Stock Market:
Sliders: I loved the stock market features from Railroad Tycoon 3. I want to incorporate sliders instead of + or - a small percentage. I like how I can select who I want to buy stock from with and which persona is buying/selling, but I would rather make a large bulk offer by using percentage and cash incentive sliders like RRT3 has for buying out stock shares when you attempt a merger.
Anytime Merger: I believe a company should be able to attempt a take over at anytime. Even if they have 0 stock shares. It is like that in the real market. By using the same system from RRT3, a company should be able to attempt a take over, and if the offer is good enough for the majority stock holders to sway their votes to yes, then a merge should be approved. Obviously, the player person, or player owned company that initiates the merger should automatically have their votes say yes. So if a player has 50.01% of the stock, then the takeover should always pass. If you have less, and the share holders AI do not want to sell because they like dividends or are a competitor, then they will always vote no, unless the cash offer or stock offer is of higher value than the projected worth of their holdings down the road. Formula should be relative to the average growth of the stock holding from day 1 to present. If the offer is significantly higher than that average trend ratio, then the competitor AI would be stupid to refuse.
Companies:
Company Bankruptcy not Gameover!: The player should not get a game over unless he/she cannot afford to start a new company within a set time frame (auto formation/retire time period).
Create Company: The company creation screen should be brought up IN GAME. And you should be allowed to create multiple companies by paying a small start up fee. Obviously, if you cannot pay this fee within a set period of time, then you should be auto retired. There should also be the option to create a company later with the funding from your company or the player. The ownership will then be associated with either the player or the company. Thus, if you lose control of a player owned company that owns a company, you lose both companies. This comes in handy if I create an investment firm and want to create multiple companies and set up a business scheme, then sell the majority to AI CEO's for profit and collect dividends on their growth. Thus my parent company's stock increases, and earns profits from dividend gains.
Switch Company: If you have 50.01% of a company, then you should be able to attempt a corporate takeover to switch to that company. Thus, your player's default company is changed to that company and their CEO is bumped into the hire pool.
Add finance sliders to start company screen: player's capital investment slider and outside investor's allow investors to toss up money based on your credit/stock holdings/how much you invest. The amount of ownership you get in a
AI starts more companies: If the competitors have enough capital to pay the start fee and buy multiple buildings to attempt a profitable business, then they should not sit in the player pool idly, or create random failing companies. If you take over their company and buy up all of their shares, then they should automatically try and start another company with the same design as before, but in the least competitive market. If they don't have much currency, but can afford a new company, then they will use as much outside investment as possible to generate their selected template, and thus have that percentage of shares. Like RRT3.
Stock split: Stocks should be capped at $1000 for 2 for 1 or 3 for 1 splits, and a random dice check should be enabled every year if the stock price exceeds $150. The success rate should increase as the price nears $1000. The success at the end of the year should be 100% if stock price is over $1000, and should automatically be 3 for 1.
Stock Issue: This should be based on percentage, not a set number. I noticed that as time went by, I was able to issue more stock, and if I offered a lower price it went higher, but I don't believe that it is a percentage of my total shares. I "think" it is a finite number. I would like to change this. At least, instead of choosing a number to issue, I would like to choose a percentage, that increases with time/lower cost of issue price, and then the total number of shares would be listed underneath.
+ and - broken: Whatever parts of the + and - buttons that aren't replaced with a slider, the rate at which it changes the digits needs to be changed. They change numbers at hyper speed. This becomes impossible to select a precise % for buying or selling shares. one click should be .01%. Shift click should be .1%, and ctrl click should be 1%, and if the button is held down, it should move at a fair pace.
5% trade cap removal: this cap is garbage. If a company sells, it sells and the stocks BOMB!!! If it wants to buy a set number of shares from someone, that should go to a trade screen and sliders should be used. The only reason I can see to keep this system is if trading with the public, it would represent trying to find public buyers for the soon to be doomed stock. However, I don't see the need for this protection in a simulator. Especially in dealing with an individual share holder.
AI should attempt take overs and/or mergers on player companies: If the AI calculates that a takeover over your company is beneficial in any way compared to what they presently have, then they should attempt to dethrone you from your chair if possible, and merge, if possible. If they can't get the votes to dethrone you from the chair position, then they should attempt a take over, and you should have the choice to vote yes or no on their offer. If you vote no, they should give a counter offer at a later time, in which you will again have the ability to vote on. If at any time, you lose in the merge/chairman takeover vote, you lose that company. However, the money gained or lost from your shares should be plenty to start a new company. This will make a player think twice about owning a company with less that 50.01% share holdings.
It is my hope that someone is actually at the other end of this computer, and allows this post, and also someone to give guidance. If no, I can always hope for Capitalism 3 some day
