A couple of stupid questions

[Secret Master]

I picked up Empire of Sin on the Paradox sale, and I have a few off the wall economic questions that I don't see really addressed anywhere.

1) Is it possible to increase the total number of customers in a particular neighborhood? For example, in my current game, Fulton has a total of 1041 customers, 746 of which are mine. Is it possible to make that 1041 increase? Or are customers a zero sum game on a per neighborhood basis?

2) Do derelict rackets interact with customers at all? If I leave a bunch of derelict rackets alone in a neighborhood and just take over minor/major faction rackets, am I giving up customers to the derelict rackets (assuming I have sufficient draw in my own rackets)?

3) When using your demolitionist to permanently destroy a racket, does a new derelict building ever take it's place? Related question: can you turn parts of Chicago into a scorched earth hellscape by permanently removing 100% of rackets in a neighborhood?

4) Do the major factions play the same rules as players? If I take over their rackets and then immediately sell them, will the major factions just rebuy the damn things?

5) Related question: If I take all rackets from a faction except their safehouse, are they basically unable to generate enough income to much of anything?

6) Has anyone done a "just breweries" strategy by getting production to whiskey in a bunch of breweries and then just selling focusing on selling 1000 whiskey a week to minor factions? It seems like minor factions have infinite money. You can't scam them with disguised booze, but if they can give me 50,000 in one go when selling whiskey, it hardly matters.

7) Why do I sometimes see modifiers like swill in neighborhoods set to whiskey? Like in this screenshot:

I serve whiskey in this neighborhood (and I have the whiskey modifier and it is listed below in consumption), but why would I be getting negative modifiers from swill and rack? It might not seem like much, but in larger casinos, that's leaving money on the table.

 

[guprad]

I'll try to answer as much as possible. Welcome to Empire of Sin Secret Master!

1) Only by increasing the prosperity. If your prosperity is booming I don't think anyone else comes along.
2) As far as I know, the thug and the rackets you have to buy don't interact with any customers at all. Maybe the thug ones should but I don't think they actually do. I have to test this out more though.
3) No I think the racket just dies, so yes you can initiate scorched earth tactics . Unless the racket spawns after a really long time or something.
4) I've seen them take over a few thug rackets, but it's not common at all. And they start off with way more rackets then you have at the beginning. So in some ways they do follow the same rules, they also upgrade their rackets and they have a time limit for upgrading, take over rackets. Never seen them buy a racket though, I could just be missing them doing it.
5) They can still do standing orders but otherwise yes, they won't have much income.
6) I've tried to do a run with a huge emphasis on breweries and I'm selling them 100 whiskey a week and getting $10,000 per week in total. Minor factions do pretty much have infinite money, they probably shouldn't but they can buy as much whiskey as you want them to.
7) No clue unfortunately, I just got this game a month ago.

 

[Secret Master]

6) I've tried to do a run with a huge emphasis on breweries and I'm selling them 100 whiskey a week and getting $10,000 per week in total. Minor factions do pretty much have infinite money, they probably shouldn't but they can buy as much whiskey.

I got to the point where I was selling 40k worth of booze a week in my last game, and I wasn't even just doing breweries by themselves. I might try a pure brewery approach next time coupled with protection treaties on the minor factions.

 

[WindyCityBlues]

I'll try to answer as much as possible. Welcome to Empire of Sin Secret Master!

1) Only by increasing the prosperity. If your prosperity is booming I don't think anyone else comes along.
2) As far as I know, the thug and the rackets you have to buy don't interact with any customers at all. Maybe the thug ones should but I don't think they actually do. I have to test this out more though.
3) No I think the racket just dies, so yes you can initiate scorched earth tactics . Unless the racket spawns after a really long time or something.
4) I've seen them take over a few thug rackets, but it's not common at all. And they start off with way more rackets then you have at the beginning. So in some ways they do follow the same rules, they also upgrade their rackets and they have a time limit for upgrading, take over rackets. Never seen them buy a racket though, I could just be missing them doing it.
5) They can still do standing orders but otherwise yes, they won't have much income.
6) I've tried to do a run with a huge emphasis on breweries and I'm selling them 100 whiskey a week and getting $10,000 per week in total. Minor factions do pretty much have infinite money, they probably shouldn't but they can buy as much whiskey.
7) No clue unfortunately, I just got this game a month ago.

Agree with @guprad here, with a few additional comments:

1) Also, in a dev blog IIRC, they stated that there is a general increase in the population of Chicago that tracks its historical growth (5% each year I believe).
2) Never saw an interaction myself.
3) I've razed a few buildings and they have no timer on when they return (unlike the other options), so it's permanent as far as I can tell.
4) Personally, I wish AI didn't follow all of our rules to make things more challenging. Also, they certainly can buy rackets that are being sold, but they don't necessarily do it right away or at all.
5) I use this strategy all the time - until my death squad is ready to take them all out.
6) I haven't done a brewery-only strategy yet (mainly b/c early game where money is tight) but it's ended up like that mid or late game, yes. I'm thinking Precincts may change all of that.
7) Yeah, there's a lot of "under the hood" mechanics that isn't talked about. You can ask here or on discord if you want to know more about it; they want feedback on what topics we want to see. But I'm waiting until Precincts b/c that's bound to change this; hopefully, make it more explicit and important in the empire-building side of the game.

 

[Palanthis]

I have the same problem concerning the negative modifier of swill (point 7).
I think it's a bug. Or at least a display bug. It really needs to be more explicit. For now in my current game, i produce only whisky, all my neighborhood ask for whisky, and so i should be fine.
Still, i get these same negative modifiers on my rackets. It doesn't make any sense, and if indeed this negative modifier applies, it's a bug for sure. Strange thing, the negative modifiers are not the same for all my rackets, even in only one given neighborhood. It doesn't make any sense at all. Sometimes i have only the negative for swill, but for other rackets i have swill and other kind of booze negative modifiers. like rack. I'm really confused.

 

[Colonel Bogey]

I got to the point where I was selling 40k worth of booze a week in my last game, and I wasn't even just doing breweries by themselves. I might try a pure brewery approach next time coupled with protection treaties on the minor factions.

My games improved dramatically when I started focusing more on producing fine whiskey in quantity. Unfortunately though, the end game is killing off (some of) your customers. But it works, at least at first.