Tux wrote:As stated the game design is targeting a much larger player base. This does not directly translate into larger corporations. The system should be viable for Corporations anywhere from 10 to 1000 players.
I understand your position.
However, I think you are underestimating the power shift that will occur when Corporations instead of Characters control the tech tree.
It was/is devastating now for the corporate prototyper to leave a corporation, communist or otherwise, regardless if that leaving is quitting the game, going to a new corp, or just taking a 2-week vacation.
As you point out, the new system doesn't directly change this. Anyone that was making PT's before can do so after the patch and the corps are no worse off (assuming they address the EP issue).
So, what we are really looking at is the impact going forward.
Having Corp research is an ADDITION to the system, not a replacement.
Corporations that currently request their players to turn in kernels will continue to do so, those that don't, won't.
The only difference now, is the person or group in the Corp that was deciding which Individual character to give those kernels to, now has to choose to either give the RP's to the corp, at a steep multiplier, or continue to 'risk' putting them into a charater that could leave/quit.
Not 100% on the mechanic yet, but the Benefit of having the Corp hold the tech is going to be tremendous. Having continual access to the tech, not worrying if player is on/off line, quit. Also being able to give multiple players access to the same tech, which will increase PT productivity because you are no longer limited to the a single character production.
Those (2) things alone are worth a serious multiplier. Now however, add in that the tech never goes away for corp learning. Never. It can't quit, can't leave, can't get pissy and reset. It doesn't matter that it takes longer to complete, because it's permant.
The size of the corporation isn't important really. If Tux, with 100% tech, is part of a small corp then that corp has access to the tech. It doesn't gain the benefits of 'all access, all the time', but it still has a tremendous advantage over corps that don't have 100% access.
The final point here, is simply that there should not be an easy route from character based to corporate based tech. And I believe that everyone understand that, the question is how much more valuable is it.
Personally, I think it should be a very long term goal for Corps to max out tech, because the corps with access to it now won't lose that access, and neither will individual players. It will KEEP tech 'players' valuable for a long time, as corps slowly build up permanant access. Remember, it's no longer random. Corps can spend their RP's on specific lines of tech, just like players, they don't NEED to have 100% tech to start seeing the value for T4.
I want to repeat that so it doesn't get lost. Corps, with the high multiplier do NOT need 100% tech to be competitive; assuming they still have 100% access through players.
Any Corp with 100% tech complete is going to be a BEAST; unless I'm complete off on my understanding of the mechanic.
Lastly, much better to error too high, than to have corps reach 100% and see how powerful they are, and have to try to backtrack.