Introduction to the Corporation Rework Initiative

[Thunderbrd]

• Alcohol - is it booze or industrial (methyl- ethyl- groups) or both?

Probably currently means just booze but perhaps we could use other types.

• Organic Photonic Cells

I think these are cells that generate energy via solar power like plant cells but are converted to animal cell functions and can be grown onto people to replace the need for as much feeding or to power other cellular processes.

• Cybernetic Chloroplasts

Sounds much the same as the above - I'm not sure what Azure had intended the difference to be.

• Digitized Membranes

Sounds like cellular connectivity with cyber processing but I can't be sure that's what his intention was.

• Nanogenerators

Very very very small energy generators that can become part of a larger nano-generated bodymass such as that of a nano-swarm.

2.Is there a general idea for how many total corporations we want in the mod? ie. I don't want to suggest 80 if 40 would do

I can't speak for others but to me the amount is less important than the coverage and how well thought out each is. Sure we can't have TOOOOO many or we'll have some issues with processing and memory but I think we've got a bit of room for more corps. The main impact would come from their corporate executive units. I MAY be able to figure out a way to get us down to using just one corporate executive with many potential manifestations of that one unit definition though if that becomes too great a problem.

I'd say just do things as gradually as you can - I know that's tough though when you have a number of balance points and intricate interactivities between corporations so some large chunk work is probably necessary. Just keep those chunks as restrained as you can and develop it a little at a time as much as possible and at some point we can determine if we have too many so make sure to get your most valued ideas in first.

3. Is there a general guideline we can agree on as to how many resources a given corporation can use? Ie. Any corp consuming 20-30 different resources (5-8% of total) IMPO would be stupendously overpowered, but a corp using only 2 or 3 would probably not be worth the trouble. Let's agree on a reasonable range.

What's a little less important than how many resources are used by a given corporation is how many of those resources the corporation uses is likely to be appearing in the game. Some resources are more frequent than others so those should be considered to be much more weighty in terms of comparing to the value on other resources. If that makes any sense.

At first, apply what seems reasonable to apply then we can strip it down from there if it seems excessive in comparison to other corps. (And if we need to decimalize some of the benefits per resource a bit more we will probably soon be able to do so.)

4. Do we want to have exact duplicate corporations like how Bullseye and MallWart are currently set up? There are some benefits to this, like two civs being able to duke it out over the same resource set in a corporate shadow war. However, it is fundamentally redundant. Thoughts?

If you can vary them a little it would be helpful just to give some asymmetrical competition between them to make them a little more interesting.

I have a grad class that runs til Friday. After that, I'm hoping to getting this next stage squared away by early July. I'll be on holiday (vagabonding) the remainder of July, so I'd like to get things to a reasonable break point by then.

I'd be prepared for that project to take a while so just get to where you can and then we can come back to the subject after you return. I've got a bit of work on my end too and will need some time to get that side of it well developed and ready for further assistance to this project.

 

[timschuett]

Had an idea reagarding trade goods corps (mapster and Red curtains):

Is it possible to have them not consume any resources? I am strongly opposed to corps that consume trade goods (resources that exist for the purpose of trading in the diplomacy screen) and the fact that these 2 very different corporations consume the same resources is illogical.

However, if they consumed NOTHING but gave a bonus based on a unique building they provided or boosted existing buildings, I think that would provide a more realistic role for these corps. For example, Mapster consuming hit singles makes sense as it started as a music sharing site (napster, derr). However, with our current competition model, Maptster prevents any other corp from using hit singles, which seem to me to be the OPPOSITE of what a music/file sharing site does. IF Mapster consumed no resources, but provided a culture/gold/science bonus per city that had it, had a unique building that gave a culture/gold/science bonus, and/or gave a culture/gold/science bonus to having access to hit singles & movies, that I think makes the most logic.

Same idea applies to red curtains: + culture and gold from theaters, Additional bonus if you have access to hit musicals. I picture this to be like a combination Warner Brothers/Theater production company

I know that these would be able to be put in every city, but every city has internet access and the ability to share files. every city with a theater has increased revenue when hit movies come out and everyone is talking about it (culture influence). The way to balance that would be to make the bonus small but balanced with other corporation outputs.

I dont know if this is possible or how the community would react. Thoughts?

 

[Thunderbrd]

the fact that these 2 very different corporations consume the same resources is illogical.

Maptster prevents any other corp from using hit singles, which seem to me to be the OPPOSITE of what a music/file sharing site does.

Both of these points seem logical to me. Sorta.

Mapster is a distributor so would consume music resources for profit. (Selling it to the end user.)

But where do they actually come from? We have some wonders that provide them but that doesn't seem like the only way I'd think. Maybe we need another link in the chain like producing studios that create a music resource. Competing album stores (as individual buildings) would soak up 1 music resource for profit (taking it out of the pool for a corporation.) A grand music store chain like Hay-Stings might be a corporation that would also consume these music resources. Conversely, a conventional theater may actually PROVIDE music resources as it has promoted new songs in its productions. A movie producer may consume a hit musical as it buys rights to songs for use in its productions. But a movie theater would in turn re-release those songs to the public by making them popular and available to retailers in the form of a movie soundtrack, thus creating a music resource (while consuming a move resource (for profit).)

Cultural phenomenon buildings like music lounges could be sources of new music resources. Music schools could be sources (including attachements to universities.) Jam centers... we can get creative to provide the proper souces and end profiteers.

I'd not get stuck on the definition of a 'trade good' at all. We could probably do without the category as a whole in many ways. There's no direct intention to limit them in this category from being otherwise useful - more that it's been a miscellaneous category to which many resources have been assigned due to not quite fitting elsewhere.

 

[Dancing Hoskuld]

I'd not get stuck on the definition of a 'trade good' at all. We could probably do without the category as a whole in many ways. There's no direct intention to limit them in this category from being otherwise useful - more that it's been a miscellaneous category to which many resources have been assigned due to not quite fitting elsewhere.

Incorrect, this category was created specifically to fix the trade via diplomacy system. Everything else done in RoM, AND and C2C has broken it and I want it back.

There are a couple of resources which are in the incorrect category at the moment. I have many more to add, at least one per base culture per era.

 

[Thunderbrd]

Incorrect, this category was created specifically to fix the trade via diplomacy system. Everything else done in RoM, AND and C2C has broken it and I want it back.

There are a couple of resources which are in the incorrect category at the moment. I have many more to add, at least one per base culture per era.

1) How do you feel it's broken?

2) Why would hit singles etc... be supposed to be limited to only trade?

 

[Dancing Hoskuld]

1) Most mods and ours in particular are about everyone getting their own of every resource. The recent changes to the placement of resources has addressed this in part.

2) I did not make hit singles/movies part of the trade good category. The only ones I think should be are the culture-era ones and the three vintage wine ones.

 

[timschuett]

As I understand it, the trade goods are the 14 resources that are produced by certain world wonders. Although they are available to place as map resources in the world builder, there is not an improvement to harvest them. Their quantities are limited so there are 1 per civ on a standard map (7). I'm with DH that they can and should focus solely on creating a need for civilizations to trade in the diplomacy screen. Having them as a corp resource obviated this in many ways.

I'm all in favor of new media-type resources being added and assigned to these types of corporations, but until they are, I feel that Mapster and Red Curtains are inherently broken and need a major revamp or otherwise need to be removed.

This is where my earlier comment comes from: can we remove the 3 trade goods resources and have those 2 corps consume nothing, produce very little (maybe 1 , 1 per city), but have provide access to buildings that give bonuses if the civ has access to at least 1 of the aforementioned trade goods. This way the goods will still be traded since the bonus doesn't increase with the # of resource you have.

This is an intermediate fix until wecan include and parse out a reasonable resource consumption arrangement for these 2 corps --- i'm still not sure what Mapster would consume.... Bandwidth maybe?

 

[Dancing Hoskuld]

It is probably supposed to represent the music industry - so all those instruments we make may be useful, however that may cause other problems anyway.