Corporations

[aschulak]

Hello all,

I just released Corporations Alpha to Steam and am looking for creative and constructive feedback. This mod is an attempt to translate the Corporations concept from CIV 4 to CIV 5, without re-using the religion/faith mechanic.

Please check it out, I am looking forward to your exciting ideas on how I can improve it.

Right now it is for G&K. You can find it on Steam here:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=131462125

Or here:
http://forums.civfanatics.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=20966

Enjoy,
Envoy

Version 2: Available 4/1/2013
Version 3: Available 4/15/2013
Version 4: Available 4/24/2013

 

[Zero164]

Could you please upload it here for mac users?

 

[aschulak]

Could you please upload it here for mac users?

Done. URL is in original post.

 

[Sir Shfvingle]

Looking forward to try this out when I have a bit of free time. How is it compatibility wise with other tech-tree altering mods?

 

[Sonereal]

My first test failed because I didn't make it that far in the game. :/

However, I checked the articles in-game and I do share the thought one of the people in the comment section brought up about general balance, especially the rather risk-free nature of building franchises.

Once I get a few games under my belt, I'll write up a better response.

 

[aschulak]

My first test failed because I didn't make it that far in the game. :/

However, I checked the articles in-game and I do share the thought one of the people in the comment section brought up about general balance, especially the rather risk-free nature of building franchises.

Once I get a few games under my belt, I'll write up a better response.

I welcome all constructive feedback, as I expect to make many tweaks and additions to this mod over the next few weeks. What I really wanted was to get it out to the players in order to get those ideas flowing.

I've looked at some of the math from Civ4 corporation fee calculations and that looks interesting. The major problem I see is that it will be next to impossible, I think, to help make the AI make good risk/reward decisions without doing DLL coding, which I am not getting into at the moment. So from that perspective, it ends up being more of a fun flavor addition, than a truly new complex piece of gameplay. Hopefully Firaxis will obviate the need for this mod with the next xpac, but we shall see.

 

[Galgus]

I'm a bit concerned that the requirements for founding a corporation, getting to the tech first with science and having the highest production to nab them, might make it a very runaway system.

That said, Civ 5 is my first Civ game, so you definitely have a better grasp on the balancing factors Civ 4 used: so take what I say with a grain of salt.


I don't have a total solution for the runaway thing, but I'd like to suggest a couple of tweaks to the system to make it a bit easier for civs that aren't cutting edge Science leaders or Industrial giants to found a corporation:


1. Unlock the ability to construct the various Corporation wonders to all civilizations at the start of the Industrial era, with the first player to enter it gaining a 15% production bonus for those wonders.

2. Give a small (5-10%?) bonus to constructing a Corporation wonder for each resource it uses that the city has access to.


These changes would make it harder for a runaway to snag most Corporation wonders and simulate a focus on local supply making it easier to start up a Corporation.


These are just rough ideas from someone who hasn't used the Civ 4 system, though.

 

[aschulak]

Galgus, those are nice suggestions, thanks. I will take a look at them this weekend when I sit down to apply my first balance changes. Much appreciated!

-Envoy

 

[Moriboe]

Great work! It looks very neat

Now here come the remarks . I'll give the general Civ4 background to refer to for anyone not familiar with it.

In Civ4 domestic corporations could go two ways:

1. You had plenty of the associated resources: you got massive benefits but your treasury suffered.
2. You had few of them: minor benefits, but you could make a decent profit.

Foreign spread of your corporation happened only through your active intervention, carrying an initial cost, with the target civ being able to block you out with some social policies.


So for this mod:

Franchises: I think the costs are too high for the benefits they provide. If not the founder, I would probably never build one. In my current game I did found a corporation but am still not building franchises, as I have plenty of regular buildings left to build which I think offer a better return on investment.
Will the AI feel the same? In Civ4 you had to pay to spread a corporation, and it might turn out to be in vain. Here the AI may do it for you and thus help mostly you when it shouldn't.

Headquarters: similar point here. Massively expensive and add to that the cost of all franchises. You can make good profits (~8 gold per franchise), but I'd rather invest in wonders and regular buildings.

My suggestions:
- Make the cost of franchises lower, both hammers and maintenance, so it always is sufficiently beneficial to build one (thinking AI mainly). It doesn't need to cost as much as you make profit from it: the cost is charged to the consumer, not the government (ignoring stuff like tax evasion, competition with local businesses etc.).
- Have a Great Merchant "found" a corporation. It could work by making it cost 1 hammer and requiring a merchant in your unit list. After completion (the latest the next turn), have a piece of lua kill the merchant. You'd want to spread out the corporations in the tech tree then though, maybe reduce profits, ...

I can think of other ways like having other players have "franchise slots" (mock resources) based on the franchise requirements, which they can trade to you for gold. But that would probably be a pain to implement. Though I think it can be done, as there is/was a mod out there offering tradable food resources which the AI was able to handle.

Anyway, good job so far

 

[Galgus]

Wouldn't having Great Merchants found Corporations just encourage players to stockpile them as the game approaches that tech level, while punishing players for using them for other things?

The decision is up to the modder of course.

 

[ShaggyCan]

I really like the idea of gaining a bonus to build based on the # of res. That way you can work the whole game with that in mind. Give you something to do before you get to Corporations.

 

[micbucci]

I just finished a game yesterday using this mod and overall I'm very impressed here. I like the idea how Corporations help make use of the useless resources in the later game like iron and horses. Here are a couple ideas or suggestions I might have. Perhaps an icon to open a spreadsheet where you can view how much your cities are benefiting under the corporations or something similar to the way it was setup in Civ IV? Make some of the Corporations compete with one another so you cannot have 2 similar Corps. in the same city eg. Sid's Sushi cannot be present with Burger Shack Corp. or something similar to way Civ IV had this setup. Using Great Merchants(Civilized Jewelers),Great Engineers(mining inc.) to found Corporations instead of making them wonders to build would be a good idea but either way the inclusion of Corporations is great and just an essential part of the Civ series. I hope you continue building on this brilliant mod.

 

[aschulak]

Version 2 is now available.

Changes for version 2:

- Financial update notifications appear every 5 turns to tell owners of corporations how their franchises are doing (this is tunable in the Lua)
- +10 Gold yield on corporation wonders removed
- Maintenance cost of all franchises increased to 5
- Resource yields of all franchises increased
- Specialist slots in all franchises changed to Merchants to allow franchise owners an opportunity to spend less on maintenance/corporation fees
- Flavor values of corporations and franchises dramatically increased to attempt to increase AI usage
- Minor civilopedia errors corrected

 

[micbucci]

Awesome! I'm really looking forward to this. I had a blast though version 1 so to see an updated version 2 is great news. Ever since it's introduction in Civ IV, I always thought Corporations was just an essential part of the Civ series. Unless it's brought back in the new expansion BNW, I will be playing your mod for awhile and will be satisfied regardless. I noticed on steam you have many other mods you have created. Can all your mods be merged without any conflicts or do certain ones work together? I thank you for your time and effort into creating these great mods and hope you continue your talented work.

 

[Zimdictive]

I'm playing an "epic" speed game, emperor difficulty, with research speeds @ 150%, and I'm in the modern era. Three AIs are in the atomic era, and one in the information era, but so far I have seen not a single one has founded a corporation. I've founded two so far, and I feel like I'm cheating.

 

[albie_123]

Love this mod but the icons can be a bit hard to tell apart, so I made these for myself. Thought I'd post them here as well.

For franchises:



For founding:

 

[aschulak]

Version 3 was just uploaded to Steam and the download section here. Attempts to help the AI.

- Flavors increased on Corporation technology to help assist the AI
- Corporation technology now requires Industrialization to research (was Economics)
- Corporation technology now leads to Replaceable Parts (also to help the AI)

 

[aschulak]

Wow albie, those are pretty awesome! What do you guys think?

 

[Hambil]

I think they are great, an excellent addition to an excellent mod.

 

[Zimdictive]

How about a stackable mercantile CS bonus for being an ally - slightly lower maintenance payments on franchises/higher profits from owning a corporation (a bonus that perhaps increases exponentially the more franchises there are in the world) - i.e. the CS being a tax haven.