the market! The lower the price, the greater the benefit for the Holding Company, obviously.
Important - we have simplified the mechanics of linking companies to the Holding. There is no need to make the supplier company a subsidiary. You can simply buy it for your pocket money, and if it is capable of supplying the type of product you want to your other company, it will do so immediately! Yes, yes, the directors of your companies eat their bread for a reason...
For convenience, we also displayed information about the prices of each company's products in the table of companies, instead of the level of technology.
This saves time searching for a company in states with lower prices for raw materials or services.
Next. In the Holding window itself, you can set the priority of suppliers and consumers if your Holding has grown and requires more fine-tuning. It can be individual, or it can be automatic - then the company itself will purchase with priority at the minimum price.
This window can also be used for quick navigation between the Holding companies.
The ultimate goal is to purchase raw materials and services from the Holding's supplier companies at the lowest price in the country, simultaneously depriving competitors of cheap raw materials, and sell your final products, for example, kerosene, at the highest price!
For clarity, we have displayed key indicators, including the Holding’s efficiency and total benefits, in a table.
Have a nice game! Share your thoughts on what could be added or removed - and we will definitely think about it.
As promised in the fall, the next update will add presidential elections and a new type of company to the game - media. But I’ll tell you more about this in the developer diary next time!
Happy holidays to everyone!
Patch 0.240917 is available in main branch now!
Changelog:
Critical fixes:
Fixed a crash due to an error that occurred when North Dakota and South Dakota joined the United States in 1889.
Other fixes:
Fixed a bug that sometimes prevented the purchase of shares for a company if personal funds were not enough for at least 1 such share.
Fixed a bug where the time start button could be blocked for no reason.
Stay tuned, Redwood Team.
Patch 0.240914 is available in main branch now!
Changelog:
Critical fixes:
Fixed a crash during loading a save due to data inconsistencies in the character search filter.
Fixed a crash during loading a save due to the mistaken removal of a player character from the database.
Fixed a bug that prevented certain saves from being loaded from the main menu.
We managed to fix most of the crashes related to loading saves. Now, in most cases, old saves will loading without problems. New ones should be completely OK. So we recommend starting a new game and not using saves made before this version, as we can't guarantee their stability. We will continue to monitor the situation, and if there will be more problems with loading, we will release another patch.
Stay tuned, Redwood Team.
Patch 0.240910 is available in main branch now!
Changelog:
Critical fixes:
Fixed a crash that occurred during a merger/acquisition of companies if negotiations were held shortly before to purchase shares of one or both of the merged companies.
Fixed a crash that occurred when switching to Statistics after mergers/acquisitions of companies (mostly banks).
Fixed a bug at the end of negotiations that caused the number of shares in the final agreement to change to the one that was selected at the beginning.
Other fixes:
[Favorites] A missed hint has been added to the Characters tab when it is blocked.
[Company structure] Long company names no longer crawl under/on the other contents of their cards.
[Information>Connections] The "Add to Favorites" button in the Character strings menu is now working correctly.
[Loading error popup] Has been removed the mistakenly added cancel button, which in fact did not perform any functions.
A few minor cosmetic fixes and improvements.
The activity of the community has helped to significantly speed up searching and fixing of these most popular errors and bugs. Thanks for that, Plutocrats!
Stay tuned, Redwood Team.
Update 0.240905 is available in the main branch now!
Greetings, Plutocrats! We have released an update for our much-loved game and want to briefly introduce you to its contents.
Release notes:
Main Features:
Favorite companies and characters
Now companies and characters can be added to favorites. This will make it possible to quickly return to them without having to search for them by state. The favorites menu appears when you hover over a new shortcut on the left side of the screen.
You can interact with characters and companies using the menu, as in other windows. You can also quickly go to the information about the character or to the company window by clicking on the desired line. Now you will not lose the very shareholder who was recently ready to sell a huge stake in a promising company for a song, but you did not have enough funds.
List of player's companies
Buttons have been added to the company window that allow you to switch between all your companies. A list of all your companies has also been added to quickly navigate to the one you need.
This list, as well as the structure of companies, will simplify navigation through your financial empire.
Company structure
A new button on the main panel leads to a new window that allows you to view all the connections of the companies that you own.
Here you can also visually see the financial flows between your companies and quickly switch to one of them if desired. This interface is just the basis for vertical holdings, which will be released later this year, and so far it no longer has any functionality.
In-game feedback form
The form will allow you to report an error at any time without leaving the game and attach a screenshot of the current screen and/or save the game to it, according to your choice. Or just send a suggestion to improve the game, why not?
Please note that submitting the form requires an Internet connection, and the time to send the save strongly depends on the speed of your connection and consumes some traffic.
Minor Features:
Dynamic loading screens
Added a change of background images for long downloads. Also, the images are now animated.
Balance and polishing:
Subsidiaries purchased by the company headed by the player are now accounted for in the controlled market share, and therefore in the goals of the scenario and achievements.
The calculation of the package price and margin of available shares in the portfolio on the stock exchange has been changed. Now they are determined only for existing shares, and not for the entire history of purchases of shares of the same company, which caused confusion.
Improved smooth appearance and hiding of all windows.
Slight performance improvement due to optimization of calculating the totals of each day
The limit of bank loans is no longer limited to the amount of $2.2 billion.
The possibility to enter the number of shares in negotiations has been returned. The number of shares before negotiations can now be selected manually again. We have returned this feature at your request.
Critical fixes:
Fixed the possible disappearance of companies after the merger in any way.
Fixed a bug where learned skills were saved when loading a previous save made before they were actually learned.
Fixed a random crash that occurred when you were in the state window.
Fixed a crash that occurred when stopping a strike with the help of a Pianist.
Fixed a crash that sometimes occurred during the merger of companies.
Other fixes:
Unexplained layoffs of workers have been fixed.
Fixed erroneous occurrence of the “Accident” and “Strike” events if the player's share was less than the controlling stake or the player was the CEO of the company.
Fixed the error of the appearance of a negative transaction amount and the number of shares before negotiations.
Fixed the possibility of the current influence falling below 0.
Fixed accidental appearance of confirmation/cancellation buttons for changing the number of workers in Company Statistics.
Fixed the ability to apply a Lobbyist without the necessary amount of influence.
Fixed accidental restores of hostile characters' loyalty after loading a save.
Fixed a bug due to which the Central Bank guaranteed to refuse loans to banks after downloading the save.
Fixed resetting Stock Exchange filters and searching for characters after loading the save. Various cosmetic fixes.
Fixed overflow of integers when calculating the maximum bet in a racetrack event.
If the save is loaded unsuccessfully, the main menu buttons will no longer become non-clickable.
Fixed phantom loans that are mistakenly counted in the Statistics of the borrower companies after the bankruptcy of the lender company.
Fixed an error in the voting history in which the previous value of the company parameter discussed at the vote was not displayed.
The repeated payment of severance pay upon the CEO's dismissal without confirmation is excluded.
Slightly improved compatibility of “old” saves with a newer version of the game.
Fixed the operation of the F1-F8 (hotkeys for the buttons of the main panel).
Fixed character display errors in some emails.
Fixed a bug that blocks the use of compromising material on a character.
The progress in the “Buy Shares” ambition is now being updated correctly.
The history of transactions on the stock exchange is now displayed correctly for bankrupt companies.
Various minor cosmetic changes and fixes
Thank you all, Plutocrats, for your patience, support and an infinite stream of suggestions about game improvements! Also, don't forget to report bugs found in the new update on our Discord channel: https://discord.gg/pmFCazmd or in Steam discussions so that we can fix them as quickly as possible.
Stay tuned, Redwood Team.
Dev Diary. Update announcement. Plans for remaining 2024.
Hello, Plutocrats!
We haven't published diaries for a long time, so we decided to tell you what we're working on right now and share our plans for this autumn.
So, first of all, we have completed work on several new interfaces, and have greatly simplified interaction with companies and characters. The next update of the game can be called focused on improving the navigation of the game.
Adding to favorites.
We are constantly reviewing all your messages in which you suggest next improvements of the game, so we slightly postponed our plans that we had for the summer and took the time to implement a list of favorite companies and characters.
After the next update of the game, in any table, wherever you are, you will be able to add any company or character to the favorites list, and at any time return to it for interaction.
This feature will greatly simplify navigation through the game world, and will allow you to get access to the right companies and characters in just 2-3 clicks, instead of a tedious search through other interfaces.
All you need to do is open the sidebar on the left and choose which list you need - companies or characters.
The structure of companies.
Now you will be able to see and analyze your entire structure of companies, the ownership shares of each company, all their daughters and granddaughters. This is especially useful in the late game, when there may be a lot of companies or you have formed an extensive and complex company ownership structure.
Also, this function allows you to quickly navigate through your companies, and even interact with them through the RMB menu, without going to the table of any state and not looking for the company you need.
The new Company Structure window is part of the planned Holding module, which will be the main feature of the next autumn update.
You will be able to see the rest of the changes at the time of the game update in the coming week! Thanks to your messages, we have fixed a lot of bugs and will continue to do so further.
Plans for future updates for 2024.
We still have to spend most of our time on the story campaign, as a result of which the pace of adding new modules to the Sandbox has slowed down somewhat.
Nevertheless, we are planning a number of important updates before the end of this year. Here are the main ones:
Holdings.
And the first of them is, of course, the Holding module, part of which has already been implemented in the form of an interface of the Company Structure, is now being tested, and will enter the game in the next update, as mentioned above.
We plan to make an update with the Holdings approximately in late September-early October to expand the possibilities in the late game.
Presidential elections.
An equally interesting update, which we would like to make before the end of 2024, will be the update of the political part of the game. We will add the presidential race to the game!
At the moment, you can participate in the elections of governors, congressmen, members of state Legislatures, etc. in the game, but not the president of the United States!
Bribery of voters, manipulation in the media, murder of candidates… Or a fair fight? Issues relevant to 19th century America! Or not only the 19th century?... Each player will have to decide for himself who and how to bring to the Presidency, using his influence and money.
At the moment, I can only share what has been precisely decided to be implemented - a system for nominating candidates from parties, a mechanism for pre-election candidates, as well as a modern voting system based on indirect elections of the President of the United States through the electoral college will be introduced. In addition to the elections themselves, the system of removing the president before the end of his term - impeachment - will also be worked out.
The question still remains for us, what should we as players receive as a bonus for winning the presidential race? Just the ability to veto the laws of the US Congress? Or something else? Share your ideas and suggestions on our Discord channel https://discord.gg/NHRUQ8Eg or Steam Discussions, we will definitely take this into account during development.
Enhancing lobbying and the role of politicians.
In addition to developing a presidential campaign, we would like to improve the political part of the game and make it more dependent on the actions of Plutocrats. Therefore, we also have plans to improve the laws. You can also take part in the development and suggest your ideas on the development and improvement of the political system (and not only).
We are always glad to receive any constructive feedback. Thank you for following us and the Plutocracy. See you in the next diary!
Update 0.240413 is available in main branch now!
New:
1. Notifications.
A new option has been added to the management of the company - setting up notifications. Now you can filter the information that your managers will send you.
This option will be especially convenient if you have a lot of small companies, and you do not want to receive information about various incidents in them, participate in shareholder votes, etc.
Also, you can instruct your secretary not to receive offers to sell shares from interested investors for any your companies if your plans do not include selling them.
Among other things, you will now be able to see the history of all the events that happened with all the companies where you have a stake. You can view it at any convenient time, individually for each company.
2. Optimization of saves
The speed of saving and loading game has been improved, and the size of the final save files has been reduced.
3. Added Polish localization.
Thanks to a member of our Discord community teyot_17 for the full Polish translation.
4. Minor improvements:
The number of new workplaces in buildings for developers may now vary.
An indication of the number of new workplaces that the new building will provide has been added.
Some changes have been added to the mergers and acquisitions window.
The amount of share repurchase is now limited to the company's net assets and reserves.
Fixed:
1. Critical fixes:
Crash after bank takeover.
Crash after receiving an investigation report and failure when attempting to pay a bribe (accident).
Crash when refusing to sell shares after a character's offer.
2. Other fixes:
Incorrect display in the stock exchange window with a large number of company statuses.
Incorrect display of the difference in the company's Shares tab on the stock exchange.
Incorrect display of the chance of winning elections for some politicians when sponsoring.
The company went bankrupt after uploading a save file.
Fixed the ability to set a zero salary for workers.
Fixed the ability to use a Broker's agent on companies that are not on the stock exchange.
3. Balance:
The construction balance has been changed.
Added a time limit for sending a repeated loan application.
We continue to work on fixing the errors that you report to us, as well as on new interesting features. Thank you for your patience and help!
Patch 0.240322 is available in main branch now!
List of changes:
Critical fixes:
Crash after buying shares by another character.
Crash as a result of M&A of companies, or after bankruptcy.
Other fixes:
A bug with your bank's reserves, which makes it possible to take out a lot of loans.
When returning from the credits table - an empty window.
Displaying negative amounts in Company Reserves during Expansion.
Inability to obtain a loan for your company from a bank whose shares belong to another company of yours.
Corrected the name of the state of South Dakota.
Company finances no longer display the company's global market share.
The Merger of Companies does not correctly take into account the difference in Capitalization and Share Prices of the merged Companies.
Images disappeared when opening the company window.
Incorrect opening of a company from the company table.
The Tutorial button disappears after loading a savegame.
Incorrect Icon in Share Transaction for Bank.
The hair color is named "Gray eyes" instead of "Gray hair" during character creation.
Minor improvements:
Indication of the share of shares of the parent company in a subsidiary bank when taking out a loan.
We continue to work to resolve any errors that you periodically report to us. Thank you for your patience and help!
