Corporations: Do you use them?

[Bast]

In my last game, I got Communism before I got Corporations and ran State Property for the rest of the game. No need for corporations mess.

This is another exploit in the game that needs fixing so until they do that and with the religious/diplomatic victory. I will be going communist in all my late games.

 

[MrCynical]

Even without Solver's patch, corporations are very powerful, though they do require foreign spread as well as domestic to counteract maintenance costs. With Solver's patch it isn't so much of an issue, as corporations become too cheap. If you spread a corporation to foreign civs WITH Solver's patch, it soon becomes clear they are overpowered.

 

[Permanganate]

Apparently the corporations in BTS are modeled after such shining examples as Tyco, Worldcom, Enron, etc....

Not at all. They're actually much closer to a state-owned company in a third world country. They lose piles of money due to inefficiency and/or a distorted market, which the government makes good by printing money (causing inflation). Their other main effect is to give the country something they didn't have previously, such as mineral extraction, prestige, jobs, etc. (Yes, I know that a privately owned company could do it a lot better IRL. But the leftyleaders don't know that.)

 

[DemonMaster]

Not at all. They're actually much closer to a state-owned company in a third world country. They lose piles of money due to inefficiency and/or a distorted market, which the government makes good by printing money (causing inflation). Their other main effect is to give the country something they didn't have previously, such as mineral extraction, prestige, jobs, etc. (Yes, I know that a privately owned company could do it a lot better IRL. But the leftyleaders don't know that.)

Yeah, the world wasn't (still is) full of "mega-corps" that exploit poor countries just because WB forced them to in order to get financial help and thereby destroy the local business climate making everything there more expensive for the local population. And EU doesn't dump prices on our (EUs) excess food so the local farmers can't build up a functional business. All the third world countries are not in the hands of the west, they are totally free as birds.

Note that this post was ironic, if you didn't understand that already.

I think if you look at the big picture, corporations function just fine. It's fun to sometimes play as a "good" democrat and exploit, sorry, help those dusty countries with my (sorry again their) excess mountain of sea food by spreading my Sid's Sushi to them so I got money when I sell their food and after that feel really good about myself when I bath in my pool of coins.

 

[FeelGood]

I have no problem with corp WITH Solver's patch. Without it, they still give benefits until inflation kicks in. Just remember to spread them in foreign cities. Use them sparingly in your cities. I don't use them to ruin AIs either. Just play it nice!

 

[DemonMaster]

I don't use them to ruin AIs either. Just play it nice!

I thought that in a game you can all those things that your morale code stops you doing in real life.

Hmm, I usually play Assassin in Oblivion and a Democrat in Civ, stop that, there is something wrong with my thesis here.

 

[Tennyson]

If I'm running Free Market and if I can found them in my Wall Street city, then you betcha I use 'em.

 

[Rusty Edge]

It occurs to me that I should have made this a multi-choice poll and included "I am using Solver's Patch/I am not using Solver's Patch" as options.

I am not using Solver's Patch.

 

[DavidPBacon]

They are the best. I managed to get two, sid sushi and Alumco, but I´m having some problems spreading ALumco, but I have 60 gold from SID sushi, wich gives me 140 gold with my buildings(and I still don`t have wall street, long story)

 

[Rusty Edge]

but the thing is it CRIPPLES my economy. Like loses me so much money I cant spend on research at all

Ralph, I'd be disapointed if you told me you played proficiently as a hands off -commie crushing capitalist.

 

[DrewBledsoe]

My Utrecht in current game (Holy Shrine limited spread, Sushi and Mining Inc HQ/Wall St), is pulling in just under 3000 per turn.

Agg ais, haven't been in ONE single war with anyone all game, just about to launch Spaceship. I only have 14 cities, the big ais Brennus and Muppet, have 35 ish cities each......that's the crwaaaaazzzyy Dutch for you (with apologies to RJ and others)....a unique game. Can't imagine ever repeating even near, a super-trader-turtle-techer with all these aggressive loonies with power graphs off the chart, turning down every war request/demand and being left alone. So no apologies for the bragging

 

[BYC]

I think the biggest drawback with corporations from a balance standpoint is basically using Sushi Co as a breadbasket. Civ 4 has always forced a city to grow by itself, not importing food from other cities, whether it be internal or external. Sushi Co breaks this mold to a large scale. Cities in Civ 4 have always been limited by a city's ability to feed itself, but now a city doesn't have to, therefore making them much more productive than not. I'm not against that, but scale of the advantage is really ridiculous.

 

[Goodgimp]

I use corporations a lot, and I'm not using Solver's patch. I prefer the food/production bonuses to money by the time they become available.

 

[SwordofStriker]

In my last game, I got Communism before I got Corporations and ran State Property for the rest of the game. No need for corporations mess.

This is another exploit in the game that needs fixing so until they do that and with the religious/diplomatic victory. I will be going communist in all my late games.

I really don't see this as an exploit. I almost always use State Property and have been doing so since Civ IV vanilla. I fail to see how it has become an exploit all of sudden. That being said, I generally don't use corporations except on the rare occasion when I go for Sid's Sushi.

 

[Lurking Liu]

Every single piece of official documentation about Corporations says to use them sparingly since each one runs at a loss. Seeing as how the manual is wrong about everything else (Pies can be killed? 1) Why would I kill a pie? It's yummy. 2) (S)pies cannot be killed by other (s)pies.) EXCEPT corporations... I think they were always intended to cost you money. Always.

Now, that being said, do they cost TOO MUCH? Yeah. But at that point in the game I'm making more money than I know what to do with anyway, so whatever... On the other hand, I am not making more food or hammers or culture than I know what to do with, so it's a net gain.

 

[Antilogic]

I only really use the corporations that I have a bunch of resources for (so it gives me a good bonus). Otherwise, I'll ignore them.

Of course, if you play as Shaka or Charlemagne, their UBs have reduced maintenance, and so your corporations do even better...

 

[DilithiumDad]

I only really use the corporations that I have a bunch of resources for (so it gives me a good bonus). Otherwise, I'll ignore them.

Of course, if you play as Shaka or Charlemagne, their UBs have reduced maintenance, and so your corporations do even better...

Two important keys here --you have to have the resources. I was getting 15 hammers in each city with Mining Inc. --this was well worth a few shekels of maintenance. Very powerful in your Ironworks city!

Holy Roman Empire is the king of corporations --huge advantage! Anyone having problems with corporations should try H.R.E. I'll have to try corporations as Shaka --interesting late game twist.

 

[zenspiderz]

Yeah i use corps. In my current game as sulieman (monarch huge earth) running an extreme specialist economy I have all the culture ones (creative cons, sid's sushi, civ jewelers) and I am contemplating getting alum inc now that it is available (i have alum but the additional alum it provides synergises with creative cons and I have loads of coal). And I don't use solver's patch (which IMHO is for sissy cry babies). Sure they are costly but judiciously used they provide very useful benefits and the costs can be offset by expanding into your vassals and other rivals, hurting them to help yourself which is just what uber-capitalist transnational corps are all about!) Don't get me wrong I am a state property kind of guy! But corps are excellent as they are. It is quite realistic that they are so expensive. It means just in real life they function as economic locusts destroying the economies of smaller, weaker civs to enrich the parent civ. That mercatilism and state property is available as an antidote for the non-corp civs also creates a very interesting and real world like frisson. So your freemarket corporate civs are forever trying to bully or scheme other civs into freemarket civics so that they can be exploited and non-corp civs find themselves wanting state-property or merc to save themselves from shameless exploitation... Just like the real world. Good job firaxis!

 

[Antilogic]

Two important keys here --you have to have the resources. I was getting 15 hammers in each city with Mining Inc. --this was well worth a few shekels of maintenance. Very powerful in your Ironworks city!

Holy Roman Empire is the king of corporations --huge advantage! Anyone having problems with corporations should try H.R.E. I'll have to try corporations as Shaka --interesting late game twist.

Yep, you got it figured out.

I have one game where I literally have 6 sugars within my initial few cities' fat crosses--I got some more through conquest, have several corn and rice resources in my borders...I can't wait to found Standard Ethanol. Right now, I'll get 20 beakers for roughly 11 gold per city. And that's only going to improve as I conquer more of Shaka and Huayna Capac. Even if I miss that, with all my corn and rice, Cereal Mills isn't a bad bet either.

 

[Jabarto]

I play without the patch and they still make sense, if you are prepared to turn down the slider.

I'm really not sure how you can say that corporations are so powerful if you need to grind your research to a screeching halt to accomodate their costs.