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Major exploit
Posted: Tue Oct 10, 2017 8:00 am
by beamthegreat
I found a major exploit in the game using the product tech acquisition.
Below are the steps:
1. Have a tech that can be acquired by another firm.
2. Borrow the maximum amount of money possible, set up a subsidiary, and inject all of that into the new firm.
3. Build a headquarter and a CEO's office (for your subsidiary).
5. Use your subsidiary to borrow as much money as possible.
6. Use your subsidiary to acquire a tech from your main company at the maximum price possible.
(Your subsidiary should now have 0 cash the parent company should receive all of it)
7. Use your subsidiary to get an IPO and sell all the shares.
8. Profit. Repay your loans and watch your subsidiary go bankrupt.
You can easily double or triple money with this exploit. Basically, you are siphoning money from your subsidiary by selling your tech at a ridiculous price.
To fix this exploit, I suggest limiting the amount of money your subsidiary can offer for a particular tech.
Re: Major exploit
Posted: Tue Oct 10, 2017 1:13 pm
by beamthegreat
Here's another exploit I've found. You can easily make 3.8 billion on the first day on every difficulty.
1. You start with $15 million.
2. Pause the game, borrow $15 million, create and put all of the money into your new subsidiary. (Your subsidiary should start with $30mil in cash)
3. Use your subsidiary to borrow $30 million, and create a another subsidiary. (Your 2nd subsidiary should start with $60 mil in cash)
Repeat as many times as you want. On your final subsidiary, don't take out a loan.
4. Assuming you stop at your 10th subsidiary, make your 9th subsidiary go public (IPO), and use your parent company to merge with your final subsidiary.
You parent company should have all the cash from your final subsidiary (3.8 billion) with no debt, apart from the initial $15 million loan.
5. Unpause the game. Declare bankruptcy on your subsidiaries when it runs out of cash (should happen almost immediately).
The process can become quite tedious when your new subsidiary becomes larger since you have to wait a really long time. A better way is to start the subsidiary with $20 million or so and use the inject capital option. However, you need to wait until the end of the month for the loan to update. I've managed to make $10 trillion by the end of year 2, but i ran into some bug causing the game to crash.
Re: Major exploit
Posted: Wed Oct 11, 2017 6:02 am
by beamthegreat
Here is a video I made that demonstrates this process:
https://youtu.be/5dyUV112HQ4
Re: Major exploit
Posted: Fri Oct 13, 2017 3:43 am
by David
To fix this exploit, I suggest limiting the amount of money your subsidiary can offer for a particular tech.
We have implemented what you suggested above and it will be available in the next patch v5.0.08.
Re: Major exploit
Posted: Fri Oct 13, 2017 4:26 pm
by beamthegreat
David wrote:To fix this exploit, I suggest limiting the amount of money your subsidiary can offer for a particular tech.
We have implemented what you suggested above and it will be available in the next patch v5.0.08.
Thanks! Please also have a look at the 2nd exploit I've found (I've demonstrated that in the video).
Re: Major exploit
Posted: Sat Jan 27, 2018 2:13 pm
by pookar
beamthegreat wrote: ↑Tue Oct 10, 2017 1:13 pm
Here's another exploit I've found. You can easily make 3.8 billion on the first day on every difficulty.
1. You start with $15 million.
2. Pause the game, borrow $15 million, create and put all of the money into your new subsidiary. (Your subsidiary should start with $30mil in cash)
3. Use your subsidiary to borrow $30 million, and create a another subsidiary. (Your 2nd subsidiary should start with $60 mil in cash)
Repeat as many times as you want. On your final subsidiary, don't take out a loan.
4. Assuming you stop at your 10th subsidiary, make your 9th subsidiary go public (IPO), and use your parent company to merge with your final subsidiary.
You parent company should have all the cash from your final subsidiary (3.8 billion) with no debt, apart from the initial $15 million loan.
5. Unpause the game. Declare bankruptcy on your subsidiaries when it runs out of cash (should happen almost immediately).
The process can become quite tedious when your new subsidiary becomes larger since you have to wait a really long time. A better way is to start the subsidiary with $20 million or so and use the inject capital option. However, you need to wait until the end of the month for the loan to update. I've managed to make $10 trillion by the end of year 2, but i ran into some bug causing the game to crash.
i make more than 30 Billion at the first time with 9 subsidiary companies, my starting capital 10 million + 10 million loan. You can owned and controlled all of companies at the first day. So there is no more competition.
This trick is not possible when at the first time the number of AI companies has reach at the max. And also if starting capital of private subsidiary is limited, amount of capital injection is limited, and players using capital injection once per 3 month.
Re: Major exploit
Posted: Sat Jan 27, 2018 8:59 pm
by Njeroe
The second exploit doesn't seem like a complicated fix, it's just an unintended way in how loans are taken over after merges. To limit its effect all outstanding loans of the subsidiary should be paid off with the cash available. If the amount of cash of the subsidiary is negative after paying back every loan this should be paid by the parent company (perhaps as part of the merger screen). This way you wouldn't gain any money since all loans are taken away and the starting capital of the company is already provided by the parent company. What do you guys think?
Re: Major exploit
Posted: Mon Jan 29, 2018 10:13 am
by beamthegreat
Njeroe wrote: ↑Sat Jan 27, 2018 8:59 pm
The second exploit doesn't seem like a complicated fix, it's just an unintended way in how loans are taken over after merges. To limit its effect all outstanding loans of the subsidiary should be paid off with the cash available. If the amount of cash of the subsidiary is negative after paying back every loan this should be paid by the parent company (perhaps as part of the merger screen). This way you wouldn't gain any money since all loans are taken away and the starting capital of the company is already provided by the parent company. What do you guys think?
This works for private subsidiaries. But you can still "steal" money from shareholders by creating and injecting cash into another subsidiary with a publicly traded company where you own 75% (or more) of the shares. This can be easily fixed by only allowing the player to merge when they control exactly 100% of the shares but I believe this script is already available somewhere on this site.
Re: Major exploit
Posted: Mon Jan 29, 2018 10:24 am
by beamthegreat
On an unrelated note, there's a minor exploit that happens when you transfer buildings across firms.
If you transfer buildings with high a high return on investment across firms (telecom, internet buildings, certain factories, etc) you only have to pay the cost of the building. This leads to a situation where you can pump and dump stocks.
1. Create a subsidiary.
2. Transfer high ROA buildings into the new firm.
3. Start IPO.
4. Watch stocks soar. Wait until it hits a PE of 10 or so.
5. Transfer all the buildings back to your main firm.
6. Sell all your shares.
7. Rinse and repeat.
Profit. Can be quite entertaining watching the stock collapse as investors frantically try to sell their shares in panic.
Re: Major exploit
Posted: Sun Feb 04, 2018 10:42 am
by Njeroe
beamthegreat wrote: ↑Mon Jan 29, 2018 10:13 am
Njeroe wrote: ↑Sat Jan 27, 2018 8:59 pm
The second exploit doesn't seem like a complicated fix, it's just an unintended way in how loans are taken over after merges. To limit its effect all outstanding loans of the subsidiary should be paid off with the cash available. If the amount of cash of the subsidiary is negative after paying back every loan this should be paid by the parent company (perhaps as part of the merger screen). This way you wouldn't gain any money since all loans are taken away and the starting capital of the company is already provided by the parent company. What do you guys think?
This works for private subsidiaries. But you can still "steal" money from shareholders by creating and injecting cash into another subsidiary with a publicly traded company where you own 75% (or more) of the shares. This can be easily fixed by only allowing the player to merge when they control exactly 100% of the shares but I believe this script is already available somewhere on this site.
I read somewhere too that this exploit could be fixed by a script but in my opinion it shouldn't be optional, it ruins challenges if you use them for example. It will give an unfair advantage to players who do not know of this.