This update changes the foundation of the game's economy. The job market between players disappears, and companies now run on employees you hire, each with their own stats and personality. The developers explain that 70% of players had no workers, that most players who hired workers lost money, and that with players as workers any new bonus risked concentrating companies in even fewer hands.
Every day, each company receives 3 new candidates at 00:00 UTC. Hiring costs 10 energy, and asking for a new set of candidates costs 10 the first time and doubles every time you repeat it. For each candidate, you only see one piece of information (a stat, a trait or their Training Potential), and the rest is revealed once you hire them. To determine how many employees fit in a company there is a new upgrade, the Break Room: level 1 allows one, level 2 allows two (20 steel) and level 3 allows three (80 steel). Self-work still exists in your companies, for 10 energy.
Each employee has three stats from 1 to 4: Production, Luck (what they find) and Responsibility (how they handle bad news). They also have a starting age of 18 to 45, a Training Potential of 3 to 10 and a 50% chance of coming with a trait. There are 53 traits; for example, Loner gives +100% when working alone and Sociable gives +25% per coworker.
The wage is set by the employee, not by you. It is calculated from the market value of raw materials over the last 7 days, based on one hour of production, multiplied by their own expectation (between 70% and 130%). It is paid automatically every hour, and if you can't cover the full hour, nobody works that hour. Employees age one year per day; at 65 they ask to retire, and then repeat that every 10 days, with each extra year making them harder to keep.
Every hour, an employee produces their Production divided by 4, and this is boosted by your Management, their happiness, their tool, the time they've spent on the same good (up to +20%) and a +5% if the company is in a core region of your country. Happiness starts at 50, and each point above or below changes production by 1%. Happiness drops from full storage, failed payments, taxes, moves and battles. Firing someone lowers their coworkers by 5 points for 24 hours, and moving an employee takes 10 away from them for 7 days. With less than 30 happiness, an employee can quit in any given hour. In addition, battles in their region carry a 1% risk of death.
Once a day per employee, for 10 energy, you can train them: you get 3 cards and choose one (stat boost, lower wage, new or removed trait, or more Potential). Each draw uses 1 point of Potential, and the new Leadership skill and Luck make rare cards more likely.
Employees also live small stories: a stray cat, an office romance, a rival's job offer. There are 78 events, at a pace of roughly one per day if you have three employees, and never more than three. You choose how to react, seeing the odds of each option, which improve with Leadership, happiness and Luck. If you ignore an event for 36 hours, the default option is chosen. They only happen to employees hired more than 48 hours ago, and only if you log in at least every 3 days.
Working for another player is now only possible as a manager. Each company has one position, and the owner decides how much to pay per Management point. The manager adds +2% production per point (up to +22%, which together with the owner's Management reaches +44%) and once a day gives +5 happiness to an employee for 48 hours. They get paid every hour, with a manager tax going to the country, and there is a 24-hour lock after hiring in which neither party can end the contract.
Tools are equipment for employees, of 6 types, with bonuses from +3% (Common) up to +65% (Mythic). They are found in toolboxes during work (0.1% chance per Luck point per worked hour, with a maximum of 2%) and last about 500 worked hours. They can be dismantled for scrap, but they can't be sold or traded.
Entrepreneurship disappears and its points are refunded, with a free skill reset and no cooldown so you can rebuild your build. Energy goes from 30 to 100 + 10 per level, and self-work goes from giving 10 to giving 30 + 3 per level. Management no longer limits how many people you can hire, but instead gives +2% production to your employees. And Leadership arrives, unlocking at level 10.
Party ethics disappear and each country now picks a type of government, which shapes how it fights and how it earns money. Every country starts as Provisional, and changing it by law has a 30-day cooldown. The new type's limits apply immediately, so a country can leave its alliance or lose ministers if the chosen government requires it.
Republic: doubles the development income of your own regions, but gets nothing from conquered ones, and orders cost 25% more.
Nationalist State: boosts the patriotic and sworn enemy bonuses and makes orders cheaper, but reduces development and doesn't allow alliances.
Homeland Front: gives +5% bunker and free orders to defend or retake your own regions, but makes attacks outside them more expensive.
Federation: makes alliances and pacts cheaper and strengthens fighting for allies, but can't have a sworn enemy.
Plutocracy: increases payroll taxes and strategic resources, but reduces the patriotic bonus and can't send money to other countries.
Autocracy: eliminates congress and ministers (the president and VP vote), raises development 25% and doubles the speed of unrest.
Mercenary State: doubles order damage and cost, but doesn't allow alliances or pacts.
Parties lose ethics and also the ability to start resistances, so they are left with little to do for now. The developers promise to rework them in upcoming patches.
The aim is also to end the habit of moving your company to the best region. Country specialization and deposits are removed, and strategic resources no longer boost production or development. Instead, each one pays a daily income to whoever holds it, equal to the development of the country it originally belonged to. There are two taxes: one on employee wages and a new one on manager pay, both voted by congress. The self-work tax disappears, and each 1% of tax subtracts 1 happiness point from employees. The original owner of a conquered region receives 10% of the tax, and regions disconnected from the capital no longer suffer the -50% income. A daily income estimate per region, a daily income map mode and a free company move to bring them home are added.
Wages are a big money sink, because the money paid leaves the game. It will be more noticeable as employees get trained and companies fill up, and the developers say they will watch the market and adjust the new money entering to avoid deflation.
The tutorial is now 6 guides (Economy, Gear, Military, Social, Progression and Map), each with 50 XP and a Case. The Economy guide teaches hiring, upgrading the Break Room, staffing a second company and training. The starting bag goes up: 25 money (was 5), 100 concrete (was 50) and 150 oil (was 20).
Menus now appear according to level: market and military units at 5, some premium functions and bulk dismantling at 7, crafting, the manager job market and military skills at 10, and parties and the workforce chart at 15. Chat and comments open from level 1, with a slow mode that loosens up until level 15. Running in elections now requires level 20, same as voting.
New features include polls inside articles (2 to 10 options, with public votes), five employee milestone ladders, skill presets (3 builds, or 10 with premium), a saved articles tab, a Pumpkin Head helmet until November 1, equipping a whole skin pack in one click, new missions and a day 7 reward of 50 money. Premium can open 50 cases at once (was 10).
Among the improvements, wooden cases give more production the rarer they are and their odds improve slightly for rare and epic. Battles have a new landscape look, the map shows upgrade levels and sea links as lines, and collecting all the cases in a region takes one click. Helping a MU now also gives +1 health, each item for sale has its own price and changing what a company produces no longer requires emptying storage. There are also several fixes, such as eating when you're 1 hunger point away from full, battle order reordering, chat scrolling on mobile, mercenary contracts at the end of a round, elections with no candidates and Mozambique's flag.
The world grows from 726 to 742 regions, with Maldives as a new country, 16 new regions, several renamed ones (Brazil, India, Libya, South Korea, Sudan and the US among the most affected), four capitals moved (Cyprus, Ghana, Sudan and the US), 36 new links and 71 removed. Removed links stay open for 10 days before closing, and regions that are only renamed keep their owner, development and companies.
Altogether, the game moves from an economy based on players working for players to one of employees with personality, training and events, where each country's government defines its play style and keeping your companies at home becomes the best option again.