salary

[WilliamMGary]

David: There will be a person without any expertise, regardless of which AI expertise setting you have selected on the new game setting menu. This allows you to hire a COO for a lower salary cost, which is particularly useful when your company is at its early growth stage.

Source: http://www.capitalismlab.com/forum/view ... =10&t=1238

Does the above address what you're suggesting or are you talking about a more reformed compensation system?

[BigWolf]

I agree salaries for COOs are borderline silly... actually just plain silly
I'm currently paying my COO 42million dollars a year (started on 16mil), I'm not aware of a single COO in the real world earning anything near to this (btw, I do not have inflation switched on)
I'm quite sure the average COO wage IRL is around the $100,000 range - not sure if thats before or after bonuses though

Perhaps instead of a fixed extremely high-wage, we have a more reasonable wage + % of annual profits

[WilliamMGary]

In the latest version go to people the second AI listed is the one with no expertise that has the lowest salary.

as far as IRL COOs have you seen the 2012 compensation of Microsoft's COO? When it comes to COO pay in Capitalism, if you're paying 42 million dollars is the time that your COO is freeing up benefiting your company by more then 42 million dollars? In a previous Cap II game I hired a COO to manage a 2 billion dollar retail operation paid them about 300 million a year but the time that the COO freed up for me allowed me to focus on the logistics of the company, and focus on more financial impact aspects of the business, such as entering new markets, managing real estate, proactively reducing operations in a city that was experiencing rapid population. We actually worked as a team and based on her responsibilities and what I was able to accomplish by delegating my retail operation to her I feel that 300 million was a good value. With that said, the officer AI was by no means perfect.

Of all the new features and challenges that Capitalism Lab has I've so far been disappointed with the COO AI it doesn't seem to to have been improved as much. When we hire an COo or other officers we should (human players) able to work as a cohesive team with our officers (AI) and the game hasn't gotten there yet.

[Esoteric Rogue]

I assume the high cost is to balance the fact the the computer is playing the game for you.

I do think his high salary is disproportionate to his effectiveness, but Enlight has been working on improving his ability.

Truth be told, I've only hired a COO once in CapLab, and thought his retail management ability was notably lacking. Hiring a COO optional and apparently I'm both a cash- and power-monger, so I've been doing without

For me to hire a COO, they would need some combination of 1) being cheaper and 2) being more effective.

[BigWolf]

But the salary is 'basic' wage, which I'm sure no person on the planet earns
The wage structure needs expanding, because IRL alot of earnings for these people are effectively bonuses
http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/78988 (2 years old, but shows the point)
Most of the earnings are actually stock options, which are tied more into how well a company does

Yes, sure I can easily afford the COO and CMO wages that they ask, especially since I don't give myself any wage (Personal wealth in this game is pointless from what I can see)
But then at the same time, alot of RL expenses don't seem included in the game anyway (taxes being the major exclusion) so there is a higher amount of profit than the real-world, which is perhaps translated into higher salary demands

Of course, the fact that companies are able to get into all industries over time and turn profits near enough instantly adds to this higher profit margin as well, but thats a different topic entirely

[BigWolf]

I assume the high cost is to balance the fact the the computer is playing the game for you.

I do think his high salary is disproportionate to his effectiveness, but Enlight has been working on improving his ability.

Truth be told, I've only hired a COO once in CapLab, and thought his retail management ability was notably lacking. Hiring a COO optional and apparently I'm both a cash- and power-monger, so I've been doing without

For me to hire a COO, they would need some combination of 1) being cheaper and 2) being more effective.

In fairness, the only thing I hire a COO for is retail price setting to 'attempt' to maximise profits (or at least prevent prices dropping below the cost of acquirement)
Everything else, I tend to be better at doing myself

[WilliamMGary]

I only used COO for retail and in Cap Lab it doesn't seem like a good idea, the COO abilities is not satisfactory in any sense. The AI for COO needs major improvements.

[greewoch]

I usually hire a coo (pref high farming>retail>manufacturing expertises) after opening my 2. factory or something. but I play so aggressive and always take all the bank loans I can
After 1 hour of gameplay it gets tiring to adjust prices as brand and quality increases. Also I cant say if I care about product expertise too, it's just a bonus for my CTO for faster R&D new product, but that's all.

[Esoteric Rogue]

After 1 hour of gameplay it gets tiring to adjust prices as brand and quality increases.

I completely agree, but I very much try to separate that from the COO. If playing the game sucks after a few hours, I think perhaps more fundamental changes should be made rather than using an arguably undesirable COO to patch it.

But this thread is about the COO. If a COO is supposed to mitigate the tediousness, then tediousness is undesirable. Many of us have indicate the COO is undesirable. Certainly replacing one undesirable with another is foolish. Al that doesn't is highlight that something is undesirable.

If the COO is supposed to mitigate the undesirability of the tedious tasks, than having a COO of good value would add value to the playability of the game.

Rather than plugging a negative with a different negative, why not replace the negative with a positive. At some point, it would equate to the game playing itself, but we're very far from that, and also that is not clearly undesirable (a la playing SimCity while you sleep.)

[greewoch]

Truth be told, I've only hired a COO once in CapLab, and thought his retail management ability was notably lacking

in fact, I find it quite the opposite
I always use internal sale and I sell my own products on 7 cities at same time, so I have lots of retail stores to manage. On capitalism 2, if I've had let COO to change "look for better supplies - from my own firms only" COO was more likely to buy from other cities, even if the factory is next to my retail store, but on caplab, COO algorithm is a lot better.

1- 9/10 of the time if there is a factory nearby and if product qualities are same, they dont buy from other cities, unless supply is too low. Sometimes they do; but it seems its factory supplies most of the time. (flour, frozen chicken etc)
2- They adjust price with brand-quality automaticly. which is the biggest plus for me.
3- They change natural resources as they exhaust. (especially timber; furniture store chains(1 single unit of bed requires 120 timber! + sofa+chair) in 7 cities requires like 5-6 logging camps which exhausts like every 10 years or so)
4- expertises; especially for farming; works like a charm. I remember demand/profit for frozen farm products werent this much in cap 2, especially on low quality.
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