Saturday Roundup: We're working on the 'corners' mechanic this weekend, which is probably the most challenging part of this version's development cycle, I don't want to say we're behind schedule yet, but it's definitely taking up time I'd hoped we'd have to spare next week. After this part is done we've got the supplier system to implement and the rest should fall into place quite quickly.
Today I'll talk a little bit about what the 'corners' system is. The game is set in NYC for now (it'll almost certainly include other cities later on), with the infamous five boroughs, and hundreds of real-life neighbourhoods spread across these boroughs. Each has a matching population total which determines how many corners are generated by the system ie. a more densely populated neighbourhood is assumed to be a larger surface area and therefore have more street corners. It's a base assumption that will be adjusted in the future with other metrics. As a side note, whilst all the data is ready for these neighbourhoods, for this version we'll only be testing one neighbourhood in each borough.
Anyway, you assign gangsters from your roster to each corner and you can set market rates for different drugs in each neighbourhood in competition with AI gangs.This whole competition part is a bit broken in version 0.00.01, as it is missing certain checks and balances but it serves as a good feature implementation benchmark before we move onto v0.00.02 which will largely fix these issues with the introduction of combat and leadership roles.
As the game develops, the 'corners' system will undergo many changes. I know for certain there will be a geographical asset mechanic, ie. an apartment tower is more important than a suburban street etc. and I want to evolve the corner crew structure, to involve makeshift daily stash-houses, hoppers, lookouts etc. These will hopefully be fairly early introductions and I'm confident there will be much more growth in this system as time goes on. We'll be staying with drugs this early in production as we build much of the basic framework such as police and justice system, combat and internal gang structure, front businesses etc. before we expand to other criminal enterprises.
If you'd like to find more talk about the game's development, I tend to post daily on our small community's discord channel (found via website) with updates and you're more than welcome to join us. Otherwise, feel free to reply here with any comments or questions.