Make billions, bankrupt everyone

[SvenMickelson]

Hi

I believe i read somewhere that there were changes coming to the way you trade stocks among subsidiary companies - so perhaps this is being addressed, but im curious to hear thoughts on the following strategy. Works with any difficulty settings, just takes a bit more time with min capital or limited cities

Get a decent start so you have some solid credit each month - and play the stock market until you can amass 50% of another company (usually takes 10-12 months). Once you own 50% of anyone else, you can bankrupt every other company and make a few billion dollars immediately.

Max your new subsidiary's loans (sometimes you don't even need to...). With your new subsidiary, buy a 50.10% stake in a few (1-3) other (low priced) companies, all in one swoop - driving the price up as you go. Immediately use these new companies' starting capital to buy the remaining stock (in themselves), increasing your subsidiary's share to 80% or so.

Then max the new (tertiary) companies' loans, use this money to buy its own stock back from your original subsidiary, from 80% to 51% (at the newly inflated price), essentially replacing all the capital your original subsidiary spent acquiring them - and then some.

Then you may as well sell these tertiary companies - because they are now way in debt and going to go bankrupt immediately. Then move on to a few more companies, lather rinse repeat. Do this as many times as you have patience for (do all the competitors if you want), all the while turning their loans into your subsidiary's cash.

Let a month go by and continue to buy more stock in your subsidiary, its stock price rises from its pillaging, so you can continue to borrow against stock gains in your income statement. Within a few months you own 75% of a company that has amassed billions from bankrupting other companies. Merge with this company by issuing stock, acquire the ill-gotten billions and buy all your stock back, netting you a few billion in profit. As a happy bi-product - all the other companies will soon go bankrupt (no cash left, max loans) , taking their tech leads and property with them.

I do love doing this (extremely satisfying to be the puppet master), trouble is that it takes the challenge out of the game. However i don't think there's any part of this that is a game exploit, so I cant help but do it...

Sven

[SvenMickelson]

Expected some sort of response to this "Hey Sven, thats an exploit because..." - "Hey Sven, thats fixed in patch xxx.xx" - lol

I have a refinement - dont stop at 50.10% when using your subsidiary to buy tertiary companies - use the subsidiary to buy ALL the available stock (up to 93% or so) even FURTHER inflating the price - then spend every cent the tertiary company has buying it back - then sell the remaining (now even more valuable) 60-70% back to the public, netting even more for your subsidiary. Just did this for only 8 of the 30 competitors and after merging with the subsidiary netted 5 billion in Nov 1990 (and bankrupted 8 competitors instantly) - on 310% difficulty. Everything maxxed except i use 3 cities and start on [edit (low - 20 mil)] capital because i cant be bothered to only own 50% of my own company out of the gate. I suppose for fun next i'll try starting with only 50% of my company and see if i can parlay that into full company ownership and a win situation as fast as possible.

Have been playing this game on and off for (what 15? holy crap) years now and putting this out there for fun and to seek the community's input as to how to fix (if it needs fixing at all)

Edit: this is loan free too, I have an additional 7b in credit

[SvenMickelson]

Ok - my one sided conversation continues

356% diff - max everything for opponents, min starting capital. Still works

Get one company (by any means necessary) same tactic as above. Be sure to buy out the companies that own your stock so they get crushed and become penny stocks. Pilfer as many companies as you have patience for, merge with your predator subsidiary, get the phat spoils, then buy out (merge with) the remaining companies that own your stock.

Dec 1990 - you own 100% of your company and have billions.

[zlayo]

been on capitalism II for 2 days without sleepeing once... Will try your trick... have 2.7. version

[RougeRogue]

I don't think they're ignoring you, Sven -- this is just a well-known exploit, amongst many -- this thread is full of them:
http://www.capitalismlab.com/forum/view ... 8&start=28

[SvenMickelson]

Great read. To me the solution to this exploit is simple in theory, complex in practice. It's basically the solution to everything that makes this game simple once you understand game mechanics (and frankly the solution to every game that gets "too easy" for veteran players at some point). Tweak the AI.

I think there is room for more SEC intervention (heaven knows that's true IRL) - but better to have the AI allocate it's capital more wisely - and faster. Any company that sits on 300m with 300m in credit and opens one store with one product deserves to be raided. Why can 'Player' turn 20m into 8 stores, 12 farms and ownership of a subsidiary in year one, while AI waits for tech and sits on cash for years? Imagine the empire you would build with 600m cash on day 1...

If the AI doesn't allocate the capital immediately, it shouldn't be available immediately. At least have them buy some 10-20y bonds or something. Every company should be using their capital out of the gate, purchasing illiquid assets, cornering markets and buying real estate. Their share price would rise commensurately and takeovers would be what they "should" be - purchasing distressed/depressed assets only. The companies that sit on cash should be privately owned or poison-pilled, or golden shared (like real life) to prevent exactly this scenario. If the AI capital isn't put to good use, credit for these companies should deteriorate rapidly. Burning a company's cash on inflating another worthless company while attempting to take it over - should destroy its credit in real time.

Even when we ignore the stockmarket, on hardest settings - we're simply way to fast and nimble for the plodding AI - so making the competitors truly aggressive out of the gate would fix a lot of things

Sven
{edited to tone down hyperbole }