Challenge Game: Tech Corp from Crisis to Comeback in version 10.0.50

[Lightproton]

Hi everyone!

Hope you’re all safe and doing well!

Huge thanks to the Capitalism Lab and Enlight Software team – the challenge game is included in the latest release of Capitalism Lab! I've incorporated feedback from the last challenge game into its design.

Feel free to give it a try yourself and compete with the latest high scores from other players! Besides the Capitalism Lab base game, you’ll need the Digital Age DLC and Subsidiary DLC. The challenge game has three consecutive goals, with each goal unlocking the next. Each one requires us to enter and master a new industry.

In my playthrough, I’m prioritizing speed to stay competitive! Whether the goal is to dominate technology, software, or the internet industry, the competition is always advancing. I’m sure there are plenty of opportunities to min-max results and achieve higher scores.

Session 1 - first subgoal: https://youtu.be/xzkGT6kWTek?feature=shared
Session 2 - second subgoal: https://youtu.be/RtF2gp2DU-E?feature=shared
Session 3 - main goal: https://youtu.be/OqfwyV0nxOI?feature=shared
Session 4 - improve score: https://youtu.be/ljzftZCk1Cg?feature=shared

Looking forward to seeing more of you in the community take on the challenge and share your results! Hope you enjoy it and have fun! I'd love to hear your feedback. Thank you very much!

[Stylesjl]

Just played this scenario - now this one is quite difficult! 5 years is a tight deadline for each subgoal. But also doable except for the last part, I was not able to do the final goal.

Some things I noticed:

The Internet Company lock does not work properly (I can still build it):

UnlockInternetObjective.png (10.63 KiB) Viewed 2645 times

UnlockInternet.png (27.25 KiB) Viewed 2645 times

Plus the final goal doesn't seem to be right - was there supposed to be a step where you dominate as an Internet Company? Or maybe that was not the intent. Also it seems a bit weird that the Communications category is unlocked for the final product:

MainGoal.png (213.35 KiB) Viewed 2645 times

I wasn't able to get the 5 billion in revenue. I think it might be too high, or maybe that is the side effect of not having more stuff unlocked. As time went by it got harder to maintain the other objectives at the same time, let alone meet the revenue goals (I got up to 4 billion before the 10 year final deadline).

Though this might be a skill issue and maybe I should give it another try.

On a final note I also found it weird that my subsidiary's expertise was in computers - this made them a direct competitor and since it was their field of expertise I could not turn it off.

[Lightproton]

Thanks for your feedback and, in my view, you made great progress and you are very close to reach the main goal! Great accomplishment! The challenge game is indeed very, very difficult and requires detailed knowledge and also to take right decisions quite early in the scenario! (I tested it many times...) The principle of the scenario is: Misses at the beginning are the most expensive misses. I would appreciate a lot if you could give it another try, if you like.

First to your questions:

- In my savegame, the Internet Company is visible in the UI after the first subgoal, but I cannot click on it and cannot build it. Can you please confirm?
- Your question on the final goal is right. I didn't include the goal to dominate as an Internet Company, because I thought, it is already difficult enough to achieve. It is quite difficult to achieve significant Internet Company market shares depending on time progressed so far and competition being many years ahead.
- Also agreeing to your third point. It is a challenge to still keep the previous goals and, at the same time, manage to accomplish the new goals. Shortly, before reaching the first subgoal, I employed a COO to help me with keeping Computer market dominance.
- It seems to me, that the subsidiary CEO always has the same first expertise as the parent corporation. This appears to be a Capitalism Lab feature. I loaded my underlying script file just now again, and it happened again. I suggest to be very restrictive on policies for the subsidiary CEO so that the subsidiary does not appear to be another competitor on the market.

Let me give all of us some hints, which I think are helpful to succeed. I am also following the tips in my P.1 Youtube video (P.2 and P.3 to come):

- Consider putting priority on speed to accomplish the goals. The faster we reach a subgoal, the less advanced will be the competition for our next goal. Pause the game from time to time to set up your supply chain and manage the firms.
- Start to emerge your business into the largest city market first, because it has the highest potential (check Product Details report). Carefully decide when to enter another city. Expanding into another city requires a significant investment into our brand before it pays out to our goals.
- Make use of the provided expertise points to accelerate R&D.
- Put very restrictive management policies on your subsidiary, especially at the start. The subsidiary must support our business and not build up a competitor to our parent company.
- Delegate micromanagement to a CMO and COO, as soon as you can afford it. Focus on managing your supply chain and growth.

Happy to hear any feedback and ideas from the community!

[Stylesjl]

- In my savegame, the Internet Company is visible in the UI after the first subgoal, but I cannot click on it and cannot build it. Can you please confirm?

You are right, the Internet and Telecom companies cannot be placed on the map. Strange that their icons are still visible.

- Your question on the final goal is right. I didn't include the goal to dominate as an Internet Company, because I thought, it is already difficult enough to achieve. It is quite difficult to achieve significant Internet Company market shares depending on time progressed so far and competition being many years ahead.

Yes, good point. Once you are behind for internet companies it is almost impossible to catch up (or it takes many years).

- Also agreeing to your third point. It is a challenge to still keep the previous goals and, at the same time, manage to accomplish the new goals. Shortly, before reaching the first subgoal, I employed a COO to help me with keeping Computer market dominance.
- It seems to me, that the subsidiary CEO always has the same first expertise as the parent corporation. This appears to be a Capitalism Lab feature. I loaded my underlying script file just now again, and it happened again. I suggest to be very restrictive on policies for the subsidiary CEO so that the subsidiary does not appear to be another competitor on the market.

I tried replicating it myself but I could not get the subsidiary to have the same expertise (in creating a new custom game).

Anyway I think I can just get around the problem by just blocking the subsidiary CEO from opening their own factories/shops which is something I should have done the first time around.

Let me give all of us some hints, which I think are helpful to succeed. I am also following the tips in my P.1 Youtube video (P.2 and P.3 to come):

- Consider putting priority on speed to accomplish the goals. The faster we reach a subgoal, the less advanced will be the competition for our next goal. Pause the game from time to time to set up your supply chain and manage the firms.
- Start to emerge your business into the largest city market first, because it has the highest potential (check Product Details report). Carefully decide when to enter another city. Expanding into another city requires a significant investment into our brand before it pays out to our goals.
- Make use of the provided expertise points to accelerate R&D.
- Put very restrictive management policies on your subsidiary, especially at the start. The subsidiary must support our business and not build up a competitor to our parent company.
- Delegate micromanagement to a CMO and COO, as soon as you can afford it. Focus on managing your supply chain and growth.

Happy to hear any feedback and ideas from the community!

All good points and something I will take into account on the next run.

[Stylesjl]

Alright, I did it. It was hard but I finished it. That 5 billion revenue goal almost broke me but I got it in the end. I hard to do some last minute transfers of my subsidiary's firms to push me over the threshold but I got it in the end.

Too anyone who is interested - here is the win save:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1wD0BQe ... sp=sharing

Some observations:

- You can buy firms that are normally restricted to you if they are marked as 'For Sale'
- The restrictions on producing items don't apply to the subsidiary, so they can produce jewellery for example.

These two observations however might be considered by some as a cheating/exploit. Though I am at a loss to know how else I could finish it as the market just doesn't seem large enough for 5 billion otherwise.

- It is also worthwhile to make sure that your subsidiary does not use the Internal Sale flag, selling items to other companies helps boost their revenue.

[Lightproton]

Thanks for sharing your feedback, and congratulations on hitting the $5 billion revenue goal!

Regarding your observations:

Exploiting Restricted Firm Purchases:
I agree with your first point—it does feel like an exploit. This might be worth discussing with the Capitalism Lab dev team to determine if it’s something that should be addressed specifically for Challenge Games. Thanks for bringing this up!

Subsidiary Production Freedom:
As for your second observation, I see this as a potentially viable strategy. It could make sense for subsidiaries to diversify into other markets rather than solely supporting the parent company’s objectives. Not sure if this is a superior strategy, but this could be an alternative strategy and must not be necessarily be seen as an exploit.

Subsidiary Internal Sales:
I completely support your third point! Encouraging subsidiaries to sell to external companies can make a difference in hitting the subsidiary revenue goals.

By the way, I recently published a YouTube video on how I achieved the second subgoal. I’d appreciate to hear the feedback from the community! I’m sure there’s always room for improvement.

My hopefully helpful tips from P.2 for the second subgoal:

Develop Your Own OS

• Start OS development immediately and invest heavily in R&D to improve its technology.
• Use expertise points from rewards to accelerate OS R&D progress.

Expand Retail Sales

• Increase retail sales of your computer products in additional cities once you have spare production capacity.
• Invest in brand awareness to boost your product's overall rating, revenue, and operating profit.

Strengthen Backward Integration

• Continue backward integration with your subsidiary to secure input materials, such as plastic and silicon and stabilize your supply chain.
• Start selling these materials to competitors to generate additional revenue for your subsidiary.

Plan Your Software Roadmap

• Develop a roadmap for future versions of your software products.
• Consider developing software specifically for your OS to enhance its value through network effects.

Launch Your OS Strategically

• Release your OS in all cities simultaneously to quickly achieve market dominance.
• Ensure sufficient production capacity for necessary resources, such as paper and DVDs for software packaging.

[Lightproton]

I just recorded a YouTube video on how I achieved the main goal. For sure, the community will find more optimized strategies to maximize the result of the challenge game. This video holds as an example how to accomplish the challenge game. At the same time, feel free to find a more effective approach for your corporation and achieve better results.

Helpful Tips from P.3:

a) Launch Your Ecommerce Business: Start your ecommerce operations immediately and invest in improving its technology through knowledge points and research. Explore opportunities in internet advertising companies with low competition, such as microblogging.

b) Acquire Traditional Media Companies: If you have sufficient capital, purchase government-owned traditional media companies that are on sale. Owning media firms for advertising can create valuable synergies for your business. (Question: Exploit yes/no )

c) Headhunt Skilled Researchers: Recruit top-tier lead researchers from competitors. While offering high signing bonuses and salaries may be costly, it accelerates your R&D progress and slows down your competitors' advancements.

d) Expand Your Software Portfolio: Focus on developing software applications for your OS in areas with low competition or high value, such as office or security software.

e) Invent New Technology: Regularly check for opportunities to invent new technologies as they become available to stay ahead in the market.

[EDIT]

Too anyone who is interested - here is the win save:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1wD0BQe ... sp=sharing

Hi Stylesjl, first of all congrats for your achievement! I looked briefly into your savegame. It seems that you have further potential to improve your market position in Notebooks and Desktop Computers. In my view, it is possible to sell a higher quantity / with a higher price if you retrieve a higher brand awareness with advertising. Also, the ranged brand strategy could have helped you to more easily maximize your brand awareness.
[/EDIT]