Underworld characters...

[DrIstvaan]

Is it just me or do AI players get way more underworld characters than the player? Especially headhunters (I've given up being able to keep my office employees by now), but spies as well.
I hardly get a few now and then, but the AIs seem to snatch employees and technologies with great ferocity.

[rff1]

Surely headhunters are not underworld, just business people. But indeed the AI players do get more spies, who don't really steal your innovations but just copy them, and I have given up using them because they cost money and in my experience go for innovations which I do not want. I have had little trouble from bandits and saboteurs sent by the AI, except some in the early game from Don Lorenzo, and don't use those I am offered.

[gardlt]

I felt that currently they are a little less likely to hunt office employees than before. But it's just a feeling. Instead of those office workers, they seem to go for typical train ones like engineer etc..

There may be 3 of them, perhaps they each get a similar amount to the player, I have a doubt that they individually receive more than the player. But a game is really 3 AI versus the human. I'm guessing this may explain why they have more. At least I rationalized it as such.


When playing with Tricia Jones after the staff update I use Spies. Normally I don't use these employees in the name of a little extra difficulty.

[DrIstvaan]

In a recent game, the same AI (Beatrix) stole 3 of my employees in short order...

[gardlt]

That's unfortunate. And surely a bit random. On the bright side, if she stole 3 office employees in a row, she will only take one more to fill up her final office slot.

Oh, and in the beginning I hire any office employees available, even if they have negative relationships with attrition in mind.

If you never hired office employees, the AI would have less too. But my "thinking" is that this would hurt me more than them. Mainly thanks to compounding.

[Kadjai]

Super sorry for the Necro, but what the hell is the Underworld and which train staff are classified as such???

In all my internet searching and reading the in-game help, there's no mention of Underworld Characters beside this post... which seems super weird

[Kadjai]

To clarify my reason for asking - Some techs say they increase the number of job applicants but then add "(excluding the Underworld)". If this was a demon-slaying game I might understand it, but Idk what the heck the Underworld is in a train simulator.

[DrIstvaan]

They are the one-use employees who do underhanded things -- saboteurs, spies, headhunters, auctioneers (not sure if I remember the name correctly, but that agent who can force-initiate an auction for any industry).