Questions about Subsidiary control

[bundyaxl]

I know there has been several suggestions about more control of subsidiaries from various people (myself included) so I'm sure there will be some repeat.
Are there any plans for this in the near future?

Maybe full control and ability to switch between companies sounds like it would be a lot of work to implement (this is really what I'd like). However, would it be possible to at least allow certain restrictions to subsidiaries through a simple menu like our own COO/CMO/CTO? And maybe even control over the subsidiary HQ, this would also allow us to set subsidiary dividends as suggested recently.

For example,
-I would like an option to change company strategy (retail, real estate, diversified, etc)
-Allowed products/buildings and product/building focus (making it possible to restrict competing products to your own brand or use another brand to market a product line, or handle all of the raw materials for example, or retailing).
-It would be nice to also have the ability to fire and hire CEOs from subsidiaries and adjust their salary. On a side note, if a company is doing bad/going bankrupt and has enough player/AI shareholders, there should be an option to give them money and replace the CEO, although honestly I'm not sure how the game currently deals with subsidiary bankruptcy.
-The ability to give my subsidiary money directly without having to issue new shares. Same with technology.
-Option to ignore internal sales. I think we should be able to purchase from a subsidiary regardless of whether they have internal sale or not. Also, we should have 3 levels of internal sales... internal sale only, internal and subsidiary sales only, sales to everyone. Another possibility is to actually choose which companies you want to sell to individually, but I think the 3 options would be enough.

[WilliamMGary]

Seems like a good starting point.

[David]

There are sufficient good ideas in this suggestion post that are worthy of creating the new forum "Suggestions for a Subsidiary Control expansion pack" for further discussions.

In addition, the suggestions will take considerable resources to implement well, as they will have serious implications to AI and gameplay. Thus, they are more appropriate to be placed under this new forum.

[bundyaxl]

I'm very happy about where the game is going and I'd be glad if some more DLC or expansion content was released and I would be happy (willing) to pay for it.

Having played Cap2 almost since it came out, I would have never thought this game was coming back with such support. Back in those days I don't anyone really came out with constant updates. I like in general how games are going to this model, similar to Minecraft's constant updates and evolution.

Thanks to Enlight, David and the dev team.

[WilliamMGary]

I'm very happy about where the game is going and I'd be glad if some more DLC or expansion content was released and I would be happy (willing) to pay for it.

Having played Cap2 almost since it came out, I would have never thought this game was coming back with such support. Back in those days I don't anyone really came out with constant updates. I like in general how games are going to this model, similar to Minecraft's constant updates and evolution.

Thanks to Enlight, David and the dev team.

Indeed.

[MiniMe]

What about creating your own subsidaries without buying on from stock.

Maybe one like to collect all farms or mining in a seperate subsidary.

Like:

my company inc (holding company)
my company minerals
my company ...

So one can see all finacal reporting regarding to the selected subsidary.

[counting]

What about creating your own subsidaries without buying on from stock.

Maybe one like to collect all farms or mining in a seperate subsidary.

Like:

my company inc (holding company)
my company minerals
my company ...

So one can see all finacal reporting regarding to the selected subsidary.

This sounds more like branches than subsidiaries. And break up a corporation into several independent companies might create some game mechanic wise problems, since they will take hold existing corporation's spots, and will need AI persons to run them. Also they might not be profitable if leave them to their own device (usually AI does a poor job with specialized strategies). A even bigger issue will be the financial statements rework after the breakup, if you fully owned the branches stocks, how much money and shares will it have at the point of breakup, how many equity will it have, will it inherent loans, intangible assets, the depletion amount in raw materials, etc. Many options will be needed or some reasonable default setting need to be given for this to physically happen.

Nonetheless, it will be a very good mechanism to have, if we can work out the details.

[Arcnor]

What about creating your own subsidaries without buying on from stock.

Maybe one like to collect all farms or mining in a seperate subsidary.

Like:

my company inc (holding company)
my company minerals
my company ...

So one can see all finacal reporting regarding to the selected subsidary.

This sounds more like branches than subsidiaries. And break up a corporation into several independent companies might create some game mechanic wise problems, since they will take hold existing corporation's spots, and will need AI persons to run them. Also they might not be profitable if leave them to their own device (usually AI does a poor job with specialized strategies). A even bigger issue will be the financial statements rework after the breakup, if you fully owned the branches stocks, how much money and shares will it have at the point of breakup, how many equity will it have, will it inherent loans, intangible assets, the depletion amount in raw materials, etc. Many options will be needed or some reasonable default setting need to be given for this to physically happen.

Nonetheless, it will be a very good mechanism to have, if we can work out the details.

Companies do this sort of thing all the time. For example Coca Cola has their patients and copy rights held by one company, the trucks that deliver the products in another, the factories in another, etc etc. However, there is only one Coca Cola listed on the stock market. The game could work in the same manner. The only new mechanics that would be needed would be to create new HQs and assign what falls under that division/subsidiary. Then perhaps you hire a AI person as the President or something.

In terms of the financials, the financials wouldn't change at all. There would just be one consolidated financial statement. The only equity in these would be the retained earnings that these subs make as they sale products. Any initial investment (stock) the parent company would have would be eliminated when the financials are consolidated. In terms of loans, it doesn't matter how you split it up because it will all get consolidated back together. Intangible assets can be assigned based on products that a specific sub will focus on. Same goes for inventory, raw materials, etc.

In terms of cash, perhaps the player gets to set a budget for a sub that lays out how much of new capital expenditures can be made.

[counting]

If you don't split corporations into separate economic entities, and only wanted AIs to run firms for you, you can already do that when you appoint COO to run specific firms for you. (perhaps an upside is to have different personality AI to fit that particular area?) The only new element will be the "branch firms' income statements" where only a portion of the firms are integrated into groups/branches. And there's no point split balance sheets, since it tells you little about how that branch performs (give them independent cash reservoir is not a good idea, and not helpful). And of course the major issue will be AI's ability to manage them for you. As I pointed out, AI already does a poor job of managing firm independently it will be quite annoyed if AI manage a large portion of your firms, when they just lose tones of money and over-produce, or allow sales to other corporation and let your corporation starve with upstream resources, or under-produce when you'll have to switch them back and forth to organize the layout manually.

But this could be interesting just group a portion of the firms run by AI, and see how that portion perform independently. Also it would be easier to implement real corporation breakup, where you actually release it into actual company, which would be the real changes that alter existing mechanics.