Capitalism 2 and Capitalism Lab Forum

Great game.

1.

Not sure if this has been mentioned, but it'd be great if the new version included options to hire and fire CEOs of subsidiary companies. This would be especially useful in the late stages of a long game, when 1 or 2 companies have grown very large and are market leaders in their industries, but their managers are reluctant to expand to industries outside their expertise or markets outside their base, despite usually having the cash to do it. It would be great if the parent company could replace the subsidiary's manager with a manager more likely to take the company in a new direction.

Another option would be to buy one of the many start-up companies that emerge in the late-game for a few months or years, but are inevitably run out of business, usually due to prohibitive R and D costs. This becomes a particular headache during recessions and depressions, when there's so little diversification and supply in markets that all companies are forced to idly wait-out downturns instead of slowing the contractions and turning them around by expanding into high-capacity markets, for instance. Being able to replace managers in new companies with managers more disposed to given markets, industries, or market situations would be a big improvement.

2.

It would be great if this option were accompanied by an option to contribute cash to subsidiaries, either through direct cash transfers, or via bond issues. This way, large companies that are cash flush can help gird their balance sheets and guard against prolonged recessions and depressions by contributing cash to companies that can most effectively put it to use.

For players who like playing the finance game instead of the operations game, we're currently limited to over-paying for R and D or residential and commercial properties if we want to pump cash into a given company, and only when those properties are available for purchase. It's a cumbersome and inconsistent work-around to frequent macro-market liquidity problems.

EDIT:

3.

Almost forgot, I usually don't play the operations game, but when I have, I've never noticed COOs starting up new divisions. It would be great if it were possible to allow or disallow this option for COOs -- also, CTOs.

I like the ideas, Any ideas on how it can be implemented into the game? See if you can work on a framework for it.

baz wrote:I like the ideas, Any ideas on how it can be implemented into the game? See if you can work on a framework for it.

What's to implement? All the functionality is already in the game, it just needs to be applied to the CEO.

When my parent company buys more than 50% of a company, a 'terminate CEO' button should appear on the subsidiary company's CEO's career tab in their person report. A 'hire ceo' button should appear on all other characters' career tabs. Simple. Of course, AI companies should also be able to fire CEOs of subsidiary companies, but since that would imply the computer being able to fire the player from a player-managed subsidiary (and effectively ending the game), I'd settle for just allowing the option for the player, not the AI.

On capital contributions, David and his team just need to add a user interface function, a button that says 'transfer cash to subsidiary' with plus/minus signs that allow the player to transfer anywhere from $0 to all the holding company's free cash. This is the same functionality that facilitates the transfer of property in the game now. David and his team only need to allow this cash payment without the intermediate residential/commercial real estate or spin-off division step in between.

With debt notes, the functionality is there too: in each company's finance section, add a tab for 'bonds,' and a button that says 'issue new bonds.' The valuation and price functions should be controlled by the computer like they are now -- so the maximum total bond issuance possible would be set by the computer based on the issuing company's networth; the face value of each note could also be set completely by the computer, or player could pick a notional value within a range controlled by the computer, just like is done with equity issuances.

I like the your ideas, Create a poll to gather support for it.

It would be great if this option were accompanied by an option to contribute cash to subsidiaries, either through direct cash transfers, or via bond issues. This way, large companies that are cash flush can help gird their balance sheets and guard against prolonged recessions and depressions by contributing cash to companies that can most effectively put it to use.

For players who like playing the finance game instead of the operations game, we're currently limited to over-paying for R and D or residential and commercial properties if we want to pump cash into a given company, and only when those properties are available for purchase. It's a cumbersome and inconsistent work-around to frequent macro-market liquidity problems.

You may check out this page on Capitalism Lab web site:
http://www.capitalismlab.com/improved-m ... anies.html

David wrote:

It would be great if this option were accompanied by an option to contribute cash to subsidiaries, either through direct cash transfers, or via bond issues. This way, large companies that are cash flush can help gird their balance sheets and guard against prolonged recessions and depressions by contributing cash to companies that can most effectively put it to use.

For players who like playing the finance game instead of the operations game, we're currently limited to over-paying for R and D or residential and commercial properties if we want to pump cash into a given company, and only when those properties are available for purchase. It's a cumbersome and inconsistent work-around to frequent macro-market liquidity problems.

You may check out this page on Capitalism Lab web site:
http://www.capitalismlab.com/improved-m ... anies.html

Geat improvement
I'm curious how it will smoothen up the game experience if buying up a company in the lab version. In the regular cap2 it was annoying to keep an eye on the AI of other firms not to loose the grip over them.

Thanks David. I think I read about your plan to implement this feature somewhere else on this board. It will help the liquidity problem, but only to the extent that the game allows new equity issues. In long games, I've noticed that as equity prices rise, the game only allows smaller and smaller issues, to an extreme of zero. I haven't found any way to reverse this. For me, a direct cash transfer is still preferred.

And what are your thoughts on CEO hiring and firing?

I definitely would second being able to hire and fire people. I think it should be all the way from the CEO, to even the lower positions. There are often a lot of "good employees" hanging out there that could be working for an AI company. I never hire employees myself, because there's not enough options for controlling what they can and can't do, but for an AI company you're already letting it "run wild" anyway, so you might as well hire someone who will give it a performance boost in R&D or manufacturing or whatever.