The Tenants - Tenancy Update

Welcome to the Tenancy Update, the first major update in The Tenants Early Access.

Hello there, Landlords!

Welcome to the Tenancy Update, the first major update in The Tenants Early Access. Being the first big update planned on our roadmap (available here), this patch has been in the works for quite a while and it involves a plethora of new content and several massive features that address the biggest shortcomings of the current gameplay loop. Keep in mind that as a result of the scope of it all, your old saves will no longer work after the update and you'll have to start a new game.
We'll try to avoid save wipes as much as possible in further development. Now, without further ado, let's go over the most significant changes in more detail.

New content

We're constantly working on new content to add to the game and this update is no exception as a number of new Elite Contracts and dozens of new furniture items make their way into the game. One might especially enjoy the set of contracts involving designing a wedding reception space as well as the interior of a chapel for where the ceremony is set to take place.

It wouldn't be a tenancy update without a new tenant archetype! Wondersville folks have taken the time to expand their horizons and now you'll be able to meet and house Artists who enjoy units designed with a bit more pizzazz in mind than usual. Try to meet their demands and you might make some money off of them too!

Additionally, we've added a fair share of items based on your suggestions posted on our official Discord (available here). If you're not a member yet, make sure to join us as we'll gladly talk all things game related with you and our lovely community will make you feel right at home.

New tenant interactions

As mentioned in the last development update, we took some time to reflect on the core game mechanics and decided to rework the set of the bland attributes that define the in-game tenants. Instead of the core tenant qualities that ultimately don't translate to any meaningful gameplay, we've introduced a new system of tenant traits, likes and dislikes. Together with the archetype, they now form a three-tier pyramid that describes your renter:

- Archetype (1) defines what needs they have regarding furniture and apartment layout; it tells you what they do and what potential events they can trigger.
- Traits (4) say if they're a "bad" or "good" tenant, they affect how you manage them.
- Likes and dislikes (4) come into play when increasing their happiness with the new services system and gifts.

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For instance, you can now have an Artist who is Diligent, Easygoing, and yet Clumsy and Picky. They're also someone who loves Sweets and Feel Good Movies, all the while disliking Shopping and Flowers. By having access to these more defined characteristics, you'll be better equipped to handle your tenants in a meaningful manner. As part of the changes, we're rolling out a new feature called Services & Sabotage through which you'll be able to take the initiative and treat your tenant to an exquisite meal with a private cooking show at home to make them happier, or to send in an annoying trumpet player next door to make them.. less happy. You'll also be able to purchase Gifts which affect their happiness depending on what they like and dislike.

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Mid tenancy renovation requests

To accompany the changes mentioned above, we've decided that it's time to implement a feature that we had wanted to have in the game for quite some time already. We're of course talking about the tenant renovation requests, which add a new layer to the whole tenancy thing.

Starting now, you'll be receiving occasional requests from the tenants who have been with you for a while. These requests will range from simple stuff like adding in some hobby-related equipment to full-blown kitchen revamps. Most tenants will be reasonable with their demands; however, there may be some hotheaded renters out there requesting a full makeover on day one. Taking on these odd jobs will be of course optional, though your tenants might like you less if you turn down their requests. Likewise, accepting a request and then failing to deliver will result in a relationship drop.

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Completing such a request will greatly increase your tenant's happiness and make them more loyal towards you. In some cases, you might even be rewarded with some cash or a unique item!

Considering how big and tricky the system is, we're aiming to gather feedback on this first iteration, and with future updates we'll be adding in more new and interesting requests to spice up the mid and late game.

Skill tree

With the introduction of all the new features and mechanics, we've decided to organize everything and group it into unlockable perks. You'll finally be able to improve Uncle Steve's walking speed or repair chance on top of it as the tree comes split into three categories, all with plenty of exciting stuff to unlock. While working on the new skills app, we also took some time to spruce up the phone's UI and improve the interface of all the other apps as well.

Tutorial changes

Given the number of changes and new features, we also made some adjustments to the in-game tutorial and the main questline. The reworked tutorial aims to ease you into the new systems that affect your tenancies by introducing new mechanics step by step. For example, now you'll not only have to renovate the old RV for Uncle Steve, but also babysit Pedro himself for some time while learning the basics of Gifting and Sabotage.

With all this in mind, we still worked hard to make all the features as intuitive as possible by themselves, so even if you give no second thought to the tutorial, you should still be able to make use of the new options and systems.

Creative mode

One of the most common suggestions we have received since launch is the idea to introduce a new game mode that is more laid back in nature. And we listened! If you're not a fan of the constant time management aspect of the game, you will enjoy the new Creative mode, where time stops in renovation mode, the jobs pay better, the progression speed is higher and things in general are just a little bit less hectic.

Optimization

We're constantly looking to find new avenues for optimization to make the game run even smoother on all platforms. One of those avenues turned out to be the way we render furniture in apartments. We've implemented a smart dynamic batching system that reduces the number of draw calls for static items outside of renovation mode, and so with the new update you should see an FPS boost
in scenarios where you own multiple units.

Another area that needed tweaks was the phone and the way we display text messages and reviews. We've noticed plenty of reports from you that with a lot of messages the UI tends to slow down when opening certain apps, and thus we've optimized it by loading content dynamically on demand which should greatly increase performance.

Miscellaneous

With every update there's also a bunch of small stuff that we take the time to work on. You'll notice a few new environment animations in the Slums, changes to how the bank loan interest rate is calculated to better reflect real life, as well as improvements to how the walls are rendered when building. As always, there's also a number of bug fixes and improvements that you can find in the detailed changelog.

This update took a lot of work and as such there's quite a lot of changes for you to play around with. We hope you enjoy the new version of the game and we can't wait to hear your thoughts!

Full Changelog

Features

- Implemented Services & Sabotage system.
- Implemented Gifting system.
- Implemented Renovation Requests system.
- Reworked tenant core qualities and replaced it with Traits, Likes and Dislikes.
- Implemented Skill Tree.
- Implemented Trashing system.
- Implemented an option that allows tenants to break the lease if they're really unhappy with the living conditions.
- Implemented Creative Mode.
- Implemented Research feature allowing you to learn more about your tenants.

Content

- Added a new tenant archetype: Artist.
- Added new Elite Contracts: Temple, Wedding Venue, Funeral hall, Spy Van, Shack.
- Added new residential buildings to host the new Elite Contracts.
- Added ~150 new furniture items (part of which are available only within the new Elite Contracts).
- Added 16 tenant Traits.
- Added 14 tenant Likes & Dislikes.
- Added 30 different Gifts.
- Added 7 Services.
- Added 6 Sabotages.
- Added 2 new loading screens.

User Interface

- Reskinned the mobile phone UI.
- Tweaked the tutorial highlighting effect.
- Added a button that opens the community Discord server in the main menu.
- Fixed an issue where more than one speed button could appear highlighted after using the keyboard to change gameplay speed.

General

- Player-placed walls should now also come with filled corner pieces.
- Added an option to censor pests and drugs.
- Changed the tutorial to include babysitting Pedro.
- Fixed an issue with disabling payment notifications.
- Locked some room types to only appear in certain jobs.
- Fixed an issue with the electricity box not displaying highlights when hovered.
- Fixed an issue with incorrect numbers of items left to unlock.
- Fixed an issue with placing wall mounted items on exterior walls.
- Fixed an issue with painting exterior walls.
- Disabled residential building markers above properties that never go on sale.

Jobs

- Fixed an issue with the Mayor Commission job listing incorrect room missing issues.
- Tweaked the tutorial RV job's furniture and requirements list.

Balance

- Tweaked bank loans to work more like in real life.
- Increased pay for Total Makeover renovation jobs.

Optimization

- Optimized displaying large quantities of text messages, contacts and reviews.
- Optimized static mesh rendering for apartment furniture.

Thank you,
The Tenants Team

The Tenants Patch 0.6a

General

- Locked certain perks in the skill tree until appropriate timings within the main questline.
- Disabled the ability to clean Steve's trailer during Pedro's trashing bonanza.
- Tweaked the Subscription Upgrade tenant event to only occur once per service for a given apartment.
- Fixed an issue where the game wouldn't sometimes load back up due to invalid text messages in the save file.
- Fixed an issue where previously fixed items were available for interaction during cleaning.
- Fixed an exploit that allowed players to complete renovation requests by delivering a regular renovation job.

Tutorial

- Safeguarded Pedro's babysitting tutorial to end sooner than after a year if the player doesn't do any jobs.
- Safeguarded Pedro's trashing tutorial to start only after the gifting action is complete.
- Locked installing heating to only be available after completing Pedro's trashing tutorial.

UI

- Adjusted the new game screen layout.

The Tenants Update 0.6b

General

- Adjusted animation positions for all services and sabotages.
- The skunk will now stop by a few spots in the apartment to do its deed when performing the skunk sabotage.
- Locked the ability for tenants to break the lease agreement on their own until the lease renegotiations tutorial is completed.
- Locked the ability to use the new tenant interactions on Cindy until the apartment events tutorial is completed.
- Cindy has now preset traits and likes.
- Fixed a few issues related to the Shack job.
- Fixed a few issues related to the new tenant interactions not ending properly when the tenant's lease is up mid-interaction.

Tutorial

- Safeguarded apartment events tutorial in cases where the Uncle is sent before the player finishes reading all instructions.
- Fixed a rare case where the apartment events tutorial wouldn't register players using the Anti-Bug Spray via a keyboard bind when reloading the game (thanks @vritto!).

Balance

- Toned down trashing frequency by about 50% for all tenant archetypes.

The Tenants Update 0.61

General

- Disabled the ability to clean properties that have an Open House in progress.
- Reworked Research so that a started Research task is still being worked on even when switching to a different district.
- Spamming the same item will now come with diminishing returns and even a penalty, if taken to the extreme, when calculating prestige.
- Added unique sound effects to a number of Services and Sabotages.
- Certain sound effects' playback speed will now scale with the in-game speed.
- Fixed a few game breaking issues which would result in the Uncle getting stuck.
- Fixed a few game breaking issues which would result in tenants getting stuck mid-action.
- Fixed a game breaking issue which would result in tenants cloning themselves when reloading the game.
- Fixed an issue where a Research task wouldn't get canceled when the tenant in question moved out.
- Fixed an issue with the common renovation requirements not always refreshing at the beginning of renovation.
- Fixed an issue with some of the Services and Sabotages not always ending.
- Fixed an issue with the new tenant interactions not finishing properly when the tenant moves out mid-interaction.
- Fixed an issue with the rent payment notifications not always being ignored even when toggled off.
- Fixed an issue with the bank loan interest upgrades not working properly.
- Fixed an issue with the noise complaint event sometimes being triggered even after the tenant in question has already moved out.
- Fixed a few issues related to some of the furniture.

Renovation Requests

- Added a space requirement for renovation requests. Players should no longer be asked to perform complex renovation work in a 2 square bedroom.
- Bedrooms in renovation requests are now linked to tenant bedrooms.
- Fixed an issue with the Garden Work renovation request requiring a non-existent item type.

Jobs

- Fixed a rare issue with jobs sometimes ending up stuck in review when returning to their district of origin.
- Fixed an issue with Open House jobs failing even when all requirements have been met.

Trashing

- Added the ability to send in a janitor for $350 to handle a trashing complaint automatically.
- Ignoring a trashing complaint no longer boosts tenants' happiness.
- Fixed an issue with the complaint message appearing multiple times when reloading the game.
- Fixed an issue that made targeting trash piles difficult when spawned on top of a rug.

UI

- Added a scrollbar to the open house and negotiations UI room list panels.
- Adjusted door's exit marker rendering position.
- Removed the old unlock popups which had already been moved to the new skill tree.
- Fixed an issue with the tenant's offer being sometimes displayed out of bounds when renegotiating a lease agreement with an active Loyal trait.
- Fixed an issue with the Uncle Steve tutorial speech box UI blocking mouse input even when the text was not fast-forwardable.
- Fixed an issue with the apartment context menu panel not always refreshing the cleaning button when the panel was opened.
- Fixed a few layout issues in the mobile phone UI.

The Tenants Update 0.62

General

- Fixed an issue with uncensored items being shown in the room settings context menu panel at all times.
- Fixed an issue with being able to start cleaning an apartment with active workers inside.
- Fixed an issue with trashing complaints getting auto-resolved when ignored.
- Fixed a minor issue with tenant clothing visuals.
- Fixed an issue with service and sabotage props not always disappearing when the interaction is complete.
- Fixed an issue with service and sabotage sound effects not stopping after kicking the tenant out.
- Fixed an issue with Open House guests getting stuck on rating only garden objects.
- Fixed an issue with the long red rug blocking pathing.
- Tweaked the visuals of the apartment highlight.

Balance

- Disabled item spam penalty for funeral chairs and tables.
- Introduced a major reduction in prices of a few of the Slums' properties to allow for quicker progression in the early game.
- Tweaked how the room prestige score is calculated. It should now be easier to reach higher ratings in bigger rooms (like gardens or big interior rooms), and at the same time it should be harder to reach higher ratings in extremely small rooms.

UI

- Added apartment names display to appropriate UI panels.
- Fixed an issue with the phone notification counter not always refreshing when opening the phone through a push notification.
- Fixed an issue with incorrect coloring of reply option buttons in the Texting app.
- Fixed an issue with level display in the Player app.

The Tenants Patch 0.63

General

- Fixed an issue with renovation and cleaning becoming unavailable until restarting the game after using certain Services.
- Fixed an issue with babysitting jobs sometimes breaking the game due to late phone notifications.
- Fixed an issue with wrong apartment names being displayed in the finances panel for apartments located in a different district than the player was in.

Renovation Update (26/10/2021)

Hello there, Landlords!

We're back with the highly anticipated Renovation Update, the second major update on our development roadmap. This time we wanted to address some of the most common complaints about the renovation mode and jobs related to it, including for example the ability to change furniture color variants. Of course as always, all of this is work in progress and we'd love to hear your feedback on the new additions and changes.

First of all, we'd like to start off by saying that this release won't require you to start over and you should be able to keep on playing on your current save files.

The other good news is that due to the release timing for this update, we've decided to include the Halloween themed content we've created as a part of the Renovation Update.

Now, without further ado, let's go over the most significant changes in more detail.

Item Color Variants

This has to be one of the most requested features by the community thus far: the ability to change the furniture's color scheme. It took us some time to implement this, as we already have quite a few items in the game, and we needed to go back and redo each one to support several different color variants. On top of that, as we looked through the pool of available items in-game we decided to add some (over 300!) brand new items to spice things up. We've specifically targeted the tags (more on that in the next section) that had the fewest items.

We've also had to take care of the items you've already placed in your properties, as some of them were already a variant of other items implemented as separate furniture. So these items will need to be replaced if you plan on changing their color variants.

We hope that with this addition you'll be able to unleash your creativity and design your apartments perfectly to your likings. And we can't wait to see some cool screenshots of your creations!

Item Tags

One piece of feedback that we've been hearing a lot since that game's launch, was that job clients wouldn't pay attention to furniture styles and how all items, walling and flooring choices fit together into creating one coherent design.

We've decided to tackle this issue by creating a set of 16 unique tags that describe the items: from the common ones like Modern or Vintage to the more niche ones, such as Zen or Rustic. Each item has at least one tag to label it and some of them will even fit into two or three different tags.

To tie it all up, we've added tag preferences for both the job clients and tenants that are taken by them into consideration when judging the apartment. Starting now, in order to get those juicy 5 star reviews you'll have to start paying attention to the overall style of your interior designs - so they fit your clients' whims.

Similarly, some tenants might have a preference for Cottage furnishing, while at the same time despising everything that has to do with the Military tag. This might be worth keeping in mind during your next Open House!

Item Placement Proximity

Another area that lacked depth in the game was the way the game looked at item placement. Previously, it didn't matter where exactly you put the plunger and whether it was even remotely close to the toilet; all that mattered was that it was placed in the correct room. With the new item placement proximity system, the game will now check where the newly bought items are placed in relation to other furniture and appliances.

For instance, placing a towel rack too far away from either the shower or the bathtub will result in a decor penalty. Likewise, to get the best score you'll need to make sure your microwave is placed on the kitchen counter and not just about anywhere on the floor.

We'd love to hear your feedback on these changes and your ideas for new (either positive or negative) proximity bonuses between certain item types that could be added into the game.

New Elite Contracts

As is tradition with a big update like this, we're back with a set of new and fresh Elite Contracts. This time we've implemented 6 new unique jobs, each introducing a new, unique residential building to make these jobs even more memorable.

Each of these Elite Contracts comes with custom item sets to add more variety to your interior designs. The new contracts will take you to a number of unique places: starting with the Beach House, through the Beauty Salon, ending with a lofty Private Investigator's Office.

New Tenant Archetype - Musician

Welcome the Musician, a new tenant archetype that is now available across all districts in Wondersville. This is probably the archetype that took us the longest to implement, and we've spent quite a lot of time working on the animations and all the sound effects related to it.

Musicians, unsurprisingly, like.. all things music related! They'll be happy to play the piano, drums, the guitar, and any other instrument you can hook them up with. Some might be so addicted to music notes they'll even go out of their way to play music video games on their computer. One thing is certain: get them what they need, and they will pay you back with beautiful harmonies!

Halloween Event (until November 18th)

Who doesn't like some pumpkin latte to spice up their autumn evenings? Well, apparently this one guy would go as far as to say that he loves it! Meet the one and only Count Dracoola, a mysterious individual who came from afar and settled down in an old, totally not suspicious, rundown mansion. Man that guy's cool! Um, anyway... word on the street is that he'll need help renovating the place to make it appropriately scary for anyone daring to snoop around the premises.

Windows

Tired of that perfect spot for a shower being constantly blocked by an annoying window? Worry no more! From now on you'll be able to remove and build new windows in your properties as you please. This new feature is available through the Remodelling tab, the same one where you can build new walls and install door sockets.

Additionally all the windows related items (such as window curtains) will snap to the closest window now.

Sampler Tool

We've also found some time to add a cool quality of life feature, a tool for sampling objects and materials already placed in a given apartment. Now you won't have to waste precious minutes searching for that pesky red wallpaper that the client has used in their bedroom to match it. Simply press one button and voilà!

New Items

As we've mentioned above, we've gone through all the items we already have in the game, looked for the tags and item classes that could really use some more variety, along with browsing through all the awesome suggestions made by our community. In today's update you'll find over 300 brand new items, including furniture, wall patterns and floor options to play around with!

On top of that we've upgraded some of the old floor textures to make them more coherent with the newer patterns.

Full Changelog

Features

- Implemented Furniture Color Variants.
- Implemented Item Proximity system.
- Implemented Item Tags system.
- Implemented Sampler Tool.
- Implemented Window building and bulldozing.
- Implemented snapping to windows for window curtains.
- Added an option to Exit & Renovate after Cleaning with Uncle Steve.
- Added an option to rename tenants.

Content

- Added a new tenant archetype: Musician.
- Added new Elite Contracts: Beach House, Military Barracks, Beauty Salon, Geek House, Train, Detective House and Dracoola's Castle.
- Added new residential buildings to host the new Elite Contracts.
- Added time-limited Halloween themed Elite Contracts.
- Redecorated the main menu for the duration of the Halloween event.
- Added 250 new furniture items (part of which are available only within the new Elite Contracts).
- Added 25 new floor patterns.
- Added 20 new wall patterns.
- Added a batch of new occupations for different tenant archetypes.
- Added a new poster commemorating the winning meme by @Kichi in our first official Community Contest.
- Upgraded old floor textures.

User Interface

- Changed the Preferred Furniture in jobs to be clickable, triggering a search request.
- Added budget entry popups next to the money HUD element.

General

- Tweaked the apartment highlight.
- Shrinked some of the single beds so they can be placed in smaller rooms more easily.
- Reworked some of the tenant crimes to avoid sensitive terms.
- Added skybox animation related to the day/night system.
- Fixed moving tables and similar furniture so the slotted items (such as chairs) will move as a group.
- Fixed the issue where some items could be placed on posters, which would cause further bugs.
- Removed the interior window sills from apartments so they don't collide with furniture anymore.
- Increased the player level cap from 70 to 75.

Jobs

- Upgraded job furnishing requirements so they now include new item types.
- Overhauled some of the old jobs' apartment starting states to make them more interesting.

Balance

- Added job pay scaling based on the player's level.

The Tenants Update 0.7b

General

- Fixed a spooky issue with a missing building (Wilson Avenue 608).
- Fixed an issue with placing surface top items on various shelves, tables and similar furniture.
- Fixed an issue with item color variants reverting to the default ones when exiting Renovation mode in some cases.
- Fixed an exploit where players were able to add more items to their player stash than the limit allowed them to.
- Updated the development roadmap image.

Jobs

- Fixed an issue with one of the broken armchairs in the Dracoola's house.
- Fixed a few issues with broken job apartment variants.

The Tenants Patch 0.7d

General

- Disabled the in-game Halloween Event. Reverted the main menu to a less spooky state. Count Dracoola shall return next year!
- Fixed an optimization regression that decreased the game's performance due the introduction of color variants.
- Fixed more issues related to mismatching property addresses. Implemented a recovery fix for affected save files.
- Fixed an issue with the Mayor Gig tutorial locking up when using the new Exit & Renovate feature.
- Fixed an issue with Uncle Steve's position when cleaning in a few cases.
- Fixed an issue with the item storage not being available in tenant requests.
- Fixed an issue with highlighting Beauty Salon's windows.
- Fixed an issue with Oriental Doors staying partially open.

Jobs

- Fixed an issue with jobs not always being generated when switching to a different district.
- Fixed issues related to jobs requiring locked items. Implemented a recovery fix for affected save files.
- Fixed an issue with Shopping Mall's job requirements.

The Tenants Patch 0.7e

General

- Fixed an issue that bricked the game on save load for some players.
- Fixed an issue with one of the jobs requiring special furniture.
- Fixed a few misplaced descriptions in the skill tree app.