Game Balance & Economy Improvements

Hi Diablo and the CE community,

 

After spending considerable time observing how players at different stages interact with the game's core systems, a few patterns emerge that — if addressed — could significantly improve the experience for the entire player base. These are not complaints but genuine observations from within the community about systems that have room to grow.

 

1. Job Skill Progression Needs More Impact

 

The Issue:

Across the community, players who invest heavily into a specific job skill report that the tangible difference in yield between low and high skill levels is not proportional to the time invested. A player at 50% skill on any robbery job receives yields only marginally better than someone at 10%. This undermines the sense of progression and discourages players from specialising.

 

Suggestion:

Implement a tiered yield multiplier based on skill level that makes specialisation genuinely rewarding:

- 0–25% skill → base yield

- 25–50% skill → 1.5x yield

- 50–75% skill → 2x yield

- 75–100% skill → 3x yield

 

Making skill progression feel impactful would reward dedicated players and add meaningful depth to job specialisation as a long-term strategy.

 

 2. Weed Farm — Multiple Strains

 

The Issue:

The Weed Farm is widely regarded as one of the least attractive productions in the game. Its single product, flat market value and straightforward supply requirements make it a production that most players unlock and then overlook. This leads to an underutilised system and a stagnant market segment.

 

Suggestion:

Introduce 3–4 distinct weed strains, each with different:

- Growth cycles and time requirements

- Supply material types and quantities

- Market values and demand levels

- Unlock thresholds tied to reputation milestones

 

This would revitalise the Weed Farm as a meaningful production choice, create a more dynamic weed market, and give players genuine strategic decisions around which strain to cultivate.

 

 3. Production Supply Material Scarcity

 

The Issue:

A growing concern across the community is the increasing scarcity of production supply materials on the La Paz Market. Items like Fertilizer, Agave and similar materials cycle in and out of availability unpredictably, creating bottlenecks for players trying to run productions consistently. This is partly structural — the game does not currently incentivise enough players to run the robbery jobs that generate these materials.

 

Suggestion:

- Introduce an NPC floor supplier for key production materials that activates only when market supply drops below a defined threshold — acting as a safety net rather than a competitor to player sellers

- Add additional robbery job variants or mission chains that specifically reward production supply materials, encouraging a broader range of players to contribute to market supply

- Consider small passive material generation tied to mid-tier properties to help stabilise supply for active producers

 

 

 4. Revive Skill — Make It a Viable Path

 

The Issue:

Revive Skill is currently one of the most undervalued stats in the game. The vast majority of players ignore it entirely because its impact on gameplay is negligible at most levels. This represents a missed opportunity for a genuinely interesting alternative playstyle centred around support and recovery.

 

Suggestion:

- Scale rep gained from reviving proportionally with Revive Skill level

- At higher Revive Skill thresholds, add bonus effects such as increased health restored on revive or reduced energy cost

- At 100% Revive Skill, unlock a once-daily free revive that costs no energy

 

These changes would create a legitimate support-focused playstyle and make Revive Skill a meaningful choice rather than a forgotten stat.

 

 

 5. Job Skill Prestige — Permanent Passive Rewards

 

The Issue:

Completing a prestige currently resets skill in exchange for a time reduction. While functional, this system feels like a loop rather than a progression. Players who have prestiged multiple times on the same job receive no lasting recognition or advantage beyond the time bonus, which diminishes the sense of mastery.

 

Suggestion:

Introduce a small permanent passive bonus unlocked after each prestige completion, tied to the specific job:

- Robbery job prestige → small permanent yield increase on that job

- Production job prestige → small reduction in supply cost for related productions

 

These bonuses should be modest enough not to disrupt the economy but meaningful enough to make prestige feel like genuine long-term progression rather than a treadmill.

 

 Closing Thoughts

Cartel Empire has one of the most engaged communities of any browser-based game and a developer who genuinely listens to feedback. These suggestions are rooted in patterns observed across the player base — not isolated complaints — and are offered in the spirit of helping the game reach its full potential.

 

The foundation is excellent. These ideas are simply about deepening the systems that already exist and making every hour a player invests feel rewarding at every stage of the game.

 

Thank you for reading.

 

BRAVOO - 14255

Reyes de las Especia

 

Community discussion welcome below.

"- Robbery job prestige → small permanent yield increase on that job"

I'd suggest +20% per level with 5 levels. Oh wait...

These are the consumable item quantities from 6 months ago to now. There is no shortage, but definitely a bottleneck considering the hoarding. People treat them as a commodity to cash in a little as needed when something new comes out that requires cash. We have a fabricated shortage on the market, people trade these items in huge quantities privately. Market looks scarce, price goes up. Also you must have missed it but prestiging a job gives you 2 options, reduced time and bigger payout. You do get considerably more when you choose payout.

 

Corana Beer: 170,211 → 264,811 (+94,600)

Mexcal Beer: 53,380 → 81,307 (+27,927)

Blancoda Tequila: 122,982 → 217,990 (+95,008)

Repose Tequila: 60,555 → 102,783 (+42,228)

Anejo Tequila: 31,381 → 53,852 (+22,471)

Raicilla: 15,126 → 20,532 (+5,406)

Bandage: 1,194,827 → 1,558,601 (+363,774)

Small Medical Kit: 745,680 → 957,669 (+211,989)

Large Medical Kit: 320,102 → 423,056 (+102,954)

Basic Trauma Kit: 131,668 → 173,234 (+41,566)

Large Trauma Kit: 79,273 → 106,523 (+27,250)

Tainted Cocaine: 188,827 → 246,418 (+57,591)

Tainted Cannabis: 246,418 → 319,662 (+73,244)

Cannabis: 1,615,617 → 2,325,323 (+709,706)

Cocaine: 275,723 → 427,726 (+152,003)

Bag of Fertiliser: 459,353 → 513,143 (+53,790)

Agave Heart: 413,739 → 472,949 (+59,210)

Coca Paste: 892,538 → Nails: 298,709 → 361,157 (+62,448)

Bricks: 280,245 → 339,768 (+59,523)

Concrete Bags: 191,750 → 236,252 (+44,502)

Steel: 99,952 → 113,900 (+13,948)1,123,058 (+230,520)

I disagree with a lot of your points, so here's my thoughts:

 

1 and 5)

Since it's a prestige system the skill% doesn't need to have a big effect, so the current effect of increasing success chance should be enough. When you do prestige you get the choice of getting faster at the jobs or increasing rewards, maxing out at halving the job times and doubling rewards, meaning an overall yield bonus of 4x.

3)

While I agree that the production supply prices are way too high, it's not because robbery jobs aren't incentivized, in fact they're so heavily incentivized that all the other jobs could use a boost to their rep to just seem somewhat worth it. Hopefully the newly introduced production prestiges will help lower the prices in the future as the top end starts needing less supply items.

2)

To my knowledge there are already changes in the work for the weed fields, for them producing multiple stat enhancing drugs in the future instead of just weed, so maybe let Diablo cook on that one.

4)

I wouldn't mind a rep boost for reviving, but although I agree that reviving was kinda dead earlier, it isn't any more since reviving started giving rep, and missions got introduced including reviving missions. I know there's at least 1 reviving based cartel (TNW, they ask 1 coke per revive in their reviver discord), and I see it getting more popular in the future as more cartels unlock the last level of the reviving upgrade in the cartel upgrades.