Improved Gameplay Balance

The following aspects of the game have been revised for improving the overall gameplay balance.

Freight costs 
The freight costs for buying products from another city is now calculated based on:

1) freight costs between the supplier firm and the nearest seaport

2) freight costs for shipping products between two cities.

3) freight costs between the buyer firm and the nearest seaport

Viewing the freight cost breakdown 
Select a Purchasing Unit, and hover the mouse over the “cost+freight” display and the game will now pop up a box showing the freight cost breakdown (see the below screenshot).


The maximum capacity of functional units
The maximum capacity of functional units is adjusted lower to a more realistic level. This is particularly noticeable for functional units that have been trained to higher levels.

R&D progress 
For research and development projects in R&D centers, increases in numeric values of technologies will be higher under the circumstances when the Top Technology on the market is higher than 100.This will address the issue where R&D improvements will barely make any significant impacts on the product quality when the Top Technology has reached a very high value.

Training 
For both normal and intensive training, any functional units that have reached level 9 will no longer incur any training costs, regardless of the training slider’s settings.

Random event 
When the “Technology Breakthrough” random event happens, the research in progress will complete instantly and the resulting tech will be 20-60 points higher than the original target tech.

Merger mechanism improvement 
An improvement has been made to allow brands of the target company of a merger to survive under the conditions described below.If both the acquiring company (parent) and the target company (child) are using unique brand strategy, and BOTH of the following conditions is true, then the child’s brand ratings will be retained.

Condition #1 

The child’s brand rating > the parent’s brand rating (brand rating is the sum of brand awareness and brand loyalty)

Condition #2
The child’s brand loyalty >=0
OR
The child’s brand loyalty is at least 10 points greater than the parent’s brand loyalty.