Stocks should do more

from Stardock Forums

First, I'd like to say that I'm loving the game so far. That said, I think that having a "stock market" in the game while it is so shallow is doing this game's brilliant concept and gameplay a disservice. Owning stocks should be worth something. In the real world the reason people buy stocks is (usually) not with a view to eventually owning the company, it's to create wealth from existing wealth. If buying a stock that then increases in value actually gave you some sort of reward other than simply inching you closer to victory it would allow another avenue of getting money. This would particularly aid players lagging behind. If you're in fourth place but you buy stock in a company that's doing really well, their success can help you compete. Likewise, short-selling (selling stock you don't have and buying it back later when it's cheaper) the stock of a company that you're about to underground nuke or that is about to go into debt at an auction, would allow you to profit off of others' misfortunes. 

The problem with this is that there would probably need to be other victory conditions, because as long as buying out another company is the sole winning condition there cannot really be meaningful stock-play. For example, the Railroad Tycoon series is one that, I always thought, gave an excellent stock market model that was easy to understand but also one that added an immense amount of strategic depth to an already deep game. 

3,180 views 3 replies
Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top

Noted. Thanks for the feedback!

Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top

If I'm not mistaken, buying someone's stock increases your own stock value making it harder for others to buy your stock.

 

I do like your idea though :)

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Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top

what if  there's a dividend mechanic , where if you own 1 or more shares of any other company, you get a dividend based on their earnings, so if you owned at least one share of the top player in a match, you're at least getting some periodic income to work with, and hopefully keep you in the game. 

Maybe there's another mechanic where you have to split your stock if you exceed a certain value (or maybe everytime you acquire another player), where you have x multiple the amount of stock in the market, but it's easier for other players to acquire your stock, which gives them dividend income and evens the playing field.