Beta 0.10.0

Hi Startup Freaks! Yes, Beta 0.10.0 is finally here and to celebrate, a 20% promotion will be kicking in shortly! Without beating around the bush, let's get into what's new:

Copycats and Patents

I had already talked a bit about this in a previous update, and it has evolved since then. Let's go over the basics: Around the mid game competitors will start copying your features. Copying a feature will take several sprints so you'll have a bit of time to react. A copied feature will have its rating reduced by 50%. You can now "patent" a feature. You can see both the progress of your patent, as well as progress of copying (assuming the feature is being copied).

• Patenting a feature has an upfront cash cost and uses Operation effort. So you'll need to plan accordingly. Remember, it may not be cost effective or necessary to patent every feature.

Traffic Shifts

During the game you may also receive messages telling you that the market is shifting. This means that there is a change in which regions (continent) most of your visitors are coming from. In turn and over time, your user base will also shift. Ultimately, you need to be more aware of where your servers are and move them to more optimal data centers.

Data Center Statistics

Related to the above, I have added a bunch of statistics for the data centers which describe a number of things like the percentage of total traffic that's being generated by visitors and users in each region, any external traffic being directed, and also the current server capacity. This will hopefully give a bit more clarity about what's actually happening and where you should optimally place your servers.

Other Improvements and Fixes

Other changes include: Requested feature outlines now continue to display when designing performance features, security features, and tests, so that you can avoid them easily. When a new network topology is researched, clicking "Open Infrastructure" in the related notification automatically opens the topology tab.

• Opening mailbox now always automatically shows Inbox and is scrolled to the top

The pie chart for marketing activities now has distinct colors for each of the 15 activities (rather than white for many of them). Replaced a couple of place-holder icons. "Clown Conference" event now correctly displays as a negative event.

• Reduced the pitch of all sound effects when running a sprint so it's not as harsh as before.

What's Next

I have a couple of important items that I would like to address in the next release: [olist] There is some important balancing that needs to happen, especially around the leveling of backlog tasks. Currently most backlog tasks max out their effect at level 10, and beyond that have little to no effect. I would like to either cap them out at 10, or give a meaningful use to them beyond that. Either way I'll also be looking to increase the effort curve for getting that far (it gets a little too easy towards the late game). I'll also be looking to completely change up the "store" UIs, including the furniture, offices, and branding. The current method of having the UI slide out for every item placement is just too clunky.

• I'm also experimenting with adding some more milestones and challenges, and some added Steam achievements.

I'm always on the look out for new and meaningful mechanics or late game challenges to added. So far I have had a couple of failed attempts at this. Mostly this is because "Startup" is such a broad topic, that most mechanics end up needing to be very abstract. Unfortunately abstract mechanics, while interesting, don't feel as satisfying of concrete things and don't make you feel the fantasy of running a real company. But that's the challenge of design! Anyway this has gone on long enough. I'll do my best to release the next update more quickly. Happy Staring Up!