Product Class Expertise and Knowledge Points
Both the player character and AI-controlled individuals can hold expertise in specific product classes. That expertise carries two concrete advantages when they manage a company.
| Advantage | What it does |
|---|---|
| Improved R&D effectiveness | Each expertise point in a product class raises R&D performance for technologies in that class by 1%. |
| Maintained manufacturing levels | Applying higher-level technology to an existing manufacturing unit in that class leaves the unit’s level unchanged. In the original Capitalism 2, upgrading technology downgraded the unit. |
Why it matters over a long game
In the original Capitalism 2, a game running 80 years or more usually ended with one corporation dominating almost every market. Product class expertise makes that considerably harder: companies led by CEOs with expertise in particular classes are much stronger opponents, and the field stays competitive for far longer.
On your side of the table, hiring managers — a COO with the right expertise, for instance — becomes a real strategic decision rather than an afterthought.
Prefer the classic style? Set Competitor Expertise Level to None in the new game settings and the feature is off.
Knowledge Points
Knowledge Points are the reward for achieving specific goals, and they are spent raising the expertise of your management executives.
The settings
A Goal Rewards section sits under the Goals tab of the game settings menu.
| Option | What it does |
|---|---|
| Knowledge Points on or off | Turns the whole system off. |
| Can Increase Expertise of Management Staff | Allows Points to be spent on your management team. Disabled, only the player character’s expertise can be raised. |
| Initial amount | How many Points you start a game with. |
| Points per goal | How many each completed goal awards. |
Spending them
Points spent on your player character develop the skills that suit how you actually play, rather than following a fixed progression.
With Can Increase Expertise of Management Staff enabled you can raise the leadership team’s capabilities directly, aligning their strengths with where the company is heading.
Also see
- Knowledge Points — also spendable on new import and export deals.
- Technology Disruption — expertise offsets the annual erosion of a technology lead.