Wiki / mechanics / research-and-paths
Research & outfit tiers
Status: Draft. Live in the sandbox campaign. Every number on this page is TEMP: they are first guesses that are still being tuned.
Research is one bar. Every day the outfit earns research points, and they all go into the one box you picked. When the box is full it is done for good, and the bar moves on to the next box in your queue. The tier of the outfit (Crew, Gang, Mob, Family, Mafia) is not a separate meter: it is a box on the same tree.
How you use it
- Open it. Click the RESEARCH chip on the top bar: it opens the OUTFIT screen on its RESEARCH page. The OUTFIT tab opens the same screen, which also has PEOPLE and TOWNS pages.
- Read the tree. Boxes stand on a grid of 8 rows and are joined by lines from left to right. A box shows its cost and the days it would take at today's rate.
- Pick a box. Click it to open its detail on the right. The detail shows its flavour line, YOU GET (what it gives, with exact numbers for your outfit), Cost and Lands in.
- START. If the box needs other boxes first, the button reads START · N STEPS: the first box on the path starts and the rest queue behind it.
- Switch or STOP. Picking another box switches the bar. STOP halts it and clears the queue. Either way, every box keeps the points it already holds.
The strip above the tree reads Researching X · N days left · then A → B, or Research is sitting idle. Click a box in the tree. when nothing is picked. While the bar is idle, the top-bar chip says PICK ONE.
How it works
The bar
| Rule | Live |
|---|---|
| One box at a time | Points go only into the current box |
| Daily rate | A base, plus a bit for every town you hold, plus every working Library's research |
| Cost | Each box costs a fixed number of research points. No cash or Influence is spent |
| Path queue | Aiming at a far box queues every box still missing on the way to it, requirements first |
| Overflow | Points left over when a box finishes go straight into the next queued box |
| Nothing picked | Points are banked, up to the cost of the cheapest open box. Your next pick gets them |
| Switching | Free. Each box keeps what it holds |
| Done is done | A finished box is never lost, even if you lose towns |
| Finishing | The game doesn't stop. The log says X is worked out. and either On to Y. or Pick what comes next. A tier box is also announced |
What you can see
| Box state | Means |
|---|---|
| Done | Already worked out |
| Under way | The current box, with days left |
| Queued | On the path to the box you aimed at |
| Needs X | A requirement is missing (you can still aim at it; the path queues) |
| Ready to start | Every requirement is done |
| Hidden | Past the next tier box. Only the stretch up to your next tier shows |
The tree
| Box | Needs | Gives |
|---|---|---|
| Crew | — (every outfit starts with it) | The starting tier |
| Company Man | Crew | Offices make +50% cash |
| Community | Crew | Neighbourhoods make +50% Influence and house +50% soldiers |
| Blue Collar | Crew | Every working Factory pays Respect each day, per level |
| Gunman | Crew | The Gunman class |
| Heavy | Gunman | The Heavy class, and his gear |
| Gang (tier 2) | Company Man, Community | The outfit becomes a Gang |
| Gangster | Gang | The Gangster class |
| Ninja | Gang | The Ninja class, and his gear |
| Hoe | Gang | The Hoe class |
| Robber | Gang | The Robber class, and his gear |
| Doctor | Gang | The Doctor class, and his gear |
| Mob (tier 3) | Gang | The outfit becomes a Mob |
| Family (tier 4) | Mob | The outfit becomes a Family |
| Mafia (tier 5) | Family | The outfit becomes a Mafia |
Gangster, Ninja, Hoe, Robber and Doctor, and the Mob, Family and Mafia tiers, are marked as placeholders in the data.
Outfit tiers
| Rule | Live |
|---|---|
| Tier = tree | The outfit's tier is 1 plus the highest tier box it has worked out. Influence plays no part |
| Tier rewards | Gang: +1 roster seat. Mob: +1 roster seat, +1 town per capo. Family: +1 roster seat, +1 crew per leader, +1 gear slot. Mafia: +1 roster seat, +1 crew per leader |
| Where you see it | The OUTFIT screen's left card: the tier's name and next Gang in N days |
Other outfits
Every outfit that holds ground runs the same bar, with the same costs and the same tree. The player clicks; for a rival outfit the AI picks an open box by score.
Numbers (all TEMP)
| Number | Value | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Base rate | 0.8 research a day | foundation.tree_rate_base |
| Per town held | +0.1 a day | foundation.tree_rate_per_town |
| Library | 2 per level a day, +1 per level for each point of its manager's skill above the bar | library_research_base, library_research_per_business_above |
| Box costs | Company Man, Community, Blue Collar, Gunman 20 · Heavy 30 · Gang 30 · Gangster, Ninja, Hoe, Robber, Doctor 40 · Mob 200 · Family 400 · Mafia 800 | research_tree.json points |
| Company Man | Offices ×1.5 cash | office_cash_mult |
| Community | Neighbourhoods ×1.5 Influence, ×1.5 soldiers housed | neighbourhood_influence_mult, neighbourhood_soldiers_mult |
| Blue Collar | 1 Respect per Factory level a day | factory_respect |
| Class boxes | Unlock the class change at level 3 | squads.upgrade_level |
| Tier rewards | as in the tier table above | foundation.tier_rewards |
| Tier names | Crew, Gang, Mob, Family, Mafia | foundation.tier_titles |
At one town and no Library the bar fills at 0.9 a day, so Company Man + Community + Gang (70 points) take about 78 days.
See also
- Outfit & seats: the roster seats a tier adds
- Economy: Offices, Neighbourhoods and Factories
- Respect & leveling: the Respect wallet Blue Collar pays into
- Tabs & HUD: the top bar and the OUTFIT tab
- Mechanics
Locked vs leftover
| Locked (document this) | Leftover / do not claim |
|---|---|
| One bar, one box at a time, with a path queue | The card draw: a random hand of 3 cards, rarity weights, card tiers opened by cards done, and a cost that climbs with every card and with town count (research.gd without research_tree, research.json, the card plate in research_hand.gd). The tutorial campaign still runs it; the sandbox does not |
| Boxes cost research points only | Paying Influence for a box |
| Tier comes from tier boxes on the tree | Tiers from Influence thresholds and the ten old tier titles (used only when research_tree is off) |
| Five tiers: Crew, Gang, Mob, Family, Mafia | Tier rewards past Gang being final (Mob, Family and Mafia are placeholders) |
| Switching and stopping keep each box's points | The sandbox's research_cards list (only the card draw reads it) |
| The OUTFIT screen is the one research screen | The interim three-column tree list in research_hand.gd (only shown with research_tree on and outfit_development off; no campaign does that) |
| The top-bar chip's idle tooltip, pick a card for the outfit (card-draw wording) |