Free Trade Agreement (FTA)
This is a new type of diplomatic agreement which increases revenue from international trade routes and provides greater access to special resources. Civs that enter into an FTA:
1) Both receive a commerce bonus for each intercity trade route between them;
2) Have their resources pooled together for the purposes of happiness bonuses, health bonuses, tile improvements, corporations, building production and unit production; and
3) No longer incur extra costs when trying to establish corporations in each others cities.
For example, suppose the English have 1 Sheep and 1 Wheat and a Cereals Corporation, the French have 1 Iron, and that they share a total of seven intercity trade routes. If the English and French sign an FTA, then French cities receive health bonuses from the Sheep and Wheat while English cities become able to build units, tile improvements and buildings which require Iron. Both civs get commerce bonuses for the seven trade routes between them, and the English can expand its Cereals Corporation into French cities for the same amount of gold that it would cost if they were English cities.
For the sake of simplicity, if one participant in an FTA subsequently enters an FTA with a third civ, then the game treats all three civs as being part of the one FTA. For example: if the French sign an FTA with the Germans, then the Germans automatically enter into a FTA with the English as well, and all three parties enjoy the benefits of one and others resources. Conversely, if the Germans were to cancel the FTA with either the French or the English, then their FTA with the English or French respectively would also be automatically canceled (i.e. they would effectively leave the free trade bloc).
Civs that sign FTAs retain the ability to trade their resources with other civs which are not part of the FTA, however doing so will incur a diplomatic penalty with the other members of the FTA (especially if one or more of those members have corporations which benefit from the resource/s in question). Being in a FTA also imposes constraints on your civics options: switching from Free Market or Decentralization to Mercantilism will damage relations with all other FTA members (who may subsequently decide to pull out of the FTA altogether); switching to State Property will damage relations with all other FTA members, automatically cause you to leave the FTA, and may even provoke the remaining FTA members to declare war on you. Such civics changes will also make other civs more reluctant to sign FTAs with you in the future.
Civs running the State Property civic will be unable to enter into FTAs. If you run Mercantilism you can still enter into FTAs, and other FTA members will not enjoy reduced costs for establishing their corporations in your cities; however other civs will be more reluctant to enter into FTAs with you.
National Corporations
It makes more sense - in terms of both realism and gameplay - for corporations to be like national wonders, rather than the World Wonder-type entities they were in Civ4. Now every civ can establish its own Creative Constructions or Sushi Co, provided it has the necessary prerequisites. This means that corporations now have to compete for market share and resources with their foreign counterparts. This in turn means that civs will face an added incentive to compete for control of resources and, when FTAs become available, added pressure to employ diplomatic cunning in order to gain access to lucrative foreign markets. The Mercantilism civic now comes into its own: instead of preventing foreign trade routes (which is autarky, not mercantilism btw) the Mercantilism civic can now either increase the costs foreign corporations pay for spreading into your cities, or alternatively it can prevent foreign corporations from spreading to your cities altogether. The Free Market civic reduces the cost penalties that foreign corporations face for spreading to your cities, but it also enables your own corporations to spread automatically to new cities (in addition to being able to spread them by building Corporate Executive units).
A National Corporation can even drive its foreign counterpart(s) permanently out of business by buying out its Headquarters. A National Corporation can only have its Headquarters bought out when it present in no other city, and there is a large additional cost for buying out another corporations headquarters.
Another difference between National Corporations and their Civ 4 predecessors is that the benefits provided by National Corporations to any city depend on the resources of the National Corporations owner, rather than the resources of the owner of the city to which the corporation spreads. For example if Japan has 5 seafood resources and America only has one (and Japan and America do *not* have an FTA), then the Japanese Sushi Co will provide the American city of San Francisco with food and culture benefits equivalent to 5 seafood resources rather than one. This creates another strategic dilemma for the player: should I found my own corporation to compete for resources and market share with a foreign corporation, or should I just provide the owner of that foreign corporation with relevant resources (whether by resource trade or by entering into an FTA) and let them enhance my cities for me? This dilemma could be even further enhanced by the introduction of a new victory condition
Globalization Victory
This is a new victory condition based around corporate expansion. Think of it as a Corporate Domination victory. A player achieves Globalization Victory if they are the first player in the game to satisfy all of the following requirements:
1) Found at least two thirds of all the available National Corporations;
2) Spread their National Corporations to at least 90% of their own cities on average; and
3) Spread their National Corporations to at least 75% of all foreign cities on average.
In addition to the score bonus from achieving Globalization Victory, the player who attains this victory will also receive additional bonuses for ever foreign corporations headquarters they manage to buy out. In order to achieve Globalization Victory the player must take multiple game features into strategic consideration, including resource acquisition, expansion, conquest, diplomacy, and civics. Free Trade Agreements can be particularly useful towards this end, and players will have to evaluate the benefits and risks of entering into FTAs in the context of this new victory condition.
This is a new type of diplomatic agreement which increases revenue from international trade routes and provides greater access to special resources. Civs that enter into an FTA:
1) Both receive a commerce bonus for each intercity trade route between them;
2) Have their resources pooled together for the purposes of happiness bonuses, health bonuses, tile improvements, corporations, building production and unit production; and
3) No longer incur extra costs when trying to establish corporations in each others cities.
For example, suppose the English have 1 Sheep and 1 Wheat and a Cereals Corporation, the French have 1 Iron, and that they share a total of seven intercity trade routes. If the English and French sign an FTA, then French cities receive health bonuses from the Sheep and Wheat while English cities become able to build units, tile improvements and buildings which require Iron. Both civs get commerce bonuses for the seven trade routes between them, and the English can expand its Cereals Corporation into French cities for the same amount of gold that it would cost if they were English cities.
For the sake of simplicity, if one participant in an FTA subsequently enters an FTA with a third civ, then the game treats all three civs as being part of the one FTA. For example: if the French sign an FTA with the Germans, then the Germans automatically enter into a FTA with the English as well, and all three parties enjoy the benefits of one and others resources. Conversely, if the Germans were to cancel the FTA with either the French or the English, then their FTA with the English or French respectively would also be automatically canceled (i.e. they would effectively leave the free trade bloc).
Civs that sign FTAs retain the ability to trade their resources with other civs which are not part of the FTA, however doing so will incur a diplomatic penalty with the other members of the FTA (especially if one or more of those members have corporations which benefit from the resource/s in question). Being in a FTA also imposes constraints on your civics options: switching from Free Market or Decentralization to Mercantilism will damage relations with all other FTA members (who may subsequently decide to pull out of the FTA altogether); switching to State Property will damage relations with all other FTA members, automatically cause you to leave the FTA, and may even provoke the remaining FTA members to declare war on you. Such civics changes will also make other civs more reluctant to sign FTAs with you in the future.
Civs running the State Property civic will be unable to enter into FTAs. If you run Mercantilism you can still enter into FTAs, and other FTA members will not enjoy reduced costs for establishing their corporations in your cities; however other civs will be more reluctant to enter into FTAs with you.
National Corporations
It makes more sense - in terms of both realism and gameplay - for corporations to be like national wonders, rather than the World Wonder-type entities they were in Civ4. Now every civ can establish its own Creative Constructions or Sushi Co, provided it has the necessary prerequisites. This means that corporations now have to compete for market share and resources with their foreign counterparts. This in turn means that civs will face an added incentive to compete for control of resources and, when FTAs become available, added pressure to employ diplomatic cunning in order to gain access to lucrative foreign markets. The Mercantilism civic now comes into its own: instead of preventing foreign trade routes (which is autarky, not mercantilism btw) the Mercantilism civic can now either increase the costs foreign corporations pay for spreading into your cities, or alternatively it can prevent foreign corporations from spreading to your cities altogether. The Free Market civic reduces the cost penalties that foreign corporations face for spreading to your cities, but it also enables your own corporations to spread automatically to new cities (in addition to being able to spread them by building Corporate Executive units).
A National Corporation can even drive its foreign counterpart(s) permanently out of business by buying out its Headquarters. A National Corporation can only have its Headquarters bought out when it present in no other city, and there is a large additional cost for buying out another corporations headquarters.
Another difference between National Corporations and their Civ 4 predecessors is that the benefits provided by National Corporations to any city depend on the resources of the National Corporations owner, rather than the resources of the owner of the city to which the corporation spreads. For example if Japan has 5 seafood resources and America only has one (and Japan and America do *not* have an FTA), then the Japanese Sushi Co will provide the American city of San Francisco with food and culture benefits equivalent to 5 seafood resources rather than one. This creates another strategic dilemma for the player: should I found my own corporation to compete for resources and market share with a foreign corporation, or should I just provide the owner of that foreign corporation with relevant resources (whether by resource trade or by entering into an FTA) and let them enhance my cities for me? This dilemma could be even further enhanced by the introduction of a new victory condition
Globalization Victory
This is a new victory condition based around corporate expansion. Think of it as a Corporate Domination victory. A player achieves Globalization Victory if they are the first player in the game to satisfy all of the following requirements:
1) Found at least two thirds of all the available National Corporations;
2) Spread their National Corporations to at least 90% of their own cities on average; and
3) Spread their National Corporations to at least 75% of all foreign cities on average.
In addition to the score bonus from achieving Globalization Victory, the player who attains this victory will also receive additional bonuses for ever foreign corporations headquarters they manage to buy out. In order to achieve Globalization Victory the player must take multiple game features into strategic consideration, including resource acquisition, expansion, conquest, diplomacy, and civics. Free Trade Agreements can be particularly useful towards this end, and players will have to evaluate the benefits and risks of entering into FTAs in the context of this new victory condition.
