Corporations

Corporations are player-owned businesses that generate revenue, employ workers, and interact with state economies. Every character can found exactly one corporation. Corporations earn money each turn, respond to economic conditions, and can become a significant source of personal wealth and political leverage.

Founding a Corporation

To found a corporation, you need $1,000,000 in personal cash. That cost is deducted immediately, and your new corporation starts with $1,000,000 in liquid capital.

At founding you choose from 17 sector types:

Your chosen type is the corporation's primary type. Sectors matching your primary type receive a +5% profit margin bonus. You can later add a secondary type for a +2.5% bonus on sectors of that type.

The CEO receives 10,000,000 shares at $0.10 initial price. Your corporation's HQ is set to your current home state.

Expanding Into Markets

Corporations grow by acquiring sectors in state economies. Each sector represents a slice of a state's market in your industry.

Expansion cost: $100,000 per new sector

Each new sector starts with:

• $1,000,000 revenue
• 500 workers
• 35% default profit margin

Market Capture (Splits)

To capture unowned market share you perform a "split":

• Cash cost: 5% of the unowned sector's revenue
• MS cost: Starts at 1 Marketing Strength (MS), then doubles with each split you make: 1, 2, 4, 8, 16...
• Capture amount: 2% of unowned sector as baseline, plus bonus from your marketing strength (marketingStrength / 100)
• Escalation decay: Each turn, your split escalation level decreases by 1 — cost halves back toward 1 MS over time

This means rapid splits become expensive quickly, but waiting a few turns resets the cost.

Per-Turn Processing

Every turn, the game processes each corporation through several phases:

1. Revenue growth applied to each sector
2. Profit margins calculated with all modifiers
3. Sector and corporation data saved
4. Corporate tax bases updated in federal and state budgets
5. CEO salary paid from liquid capital to CEO's personal wallet
6. Dividends distributed to shareholders
7. Pending share orders filled
8. Market cap snapshot recorded

Profit Margin Modifiers

Many factors adjust your sector profit margins. These are additive:

Sectors that don't match your primary or secondary type receive a -15% penalty. Focused corporations outperform diversified ones unless you manage logistics carefully.

CEO Tools

CEO Salary

Set a daily salary (no minimum or maximum). It is deducted from liquid capital each turn. High salaries drain capital and reduce share price over time.

Marketing Budget

Marketing Strength (MS) determines how much unowned market you capture per split. MS grows each turn based on your daily marketing spend:

• Base: 1 MS per turn (any spend)
• Scaled: 0.65 × ln(1 + budget / 100,000)

Starting MS is 10. Diminishing returns kick in above MS 100.

Logistical Sprawl

Corporations with more than 15 sectors incur a -0.5% margin penalty per 2 sectors over the threshold. With a secondary type set, that doubles to -1.0% per 2 sectors. Logistics spending raises the threshold (up to 30 sectors at max Logistics Strength of 200) and halves the penalty slope.

Production Policy

Each sector has a production policy on a -25 to +25 scale. Positive values push for higher revenue growth at lower margins (Aggressive). Negative values preserve margin at lower output (Conservative). The active level trends toward your target at 1 unit per turn.

Corporate Taxes

Two tax rates apply to each sector: a domestic rate and a foreign rate. A corporation headquartered in the US pays the US domestic rate on US sectors and the foreign rate of any other country where it operates. Both rates are set by legislation in each country. State-level corporate taxes also stack on top.

Economic Effects on Corporations

Your corporation's sectors respond to state and national conditions:

• State GDP growth is driven by the revenue-weighted average of all corporate sector growth rates in that state.
• Commodity markets affect margins — steel shortages hurt manufacturing, oversupply in energy compresses energy sector margins.
• Bills and policies can create subsidies (+15% margin) or trigger tariffs (foreign corps pay margin penalties in target countries).

Shares and Dividends

The CEO sets a dividend rate (0–100% of after-tax income). Dividends are paid each turn to all shareholders proportional to their share count. Players buy and sell shares on country stock exchanges.

Share price formula:

• 15% momentum (previous price)
• 60% balance sheet value (liquid capital + sector NPV)
• 25% income valuation (annual income × 6 P/E multiple, capped at 4× book value)

National Corporations

Some corporations are government-owned (e.g., the UK NHS). These cannot be purchased or attacked. Their revenue flows through the national budget rather than to a CEO.

Interaction with Politics

Corporations connect to politics in several ways:

• Legislation creates subsidies, tariffs, and tax rate changes that directly affect margins
• Senators and Representatives can advance bills that benefit their sector
• The national budget receives corporate tax revenue — profitable corps help state finances
• The IMF facility and crisis systems can affect corporate borrowing costs and credit ratings

See also: Corporate Bonds, Corporate R&D, Stock Market, Commodities, National Budget