Stock exchange

[testuser]

Could be an interesting bit of flavor, a digital exchange terminal on Tavros as a bit of a money sink. By late-game you have x0,000 credits sitting around, one way to get rid of it while feeling like you're progressing is buying 0.001% of Steele or Akkadi. You could add randomized price fluctuations if you're feeling generous, but really that's not as important as the feeling that you're empirebuilding.

Maybe in addition to the Megacorps, there's also some smaller fish floating around with random names that you have a reasonable chance of buying out if you grind some credits (200k?). Upon reaching 100% of their shares, you'd get some official message from your trust fund/steele corp informing you that it's been officially liquidated into SteeleCorp and your shares have been converted to an equivalent value of Steele shares.

The flavor of the exchange could either be a hyperdigital version of the current market, or it could be treated as something more like the corporations of the 1800's and before. Oligarch "owners" with relatively large stakes in corporations like Standard Oil, receiving formal messages informing them of their dividend. Plebians need not apply. This would also remove the need for any sort of price fluctuation, as you're buying from a more white-glove exclusive marketplace rather than some High Frequency Trader infested public market.

 

[DaBomb]

I believe that in a businessman perspective, it'd be much more profitable to wait until you own Steeltech and just buy the companies outright instead of owning all their stock.  It takes a lot of money to buy an entire company from all of its stocks and i'm pretty sure a company will only allow you to own a certain percentage to prevent you from owning the company. 

 

[Kiwirar]

This sounds like a lot of coding that is never going to be written.

 

[MESeele]

If the market fluctuations are random, a casino would would work better for less effort. After all, in both ideas money is the only reward.

(Though high stakes gambling betting ships on the outcome of a single poker match sounds fun too)

 

[Savin]

Honestly, I like the idea insofar as it's a way to justify and profit from the way Steele actually goes around helping other megacorps.

The way I'd do it would basically be that each "quest" you complete for a megacorp would just add a multiplier to your investment thereafter. Say if you invest in XenoGen at the start of the game, you start with an investment multiplier of x1.0. Get the zil for Haswell, goes up to 1.1. Help McAllister with his ant problem, up to 1.2. And on you go. Hurting corps or playing them against each other does the same thing in reverse. 

Most of the code for it's basically there in the way you get weekly cash from Taivra's palace.

THAT SAID, I dunno if I could wrangle Fen into letting me write it out. Seems harmless enough, though.

 

[testuser]

I believe that in a businessman perspective, it'd be much more profitable to wait until you own Steeltech and just buy the companies outright instead of owning all their stock.  It takes a lot of money to buy an entire company from all of its stocks and i'm pretty sure a company will only allow you to own a certain percentage to prevent you from owning the company. 

Buying a company outright is equivalent to buying it's stock, from a real world market perspective. Also, companies can't really stop you from buying as much of their stock as you want, because you aren't buying it from them but from other people that own the stock. Hostile takeovers happen relatively frequently in the real world.

If the market fluctuations are random, a casino would would work better for less effort. After all, in both ideas money is the only reward.

(Though high stakes gambling betting ships on the outcome of a single poker match sounds fun too)

I agee, it'd be roughly equivalent to a Casino. Personally I just like the idea of building a bit of ownership in things, and it'd probably allow for some side-events later on. "Message from the board of Slutco". A casino would certainly be a good alternative though, you could even take it further and make it more of an insurance bet on the fate of an offscreen ship. Maybe you're choosing to guarantee the cargo of a supply run through a galactic ghetto in exchange for part of the booty.

 

[Milkman]

Hopefully Savin can get Fen's permission cause yeah the idea seems pretty neat and tbh a much better way for Steel to prove he has the business acumen to run SteelCorp than probe hunting. That would actually make for an interesting alternate win condition at the end of the game. An ending where your cousin beats you to the final probe and takes control of the company only for you to proceed to perform a hostile take over, leveraging all the investments you've made along the way on your quest.

 

[testuser]

Honestly, I like the idea insofar as it's a way to justify and profit from the way Steele actually goes around helping other megacorps.

The way I'd do it would basically be that each "quest" you complete for a megacorp would just add a multiplier to your investment thereafter. Say if you invest in XenoGen at the start of the game, you start with an investment multiplier of x1.0. Get the zil for Haswell, goes up to 1.1. Help McAllister with his ant problem, up to 1.2. And on you go. Hurting corps or playing them against each other does the same thing in reverse. 

Most of the code for it's basically there in the way you get weekly cash from Taivra's palace.

THAT SAID, I dunno if I could wrangle Fen into letting me write it out. Seems harmless enough, though.

I hadn't thought of it, but the investment multiplier is a good idea, much better than relying on random fluctuations. Based on the story so far, Steele is already causing large ripples in the galaxy, at least in the local area of the planets s/he's visited. It would make sense that their actions are reflected in the global market. The smaller buyout-able corps I mentioned earlier could result in SteeleCorp sending the PC a relevant weapon or item with the message informing them of the takeover. That might be stretching the mechanic, though.

Hopefully Savin can get Fen's permission cause yeah the idea seems pretty neat and tbh a much better way for Steel to prove he has the business acumen to run SteelCorp than probe hunting. That would actually make for an interesting alternate win condition at the end of the game. An ending where your cousin beats you to the final probe and takes control of the company only for you to proceed to perform a hostile take over, leveraging all the investments you've made along the way on your quest.

I like the image of cousin Steele coming back 10 years later, ragged and with the deed to SteeleCorp, only to find out it was bought out by the PC along with her inheritance for good measure.

 

[Dormane]

Maybe it would work like this; stock multiplier increases or decreases randomely by 0.1% per weak plus multipliers from quest. Also their should be a cap on how much of any company steele can own (1% maybe?), becuase if steele owned more than a couple of percent then special variations would have to be written when steele walks into a company building. Also steele should start off with some stock in steele tech. 

 

[testuser]

I don't know that special variations would be needed. Would the average Walmart employee know if Christy Walton walked in to the store without being told? These megacorps probably have hundreds of thousands of employees across the galaxy, who don't know or care about the day-to-day ownership changes.

 

[Nik_van_Rijn]

I don't know that special variations would be needed. Would the average Walmart employee know if Christy Walton walked in to the store without being told? These megacorps probably have hundreds of thousands of employees across the galaxy, who don't know or care about the day-to-day ownership changes.

Employees may not know, but any systems that scan you or interact with your ID in any way (for example while paying for anything) would.

All in all, I like the idea, even though most of my Steeles would steer clear of it, because they prefer to keep their adventuring pure. 

 

[EmperorG]

I love the sounds of this stock market idea, gives us something to invest cash in on the side once we've hit the end of what's been developed. Plus I enjoy the idea of being able to actually feel like the heir to a major corporation. My Steel would invest heavily with any excess income he had.

 

[Savin]

So I may have started writing something like this cuz I didn't want to write horrible tentacle parasites yesterday. No guarantee it'll make it in game, but it also won't take much effort to write out so whatever.

Basically due to the galaxy-spanning nature of mega-corporations at play in TiTS, I'm thinking instead of actual stock (which I kind of estimate might go in the b/millions per share due to the sheer size and power of these companies), you'd instead buy short-term bonds w/ regular (monthly, probably) interest payments that fluctuate up and down based on the company's success/worth as measured by the Galactic Exchange during the course of the bond (which you'll probably hold until after the story's over anyway, unless you pull the CoC standard of "I'm on day 1000! DD" Cuz as it is now, TiTS's story can be easily topped off in like, 30 days. Probably 60-100 at the end?). Make a big investment and help Xenogen a bunch, and make a tidy profit off 'em. I think this will keep the complexity (code and otherwise) down a little bit from a traditional stock-market, but still have the same net effect for the player: have something to invest spare cash in that also reflects the state of the game world.

That sound good? Or do you think I should scrap that and just try and write out a more traditional stock market?

 

[Lashcharge]

So I may have started writing something like this cuz I didn't want to write horrible tentacle parasites yesterday. No guarantee it'll make it in game, but it also won't take much effort to write out so whatever.

Basically due to the galaxy-spanning nature of mega-corporations at play in TiTS, I'm thinking instead of actual stock (which I kind of estimate might go in the b/millions per share due to the sheer size and power of these companies), you'd instead buy short-term bonds w/ regular (monthly, probably) interest payments that fluctuate up and down based on the company's success/worth as measured by the Galactic Exchange during the course of the bond (which you'll probably hold until after the story's over anyway, unless you pull the CoC standard of "I'm on day 1000! DD" Cuz as it is now, TiTS's story can be easily topped off in like, 30 days. Probably 60-100 at the end?). Make a big investment and help Xenogen a bunch, and make a tidy profit off 'em. I think this will keep the complexity (code and otherwise) down a little bit from a traditional stock-market, but still have the same net effect for the player: have something to invest spare cash in that also reflects the state of the game world.

That sound good? Or do you think I should scrap that and just try and write out a more traditional stock market?

That works and the only problem I can think of is that it will require a lot more coporations to work. Seems like now there is one megacorp per monopoly, without anyform of competition within their monopoly.

 

[Couch]

Seems fine to me.  I also kind of like the idea of the alternate win condition brought up, though that's obviously much further along.

And yeah, we could use a little competition.  Most commonly in huge markets you don't see a monopoly, but rather two-three dueling giants and then a bunch of tiny companies that often get used as contractors by the giants.  In soda it's all Coke vs Pepsi, in computers it's Microsoft vs Apple, in gaming it's Nintendo, Sony or Microsoft, in telecom it's Verizon, Sprint, or AT&T.  I suppose you could lump all the TF producers together as one industry, but Xenogen's still overrepresented as far as screen presence.

 

[Savin]

 it will require a lot more coporations to work. Seems like now there is one megacorp per monopoly, without anyform of competition within their monopoly.

I got over a dozen from the wiki, so there's that. Every corp has some kind of competition in its space, though most markets are certainly dominated by a specific corp (ie, Kiha vs. JoyCo in A.I./robotics; Pyrite vs. Kiha in ships; Xenogen vs. Tamani in transformatives, etc.). Maybe this'd give the PC a chance to tip the scales towards the underdog in certain markets, who knows.

 

[EmperorG]

It might also be of interest in that the PC can take over minor companies, like they do with the Nyrea in a way. Like a heating company on Uveto or something, nothing too powerful that would give some minor benefits/profits to the Pc on 1 or 2 planets.

 

[Lashcharge]

I got over a dozen from the wiki, so there's that. Every corp has some kind of competition in its space, though most markets are certainly dominated by a specific corp (ie, Kiha vs. JoyCo in A.I./robotics; Pyrite vs. Kiha in ships; Xenogen vs. Tamani in transformatives, etc.). Maybe this'd give the PC a chance to tip the scales towards the underdog in certain markets, who knows.

It will would also be good to add more corporations for more average stuff, like food, appliances, construction, hygiene products, farming, publishing, among many others.

 

[ThatOneJester]

If the market fluctuations are random, a casino would would work better for less effort. After all, in both ideas money is the only reward.

(Though high stakes gambling betting ships on the outcome of a single poker match sounds fun too)

A casino is needed!!!!

Maybe one with strip poker~ <3

 

[Savin]

A casino is needed!!!!

Maybe one with strip poker~ <3

I vaguely recall Gardeford or someone has had one in their to-write backlog since roughly the Middle Ages.

 

[Dormane]

So I may have started writing something like this cuz I didn't want to write horrible tentacle parasites yesterday. No guarantee it'll make it in game, but it also won't take much effort to write out so whatever.

Basically due to the galaxy-spanning nature of mega-corporations at play in TiTS, I'm thinking instead of actual stock (which I kind of estimate might go in the b/millions per share due to the sheer size and power of these companies), you'd instead buy short-term bonds

I disagree a company is allowed to issue as many shares as the want*, many real life companies probally have a couple million shares, but a huge mega corp would likely have trillions of shares instead of making the price unbelievable, and even if the mega corps are as huge as you say then the shares will probally be around 1000 credits or so at most which means means that actual shares are the perfect money sink for players with too much cash. 

*well not actually but im assuming that in a galactic eviroment most newly formed corps would register a trillion shares instead of a just a few million in case if they are become massive.

 

[MESeele]

I want to own(as much as I can) all Augmentation companies and get on the Mechanus League's good side - assuming they're still a thing.

I wonder if investing in stuff can open up new items, since we'd be increasing their funding. From an outside-game perspective though, locking content behind the stock game is rather unsound.

 

[Jacques00]

I wonder if investing in stuff can open up new items, since we'd be increasing their funding. From an outside-game perspective though, locking content behind the stock game is rather unsound.

That would be a good feature to help with incentives to the faction system (if and when it gets implemented). I can see financially boosting a corporation/faction would open access to any new and exclusive items being a gameplay advantage as well as a good roleplay mechanic. Not sure how flexible that system would be for players who are collectors/hoarders though.

 

[MESeele]

I completely forgot about the intended faction system. Tying in stocks and item production would actually be pretty neat. As far as hoarders go, I don't think TiTS actually has much in the way of vendor trash beyond obsolete equipment and Myrellion cave crystals.

 

[EmperorG]

I completely forgot about the intended faction system. Tying in stocks and item production would actually be pretty neat. As far as hoarders go, I don't think TiTS actually has much in the way of vendor trash beyond obsolete equipment and Myrellion cave crystals.

Weapons especially get excessive since you get so many as a reward for exploring/questing, they're my biggest problem with storage.

 

[testuser]

From an outside-game perspective though, locking content behind the stock game is rather unsound.

Weapons especially get excessive since you get so many as a reward for exploring/questing, they're my biggest problem with storage.

At some point a quest could reward the player with a dusty old chit redeemable for stock in some Company X, introducing them to the system and letting them know that there's some content in that direction. That being said, I haven't noticed item spam being a huge problem.

I will say, having (very few) shares of some companies IRL, some of them are quite aggressive about getting you to vote on shareholder proposals. Steele could get a random message from deep space at some random time with an option to vote for A or B, with different buffs or rewards depending on which you choose.

 

[Darth-Omix]

The "needing more companies" reminds me of something I emailed Fen about, a businessman named Redd Bleu who owned the Bleu Corporation. Basically a seedier JoyCo (as Fen and I described them a 'space Wal-mart') that's got their hands in a bit of everything, but the CEO also financially backs the Black Void and is just generally an asshole with a stupid haircut.

If you go through with the stock market thing Savin I'll be sure to shove all the stuff I have kept on my Drive onto the forums. I'm partway through rewriting my stuff since I found Gedan's formatting guide. I've just been flaking on a lot of it since I moved back in September.