"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.
