Time Allocation

Each & every named Character in your Organization has a number of weekly 'Time Points' (0-36) dictated by his current chosen 'Mode of Operation', which in turn is determined by the current Alertness Level suggested by you, the Boss. It is through the expenditure of these 'Time Points' that a character conducts his Business Operations and carries out your Orders. You also need to give consideration to allowing each Character some occasional Free Time.

The Time Allocation feature is found on the Character Profile screen of every character in your Organization. With this you can specify how each character is to divide his Time Points in future, between three possibilities:

Free Time: Any time available to this character which is not given over to either 'Business Operations' or 'Orders' is automatically deemed to be Free Time. After how much money he personally pockets, Free Time is the most important factor governing the morale - and therefore, the Loyalty - of each character in your employ. Too little Free Time will result in him becoming increasingly unhappy in his Attitude (and therefore potentially disloyal), while extra Free Time will likely improve his Attitude.

In addition, if enough is allowed then a character may well choose to spend some of his Free Time practicing his Skills, which will then improve faster over time and more quickly make him a better & more efficient member of your Organization. Skills will only ever increase slowly if you never allow a character sufficient Free Time to practice or study them: see the section on 'Skill Development'.

Business Operations: All Characters need to make money, the main source of which is to operate illegal rackets. Once established, a racket requires managing and overseeing to maintain a decent level of income (as do legitimate businesses and collecting Blackmail payments), hence each character needs to spend time on 'Business Operations' to keep his money flowing in. The longer a racket is in operation without direct competition, however, the less time it will require on the part of the controlling character to maintain a steady income, but initially it will require much of his time each week. In an emergency he may of course temporarily ignore his income sources and use his time elsewhere, and this is the main function of the Time Allocation feature over which you, the Boss, have control.

A typical racket might require, for example, 15-20 Time Points each week when first set up, but as time goes by this might fall to as low as 3-5 Time Points to keep the income flowing, allowing this Character to set up yet another racket or perhaps carry out more Orders. Time requirements will vary considerably from racket to racket, as will the length of time needed to be in operation before a racket reaches its minimum time requirement. However, as a general rule, the more time you allow a Character to put into his Business Operations each week, the sooner he will reduce the Time Points requirement of each racket until each is at its minimum for the income being made.

Orders

All characters in your Organization are individuals in their own right, with their own characteristics, skills, abilities and specialities. They all operate their own rackets and pay Tribute to those above them, receiving Tribute from those below them (just as player Bosses do within a Syndicate or Family as a whole). However, all of the Characters in your personal Organization work for you, the Boss (just as you work for the Head of your Syndicate or Family), and you have the final say on what each of them is to do each week. In addition to giving them each some Free Time (circumstances allowing) and time to conduct their Business Operations to keep the money flowing in, you may also give each character any number of a wide range of possible Orders, while using the Time Allocation feature to say how much time each character should devote to carrying out your Orders. It's through Orders to your characters that you expand your territory and rackets, fight wars with rivals, influence police officers and politicians, and carry out the 1001 other things associated with being a rising Boss in the criminal underworld of a large city.

Using Time Allocation

The Time Allocation feature for each character in your employ is found on his Character Profile screen.

1 day Real-time = '1 week' in the game. Each Character in your employ therefore receives 0-36 more Time Points every day real-time. All Time Allocation settings for each character are carried over from day to day, so you only need to change this if you actually want to make an adjustment in current Time Points Allocation for this character; for example, to reduce his current 'Free Time' in favour of him spending more time on 'Business Operations' or 'Orders'.

This is best demonstrated by lengthy example:

'Muscles' Maloni, one of your named characters, is operating in 'Open' Mode as suggested by you, the Boss. He therefore has 30 Time Points available to him provided nothing interferes with this during the week - such as someone trying (and failing) to kill him mid-week and thereby forcing him to go to ground...

Muscles is already running three rackets, two of which have been running for some time now and no longer need much time to keep ticking over. The third is fairly new so he still has to work pretty hard at this. Consequently, you allocate 18 Time Points to 'Business Operations'. The 'Business Operations' slider actually turned red as soon as you dropped this below 22, indicating that 18 points is several points less time than Muscles needs to collect his maximum possible income, but you need him to do some other stuff this week so 18 is all you feel he can spare for Business Operations.

Of the 12 remaining points, you allocate 9 to 'Orders', leaving just 3 points in Free Time. You're loath to give him any Free Time at all, of course, but you've discovered through previous experience that not doing so soon annoys the heck out of him - apparently Muscles is rather fond of his drink and likes to go out boozing most nights. Some people just have no sense of priorities.

Of the 9 points allocated to Orders, Muscles will spend this time carrying out your instructions in the order you've stated elsewhere. You have him recruiting some more Goons as guards for various characters & premises, picking up a couple of new trucks for some bootleg operations you have going, and then finally to continue planning a hit on top rival hoodlum 'Noodles' Bagarelli. You know all of this will require more than just 9 Time Points, but it doesn't matter - Muscles will simply spend his available time carrying out your Orders, with any remaining Orders being carried over to next week, when 9 more points will become available for working on your Orders.

On the following week you discover that Muscles did well in his recruitment and you now have more new Goons than you need, so no need to repeat that Order. He also bought the trucks you wanted and did a little more work on that hit plan as instructed, though not much. Also, although his income wasn't as high as it could have been with the full 22 points allocated to 'Business Operations', it wasn't too bad and Muscles himself isn't complaining, having had a good night or two out on the town with the Free Time you allowed him. As an added bonus, the Time Requirement for his 'Business Operations' has now apparently dropped to only 20 points from 22, as Muscles continues to work hard on that third, newer racket and thereby reduce the time he will need to spend on it in future. This week you decide to allow him the full 20 points now needed for 'Business Operations', maximizing his income as well as putting every available effort into further reducing the time requirement on that third racket, which is probably still taking 10-12 of those 20 points. You decide not to give him any Free Time at all this week, putting all remaining 10 points of the total 30 into concentrating on that vital hit plan Order.

Several weeks later all three of his rackets are running well, with current 'Business Operations' now being down to only 12 points in total, leaving a hefty 18 spare every week for Free Time, Orders, or perhaps another new racket operation. Muscles has also completed his hit plan on 'Noodles' Bagarelli, or at least it's now so advanced that he's making little headway so is now wasting time trying to improve it even further. On the downside, having spent the past month with barely a spare hour to himself, Muscles is decidedly 'Disgruntled' in his Attitude - time to give the big guy some real Free Time off before he does something you'll both regret... You promptly allocate a hefty 15 points to Free Time, giving him literally half the week off to enjoy himself and spend some of that money he's been pulling in recently. He might even spend some of his Free Time practising one of his many Skills, of which you suggest 'Marksmanship' as a priority for him. This leaves just 3 points allocated to Orders, so you have him hire a few more Goons to boost the gang's strength. Next week will be soon enough to look at a fourth racket for him to set up & concentrate on.

A couple of weeks later, you find that the gang run by 'Noodles' Bagarelli has hit a couple of your guys. They tried to get Muscles too, but he was too good for the guy they sent... looks like all that practice shooting at empty beer bottles paid off! You promptly order your entire gang to 'Hit the Mattress', a Mode which puts everyone on a war footing and makes them more cautious (and therefore much harder to kill) but reduces the average Time Points available to each member to just 12 from 30. Muscles - 'I ain't scared of nobody' - thinks this is being too cautious, so he settles for just a 'High Alert' Mode, giving himself 18 Time Points. You promptly take advantage of this by allowing him 6 points for 'Business Operations' (only half of the 12 needed for those three rackets, so he'll make only about half as much money as he could), and put the remaining 12 of the 18 points he has into finally carrying out his hit plan against that scum-sucker 'Noodles' Bagarelli... You could just as easily allocate 12 to 'Business Operations' for full income, and only 6 to carrying out the hit plan, but this way Muscles has twice as much chance of being in position to carry out his hit plan at just the right time. More time doesn't in itself improve the chance of the hit being successful, just the chance of it being able to be attempted sooner rather than later...