Make Debt Matter!

Don't Teach Kids To Create Failing Businesses

from Offworld Forums

So I've been carefully watching how high-level OTC is played, and it seems to me that it's totally permissible to go get absurd amounts of debt as long as A) nobody decides to buy you out or B) you can bolster your stock price by regularly buying others' stock.  In practice, this means that a company can win simply by creating cash faster than they can accrue debt.  While the black market penalty is very nice, it often seems not to kick in until well after the point where it should matter.  By the end, you've got a monopoly, sure, but you've also got a company that has no way out of the incredible debt hole it's created.

 

The simplest remedy would be to prohibit people at Bond Rating D or lower from buying out the last competing company, forcing folks to prove financial solvency before assuming sole control of Mars' economy and rewarding more sustainable economic approaches without completely disabling the high-debt high-risk strategy.  Sure, a monopoly could then proceed to charge whatever they like, theoretically paying back all the debt at arbitrary amounts, but that couldn't play well with the capitalists back on Earth, would it?

 

A more complex remedy might involve surrendering claims to the Colony for serious amounts of debt forgiveness (say, 30-40% of total debt) as kind of a way to balance out the serious amounts of greed and provide the runner-up some small window of opportunity to catch up.

 

Or is everything working as intended?  If so, think of the children!  People will believe that the path to success is to simply borrow one's way out of any financial predicament.  Maxed out your credit card? Pay it off with another credit card!  MADNESS

7,351 views 3 replies
Reply #1 from Offworld Forums Top

Debt does matter far more than it used to.  Check out some of the earlier games on Zultar's channel and compare to current play.  There was once a lot of screaming about debt being too cheap.  I think most (though not all) top players would now consider debt to be fairly well balanced.

A reality is that debt is an intended tool in the game.  It's better to have 4k cash and 4k debt and do something with the cash than to have no cash and no debt.  However, even top players (like Gameslayer) do kill themselves when they dive too deeply into debt these days.  Those C and D interest rates add up quickly.

Reply #2 from Offworld Forums Top

Part of the challenge of winning high levels games is riding the fine line between too much and too little debt.most top level players will focus almost entirely on maximising cash (and hence upgrades) until at least HQ level 3, and often HQ level 4. This often means they ignore power (as generating power only pays off debt, with no cash income unless you are debt free). Around HQ level 3 power prices then often start going crazy and the timing to switch into making power (and how much ) is a critical decision.

The penalty of no use of black market in D levels of debt is extremely debilitating in top level games.

Being able to sell back a claim for a 30% debt reduction would be very arbitrary and not unfair and just wouldn't work.

As for the children, they need to learn how to use debt effectively to make more money:)

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Reply #3 from Offworld Forums Top

Yup. the only reason why debt sometimes seems to not matter at high levels of play is that high level players are VERY good at riding the fine line between debt and bankruptcy. Debt is high, but just of a downward debt spiral.