Corporate Maintenance Explained

[Roland Johansen]

Super article! you must have put much effort for creating this one

The only possible extention to this article I can think of would be a guide on how map types&sizes&climate settings adjust the number of resources spawned on the map. You don't have to include such section to your article, but could refer to another article... I assume on huge maps corporations are significantly stronger, but perhaps you could document by how much they are stronger.

Again great article, very detailed with many examples, I wished I could vote 6stars =)

The number of resources hammers: ) that you get per corporation resource is less on huge maps than on tiny maps. There is some scaling effect based on map size. It's unlikely that the scaling is perfect, but it's not directly clear that corporations are stronger on big maps.

 

[Gyhth]

[*]Free Market. The Free Market Civic reduces Maintenance Costs from Corporations by 25%. The important thing to know about Free Market is that its reduction is at the very core of Corporate Fees and is not represented mathematically in any screen. Therefore, this reduction comes before Courthouses and Inflation!


[*]Environmentalism. The Environmentalism Civic increases Maintenance Costs from Corporations by 25%. The important thing to know about Environmentalism is that its increase is at the very core of Corporate Fees and is not represented mathematically in any screen. Therefore, this reduction comes before Courthouses and Inflation!

Not really a big issue, but it may become confusing to new users who are attempting to understand how //anything money related in the game works.

 

[VirusMonster]

The number of resources hammers: ) that you get per corporation resource is less on huge maps than on tiny maps. There is some scaling effect based on map size. It's unlikely that the scaling is perfect, but it's not directly clear that corporations are stronger on big maps.

Sorry, it is hard for me to comprehend what you have just said. Does not huge maps have more resources overall and hence cooperations should have more resources available?

You mention a scaling factor, I will dig this article further to find it out...

edit after digging:

ok for huge maps the scaling factor is 0.5, while standard is 1.0, and tiny is 2.0. Now, what I had hoped would be to give an approximate number of cooperation resources for each map type and size in this article somewhere. The comment in your last post is not entirely intuitive to me.

Great articles you wrote btw on unit maintenance and civic upkeep

 

[Roland Johansen]

Sorry, it is hard for me to comprehend what you have just said. Does not huge maps have more resources overall and hence cooperations should have more resources available?

You mention a scaling factor, I will dig this article further to find it out...

edit after digging:

ok for huge maps the scaling factor is 0.5, while standard is 1.0, and tiny is 2.0. Now, what I had hoped would be to give an approximate number of cooperation resources for each map type and size in this article somewhere. The comment in your last post is not entirely intuitive to me.

Great articles you wrote btw on unit maintenance and civic upkeep

Thanks for the compliment. That was some time ago though, so some minor details might have changed in BTS. When I started playing this game, I just wanted to know how things worked with regard to the hugely important maintenance issues in civilization IV. The game works very different than civilization III in this regard.

It's probably not true that the ratio between resources on huge maps and normal maps is the same for each type of resource. There might be 3 times as many corn resources and only 1.5 times as many iron resources on a huge map. The reason is that corn is useful as a source of food for every city and thus the number of food resources should be comparative to the number of tiles and cities on the map. The number of iron resources should be comparative to the number of civilizations on the map as too many iron resources makes it unimportant and uninteresting as a strategic resource.

On huge maps, you typically also control a smaller part of the map as there are more civilizations on the map and it takes more time to settle and conquer a certain fraction of the map, so the ratio between the number of resources on each map size and the ratio between the scaling factors for corporations should not be exactly the same for balance reasons.
Maybe 1/12-th of the resources on a huge map should have the same corporation-effect as 1/6-th of the resources on a normal map to get equal strength corporations. Whether 1/12-th of the resources on a huge map is exactly twice the number of resources as 1/6-th of the resources on a normal map (to offset the 0.5 scaling factor of huge map corporations) is not clear.

It's improbable that the scaling is perfect. It's improbable that a perfect scaling is even possible as I don't think that each resource type is scaled the same as I remarked in the first paragraph of this post.

This game is not perfectly scaled with map size and speed settings. The game is different on different settings.

 

[VirusMonster]

You are so right... different settings = different way to abuse the system =)

I put references to most game mechanics articles in my 500k writeup.. however not this one, because game was over before cooperations kicked in =) I think while game mechanis articles have less fans due to their complex nature, for the more mathematically inclined, they are pure gold. I really appreciate the contributors of game mechanics articles.

 

[Roland Johansen]

You are so right... different settings = different way to abuse the system =)

I put references to most game mechanics articles in my 500k writeup.. however not this one, because game was over before cooperations kicked in =) I think while game mechanis articles have less fans due to their complex nature, for the more mathematically inclined, they are pure gold. I really appreciate the contributors of game mechanics articles.

The easiest to read articles are naturally the most popular and there's nothing wrong with that. If you are somewhat mathematically inclined and pretty fanatical in this game, then you'll like the game mechanics articles. I've read all of the game mechanic articles in the War Academy and some others which aren't in the War Academy. I've barely touched the articles for new players as they were mostly published at a time when I wasn't a beginner anymore. Although I do like to recommend Sulla's walkthrough article to new players.

I'm fanatical in this game in that I want to play it very well, but I don't judge my gameplay with the game scoring system. Although I know its scoring mechanics (don't really like the huge factor of the victory date on the score), I have absolutely no idea of my highest score (although it's probably no where near the top) . I've read somewhere that you got the highest score up to now. Congratulations with that! It must require quite some fanaticism, dedication and insight to get the highest score. You're truly a civ fanatic.

 

[VirusMonster]

Your observations on my civ4 addiction are so correct but you are probably just as addicted as me with 2831 posts =)

Funny thing is I probably spent more time writing up my 500k game, I like to brag a bit, than I spent playing it, so I started appreciating those quality article producers even more.

 

[Roland Johansen]

Your observations on my civ4 addiction are so correct but you are probably just as addicted as me with 2831 posts =)

Mwah, there are about 400-500 members of this site with more posts than me and some of them have been a member for only a year or so, so it's nothing special. I'll have to post a lot more to get higher one that list.

Let's see how many posts you have once you've been a member as long as I have.

 

[OTAKUjbski]

Not really a big issue ...

It actually is pretty big ... not understanding Corporate Maintenance increase and decrease due to civics is "silently" applied at the base line can mean a 12.5% margin of error!

In practical terms, it means Free Market and Environmentalism aren't as powerful as you might expect.

Cumulative affect: (how you'd think it should work)

Let's take first for example if the maintenance affect is applied cumulatively alongside the reduction from the Courthouse much like , , & multipliers are applied from Forges, Bureaucracy, Libraries, Markets, etc:

Courthouse only: 100 * 0.50 = 50

add Free Market: 100 * ( 0.50 - 0.25 ) = 25

add Environmentalism: 100 * ( 0.50 + 0.25 ) = 75


Sure enough, the civics would be doing exactly what they say they do: +/- 25%.​

Successive affect: (how it really works)

Take now how it really works, with the affect applied successively at the base line before the Courthouse:

Courthouse only: 100 * 0.50 = 50

add Free Market: 100 * 0.75 * 0.50 = 37.5

add Environmentalism: 100 * 1.25 * 0.50 = 62.5


What you see is by changing where the Civics are applied, their affect is effectively reduced to +/- only 12.5%!

Of course, this is only apparent when using maintenance-reducing buildings, but what incorporated city wouldn't have one?​

... but it may become confusing to new users who are attempting to understand how //anything money related in the game works.

Meh ... I can't help if a new user doesn't understand the distinction between and & . Besides, I doubt many new users dig game mechanics.

Funny thing is I probably spent more time writing up my 500k game, I like to brag a bit, than I spent playing it, so I started appreciating those quality article producers even more.

QFT ... these things take forever (especially the proofing and editing).

 

[Gyhth]

QFT ... these things take forever (especially the proofing and editing).

This is what my post was in reference to man. You said reduce when you meant increase, and that may confuse some people in regards to how things are calculated. Check the bold part of my last post, and you'll understand where I was going

 

[OTAKUjbski]

This is what my post was in reference to man. You said reduce when you meant increase, and that may confuse some people in regards to how things are calculated. Check the bold part of my last post, and you'll understand where I was going

/doh

Thanks. {OP updated}

 

[VirusMonster]

It actually is pretty big ... not understanding Corporate Maintenance increase and decrease due to civics is "silently" applied at the base line can mean a 12.5% margin of error!

In practical terms, it means Free Market and Environmentalism aren't as powerful as you might expect.

Cumulative affect: (how you'd think it should work)

Let's take first for example if the maintenance affect is applied cumulatively alongside the reduction from the Courthouse much like , , & multipliers are applied from Forges, Bureaucracy, Libraries, Markets, etc:

Courthouse only: 100 * 0.50 = 50

add Free Market: 100 * ( 0.50 - 0.25 ) = 25

add Environmentalism: 100 * ( 0.50 + 0.25 ) = 75


Sure enough, the civics would be doing exactly what they say they do: +/- 25%.​

Successive affect: (how it really works)

Take now how it really works, with the affect applied successively at the base line before the Courthouse:

Courthouse only: 100 * 0.50 = 50

add Free Market: 100 * 0.75 * 0.50 = 37.5

add Environmentalism: 100 * 1.25 * 0.50 = 62.5


What you see is by changing where the Civics are applied, their affect is effectively reduced to +/- only 12.5%!​

Can you explain how the effects of Ikhanda and Courthouse are put together? Are they added for a total of 70% maintenance reduction? or multiplied for a total of 1-(0.5*0.8)=60% reduction?

edit: found my own answer in worldbuilder. 70% reduction.​

 

[Dabur]

great guide