On "clone" corporations

While playing RoM:AnD for a while, I've noticed a few corporations being nearly identical to each other, with the difference being miniscule. In vanilla BTS, the 7 corporations' competition was judged by a singular resource, with each and every one of them having their own individual flavor: Cereal mills competed against Sid's Sushi over rice, and Standard Ethanol over corn. Meanwhile, Mining Co. competed with Creative Constructions over Bronze and Iron, Aluminum Co. over Coal, and Civilized Jewellers over Gold and Silver. In comparison, RoM:AnD has 3 corporation pairs which, while they compete against each other (and many others), they are nearly identical with each other, the difference being miniscule. Those are:

-Big McDowells vs Burgerworld (former consumes salt, while latter consumes coffee; latter produces 8/7th the food of the former)
-Fashion House vs Emperor's Clothing (former consumes cow, while latter consumes sheep; former produces 5/2 the culture of the latter)
-Bullseye vs MallWart (latter produces twice the food of the former, and store gives +6% food for each resource, double the bonus the former brings; former gives a paltry +1 Heath by default to compensate)

I don't know if there are more, but those are the ones I can spot with a glance.

Personally, I advocate for axing the clones, Burgerworld, Emperor's Clothing, and Bullseye in particular. Reason for that is keeping those is redundant, and doesn't add much to the game other than needless variety.

What does everyone else think? Agree, disagree, in part or in whole? Or is this somewhere on Vokarya's list already?

I do think that Emperor's Clothing is planned on being changed to an income focused corp and less of a cultural one later, so there's that I guess...

Here's my perspective:

Big McDowell's vs. Burgerworld is meant to convey McDonald's vs. Burger King. That said, you are right that the two corporations are extremely close. Cutting one of these wouldn't hurt. It does give Refrigeration an inflated trick count. (I'd also like to see one of these in the Modern Era. I think we need to split the corporations between the Industrial Era and Modern Era, instead of having nearly all of them in the Industrial.)

Bullseye vs. MallWart is a matter of building a less-efficient corporation earlier or waiting for a more-efficient one. Bullseye is late Industrial (Consumerism), and MallWart is early Modern (Conglomerates). I think it will be easier to see a difference once we slow down Industrial and later era research. If it's still too close, then Bullseye could go.

Emperor's Clothing is a corporation I have plans for. I haven't done it yet, but I plan on adding a Synthetic Fibers technology to the Modern Era and moving EC there. Instead of just being a culture-corporation like Fashion House, Emperor's Clothing will provide gold (so it won't be as expensive as other corporations) and the Emperors Clothing Store will provide more commerce than Fashion House Store. So this is going to stay, but only because I do have something in mind. Right now, EC is low-powered because it comes early (Assembly Line).

Vokarya said:

Big McDowell's vs. Burgerworld is meant to convey McDonald's vs. Burger King. That said, you are right that the two corporations are extremely close. Cutting one of these wouldn't hurt. It does give Refrigeration an inflated trick count. (I'd also like to see one of these in the Modern Era. I think we need to split the corporations between the Industrial Era and Modern Era, instead of having nearly all of them in the Industrial.)

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Eh, having 2 of the same for a gimmick doesn't sound too attractive. I still stand behind axing Burgerworld.

Bullseye vs. MallWart is a matter of building a less-efficient corporation earlier or waiting for a more-efficient one. Bullseye is late Industrial (Consumerism), and MallWart is early Modern (Conglomerates). I think it will be easier to see a difference once we slow down Industrial and later era research. If it's still too close, then Bullseye could go.

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Who would go for Bullseye, though? Except for the speedrunners, or the super impatient, I see everyone going for MallWart, as it's is objectively better in every way. Again, I stand behind my first decision.

Emperor's Clothing is a corporation I have plans for. I haven't done it yet, but I plan on adding a Synthetic Fibers technology to the Modern Era and moving EC there. Instead of just being a culture-corporation like Fashion House, Emperor's Clothing will provide gold (so it won't be as expensive as other corporations) and the Emperors Clothing Store will provide more commerce than Fashion House Store. So this is going to stay, but only because I do have something in mind. Right now, EC is low-powered because it comes early (Assembly Line).

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This one sounds like it has merit, though. Speaking of Synthetic Fibers, will EC consume oil products too? You know, for the whole thematic.

I personally have no problem with the corporations. But I play with Realistic corporations and Auto founding.

So I have no control over the spread, founding, and regulation of, apart from the consumables I could gather or starve the corporations of.

Personal bias makes me prefer axing McDowels if worse comes to worse, since I've never really cared for the IRL version of that restaurant xD
Burger King and Carls Jr were always much better in almost every way. To me at least, of course.

Hardly a legit reason for a decision in-game, but when they're both so identical anyway...

Since I have some other corporation changes on my radar as well, I think this is the best course of action:

• Cut Bullseye and Big McDowell's completely.
• Move Burgerworld up to Globalization.
• Move Wonka Confectionaries up to Mass Media.
• Save Emperors Clothing for a little bit later.

I did come to the conclusion that a good corporation needs to either fill a niche apart from other corps OR reinforce a technology that would be unduly weak without the corp. Mining Inc supporting Explosives, Red Curtains supporting Motion Pictures, and Safari Hunters supporting Imperialism are three big examples. These techs would not be totally empty without their corporation, but would be outside the sweet spot. Refrigeration and Consumerism would be fine without Big McDowell's/Bullseye.

I think we have too many corporations in the Industrial Era and too few in the Modern Era, but I can't see moving most of the other ones that we have. Refrigeration (Burgerworld) and Industrialism (Wonka) can spare their corporations. I also do want to cut down on the number of buildings in the Industrial Era. Compared to a weighted average, the Industrial Era has about 20 more buildings than it should.

What do you think of EastWest Traders? It's easy for it to slip under the radar, but it uses a couple unusual resources. It's the only corp other than Wonka to use Spices.

EastWest is something I often build when I get the chance to, but I've never really built Wonkas before.

Then I'll keep EW and give Wonka a boost. I think the modern corporations should be a bit better than the Industrial ones, although Mining Inc is one of the earliest corps and probably the best pure-production corp.

Vokarya said:

What do you think of EastWest Traders? It's easy for it to slip under the radar, but it uses a couple unusual resources. It's the only corp other than Wonka to use Spices.

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East West Traders is an unusual corp, which, while it produces culture by itself, its building is a very nice food-booster that I simply can't ignore.

Wonka could use a little food bonus in its building, like MoonBean. Because you know. Chocolates.

thegreekweegee said:

East West Traders is an unusual corp, which, while it produces culture by itself, its building is a very nice food-booster that I simply can't ignore.

Wonka could use a little food bonus in its building, like MoonBean. Because you know. Chocolates.

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...and a little penalty. Because you know. Dentists.


(Just kiding)

Speaking of corporations, I have two points I'd like to raise.

- I find it weird that switching to a civic that disables corporations (tested this with Communalism and Barter) doesn't disable corporation-specific buildings. Is this an intended feature?

- The disabling of guilds upon discovery of Corporation can be extremely sudden and brutal, especially for civs with food-based guilds. Is there any way to make it more progressive, by spreading it over several techs maybe? Or by making the returns of guilds weaker over several techs/eras?