Let's talk about R116 and the Pimp

[SwordGrunt]

Hi there, I want to give my 2 cents on what made Pimp so broken on round 116 and give some general feedback. Given that the top 6 players were Pimps and the top 1 player had almost 50% more respect than the first non-Pimp player, I think this is not a matter of "if", but rather "why".

First of all, the Pimp changes already announced for R117, making his leveling up harder and a random event that reduces hookers' production for the day. I think they are in the right direction. Pimp had an easy time leveling up compared to other professions, which was even more noticeable on the first day or two of the game, and was generally much less affected by events.

But I do not think they are enough and there are other factors that will, in my opinion, keep Pimp as the strongest profession by far next round the way things are right now:

First of all, Districts. They were a little worse for Robber than anyone else because Robber's main income is split between two districts, whereas everyone else's main income is in a single one. This is changing now with the investment district playing a bigger part for Businessmen, but Pimp can still stay on the hookers district all the time; poor Robber on the other hand will have to bounce between his two main districts as well as Boat and Investment all the time, leaving him the most vulnerable to losing stats.

For the actual numbers on Districts, the same bonus for hookers and for other things is weird since the special hookers item gives +300%/5days while the buildings item gives +400%/6days... it would make sense if the hookers district increased +0.75% instead of +1% every 10 days, especially considering that hookers will give you the most total money later in the round (while buildings reach maximum production on day 31 for non-BM). So on day 110 you would have +15% from hookers instead of +20%.

Second, VIP 3 giving +15% from hookers was also a huge buff which I would also suggest toning down (VIP1 - 4%, VIP2 - 8%, VIP3 - 12% would seem more fair). These factors combined made the amount of money Pimp made much higher compared to other professions, because hookers alone give more money than any other source of income alone (BM needs buildings+more investments for example, not just buildings) so their bonuses being the same as other sources of income, both on VIP and Districts, seems like it could be adjusted.

Also, all professions gaining equal stats immediately brings attention to the fact Pimp gained the worthless Charisma stat the most and now will be less hampered by that... though I can see ups and downs for all professions on this one. I do think his level 13 stats requirement is absurdly better than other professions', requiring only Tolerance which conveniently is the best stat in the game today. Speaking of which, shouldn't all level 13 stats requirements be looked at since the stat distribution is being drastically changed?


Overall, it was great fun. Though the results worried me on the Robber (the 2nd best Robber had less respect than the 15 best BM or the 13 best Pimps) I think the VIP buff for him will be enough to put him in line with BM and Dealer, and hopefully Pimp. I saw changes are coming to Broker as well. Looking forward to round 117!