Steam News2 July 20265d ago

Dev Diary #8 - Employee loyalty, traits and current state of development

Hi everyone, It's been a while since the last devlog - mostly because there hasn't been a lot of new visual stuff to show.

In this update3

Full notes

Full My Drug Cartel update

Read the full published notes in a cleaner layout. The original post stays linked below.

What changed

0 fixes6 additions3 changes0 removals

Gameplay
UI and audio
Maps
Workshop
Balance

addedHi everyone, It's been a while since the last devlog - mostly because there hasn't been a lot of new visual stuff to show. Nevertheless, we have been working on the game more than ever, mostly on technical stuff of the new engine. I was also finally able to find two more competent C programmers for the team a few weeks ago and I got a part-time job to do besides university so I can continue financing the game's development.

addedLoyaltyOne new thing I've got to show is the NPC loyalty system . Some may have already seen me mention this briefly in the past. In the old engine we had the mood level which was calculated from the different thoughts of the NPC. The issue with it was, that it could sometimes make you lose a long-time employee just because of a few temporary inconveniences.

changedLoyaltyWIP UI for NPC: Steam post image

changedLoyaltyThe 5 loyalty stages:

addedNPC traitsThis will be a new mechanic that allows for more interesting and unique NPCs. Any NPC will have a set of traits that apply different modifiers.

addedNPC traitsSome traits can be hidden until they are uncovered (i.e. through interrogation) while most are visible to the player. As you can see, they can also be negative, positive or mixed (both benefits and drawbacks). They will be handled via Lua so you will be able to add new traits via mods.

My Drug Cartel changes

addedOne new thing I've got to show is the NPC loyalty system . Some may have already seen me mention this briefly in the past. In the old engine we had the mood level which was calculated from the different thoughts of the NPC. The issue with it was, that it could sometimes make you lose a long-time employee just because of a few temporary inconveniences.

changedWIP UI for NPC: Steam post image

changedThe 5 loyalty stages:

addedThis will be a new mechanic that allows for more interesting and unique NPCs. Any NPC will have a set of traits that apply different modifiers.

Hi everyone, It's been a while since the last devlog - mostly because there hasn't been a lot of new visual stuff to show. Nevertheless, we have been working on the game more than ever, mostly on technical stuff of the new engine. I was also finally able to find two more competent C programmers for the team a few weeks ago and I got a part-time job to do besides university so I can continue financing the game's development.

Loyalty

One new thing I've got to show is the NPC loyalty system. Some may have already seen me mention this briefly in the past. In the old engine we had the mood level which was calculated from the different thoughts of the NPC. The issue with it was, that it could sometimes make you lose a long-time employee just because of a few temporary inconveniences.

That's where the loyalty level comes in - it's like a long-term mood level. It is slowly raised during high mood times and slowly lowered during low mood times. Having a higher loyalty level will then raise the NPCs quitting threshold and can even disable the possibility for him to quit. It will also have more effects with future mechanics like a surrender threshold.

WIP UI for NPC: Steam post image

The 5 loyalty stages:

	Surrender threshold	Quitting threshold	Min loyalty val	Special effects
Opportunist	1.0	10	0
Associate	0.8	5	20
Trusted	0.5	0	40
Loyalist	0.1	Won’t quit	60	Will lose secret agent trait (if applicable)
Fanatic	Will not surrender	Won’t quit	80	Will perform self-detonation

NPC traits

This will be a new mechanic that allows for more interesting and unique NPCs. Any NPC will have a set of traits that apply different modifiers.

Examples of traits:

Trait	Effects
Secret agent (hidden)	Increases chance for informant-triggered police raids
Fast learner	More skill experience gain
Night owl	Mood penalty when working during day time instead of night time
Insider (50% of being hidden)	When interrogated there is a chance that “information is uncovered” about the raider’s faction. This should lead to unlocking certain operations.

Some traits can be hidden until they are uncovered (i.e. through interrogation) while most are visible to the player. As you can see, they can also be negative, positive or mixed (both benefits and drawbacks). They will be handled via Lua so you will be able to add new traits via mods.

What's left to do?

Unfortunately, the majority of our lead dev's time in recent months has still been taken up on a lot of the technical aspects of the new engine so we weren't making much progress. But now that we have two additional C developers in the later stage of onboarding, things are moving much faster for the future.

Health system
Placing items onto showcase zones (for drying or cooking)
Firearm system
Save & load system
Research system
A lot more AI stuff

I would say by the end of July, most of these things should be done though and we should be able to start preparing the playable preview of the new engine sometime in August.

-Gigicom

Source

Steam News / 2 July 2026

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