Every person you interact with on the map – crew members, businesses and rivals – have a relationship score indicating how well you’re liked or tolerated by that person.
A negative score means, for the most part, that they won’t sell or buy anything. Playing with The Italian Outfit DLC means you can do businesses even at a lower relationship score.
A relationship score is based on many factors, and starts at 0. Negative interactions lowers the score, positive interactions raises it. All the positives added up with all the negatives deducted makes up your total relationship score with that person:
Positive score
The score will jump up to +44 points when both of the negative modifiers have expired. Two months later, though, 20 of those points will be lost when two positive modifiers expire.
Negative score
In 9 turns, score will change to -13 when the -10 from the extortion tactics expires. Three turns later, it will jump to +2 when they stop resenting being extorted. Another 5 turns later, the it will drop to -1 as the only remaining modifier will be the personality quirks of them vs the crew member who spoke to them.
Funnily enough, it looks like the next one might actually end up on 0 next turn! Usually causing the death of a family member means they’ll never be happy with you, because the effect lasts for such a long time that it basically lasts for the duration of Prohibition. That’s why you need to be careful with people who have family members in the police force, or you won’t be able to pay them off.
Point scores
Bearing in mind, some of these can vary depending on if they have a personality or experience modifier.
| Pts. | Description | Duration* | Applies to |
|---|---|---|---|
| 64 | You’ve been doing business together | (336 days / 48 rounds) | After selling the longshoremen 4 barrels |
| 30 | They collect ‘contributions’ on your behalf | Front | |
| 30 | They appreciate your donation to causes dear to them | (250 days / 35 turns) | Police (paid off) |
| 30 | They’re not perfect, but they’re family | Family member of boss | |
| 22 | You’ve been doing business together | (252 days / 36 rounds) | After selling 1 case of Bottled Vodka! |
| 20 (12) | They know you from way back in the day MODIFIERS: -8 Unkind | Business in starting territory | |
| 20 | You extended them credit at one of your gambling houses | (49 days / 7 turns) | Gambler |
| 20 | They are in your crew | Crew | |
| 20 | You hired their family member or friend | (252 days / 36 turns) | |
| 20 | A mutual friend put in a good word for you | (252 days / 36 turns) | Dinner party reward |
| 15 (19) | You are introduced by a mutual acquaintance MODIFIERS: +4 Nervous | (28 days / 4 turns) | Favor used for introduction |
| 15 | You’ve helped them out, and they appreciate that | (252 days / 36 turns) | Extorted businesses you’ve done the missions Local Trouble (-$500) and/or Building Trust (-$750) for. |
| 15 | They were told by local police that you are a trustworthy business partner | ||
| 15 | They remember your donation and would welcome another one | (358 days / 51 turns) | Police (awaiting payment) |
| (14 to 48)** | You’ve got a recurring delivery set up | (140 days / 20 turns) | Business with an auto route |
| 10 | They are impressed by your recent bout of generosity | ||
| 10 | You helped them with a business investment | Various missions give this. Possibly also forgiving a gambling debt? | |
| 10 | You attended an event they hosted | Neighborhood event host | |
| 10 | They have an exclusivity agreement with you | (105 days / 15 turns) | As per the description |
| 10 | You gave them cash to pay off the local railroad police | Train station (Passenger) | |
| 10 | You gave them cash to pay off the local chapter of the railway union | Train station (Freight) | |
| 10 | They repaired one of your vehicles for you when you needed it | (84 days / 12 turns) | Business you (manually only?) used to repair a vehicle |
| 6 (2 to 10) | They are of the same ethnicity as you MODIFIERS: +4 Friendly -4 Cautious | As per the description | |
| 5 | You’ve been doing business together | (168 days / 24 turns) | |
| 5 | They arranged for your outfit to get some illegal weapons | Front you’ve got weapons from | |
| 5 | You’re working with them to get interesting goods at the train station | (342 days / 48 turns) + (2942 days / 420 turns) | Train station (yes, it had two different durations!) |
| 5 | You’ve recently worked with them on some out of town booze production | (1682 days / 240 turns) | Train station |
| 5 | A favor you called in means this person is voting in your interest | (14 days / 2 turns, but presumably 6 months) | Front |
| 5 | They’ve heard that you can be counted on to take care of business | (245 days / 35 turns) | Seems to be related to having done something positive for a friend of theirs |
| 5 | Your political influence led you to securing abandoned real estate in this district. You can only do that every so often to avoid untoward questions. | (716 days / 102 turns) | Politician, Abandoned Property law enacted and used |
| 5 | You’ve recently taken advantage of your city contract to transport items for the police. You’ll have to wait a bit to avoid too many questions. | (35 days / 5 turns) | Politician, Police Transport Contract law enacted and used |
| 5 | They enjoyed your words of appreciation | (14 days / 2 turns) | Police (paid off) |
| (3 to 15) | Impact of last person you sent there: +15 Delivery Dash 3 (assumed) +10 Delivery Dash 2 +5 Delivery Dash 1 +4 Confident +4 Talkative +3 Friendly +2 Intelligent | (126 days / 18 turns) | Trait of crew member was sent to interact with the business in question |
| (2 to 8) | Due to personality quirks: +2 Friendly (crew) +3 Friendly +8 Curious | ||
| -5 | Due to personality quirks: -5 Cautious -5 Irritable | ||
| -5 | Your forced their family member to repay gambling debts in kind | (42 days / 6 turns) | Business with a family member who’s a gambler |
| -10 | They’ve heard about your extortion tactics | (63 days / 9 turns) | |
| -15 | They are afraid of what you will do to them and their business | (70 days / 10 turns) | |
| -20 (-15 to -25) | They resent being extorted MODIFIERS: -5 Irritable +10 Friendly (crew) +10 Friendly | (216 days / 30 turns)*** | Extorted business |
| -30 | You forced them to repay gambling debts in kind | (105 days / 15 turns) | Gambler that ran away |
| -30 | They’ve heard that you are to blame for a family member’s death | (3573 days / 510 turns) | Business with a hooligan or rival outfit member you took out |
**I couldn’t work what the disparity is caused by, because it didn’t seem to be down to ingredient being bought. The +48 was someone who sold malt syrup, but I had another one selling malt syrup who didn’t give as high relationship bonus.
***This can be 180 days/25 turns in some cases???
Affiliates
Some businesses will have a little blue and white symbol next to the relationship bar, and you may see the text, “This person has a long history of doing business with you, and has owed you at least 4 favors over the years.”
This doesn’t really seem to do anything in particular, like give any kind of bonuses, other than show that you’ve done business with them multiple times.
Strangely though, you can occasionally also find it on crew members.