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     Post subject:Evolving Companies
    PostPosted:Fri Oct 07, 2005 5:28 am 
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    Joined:Mon Mar 07, 2005 9:32 am
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    Uplink had a set number of companies in game. It started off by generating them randomly and they all stayed as they were unless they were modified specifically by a plotline event or a hacker. No new companies were created unless a plotline event created them.

    I think we should have a more realistically governed company system in Onlink, whereby companies are created and closed down all the time. They would have profit figures and stocks. For example, Microsoft Corp could be created when you start a new game. It could have stock figures of 1276Cr per share and an annual profit of 11,472,893Cr (very big company). These figures would go up and down by themselves over time by random amounts, but would be heavily affected by attacks on their servers. If a company's profit goes down to 0, it is deleted and all stocks are lost. Every so often, the game should create a company with a growth value. For 2 in-game years, the profit and share prices increase according to the growth value.

    This gives rise to a new mission type, "Assist us in taking over a company". In this mission, you would attack the server several times until the company is down to a share price defined in the mission email. Different attacks would cause different amounts of damage to the stock value. If you totally bankrupt the company (i.e share price = 0) the mission is failed. The idea is that the company can then take over by purchasing 51% of shares at a low price. The share price is then reset to its original amount before the mission took place.

    Certain companies (Government, Uplink, etc) would not grow/decline or be a target for takeovers.

    A problem with this would be that if a mission is taken out on a company, but it goes bust before you complete it, the game would crash due to an assertion error. To fix this, the company and its servers could simply be hidden instead of totally deleted. Hidden servers would not be considered for missions or news items.

    The stock market server could then have a "Company News" section, in which you can view news about companies being created, taken over or killed off. It would also show news when a company has a dramatic change in its share price.

    It's a lot to think about, but it'd be a cool addition.

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     Post subject:Good idea
    PostPosted:Thu Feb 16, 2006 11:15 am 
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    Joined:Wed Feb 15, 2006 4:27 pm
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    Website:http://constablebrew.googlepages.com
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    This is an interesting concept, particularly because one of my academic interests is in modeling complex economic systems using agent based models. I would be interested in discussing this further.


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    PostPosted:Thu Feb 16, 2006 11:52 am 
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    Joined:Sun Oct 30, 2005 3:40 pm
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    this is kewl, but way too hard for normal people.

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    PostPosted:Thu Feb 16, 2006 12:52 pm 
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    Joined:Wed Feb 15, 2006 4:27 pm
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    Website:http://constablebrew.googlepages.com
    Location:Southern California, USA
    What do you mean? Do you mean that normal people would have a hard time figuring out how to take advantage of such a system within the game? Or do you mean normal people would have a hard time developing it?


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    PostPosted:Fri Feb 17, 2006 4:53 pm 
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    Joined:Wed Feb 01, 2006 4:28 pm
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    i was thinking of somewhing like this before.
    My idea was to just use real stock market informations.
    But i would be nice to see the impact of your hacks on the company.
    Does anyone know "dynatec" from the old amiga days? It generates a whole economic system at the game start and if you dont help keeping it running but sabotage it the whole economics will crash.

    To do such thing you must create suply chanes and virtual customers. You will end up with different markets with a bunch of companys with own finances.

    I dont want to hit the buzz word but i have to: this would be a reat massive multiplayer where you can take oer a company or be a admin in it or as of now a hacker.

    Anyway its hard to code it.


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    PostPosted:Fri Feb 17, 2006 5:51 pm 
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    Joined:Wed Feb 15, 2006 4:27 pm
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    Website:http://constablebrew.googlepages.com
    Location:Southern California, USA
    Creating an economy would require a stock market server where you could obtain news about any given companys quarterly earnings reports, curent stock prices, and buy/sell stock.

    Possible missions:

    Steal/delete financial records
    Spoof buy/sale of stock by some person (to push up or down some stock)
    Plant false embezzelment evidence (to indicate some ceo)
    Disrupt automated factory control systems
    Aid in theft of prototype equipment by disabling office security systems
    Create false company and drive its stock up through spoofed stock sales.


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     Post subject:
    PostPosted:Fri Feb 17, 2006 10:40 pm 
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    Joined:Wed Feb 01, 2006 4:28 pm
    Posts:97
    it would require more than that:
    -a simple AI
    -trading servers (for goods)
    -stock server(s)
    -additions to the lans (machine stearing computers)
    -some kind of delivery system for goods (curier companys)

    I like the idea of making some kind of second internet (of cause not so huge)

    Btw i just thinking if routers like in real networks would be a good thing (you can use them to bounce the connection or alter their routing tables.


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