Feedback needed: "Personal Savings Rate Modifier" default value

[David]

If you think that the profitability of banks is too low, please use the "Personal Savings Rate Modifier" new game setting to modify a bank's profitability and let us know which personal savings rate you think is the best for an enjoyable gameplay experience.

Personal Savings Rate Modifier
This slider modifies the personal savings rate. A higher personal savings rate means that people will save and deposit more money into banks, thus boosting the profitability of banks in general.

It is advisable that you play the game for an extended period of time (e.g. 30 years) before drawing a conclusion, as a bank's profitability, while may not be large initially, can be more stable and subject less to fierce competition in comparison with other industries and can be a highly reliable source of income. From a gameplay balance point of view, it is important to consider all these factors.

Update: we have improved the bank's profitability since the latest version and allow setting the Personal Savings Rate Modifier up to 600. Thus I have reset the poll in order to get new feedback using the latest version. Please make sure that you test the game using the latest version (Download link: http://www.capitalism2.com/forum/viewto ... =52&t=6996) prior to voting. Thanks.

[David]

Latest update:
We have identified and subsequently fixed a bug that suppressed bank deposits. After the fix, the amount of bank deposits is restored to its normal level and bank profitability increases as a result.

The bug is fixed in the latest version 6.1.03. Please download it from https://www.capitalism2.com/forum/viewt ... =52&t=6996

[beamthegreat]

In my opinion, this depends on the number of competitors in the game and the preferences of the player. But I think the sweet spot is around 400-500 if there are 5-6 banks in the game.

[David]

In my opinion, this depends on the number of competitors in the game and the preferences of the player. But I think the sweet spot is around 400-500 if there are 5-6 banks in the game.

Noted. By the way, are you using the latest version 6.1.03?

[beamthegreat]

Yes.

[David]

Would you share you save game with me? I would be interested in taking a look at how you run your bank.

You may send it to me via PM message or email me at info@enlight.com

Thanks!

[beamthegreat]

I didn't save the game... sorry. I'll make sure to save and send it to you on my next run!

[David]

I ran a game with "Personal Savings Rate Modifier" set to 500. The AI company focused on banking was incredibly profitable and its stock price skyrocketed to around $500 while the stock prices of other companies were in a range from $10 to $200.

It seems to be an indication that it is way too easy to make profit with banks when "Personal Savings Rate Modifier" is as high as 500.

[beamthegreat]

David, I've sent an email with my save to you. The personal saving rate in this run is 171 but I've also made some adjustment to the required ratio and corporate deposit cap. The economy was booming during the early phases in the game and I feel that the most banks adequately profitable during those periods, then a major recession hit and most of them performed really poorly and some of them lost money, which made sense. But as time went on, they were never as profitable as they were in early period of my game, when accounting for inflation. At the present, all banks are now adequately profitable, but over the entire 30 year run, I've feel they averaged 4-6% in ROE, which is too low IMO.

EDIT: I own 3 banks, B-Finance, Pyramid, and Clover Swirl, which has nearly 200 bank branches and accounts for roughly 2/3 of all deposits in the game.