NTF will either start today or tomorrow. Lots of changes had to be made to make the game actually playable statswise.
1. Starting NPCs were axed. This sucked, but had to be done to make stats usable. I still gave the relevant parties starting bonuses for their help however. I still have the map and stats for the NPCs saved in a different Excel file in case I ever want to run an IOTXIV-styled game in the future.
2. Added banking to the game. Countries and corporations can store their IP and generate interest
based on the amount of IP borrowed worldwide. Countries and corporations can borrow money up to their borrowing limits. Interest also adjusts each turn to the amount of debt versus amount of savings, and interest is
automatically deducted from revenue.
If your country ends a turn with negative revenue and can't borrow anymore money, it automatically declares bankruptcy. Nobody will be happy if this happens, so be careful.
Everybody is starting off with 10 IP in the bank. Plus, everybody is actually starting off with 20 public factories + 10 NPC private factories unless the player went full commie, in which case, 30 public factories.
3. Tariffs and License Fees
These aren't new, but I should mention that when a foreign company builds a factory in your country, the IP generated by the license fee doesn't arrive until next turn. It is deposited into your savings account.
Likewise, tariffs work the same way. If a domestic company tries expanding overseas, the IP from that tariff is made available next turn, and is deposited into savings.