Quarterly Statements & Divisions

[jtanker37715]

I think this has been touched throughout the forum but I had an idea that wouldn't seem to take too much to implement but which I think would greatly enhance the game. Some have talked about the possibility of splitting up their company into separate divisions/businesses/subsidiaries. Is it possible to have alot of available lower-profile characters that one can hire to manage one division.

For example when I am expanding my company, I will focus on one business at a time. When focusing on expanding in the pharmaceutical business, I'll build four factories in the best market (one for cold tablets, one for cough syrup, one for headache pills, and one for shampoo). I'd then open up two-four drug stores to sell my products. Eventually after I was making good money, I'd open up an R&D facility to research these products. What if I wanted someone to manage all of these facilities in all the cities and manage all the pricing, marketing, etc. If there was a drop-down box when I am viewing the facility to transfer management to a list of characters that I have hired it seems like it would be easy to make up the division.

Then if I want to restructure my company, I could fire the character in charge of that division and merge all the operations under the leadership of someone else.

In addition, it would be great to have quarterly/annual reporting that would compare the overall companies to each other and also have the ability to see any operation or division's results on a quarter-to-quarter basis and/or year-to-year basis. One could also conceivably put up for sale the entire division or "spin it off" which would create a whole new company with its own stock/cash/etc.

For me, I normally get to a point where I don't want to focus on the day-to-day operations of businesses once they are established. I'd rather have an AI character manage it and have it where I can just view the quarterly or annual results to measure for improvement. If not, then I can easily dig into the divisions to root out the problems.

By the way, thank you David and Enlight for committing to improving this game. I love playing this game but have found that it has its limits and it has gotten easier and easier to reach those limits as I've gained experience. The improvements already mentioned in this forum alone will enhance the game significantly. I'm excited for the release!

[David]

You may check out discussions about company divisions at the following thread, which I think is related to what you suggested.
viewtopic.php?f=7&t=38

[David]

I think your suggestion is an interesting one.

It is possible to implement a simple interface for letting the player assign a group id. to each firm (group id. 1 to 9).

Then the player can assign an AI person to manage all the firms under a defined group (e.g. if you have 5 firms assigned to group #1, when you assign an AI person to manage group #1, the AI will be managing all those 5 firms.)

Basically, it is possible to implement this suggestion. But the question is whether you will find it useful in practice. Currently, you can do the same by assigning the AI person to each of the 5 firms individually, but it is more tedious. Maybe you can give it a try and see if you are happy with what the AI is doing for you -- whether you find the AI intelligent enough, and post your thoughts here.