Chairmen, let's keep moving forward.
This update brings the complete OS Department. It serves as a stepping stone between the phone business and in-house chips: a meaningful part of your company, with reasonable profits and far lower resource demands than the Chip Department.
Investing R&D Points alone will only make your own operating system mediocre. Its potential for limitless growth comes from its “Ecosystem Size”. You need to keep installing your OS on your own devices to grow its Installed Base and encourage more developers to build enough applications for it. You can set up an incentive fund to speed up application development, though diminishing returns will gradually set in.
Your OS score does not rise automatically as its ecosystem grows. You need to keep releasing updates. We have also added an Automatic Update Plan to reduce the amount of manual work.
Once your own OS is far enough ahead, devices running it will receive a sales bonus greater than the one provided by in-house chips. You can also set the Store Commission rate to earn ongoing revenue.
The OS Department's “Intelligent Assistant” research tree is also a prerequisite for exploring the AI foundation-model business, which is not available yet. This business is a long-term pursuit for the very late game. There is no need to rush to unlock it fully: it will be designed to require at least several trillion in subsidies before it can potentially turn a profit.
The Andor OS family now offers free use for only 5 phone models. Once you have created 5 models, newly created phones using Andor will have a fixed cost added.
Other important changes:
1. When your character dies because Health reaches zero or their lifespan runs out, you will face a choice: “Accept Reality” or “Sign Death’s Contract”. Choosing “Sign Death’s Contract” restores Health to 100, but that save will no longer be able to earn Steam Achievements.
2. The “Tech Tree” page on the company home screen and its associated values have been completely rebuilt. It now focuses exclusively on the phone business and presents information more clearly. This does not reduce the total bonuses the tree can provide, but it raises the price of R&D Points obtained through “Rush R&D” and makes the late game substantially harder. The revised values give the early game a smoother progression and prevent waste caused by values exceeding their limits.
3. We have revised the mechanics and content of “Project Kindling” in preparation for the upcoming AI foundation-model business. Completing this storyline no longer means achieving AGI. Instead, it means building an initial model to unlock the AI business, which will arrive in the next version. You can pause research on Project Kindling at any time.
4. The value and effects of the old-money families' “Legendary Assets” have been significantly increased to better suit the current version.
Also in this update:
— Improved several prompts and resolved inconsistent wording.
— Fixed a display bug related to production capacity.
— The “A Favor Comes Due” event is now much less likely to occur, can appear at most once in any 15-month period, and has a cap on its cost.
— Added a “Company Guide” section to the company home screen to show company figures and changes more clearly.
— The Head of Finance's ability now reduces executive salaries and bonuses, as well as the tax rate on dividends from listed companies.
— Product Word of Mouth now contributes more to Brand Strength growth. Hype generated by brand marketing can now also increase Brand Strength over time.
— Company Financial Statements now provide more detail and a clearer breakdown of income and expenses.
— Collectibles at the Auction House now appreciate in price more slowly.
What's next?
Before October, we will bring you the complete AI foundation-model business—the culmination of the entire company system, with the scope to profoundly affect the world and open up greater possibilities for your existing businesses. The full car business will also launch in October, along with racing events. The car business tests how well you can bring several company departments together, which is why it has to follow the launch of the other businesses.
⭐ Your review matters
If you've enjoyed this update and can see the game moving forward, leaving a "Recommended" review on Steam is the single biggest way to support its growth:
· It helps more players discover the game.
· It gives me the energy and the resources to keep building new features.
· It brings the game one step closer to a truly great business simulation.
Best,
Tim Gu
Rich List: The Order
