Minor Improvements - Taxes, Training and Borrowing?

[radovan]

I would like to suggest implementation of taxes to the game. It would make it far more realistic, and it it technically not that hard to implement. It would also be great to use it with new script system - having different tax rates in different cities. Taxes should be calculated as [tax rate]X[individual firm profit], for every company, summed, and then deducted from cash balance at the end of each year. I believe this would make important difference between cities in the game.

As for training - I think you should implement a slider in the company HQ which sets all the companies' training spending to the same level, the same thing you did with advertising spending. Should not be too hard to implement, and would greatly reduce micromanagement.

Finally (though this is not really a minor improvement - it's more an idea for future development) - borrowing money from bank is pretty unrealistic. Now that we have boom and bust cycles with changing interest rates, perhaps we should change borrowing system a little bit. Borrowing should be done for certain specified amount of time. The number of years we choose determines final interest rate (while the base interest rate is the one currently use). Finally, the we should not be able to repay the loan before specified time, without paying penalties.

And of course, the improvement I would like to see the most (which is also not at all minor) is the ability to use personal cash to found new corporations during single game, or/and the ability to purchase another corporation and then switch to it and take over the control in it. Any chance this could happen in near future? Or ever?

[Esoteric Rogue]

WIll be hard to discuss so many different topics in one post.

Everyone's in favor of taxes: http://www.capitalismlab.com/forum/view ... =16&t=1205. We need more money sinks.

Training is not very effectively utilized with a global slider. [Edit to remove incorrect suspicion] More technically, training is more effective the higher the utilization is. Even if I just build 2 factories this year, one of them might be 100% utilized and, great, we want to train it, but if the other one is only less than 10%, that's really a big waste of training costs. I have a lot of crop farms and some mines / oil wells that have utilization close to zero. (In fact, the natural resources I never train, because the training units will be destroyed very soon. If the utilization is high enough to be worth training, then the resource is going to be disappearing very quickly.)

Expanding finance is a common suggestion. We were talking about implementing the bond market, so firstly your company issues bonds to raise capital, and secondly, bonds can be traded on the market. Here's a thread I remember

William strongly desires fixed-rate loans.

Personally, when it comes to loans, I probably prefer the currently simplification to early and late payment fees, but if were were going for realism I'd like regular payment schedules, most simply to have to pay a fixed percentage every month. EDIT: I like you early payment fee, though. It adds strategy to repaying a loan (and adds a money sink.)

[WilliamMGary]

As for training - I think you should implement a slider in the company HQ which sets all the companies' training spending to the same level, the same thing you did with advertising spending. Should not be too hard to implement, and would greatly reduce micromanagement.

The human resources unit in HQ has a mass training option. I like to manage training on a per firm basis to allocate the training budget to the firms where its needed.

Training is not very effectively utilized with a global slider. One small point is that I think you still pay for training even when all units are already maxed out, which will often be the case when many of your units are over 20 years old... but that could theoretically be fixed. More technically, training is more effective the higher the utilization is. Even if I just build 2 factories this year, one of them might be 100% utilized and, great, we want to train it, but if the other one is only less than 10%, that's really a big waste of training costs. I have a lot of crop farms and some mines / oil wells that have utilization close to zero. (In fact, the natural resources I never train, because the training units will be destroyed very soon. If the utilization is high enough to be worth training, then the resource is going to be disappearing very quickly.)

The paying for training after the units where level 9 was a bug that has been fixed in Cap Lb. Good point on the Natural resource...probably an increase in price to maxim return on investment. I've been training for the units.....not sure if one is better then the other. Probably a combo.

And of course, the improvement I would like to see the most (which is also not at all minor) is the ability to use personal cash to found new corporations during single game, or/and the ability to purchase another corporation and then switch to it and take over the control in it. Any chance this could happen in near future? Or ever?

I want more things to do with personal wealth as well need to brainstorm more on some ideas (so far: living expenses, mortgage (if mansions are owned, taxes automatically deducted every month based off a formula) , if we give the human player the ability to switch between corporations I would prefer to have this ability implemented for subsidiaries first, this will also play into more COO control. what happens if we exit them out of a business and switch back to our firm and they re-enter the business. (this is where COO issues become more apparent).

William strongly desires fixed-rate loans.

Yes. I do! I think having options will be good. Continue with the variable loans as there could be some good use cases for it, but a fixed loan would be easier for players to understand. I was shocked when I noticed my loan rate wasn't fixed. I also think a term loan for both fixed & variable is very important. An expansion pack would be good to add additional financial items (private corp can loan out to AI, bond market, investment banks I can send my personal & company excess cash to to invest based off a my investment style as determined by an in game investment. I quiz. I can go on, but I will wait until the time is right.

[Esoteric Rogue]

The paying for training after the units where level 9 was a bug that has been fixed in Cap Lb.

Ah, I just recorded a video testing that, and editted my post, and then read your reply. Thanks for the correction!

[Esoteric Rogue]

About switching corporations, one aspect I've requested is to be able to select any corporation to play when loading a save file. I recently noticed you can do that in Europa Universalis IV.

[WilliamMGary]

About switching corporations, one aspect I've requested is to be able to select any corporation to play when loading a save file. I recently noticed you can do that in Europa Universalis IV.

It would be nice to switch to any company that you "own" but being able to handle executive conflicts is going to be the challenging part.....as it is IRL lol