Amazing game Mohawk, as an Economics Major and wanna be stock broker, this game is like watching Wallstreet for the first time.
I love the small startup feel your company has pulled off with great community engagement.
I have been playing your game non-stop and have loved every second of it. In my time playing I have noticed things that could be added that would make the game tighter and even more interesting.
A current issue is host being dropped and ending the game. Have you guys considered adding what Halo does where if a player drops the game pauses and the host is transferred to a new player? That would be awesome!
Another thing that I crave in this game is a way to do more things with my resources. For Rockefeller, not only did he start drilling to get the oil, but he also opened up refineries and made lamp oil. I would like to see more ways players could compete with one another, for example, a player could focus on R & D and develop faster engines for ships and maybe a way to control the shipping lanes (ala Vanderbilt). Another example could be nuclear reactors, which would require refining chemicals and water into different forms (creating sub markets for these goods). Imagine if a company who has electronics could make robots that can be sold to other companies to increase production or add some benefit. It would be like a tech tree, and other companies could buy the tech from other players to help themselves.
Another idea I thought about was an in game corporate politic system. If anyone here has seen the famous "Greed is good" speech by Gordon Gecko, he is trying to take over the company in a hostile take over. (this would be better suited in the campaign mode) You the CEO have to keep the board happy until you are able to buy them all out.
On that note, another possible idea is adding a hiring method, similar to the campaign mode. For a company, the people on your team makes or breaks you. Imagine being able to choose CFOs, COOs, and other positions to add perks to your company. Either company could "bid" for the employee to be hired (similar to the real world, if Steve Jobs would have said "I want to be a CEO, companies make me an offer." Companies would have offered him salary to get him on their team.) There needs to be competition for labor as well, for example if my company paid water engineers a lot more with benefits (that would cost me) I could get top notch engineers that would produce more. Also, maybe another feature if you added a salary system is to make sure you keep your workers happy as you could risk them unionizing and demanding more benefits and higher wages.
Another feature that could be added is a more active government. What if your business had to carefully tote a red line (like in the real world) and keep their influence strong in the governments, like buying influence, or lobbying. The government also could put out random incentives for businesses to respond to. Think the subsidies to green energy that encourage companies to make solar panels and wind. Our corporations could get in game events saying "earth needs x good, if a company creates this it will win favor and tax credits." Conversely, another way to hurt players is to bribe government officials into doing an audit that would temporarily cripple a company. Even worse, have the sherman anti-trust act slammed down on a player with a piece of their company being broken up to a player and a new AI (think the bell companies and how they were broken up). You could fight your way back to take back your own company.
These are just some ideas I thought could be cool, of course it goes without saying, you guys have created an amazing game that has potential to revolutionize the economic rts genre. These would be just some features that would add even more flavor to an already awesome game.
Cheers!
