Empire of Sin: 3 main questions: Economy

"This should be the last rant about Empire of Sin, and what it could improve in its design. Mainly, as topic suggest it need to have a look at how its economy system hampers and limits its potential."

No Competition

As is stands at the moment of writing (patch 1.04), EoS has pretty simple and robust economical system: district generates customers, them those customers are divided between various rackets, according to draw, and then they spend their money according to combined ambiance and sales of each racket. That's all.

No effective staff salary or hiring, no taxes, no electricity or water bill, not even resources required to produce alcohol. Nothing to spend our hard earned cash. Yes, player can upgrade each racket to a 5 star establishment, but there is absolutely no reason to do that. Not a single one, except player, thinking that it will improve his income. Which is partly true, but once you realize that its much more easier to take over more rackets than upgrade few that you own, you probably will not do it, unless you want to experiment with your build. The reason for that is two-fold;

First: abundance of other possibilities, and free real estate. Anywhere you look, you will find plenty of Derelict buildings or vulnerable rackets to take over. In smallest game with just 3 neighborhoods, you have approximately 30- 60 free buildings to take over. Once you reach 20 rackets you will never need money. Yes, number will go up and down, but it will not matter. With 20 rackets, you are already won the game, simply by amount of cash you make every week, you will outlast, and out buy anyone in Chicago. You don't even need to fight anyone, just keep selling them booze, or throw occasional cash their way.

Second: pathetic competition. AI in terms of development, is either lazy or designed by pacifist. None of the AI factions will not develop their rackets beyond level 1, or even aggressively expand. If a player can capture about 4 rackets per hour of gameplay, (that is if you fight each one of the thugs in the building), and will only get stronger and stronger, then AI limits is demand one or two rackets as a result of costly war. AI never expands beyond its original set-up, and never attacks player's safehouse. That's not how to create a competition

Supply and Demand, anyone?​

Now, lets talk about an elephant in the room: the basic economy and trading. I'm sorry, but to in order for you to understand my point, I need to diverge for a minute.

The basic pillars of every economy since the stone age, have always been Price, Product, Supply and Demand. This is true even for criminal enterprise. People want the Product, and their desire determines the Price they are willing to pay and Demand in number of units. But if Supply is lower than Demand, then Prices quickly rise up. However, if there is plenty of Supply, then prices tend to go down, as every trader wants to make their profits. Unless there is an agreement between traders to keep price at certain number, so that everybody can benefit from average, but relatively stable sales. That's the simplest explanation of capitalism I can do.

However, Empire of Sin laughs in my face and tells me that I know nothing. You do not need prices. You do not need Supply and Demand. You are a gangster. You shoot people and take their stuff. All this business stuff is for your accountant to sort out. Then gameplay goes on and only reinforces this statement. That's my biggest problem with this game.

Sadly, Empire of Sin, is not about building a criminal Empire, as game's advertisement were promising. No, Empire of Sin is Thug simulator: rob a place, take over a racket and keep shooting until none left. It promised a Godfather moments, where you build an underworld empire, develop an influence, power, network of supporters and bribed politicians in order to take over Chicago. But instead you are 2-pence thug with a Lee Enfield rifle (the best gun in the game), who cant do anything, but to wonder from one gunfight into another. Not, by choice, but design.

Coming back to economy. Now, if you look closely you will see that during trading with other bosses, there is a background calculation of how much they are willing to pay for your booze or guns. That mean, that prices do exist, but they simply are set in stone, somewhere in game code. Player never sees them, but from observation of my trade, I can establish that one box of swill will sell at $3. But, how player is negotiating a trade without talking about how much he is going to pay, about negotiating a PRICE for his illegal goods, I do not know. That's not how Americans do that.

Various Resources?​

Now, the other huge problem of Empire of Sin, is in it resource management. There are three types of resources player has to manage: money (easy as sin), guns (abundant as sin) and Gangsters, (simple as sin). I've touched the money earlier, so lets talk guns and Gangsters.

Player is correct to expect abundance of guns in the Gangster themed game. Empire of Sin does not disappoint. From the start, player can find rare and unique weapons by attacking random thugs guarding a box full of weapons, like SMG or heavy Machine Guns. It's a good help for a struggling player, who may not have cash to pay for revolver, but suddenly has a very powerful arsenal just by looking in the dark corners of the city. I can see that this system was lifted from Dungeons and Dragons, where heroes find a +2 Sword of Justice in some dirty goblin hole. It is saved from being totally ridiculous by two things:

1) Lack of weapons concealment system: literally anyone can walk on the street with huge Lewis MG, and none will notice it until you start firing.

2) Lack of legal ways of buying weapons. You simply cant establish a private investigation company, and use it as cover to buy weapons. That is non-existent in the game. (I will talk about Black Market later on).

But the problem of the abundant guns lies in other sphere: Guns as Resource. As you develop you criminal enterprise, you tend to improve the guards rating, by doing once-a game upgrade into security, that improves quality of Guards, their weapons and their numbers. This is a wasted opportunity to give player a management decision. First of all, player may choose how much to pay to the guards, then what kind of weapon they will be issued, or perhaps demand that guard would bring his own weapon. Then the number of places this guard will be protecting, or may be joined the forces with your A-team for an assault on the enemy stronghold. All of those, would require to have “guns” as another resource, in order to avoid micromanaging every guard.

There is another reason for the Guns to be a resource: a drive-by raid and other operations. As a rule, gangsters tend to get rid of weapons used during a crime, since police was able to track them to their owner. But there is no police in EoS, right? So why bother.

Virtual Goods​

This highlights another problem with EoS economical system: lack of physical representation of goods and resources, including money. As it stand now, all transactions, except guns for your crew and Boss are not material. By that, I mean game does not create an object (lets say a crate of beer) in the game world and then moves it from brewery, to warehouse, then to the pub, and then exchange it to cash. So at no time, an opponent's or police raid can stop said crate of beer from being created, transported, consumed or sold for money. The money is also does not have a presence it the world, apart from numbers in the information tab. This is another wasted opportunity, since gameplay would be so much richer, even if its just another combat mission, if player would have an impact on opponent's production, delivery, service or just by actually robbing the safe of other gangster and actually carrying a bag of cash to your hideout.

Rumors and Intelligence​

Do you think a gangster would call the police to help? May be, if he had police on the payroll, he could. However, its not possible. This highlights another problem, the lack of meaningful relationship system and information gathering. As it stands at the moment of writing, all opponent's safehouses are hidden from view of the player. It requires cooperation with other Bosses and slow background process of passive intel gathering to reveal safehouse location. This shows another opportunity to improve the game by adding resources called: information or intelligence.

From rumors to professional detective work, every faction should gather intel in order to do some of the following:

1) reveal hidden rackets or safehouse

2) lower the police HEAT!

3) receive warning about enemy attacks or police raids before they occur

4) find incriminating evidence and witnesses against key figures, opponent's henchmen or Boss, or even yourself (to give them a better offer, for example)

5) gain new contacts on the Black Market

Black Market​

Lets talk about Black Market. At first, a short story.

In one of the RPG campaigns I've seen online, Game Master brought player's heroes to the village in the need of rescue. When Heroes tried to shop for supplies, they have found out that trading in weapons and almost everything else was forbidden. But every NPC they talked to, have suggested that they should try the BLACK MARKET, of Friday night. So they did. On Friday night they came into the very same market, next to town hall, with very same guards and very same traders and bought all sorts of magical weapons and stuff. Dragon was killed, city was saved, and everyone rejoiced. The question remains, why GM forced them to go to Black Market in order to get the needed supplies, if everyone in the town knew that only Heroes could save them, and everyone in the village were trading on the Black Market? Those questions are a prelude, to my next rant.

Black Market in Empire of Sin is crutch to a game's economy. Simple as that. The way its implemented, makes me wonder, how to class what my character is doing? Player is creating and selling illegal booze, runs illegal casinos and brothels. Is that good enough for a Black Market? Grey market?

In the game it serves as the one and only INDEPENDENT source of medical supplies and other gear. Since there is no other economy in the game, player is forced to open a menu featuring nameless moustache man with Tommy gun and pay ridiculous money to get bandages, medic bags, grenades and weapons. Every week this market refreshes itself, and you get exactly same goods for exactly same prices. You cant negotiate. You may have the largest criminal empire in the city, but Moustache man has monopoly on the grenades and bandages, so you will deal with him or die.

It makes me wonder, why players can not open a totally legal pharmacy and get those supplies from there?Why player cant buy building demolition business, and gain legal sources of dynamite? We have the money. Or why in order to deal with other Bosses I cant go through the BLACK MARKET menu? Aren't we all in the same illegal game? Why there is only ONE Moustache Man? Why not have several dealers, with connections and rivalries between them, with varied goods, varied prices and availability on those goods? Why let me negotiate the price and point of drop off? Why not have underlings of other Bosses selling or buying stuff? Why not allow player to sell information? Why not have a working economy?

But, I guess its too much to ask. This would make trading actually MEANINGFUL.

Criminally Busy​

Now the last thing I'd like to touch upon is how our criminal organization is presented in the EoS.

As well as having the mighty Boss, players are encouraged to promote gangsters to various positions. But at the same time, this takes them away from front lines of our gang war. The only place they are actually important. Yes, few of the gangsters have organizational skills, like trait “Gang Leader”, but they are so well hidden, that unless you know the game, and you know where to look for specific information, its unlikely you will find it. So, as a rule player tend to avoid assigning Boss or even a Gangster to safehouse. This could be changed, if game would create a mission with requirements for specific type of Gangster.

For example:

1) Meeting and Negotiating with other Leader: Boss, Hired Gun, Enforcer.

2) Running a Casino Scam: Con Artist, Thief, Hired Gun.

3) Raiding enemy warehouse/racket: Enforcer, Demolition

4) Gathering Intelligence: Con Artist, Thief, Doctor

Depending on the mission, you may need at least one of the listed types. But if you have all required gangsters, you may gain an Initiative boost, or placement benefit. So, after Gangsters has been assigned to a combat mission, he returns to his post (Underboss, Lieutenant,) after mission has been resolved. This way, Gangsters are not removed from players control. In addition, if mission system is used, it will allow to use a garage and cars as limiting factor to number of gangster you can bring into combat, and allow for a faster movement across town without the need for taxi.

Now. It will probably be my last rant, for some time. After spending more than 100 hours on Empire of Sin, I'm feeling a bit tired. It has a good core and ideas. I love the storylines and unique gangsters. Visuals and music are great. But this game should have stayed in development for another year. Sadly, it lacks any strategic depth or meaningful Empire development. Outside of combat, there is not much else to do or control. My sincere hope is for future development of this game and more mechanics and systems to be implemented. Sorry, if any of this came as angry rant.

Thank you for reading this.

Empire of Sin: 3 major questions: Management

 

Part 2: Management

So how do we manage things in Empire of Sin? Silly question, I hear you. We just point and click, as we did back in 1922. And things get done. Automatically. What's even more “fun” we can rush things if pay extra money. The rest of our resources are coming out of thin air, so why not have a building be constructed twice faster. Wait, you can rush things indefinitely if you have money? Who cares than even concrete need time to get solid. What is wrong with that, you smartass? Nothing, except that normally player has to pause the game, open the management screen while his crew is running somewhere on the street, make his executive decision (sometimes even in the middle of the combat) and keep running.

Our beloved xcom, and even Jagged Alliance 2, had a different answer to that question: the world map, where player could see the known enemy movements, income, available resources, messages and create upcoming missions. Why this approach is not used in Empire of Sin? Because the gameplay loops (as it stands now) does not require player to spend more time on the global screen than needed to call a taxi. (Taxi is the only function that is not readily available from the tactical screen.) All that player need is usually to know the location of certain buildings and quickest way on a taxi to get there. Luckily, now there is a time delay for transportation. Before 1.04 player could literally teleport across the city, and fight in more than 4 combats. Thanks to developers, this oversight has been fixed.

But, I think that only a re-work could fix the management problems of Empire of Sin. Simply put, player does not really manage or control anything in his Empire, except who he is hiring. The rest of it is taken out of the players hand and left somewhere in the excel sheet of production. Even trading between factions does not require a face-to-face meeting between gangsters, it is a simple click of the mouse. The part of virtual resources has been discussed earlier, so I'm skipping that part.

Same applies to player visiting his rackets to control or manage a situation. The only time player is ever going to visit one of his own casinos, speakeasies or brothels is when he takes it over from other faction or when a quests requires him to be there. The only real decision concerning one specific racket is how to name it. That's it. The rest of action are done on the spreadsheet.

But what about his gangsters? Do they have a time to spend inside of the rackets? No, they usually running around like headless chickens trying not to die in daily firefights. Or they are in the safe house, trying to recover. The boredom, the stress, the fatigue is left outside of the scope of the game. That's despite the certain traits that get used when our gangster is visiting our rackets. Player simply does not feel the need to do that. Some even do not use Under bosses or Advisors, in order to maximise their combat potential.

By taking all non-combat related decision to a spreadsheet, Empire of Sin has lost something that was very characteristic for the time before the mobile phones and instant transactions: THE HANDS-ON APPROACH.

Every major deal, every serious encounter, every relationship was based on the presence and abilities of the person present. With illegal businesses, its even more important than with legal one. Since, if there is no trust between partners, that transaction may end up in bloodshed.

Earlier I've mentioned that EoS need a system of missions in order to move away from its current state. Here, I'm going to continue that train of thought, and explain why its important.

When players have a choice, when they are forced to find an optimal solution in sub-optimal situation, then it creates a feeling of ownership, of control and engagement. This make player care for even small racket he has created or taken over. Same happens with gangsters who has been with player for a long time. But currently, Empire of Sin has none of it. (well, may be with gangsters its present). Player does not care for the buildings he takes over. After the combat he'll just slap a new name and will never return to it. If it was not painted in his colours, most would forget about in a minute. When player looks at upgrade sheet, he is shown numbers of that will generate more numbers. He has no choice but to climb the ladder from 1-5 level, occasionally rushing things up, out of boredom or need to spend money on something.

Same thing happens with diplomacy and trading. Player is shown numbers of Honour, Hostility and so on. But since we don't know the scale, player is just guessing how much money do I spend on trading with certain opponent in order to get friendly? What's the benefits of that? Do we have the same goals? The game does not tell you that.

Trading over a screen, setting up a standing order for booze or anything else is also hands-off. Its just a click. But it should be a part of sit-down, part of face-to-face negotiations. That should be a big enough reason for a Boss to take a risk of sit down. (but its pointless with current economy in the game).

I shall abstain from discussing the Police relationship here, but in general it as messy as it can be. In addition, it does not have system of a gradual trust, it allows for one jump from wanted to a deputy. But later on that.

Relationship between our gangsters are completely hidden, unless you start poking into small, well hidden sub-traits on individual gangster screen. However apart from being annoying, those relationship do not have an effect on your team performance. Unless you hire someone they hate, you gangsters do not develop beneficial relationships. Yes, I'm looking at xcom 2 with its battle brothers system, where good teamwork was rewarded with extra actions, bonus resistances, free overwatch shot and revenge for the fallen comrade. If anything, I'd like to see a map of relationship between my team, without looking into Black Book.

Now, the lack of any meaningful NPC (outside of quests), makes this an empty request, but imagine if we would have a network of individuals, who would have some amounts of booze, or guns for sale. Then depending on how much they Like or Dislike us, they would lower or increase their prices? That would be almost like a black market, but with actual choice on the matter!! Instead we skip time, waiting for two weeks, so that script can refresh itself. Or what if we could add some extra to the purchase, only because seller likes us, or we helped him in a bind? What if we would learn about their weaknesses or hobbies, so we could give them a present, or sell an information, to boost our relationship? What if the relationship would affect other relationships? But instead we are looking at the numbers of Honour. I'm surprised that Omerta has that system.

So let me conclude this: give player an easy to understand system of relationship, where he knows where he stands, allow for more detailed decisions in production, business development and team management.

How I'd improve the management system of the game:

1. Focus players attention on the global screen, by placing information about events, threats, possible business opportunities, current missions, placement of your gangsters, movement of your goods there. Allow for control form the global screen. Zoom in into tactical view only if needed.

2. Allow for meaningful upgrade system of rackets: as I've described in the notes on Safe Houses, allow for limited number of “slots” per racket. This prompts player's choice: what to apply and would it synergies with other upgrades. For example, small speakeasy has 4 slots in total: player may choose only one upgrade out of the following:

• dancing floor: extra income on soft drink

• band stage: extra attraction

• free meal for the poor: +2 Liked reputation

• hidden vault: booze is safe in case of police raid

• kitchen: extra income on the food

• hostel room: extra income from travellers

• cigar room: extra attraction if Ambience is 3 or higher

By limiting available choices, each racket will be specialised, and will also create a new set of gameplay for the player. If possible, limit the rush ability, or create a negative effect such as, lower the spending for some period of time.

3. Create a map of known NPC (including the team), based on relationships, similar to Black book.

4. Clearly define the relationship rating with 3 words: Like, Dislike, Trust. For example,

• Like: how much person, organisation, neighbourhood likes us, and feels safe in our presence. Affects trading prices and Information gathering. 5 stages: Neutral, Liked, Trusted, Friendly, Family.

• Dislike: how much we are hated by person, organisation or area. Affects chances of being reported to police or rival gang. 4 stages: Suspicions, Hostile, Hated, Kill on Sight.

• Trust: this rating is affected by number of successful deals and positive interactions, as well as Like/Disliked rating. The higher the Trust, the less likely an NPC to break down the deal, smuggle wrong type of good or do not pay for delivered booze. 6 stages from lowest to highest: No deal, Untrustworthy, Big time Liar, Small time cheater, Undecided, Another one, Proven, Trusted, Solid.

5. Return the HANDS-ON approach. Every action, every deal, every upgrade or small mission must have a gangster assigned to it. Every situation must have a chance to fail and end up in hostilities. Every gangster must be ready to fight his way out, even if its a morning coffee. Boss must have a face-to-face with any other NPC if he need to trade anything! Otherwise, send gangsters to do the work or oversee upgrades. This way player has something else to do other than run from combat to combat , and gangsters have a chance to learn/gain xp outside of combat. Make sit-downs change the relationship between Bosses and factions on the numerical level, and translate it into word human can comprehend.

6. Keep the fatigue from combat and missions. After each mission or combat, retain accumulated fatigue on your Boss and Gangsters. Then, to lose fatigue you must send them to your rackets to unwind. Yes, it will trigger the risks of gambling, drinking and whoring. But, this way you limit available numbers of gangsters to player, create risk of losing a gangster to its vices, generate systemic gameplay with your rackets, have a reason for player to look inside of the rackets he had created, increase bond between the gangsters and create stories. After all, you gangster are not robots who do shooting all day long, they are humans.

7. Add a teamwork bonuses to gangsters who worked together and bonded for a long time. 4 levels:

   1. +20 Defence if buddy is in Line of Sight

   2. Free Overwatch attack on enemy, if buddy has been hit

   3. Spend an action to give a buddy an action.

   4. +1 Action if buddy in LOS.

Empire of Sin: 3 major questions: Exploration

Part 1: Exploration

So spring has arrived and patch 1.04 has fixed up a lot of things in Empire of Sin. Great news. Now lets talk about thing only a re-work (or additional development?) can fix. Namely: Exploration, Management and Economical systems of the game.

During the developers stream, before the release of the game one of the devs, have mentioned that apart from Empire of Sin, there are no other game like that on the market. I don't know how bring it up nicely, but there are other games in same theme and genre. And most of them do a much better job at their chosen approach to the game.

For example, good old Omerta: City of Gangsters, has its roots in Tropico management series. In that game we follow the path of one of the Sicilian gangsters in Atlantic city, all the way from being a henchman to a “Capo del tutti”, (Boss of the bosses), and then through his confrontation with Federal investigation (led by his own brother), and finally to the end of Prohibition era, and as he eventually becomes a legitimate businessman. In over 30 missions, player is always on the edge, as he is racing against the opponent's AI, raising police attention, ambushes from enemy gangster and somewhat limited resources, as you start conquering each neighbourhood with your trusty crew and some cash.

Omerta and EoS share one major thing, they approach resources, such as booze, people and money, as pure expenses to be made in order to have profits. They do not get into production cycles, types of alcohol, its fine qualities. Its a mean to an end. In fact, EoS has more variety of booze on offer. They also do not dwell on logistics of the their goods. The only thing moving around is your gangsters doing various missions like: finding the informant, getting information, renting or buying property, doing a drive by to a competition, hiring a lawyer, setting up a soup kitchen for poor, attending a rich and famous party to talk to politician, buying guns from police chief, setting up a pizzeria, and many more. Most important thing, is that every action leads to your actual influence growing, and giving your more and more protection from police activity. Police rarely patrols the streets, since main combat action is hidden in story missions. Instead, your every action increases the Heat level by certain percentage, once heat is at 5 stars (or 100%), investigation starts and even if you have money, you or most of your crew risk being arrested after police raids your safe house. Heat mechanic in its simplicity works as a pan, that is slowly heating up under the players feet. It makes you run, and run fast.

On the other end of the spectrum is an upcoming bootlegger simulator, named City of Gangsters (I know, it gets confusing, but its different game), in development by Soma Interactive. They create a city filled with NPC, and give each one of them a certain network of friends and relatives. In addition, they focus their game on :

• production cycle: booze of different types require different ingredients, distillery, time and a handler,

• distribution network: you have a number of customers, then you you have a relationship meter with each one of them, the more trust you have, the more chances of you selling or buying your illegal products or introducing you to another client,

• management of your crew: people you hire have certain traits, like Attractive (which will boost sales), or Strong (that will increase your chances in combat), then player assigns daily tasks, routes and vehicles they take. In addition player may choose who will go exploring around town and look for new contacts. Yes, it is micromanaging.

• maintaining relationship: game creates micro-event like birthdays, thug raid, illness, car crash and so on, that allows player to increase their trust rating with important people of each neighbourhood, and eventually develop a protection ring from both outsiders and police. Small talk here, bribe there, then gift here and you control the city through knowing all major players. This is also a systemic gameplay, not something that is hand-crafted for individual character.

In short, each game hides layers of information and possibilities from player. But each one of them also gives tools on how to expand and open up new possibilities, thus creating an Exploration gameplay and gives player meaningful Management decisions. Its up to a player how to approach the information gathering, be brutal or polite, use real violence or just threats, leave a good tip or try to sweet talk yourself in. It also make player to choose whom to send for a certain missions, would you send an angry thug to do a conversation or smart con artist?

Each game gives two or three know starting points, that would lead player further up an away in gameplay, simply by hiding majority of information, by making player work for information on his opponent's, and slowly opening up opportunities to use. None of these features are present in Empire of Sin. The biggest step in right direction was hiding the safe houses and making a sit-downs happen elsewhere.

So my question is simple: How developers are going to address the Exploration?

As it stands now, its limited to my gangster walking down the street and slowly discovering all the rackets. Chicago being rather big, it may take some time, but it will eventually happen. In addition, player always has perfect information on enemy gangs, how much cash they have, how many troops, how many rackets and weapons. Unless you hide all that, any meaningful exploration or mole infiltration is pointless! You cant give player perfect information, it kills the very idea of illegal business!

My suggestion on Exploration part would consist:

• hide ALL rackets behind the “facade” of legal business or residential housing. Do not tell player any racket location until you send one or more gangsters on the reckon mission.

• Allow you gangsters to have a certain influence or network of informants in specific neighbourhoods (yes, that would require to have a certain static element in the neighbourhood).

• Create AI controlled, neutral businesses, that can provide either services or information or can be bought, rented, or ransomed. I'm bored with city, where only business activity stems from gangsters!

• Create a mission system that will open up known building in the area in following stages:

  • A) known legal function, service and link to other legal business (house, bank, garage, club, flower shop of Mr. O'Banion,)

  • B) known illegal function link to other illegal business (speakeasy, brothel, casino, pit fight arena, ect).

  • C) known ownership: neutral, gang faction owned, gang controlled (pays protection money to a gang). Probable mean of taking over: buy out, offer better protection, drive-out of business by sabotage or drive by attacks, or hostile take over (traditional EoS combat).

• Hide essential faction information from the player, unless he has got a mole in the faction! OK, at least allow player to switch between “all visible rackets” mode and “all hidden mode”, if someone cant be bothered to search for every corner.

Thank you for reading my smartass ramblings.

Empire of Sin: Thief class suggestions

"this text I've posted on Empire of Sin, Paradox forums as part of many suggestions. Being a critic is always easier than being a developer. Guilty. " 

It a very strange thing to my mind, that a game about crime, booze and Tommy-guns, does not have a dedicated “property redistribution specialist”. So, here is my take on what kind of skill Thief should have.

Combat skills:

Tier I:

Blend In: Thief remains neutral in combat, until he actually attacks with firearm, or some one uses Mark Target on him, stripping him from this ability. Until then he is counted as neutral civilian. Note: Thief cannot carry rifles, sniper rifles or machine-guns for this ability to be active.

Tier II:

A) Mark Target: (same as in game) mark an enemy, with +20% chance to hit him.

B) Sneak attack: you first attack from neutral state does +100% damage

C) Machine-gun training; Thief can use and equip machine-guns.

Tier III:

A) Rolling carpet: Thief throws a load of ball bearings on 5 tile location to set a trap. Any unit moving in or through that location fall on the ground and loses both of its actions. Trap dissolves after 3 combat turns and is not visible to opponent.

B) This is a Robbery! : Thief fires several shots into the air, setting off a chain reaction with all civilians in the 6 square area: every civilian is set to Panic, run to closest exit or closest Guard. If civilian reached Guard, then he is set Panic as well. Named Gangster and Bosses are not affected.

C) Property redistribution expertise: when ransacking, smashing or demolishing building you just took over, gain +25% more $, than normal. Then add +5% for each Thief's level.

Tier IV:

A) Keen Observation: when on street patrol, assigned as a Mole, or visiting other factions racket, increase chance to spot other hidden rackets by +5%.

B) Hit and Run: after performing an attack, Thief can make a free move.

C) Free money: when visiting opponent's rackets, Thief steals money that belong to the customers, and brings 50% of that “income” to the Boss. If Thief is caught, he must fight his way out or be ransomed by the Boss.

Tier V:

A) Gut shot: (same as in the game); perform a point blank attack that causes Bleeding.

B) Dazzle: any flanking attack from Thief, cause target to become Dazed.

C) Rifle Training: Thief can equip and use rifles.

Non-combat skills:

Tier I:

A) Improved deflection by +5% of any building occupied by Thief. Non-cumulative with other Thieves assigned.

B) Back door exits: racket with assigned Thief have hidden escape routes allowing to flee when attacked. If racket is sacked by police or gangsters, you lose 50% less money than normal.

Tier II:

A) Word of Mouth: when assigned to speakeasy or brothel, Thief has a chance of learning about Thug-occupied building, or planned police raid, or hidden racket. (test? Roll of dice? )

B) Friends in the blue: once a month, Thief may spend $200 to find out a rumour about upcoming a police raid, it target and time.

Tier III:

A) Attentive security: when assigned to a racket, Thief trains local guard how to recognise and counteract other Thieves. Increase security rating by +1, and increase chance of spotting other Thieves by 5% per level.

B) No more bets!: when assigned to casino, Thief generates a random rare or unique item once every week. People do like to place weird bets and pay for them in goods. Item is usually a weapon or small amount of $. (up to $1000)

Tier IV:

A) Document Forger: when assigned to a racket, Thief generates fake documents that allow racket to pass any inspection. If place is raided by the police, then it automatically restored to working order after the raid.

B) Matter of agreements: when assigned to the Safe house, crew take is reduced by 5%, but income from raiding, ran sacking and smashing properties is reduced by 5%.

Tier V:

A) Cross training: when assigned to the Safe house, gangsters may be trained in the Thief combat skills as secondary rank.

B) Thief's angle: when planning Assault or Raid operations from your safe house, Thief can add a Sneak attack options (all members of attacking team start in concealment, inside enemy safe house).

Empire of Sin: Boss Battles and Combat: improvements & suggestions

 I think none will be surprised if I told them that combat mechanics in Empire of Sin is based on Dungeons and Dragons system with individual rolls for Initiative and then combat action resolutions. When applied to melee weapons that require character's to get close n personal, this system works rather well. It quickly puts players into base contact with the enemy, where both of them spent couple of turns rolling dice and taking hits until one of them is killed. Ranged weapons owners as rules do not attack enemies in melee out of fear of hitting friendlies. Relative rarity of ranged magic weapon, their low rate of fire, and several special requirements (like passing Wisdom saving throw) do not require players to worry about morale, fear, line of sight and collateral damage, such as civilians.

In aforementioned Jagged Alliance 2, individual soldiers had a morale stat, which decreased with damage taken, fallen comrades, unpaid salary and other things. It was also used for Leadership test when soldier would come under fire, and would determine the chance of character going Berserk or running away in horror. I'm assuming that Empire of Sin is using similar hidden mechanic, since every so often it triggers a Hair Trigger ability. It would be nice to see that on our gangsters, btw.

However, in JA2 and majority of XCOM's, initiative revolved around I-go-you-go system, where opponent's were in control of their entire force during their turn. This allows for much easier planning of your next action, since you can pick and choose who does what. The individual initiative system does not allow such luxury, instead it relies on heroic actions of individual character to carry the day. As it stands now, it has 3 problems:

1. Low challenge from AI opponent's: on one to one basis, AI gangsters do not pose a real threat to players gangster, who has body armour, grenades, medpack and high rate of fire automatic weapon. Even if ration is 2:1, as a rule better equipped gangster wins, even without using his abilities. This robs the game of sense of danger and unpredictability, which is seen in demand for auto-resolve of combat.

2. Low flexibility: Current Initiative system does not provide any benefits over “i-go-you-go” system, except giving a well equipped Boss a chance to use his special ability. In addictions, it does not have a mechanics to change position of the friendly or hostile troops on the timeline, thus giving them an advantage of first shot or repositioning into cover. (sniffing salts remedy that problem somewhat, I know). If both sides have an ability to change their position on the Initiative ladder, then each and every combat has unique flow, and will feel more important, since it allows for heroic last stands and escapes.

3. Unrealistic combat behaviour: AI character's have got an unbreakable will and most NPC are kamikaze who will run towards the machine-gun Overwatch even if they have 2 hit point left. That does not include Bosses, who do the opposite thing. They remain in their office, isolated from all of their guards until inevitable death comes to them. Very rarely they will rush into combat and use their superior abilities and unique weapons against player to tip the battle in their favor.

So, how to would fix this situation without breaking current game?

1. Limit the size of single combat Crew: currently in game, Leadership is responsible for lowering the payouts to your crew. First of all, allow for crew or squad formation. Then nominate the leader, it can be your Boss, and you can have several crews. However, crew size is determined by Leader's skill Leadership: for each 10 points in it, he can hire/lead 1 gangster. With maximum Leadership,capped at 100, none will be able to have more than 10 gangsters on the field. This way combat will b happen much quicker, feel much more personal. Secondly, smaller team mean more challenging combat, which is not currently the case in Empire of Sin.

2. Make Leadership and Persuasion great! Allow to gain bonuses for those skills on gangster perk tree: this allows you to train both combat leaders and negotiation specialist. With Persuasion, player should be able to talk his way to victory. For example, one of initial quests, requires player to either talk (threaten) or kill goons who threaten the Uncle Sal taxi. Now, this should be a standard mechanic for any confrontation outside the mobwar. It may be used on independent businesses or smaller mobsters to Persuade them to join your mob, or rather pay you a protections fee, instead of being killed. In addition, if you know that certain gangster is working for opponent's, you may send one of your gangsters, (better to send one with established positive relationship) to make them an offer to join your side.

3. Create Initiative modifying abilities! As mentioned before, current Initiative system focuses on individual's actions. Rare example of teamwork is Overwatch and Flush combo. However, I believe that each Squad Leader (not just Boss) needs at least 3 abilities:

   1. Team Up: choose one of your gangsters and move him up on the timeline equal to your leadership value. Once per encounter.

   2. Intimidation: choose one of the opponent's gangsters, if he fails his Leadership test, then he moves down in timeline number of steps equal to difference between your and his LD. If its more than 6 steps, gangster run away from combat. Once per encounter.

   3. On my mark!: Use before the encounter to move your gangsters into the building thought the door or by using Demolitionist Breaching charge. Grants your team one turn of moving and shooting without reaction from opponents. Only during Boss battles or attacks on Safe Houses. Once per encounter.

4. Change the structure of Boss Battles:

   Currently every Boss encounter plays the same way: player walks in, then gets stuck at the door in the firefight, enemy goons are rushing from the other side of the building, and then may be the boss will run into the line of Overwatch cones and dies.

   How I'd change the core of Boss battles:

   1. Each battle consists of 3 encounters with individual map every time. Safe Houses are build and modified with the defence from competitor or police incursion in mind. Remember, player is limited to 4-5 man crew, without ability to replace dead or wounded during the whole assault on the safe house. This is an uphill battle! Maps may be smaller with several entrances for reinforcements, that can be blown up or barricaded.

      After each encounter player may reshuffle equipment and starting position of his teammates. During each encounter, enemy is Alert and has player outnumbered 2:1 at least. Normal team compositions may vary, at least one Gangster, one goon with rifle or shotgun and two Tommy gunners.

   2. First encounter is a Breach into the building, this raises the alarm, then depending on opponent's resources this will determine total number of goons in reinforcements. Breach may occur in Storage area, Garage or Grand Entrance. Each map will have certain benefits to defenders, while attacker's must use explosives and tactics just to get inside.

   3. Second encounter is Main Hall attack, where Boss might (or not) be located at the time. This is where the main battle occurs. If enemy Boss is hit below 50% (for example) then he would retreat to the Safe Room, where Boss keeps the money and may have an secret emergency exit to Garage or Street. If Boss run away, then you still win the battle, but not the war. If you attacking last safe house, then opponent is defeated regardless. To know the layout of the enemy Safe House, player may send a Mole with mission to gather information or Scout Location.

   4. Before the Safe Room combat, opposing Boss, must get a short cutscene where he says what he thinks about the player's character according to the score of their relationship. Friend, Competitor, Enemy, ect. This should give a bit “screen time” to opponent and show effect of our actions. This must be followed by our Boss telling the opponent his opinion before executing him. Make sure each and every Boss says only unique lines for this encounter. Currently, after defeating the boss, game displays scene of execution and plays two voice overs at the same time: one for generic execution, other for an address to specific Boss. This is very confusing.

5. Boss battles and Safe Houses require an escape mechanic; if Boss is wounded during combat, and Morale is Low, then game should try to evacuate Boss from combat by moving its character's figure into the Safe, then into Garage below. This can be blocked by either catching up to the Boss, or by ambushing garage with another team outside the safe house.

6. Groups Morale meter: Once combat is initiated, both AI and player teams must form a Morale pool. Its purpose is to establish how brave combatants feel about losing their pixel lives over their pixel salary. It may consists of following:

   1. We outnumber enemy +10

   2. We lost a guy in the gunfight -5

   3. We lost a guy to retreat -10

   4. They executed one of ours: -10

   5. We have a Big Boss with us: +20

   6. We have a Leader: +10

   7. Police is shooting us: -5

   8. Leader/Boss is heavily wounded: -15

   9. Leader is Downed: -20

   10. They got explosives: -10

   11. They fire Machine-gun/SMG: -5

   12. We healed our guy to 80%: +10

In the end of each combat round, if Morale is negative, then each individual gangster test his Leadership, and if its failed, runs away from combat. (Set him as neutral, then double run towards closest exit from the map). This prevents battles from becoming a slaughter of entire street with guards, police and civilians in the mix. Civilians automatically run away from combat.

Thank you for reading another rambling of mine on the Empire of Sin. I truly like this game, and hope it will get deeper and more interesting as time goes buy.

Empire of SIN: main problems

 

Problems of Empire of Sin, and how they can be solved.

I love this game. It has unique charm of cartoony 1920-s, mixed with bloody executions and lead of Tommy-guns. It has very strong and easy to understand economy system, which is rare in all games. It has so much character and love poured into bosses and Black Book gangsters. Not to mention that each of 15 bosses has its unique quest line. But, yet as its been released in December of 2020, it desperately lacks something that would make it into a masterpiece, probably rivalling Jagged Alliance 2 of the olden days. That one game where player had to liberate small banana country from evil Queen Deidranna, with dozen of mercenaries. If you'd like to know more about that masterpiece click here [https://lilura1.blogspot.com/search/label/Jagged%20Alliance%202], that game was a standard for any tactical RPG, long before XCOM.

Enough of me comparing old games to the new ones. Lets cut to the chase: the main player's activity loop, or what you do in Empire of Sin.

1. Hire Gangsters

2. Attack and /or take over the rackets

3. Improve rackets, to bring in more money

4. Kill the Boss of rival gang and take all of his/her Empire

5. Rinse and repeat

As you can easily see, at no point we are forced to do anything else, but combat and upgrade of buildings. Once player takes over the rackets of first rival, he is creating a giant difference between him and all other NPC factions. More money means either more or higher quality weapons, equipment and gangsters. Before AI is capable of catching up we already own half of the city and knocking into the last bosses door. Besides, at no point police, or Prohibition agency is doing anything, unless its scripted. Player is having a very easy time, and thus gets really bored and disappointed with the game.

Problem 1: Complete information

Yes, game destroys any pretence of you running an ILLEGAL and SECRET business as soon as you load it. Just open the world map and you can see every other racket and safe house in town.(ok, you would need to have at least a walk in most of districts to know that). In addition when you open your business administration screen you immediately see not only every competing racket in your are, but how much they make, how busy they are, what they produce and how many customers they have in compresence to you. In normal business administration tools this information would be priced in gold! Simply by looking at it you can figure out how much money your opponents can make, and where to hit them if you want to make most damage.

Same goes about safe houses! Once you know where the locations are,( and you will do that even if you don't want that, simply because other bosses will invite you to their hideout.) the game becomes a simple planning phase for upcoming attacks on the safe houses. As a result, even if you try to prolong the inevitable, you will be done with majority of Chicago underworld in less than 2 game years.

If every racket and safe house has its own rating in DEFLECTION, then why do we see their real position just by walking the street? If deflection works only on police AI, and trigger only scripted events, why bother investing into it? Now, if all of the gangster in Chicago are aiming to wipe out the completion, why are we invited into their main safe house, just when they first come into contact? Its the easiest way for them to get killed, and game literally serves all of them to player on a silver plate. In addition, you always know when, who and where you enemy is going to attack. And thanks to teleportation magic of taxi, you can always send you A-team to intercept incoming goons.

Problem 2: Dead city

The more you look at different districts the less difference you see. Yes, the map layout is close to real Chicago, the name and streets give you all the right vibes. But, none of the districts has got that reason, why we would behave there differently. Occasional background Chapel or park do provide a landmark, but in essence none is living in this city except gangsters and their rackets. In addition, none else is doing any kind of legal business, there. Meaning, that in a game about gangster, we have no mechanics for racketeering others! Sorry, there is no mechanic for “protection services”, the main bread and butter of every gang of crooks from the begging of time. I understand, that it would require adding another level of complexity to the game, that has no taxes in its economic system.

But this represents a huge missed opportunity: the loyalty of the district to player or competitor, with additional bonuses to deflection and word of mouth.

Frankly, when I've hear that Dean O'Bannion was running his operation from the flower shop, I kept searching for any flower shop in the area, until I've realised it just sitting there in random safe house on the next street from me.

To fix this problem in meaningful way, it would require not only additional systems to be implemented, but to add unique traits, quests and buildings into the game. For example: control over Docks district, would allow to import booze or guns from outside the city; Control over the Theatre district would give you an increase to your Public Image (I will elaborate on this later); Slums would allow you hire a cheaper security, and so on.

Eventually, the goal of player controlling the district is to create moments from first Godgfather, when a local comes asking for justice to Don Carleone instead of police, in the name of his daughter. This is a best image of power I can think of. However currently its just a minor footnote in gameplay loop, designed to force your way from one combat into another.

The problem of emptinesses is increased by game generating derelict houses in such numbers, that in some cases a very poor district can have up to 80% of it houses in derelict state. On one hand, its a chance for player to gain control over majority of money making buildings. But on the other, it kills any need for expansion into other districts. Basically, if you concentrate 5 breweries in one district, surrounded by your other properties and guard you will never need more booze, and you ll never get taken out by enemies, due to sheer firepower supremacy.

Problem 3: No one cares

Imagine a well dressed gentleman walking across the street from you: with one hand lifts his hat to say “Howdy”, while in the other he carries huge, golden Lewis machine gun. Would you call a police after saying “How do you do?”, or after seeing this fine gentleman killing several bouncer, police officer and a horse with aforementioned machine-gun? Or, only if he is using a stick of dynamite on some poor fellow? (what kind of gentleman uses dynamite in a broad daylight?!). In Empire of sin, that is norm. Police and other lawmakers simply ignore everything, and have a memory of a goldfish. You can be a suspect, but it makes no difference in your quest for control of the city. But it should. After all, mayors and police higher-ups are suppose to react in one way or another to public danger, even of they are corrupt. But unless its scripted nothing ever happens.

Or, let me correct myself, unless its scripted, nothing serious will happened. You may have one of you rackets closed, but by the time of 2 hour on the game, its not going to change anything. In short, unlike XCOM 2, this game is not trying to kill you. It is not even bothering with annoying a player. I was dreaming of see a district wide searches and police investigations after some very outrageous gunfights with many civilian casualties. But none cares. If player, does not have any negative feedback from the game systems, that supposed to limit his progress, then player has no incentive to overcome or even engage police system.

Game also does not punish player for betraying other gangster when you sell them Poison or Swill disguised as fine whiskey. Yes, the opposing boss will get angry with you, your relationship will deteriorate, but it has no other meaningful consequences, no threats, no attacks, nothing. Smaller factions do not even notice that they have been tricked.

However, none of this affects the single available objective: kill them all. If game had at least two other victory conditions, for example: produce the most alcohol in Chicago, or be the first to reach maximum Notoriety, then all of the other diplomatic solutions would have a meaning. But alas, it only a waste of time to work on improving your businesses, as all you have to do is keep taking over other rackets in order to keep your income going up.

Problem 4: Broken difficulty curve

In short, this problems of Empire of Sin stem from design choices limiting gameplay only to combat related activity, and giving player all of the benefits from the start. In comparison, lets see how the difficulty curve is designed in other tactical RPG games.

XCOM and XCOM2, always gives every advantage to the AI opponent, this creates a constant arms race, of research, training, building and recruiting better and better tools for the missions. But even then, XCOM keeps throwing curve balls into players plans, such as major country leaving the project for reasons unknown to players, aliens increase the number and strength of their attacks and inducing panic, so that player, even with combat parity, can not react everywhere at once. So when you pick your battles, and somehow deliver the killing blow, it feels good.

XCOM 2 keeps same pace, but then drops the final countdown of project Avatar, that will finish the game if left unchecked. Even if the War of Chosen has broken importance of that mechanics, its still remains an important reminder that your opposition is actively seeking your demise. When you overcome it, it feels well deserved and good.

XCOM: Chimera squad, limits our squad to 4 troopers versus at least double the number of opponents. Phantom Doctrine, follows the xcom formula, but in addition makes combat extremely lethal, even with basic guns. This is forcing player to use brute force only as last resort.

Jagged Alliance 2, had different approach. It started player in a very weak position, with handful of mercenaries, basic weapons and small amount of cash against an entire army. However each attacks we made, and each town we captured gave us more resources and support. Training our militia and assisting them in combat against superior enemy forces was in our direct interest. If we'd lose Drassen airport, we'd not be able to quickly reinforce our troops, or if mines were lost, that would hit our weekly income. Or if SAM site was taken over, we are unable to airdrop our units across entire map. In a way, its a classic dungeon RPG approach implemented on the bigger scale. The close we got the Queen, the more difficult became the opposition, and more and more retaliation strikes we had deal with, across the whole area. (Those blackshirt commandos with rocket rifles still give me PTSD). But with every step, player got better and better troops, guns and information about enemy's actions. The final battle was a culmination of all your efforts during campaign. That felt good.

And how does Empire if Sin do its difficulty curve? At first you start with a Boss that can single handedly kill up to 6 goons in one round of combat. Then you find stupid amount of “rare” guns, that make anyone who wields them into a combat monster. Then you remove any kind challenge from expanding your empire by allowing player to grab entire empire of your opponent, just by hitting the enemy Boss. And when they all fall, one by one to your blunt “kill em all” approach, you feel meh. It was not such a difficult fight.

In addition game has literally a free money exploits, that AI is obeying to. On top of everything else, POLICE DOES NOTHING! So, whatever you do, there is no retaliation. When you go into the war with other mobs, they have zero chances of winning against player, since player solves all wars by directly taking out the boss in first fight. So basically, the whole game, with all its complex systems boils down to boss fights. Which are no different from any fight on the street, bar or alley. It seems to me, that developers have not looked at any other games that has been released in this genre for the last several years. Several of them have brought a much welcomed innovation into stale xcom formula.

Namely, look at the XCOM: Chimera squad. Every mission there is very focused small scale (no more than a 2-3 rooms) close combat. With identical to Empire of Sin system of Initiative, it pull off the thrill of SWAT or Rainbow Six: Siege in the same turn based format. But to be completely honest their Boss battles, are following same pattern as all combat encounters, but still its much more interesting than breaking into same Safehouse every time (yes, all of them are identical between all bosses, with 3 slight variations). In addition, every time you attack the Boss house, you find the most powerful enemy, isolated and almost never using his game breaking powers on players.

Or look at very underappreciated OTHERCIDE. The boss battles there are insanely difficult, but only when you mastered you troops, or found enemy's weak spot you can hope to prevail. But the challenge is there.

If I'd be a casual player, who is looking for power fantasy, then Empire of Sin would satisfy me. But I've spent my life cursing at the monitor for missing 90% shots, and still want more. Challenge me!

How I'd fix the game:

If you reached so far in my ramblings, you might think I do not like Empire of Sin. But, I'm afraid that this game have followed tradition of other Paradox games: get released as a half-baked, half-tested vision of the game, only to become what it had to be some 48 patches later. So what a smartass like me would have changed in order to make Empire of Sin better.

1. Balance the Bosses:

   Lower HP of every Boss to a 45, in order to make them equal to Gangsters. Retain initial combat abilities, they are too good to lose. Allows Bosses to learn other than combat talents, such as lowering percentage on upkeep, ratios on rackets, safe house deflection, political influence, intimidation ect. Increase Bosses HP by 20 per level, this way by the end of the game you have a really tough guy, but its balanced against serious competition.

2. Change game Victory conditions:

   In my opinion, Empire of Sin is not about total war, or booze businesses, its about staying power in very hostile environment. Victory conditions must reflect that. So allow for different path to victory: most money, most Notoriety, most positive Public Image, most influence in the police, most political influence (measured in bought politicians, senators and other government officials). In addition, add a possibility of other factions to remain, but be subservient to you. This way you do not have to kill your way up, you can make a lasting alliances and become Capo del Tuti.( Italian for Supreme Don).

3. Change sitdown mechanics:

   Sitdowns are great way of showing the true strengths of Bosses. But in order to complement the solution to problem of 100% information, sitdowns need to change in some aspects. First, if Bosses do not have an established friendly relationship, the sitdown must take place in some public space, most likely hotel. This way, secrecy of safe house remains, and player who initiates the sitdown may choose a better place for conversation, or let others players know, where the meeting takes place. Bosses will not have sitdowns until player reaches certain Notoriety level, thus proving their worth to them. That threshhold must be different for all Bosses, in order to avoid the overflow of invitations and allow for individual Boss strategy to unfold.

4. Change the way hiring of gangster:

   Allow player to hire gangster on at least 3 different terms:

   1. Unlimited time: same as now, for % of the earnings

   2. Short-term: gangster works for specified number of days/weeks and for agreed sum of money. Perfect for hiring a highly skilled hitman before sitdown.

   3. Task specific: gangster works for specified time doing one of the specified jobs: training security, improving management, running a scam, gathering intel, approaching police for bribery or finding where is the enemy safehouse.

5. Implement hidden rackets:

   Hide all of the rackets from the players view, unless they have been investigated by members of your crew and they have found to whom they belong. Same applies to safe houses. Hide all information that is unknown to player from the Production and other information panels. Information must be gathered in order to be visible!

6. CHANGE THE EMPIRE TAKE OVER RULES!

   When player or AI has successfully taken out the opponent, then rackets change ownership in the following order: 50% to surviving Underboss, 40% to surviving Advisor, 25% to surviving Lieutenants, 10% to Allied faction, 10% to Enemy faction that knows the location of the rackets and has nearby rackets or gangsters. Underboss and others create their own minor faction, and may be bargained with. If no command structure left, then unknown rackets are changed into derelicts with thugs possession, if they had security below 3^rd level. Rackets changed into legal business if it had Ambience or Security over 4^th level.

7. Add a non-combat skill tree

   Every gangster or boss needs to have a management tree instead of half-hidden traits, with certain skills that modify income, spending, information gathering, upgrades or even district bonus. These skill should work when character is assigned to safehouse or particular racket. This way player will have a clear need to assign those tasks, instead of simply running around town with its tireless gang.

8. Balance the economy and spawn point

   Limit number of available rackets per district, this creates a tougher competition between all players. Make sure every major faction has its own starting location, at least one district away from others, so that initial opposition is presented only by minor factions. Limit the volume of trade between the major factions in accordance to levels of trust between the factions. This removes an exploit of players robbing the AI from all cash and guns right before they storm the last safe house, and make long term alliances more important and viable. In addition, it lowers the risk of players abusing the trade system. Make the treachery of selling swill (or any other alcohol) disguised as something else know to all other factions. Its a risky businesses, but words get around, and Bosses should be less trusting to players actions.

9. Change the police!

   Make the police system, dangerous and ever present threat! This requires an incremental, step by step ladder of influence and trust from all Bosses in the city, towards the police and each other. You cant just dump money, and overnight become Honorary Deputy, if yesterday you were a Public Enemy! Allow for random raids, inspections and infiltration from them. If anything, copy the system of Dark events from XCOM 2, its a very good basis. If anything, add some POLICE STATIONS into the game!

10. Add Public Image to the game:

    Empire of Sin desperately needs a system of public image of our Boss in the game. If history is of any example, Al Capone, has been known to be gangster, but he went to jail for tax evasion, as any self-respecting American businessman can, in order to protect his wider empire. If you donate to charities, publish good-willed articles, visit public gathering like theatres or political meeting, people will trust you more, even if you deal in illegal booze. When people trust you (aka district loyalty is higher for you, than others) then its easier to gather information about opponents rackets, movements or attacks (that includes police). In addition you Public Image should affect how other Bosses see you, for example traditionalist like Genna or Mr.Donovan , would support you if you solve problems with your lawyers and good word. While others may think, you are in bed with authorities.

Those 10 points are minimal fixes, in my humble opinion to make this lovely game into a diamond it deserves to be. Thank you for reading my ramblings. If you name happens to be Brenda Romero, then I'd like to express my personal gratitude for your work on Jagged Alliance series. Its one of the greatest games ever made.