The efficiency of a building is determined by a formula:

base efficiency * (1 - (0.0002 * age + 0.0002 * (age -1) + 0.0002 * (age - 2) … ) )

So, if a building has a base efficiency of 55%, then it’s efficiency will be 55 * 99.98% after the first day, 55 * 99.94% the second day, 55 * 99.88% the third day, and so on.

Initially, this loss of efficiency will be barely noticeable. However, it accelerates over time. At some point, the efficiency of the building will drop so low, that you will be better off getting rid of it and building something new. You will need to decide when this is, and what to do when it happens. Should you rebuild the same building? Or move to a new, more profitable industry?

• Gameplay changes. By far the most significant changes are in gameplay. The first 3 changes center around a common goal: Gives players more to do, and more choices to make, as the round goes on. So here are the game changes:
  • Buildings deteriorate over time. As a building gets older, its efficiency will start to decline. Factories have aging equipment, and older shops and offices will have a harder time selling their goods and services. Eventually you will want to replace the building with a new one.
  • Reduced construction times. The number of construction points required to complete a new building, whether it is a shop, factory, or office, has been cut in half.
  • Reduced upgrade fees. The first factory upgrade is now 5 000 iKr, and the second upgrade is 10 000 iKr.
  • Employee Training. You can now send an employee to training so that he or she can learn a new profession. Training costs 2 000 iKr and takes 24 hours to complete.
  • Wealth Tax option. Finally, by popular request, you may now elect to have your Wealth Tax calculated and deducted Sunday at 03:00 instead of Saturday at 15:00. You may only make this choice once per round, and once made, you cannot switch back. I made it a 12 hour difference in order to accommodate as many players’ time zones as possible
  • Fusions negative savings loophole closed. A fusion can no longer enter an auction if it does not have enough savings to make an opening bid.
  • Factory warehouses can now store 100 units, and you can control usage the same way you can control shop warehouse usage. Factories will only use 50 units of their warehouse by default, but you can change it at any time.
• Company Blogs. You may now publish a blog for your company. The blog is a great way for you to keep shareholders and friends up to date on what is happening with your company. Use the blog to issue press releases, or to journal your efforts in climbing the ranks as a successful Tycoon. These blogs can be read by anyone with an RSS reader, even without logging in to the game. You must have a Gold Membership to maintain a company blog.
• Records Page. The records page has been improved. You can now see the top record holder for the current round as well as for all time. Plus, players will get added to the records page anytime they make the top 50 for that particular record, rather than having to make it to #1 just to get on the list.
• Interface improvements. A number of changes have been made to the game interface to make it easier to play:
  • You may now sell multiple shares directly from the My Shares page. Just click the checkboxes next to each share you want to sell, then click submit.
  • There is no longer a separate confirmation page when you hire employees, reassign employees, or when buying shares
  • Investments, deposits to the salary account, and deposis to the fuel account are now considered “orders” and may be cancelled before they are processed. This provides a way to “undo” in case you accidentally put in one too many zero’s!
  • Your staff are now listed on a single page — you no longer need to click to the second page if you have more than 50 employees
  • Staff which have driver’s licenses are indicated with a car icon next to their names, so you don’t have to click on them to find out if they can drive
  • The link to buy new zones is at the top of the zone listing page, instead of the bottom. Same goes for the link to deposit to the fuel account
  • Your secretary will be a little less talkative at the beginning of the round — no more “Your first order!”, “Your first building!”, “Your first good!” messages.
  • You can now click on the count of logged in players to get a list of the logged in players.
  • The live chat is now more tightly integrated into the game. You must be logged in to the game to enter chat, and your name will be automatically set.
  • When looking at a section map, you can now click on buildings you own to go to the detail page for that building.
  • The nationality of players is now indicated by a flag next to their name in forum posts.

Congratulations to Robby Baggio, who finished in first place for company value (CV), and to Imperator Rex who finished in first place for stock points!

Robby Baggio has been a stellar performer — reaching #1 in only his second full round of play.  And Imperator Rex did a great job of blowing away the competition in stock points, beating the #2 player by a 25% margin. He also achieved a Hat Trick — making the top ten in all 3 categories!  Both of you did a great job and deserve all of our congrats!

I also want to mention that we had 148 players join the “Millionaire Club” this round. That is, they finished with a company value of over 1 million.  This is great to see — but I want to extend a challenge to all players:  Let’s get 300 in the millionaire club next round! We have had lots of new players join this round, and they will be starting their first full round next week.  So, I believe we can reach this goal.   Good luck everyone!

The next round will start April 6, 2008 at 16:10 game time.

Here are the final results for company value:

1. Robby Baggio 3,159,732
2. Hawkeye Pierce 2,743,408
3. Victorc Andsuperman 2,567,448
4. Nelly Brave 2,447,786
5. Imperator Rex 2,254,813
6. Spongebob Squarepants 2,245,858
7. Jaque Bridge 2,217,977
8. Modde Groth 2,162,969
9. Colby Jeffries 2,097,151
10. Ada Wada 2,071,440

Here are the final results for stock points:

1. Imperator Rex 21,063
2. Modde Groth 16,883
3. Brenda Bee 16,761
4. Victorc Andsuperman 16,561
5. Hawkeye Pierce 16,485
6. Spongebob Squarepants 15,915
7. Don Corleone 15,131
8. Silver Ray 14,381
9. Joao Carlos 14,121
10. Nelly Brave 13,969

And here are the final results for fusions:

1. Newbies (Johan Berten) - 821,884
2. Fusion Tycoons (William Yochim) - 804,232
3. Peace Corps (Hippie Chick) - 752,166
4. Fatum Victoria (Imperator Rex) - 745,043
5. Muchcon fusion (The Wulf) - 726,535
6. Utopia (Cipri Don) - 676,167
7. Caffeine Addict (Jonas Carlsson) -672,214
8. The Con Fusion (Billy Bass) - 652,143
9. Cat Scratch Club (Michael Bailey) - 621,513
10. The Baltimore Ravens (Eric Siegfried) - 612,759

So you’ve been playing Tycoon Online, and working hard to build your virtual company. You’ve managed to build your company value to 15,000 iKr — and you get a message from your secretary:

Our company value has passed 15 000 iKr and we can now join a fusion! Before doing so, take a look at the Fusions help file so that you know what fusions are all about. To join a fusion, click the link on your left menu! I’ll make you a cup of coffee!

Fusions are, basically, Tycoon Online teams. When you join a fusion, you become a member of that team, and your goal is to compete against the other fusions to become the top-ranked fusion.

Before I go into too much detail, I think it is important to explain that joining a fusion does not affect your company in any way.  Nothing that happens in the fusion will affect your company or your ability to manage your company. Think of fusions as a side-game.

There are 40 fusions. When you join a fusion, you will be randomly placed into one of the 40 fusions. There are two special positions in each fusion.

• The Fusion Leader - This player handles all of the leadership tasks of the fusion. The leader decides the name of the fusion, which auctions to join, what to bid, etc.
• The Fusion Dog - This player will be traded to another fusion when your fusion wins an auction.

Both of these are elected positions. Every player in a fusion gets to bid on that fusion’s leader and dog.

Players typically vote for the player with the highest company value as fusion leader, but this is not always the best choice. You should choose a leader who wants to be the leader, and is willing to devote the time and energy to making the fusion successful. It does help if they have experience running a fusion, since it can be very hard for a first timer to be successful.

Typically you will vote for the company with the lowest company value as fusion dog, but there are exceptions to this. Your Fusion Leader should be using the Fusion shout box to advise you who to vote as Fusion Dog.  The Fusion Dog will change frequently, so if you are not able to check your fusion regularly and update your Fusion Dog vote, you should not vote.

Fusions compete based on the average company value of their members. So, there are two main ways to improve your fusion’s ranking.

The first way is through auctions. You can buy a company from another fusion through an auction. When this happens, the other fusion gets your fusion dog. Since your fusion dog probably has a lower company value than the company you bought at auction, this will boost your fusion’s average company value. Auctions are a fairly complicated topic, so I will go into more detail on another article.

The second way to improve your fusion is often overlooked, but just as important. What I’m talking about here is helping your teammates improve their companies. In a typical fusion you will see a wide range of players, from top ranked players to brand new players who are still figuring things out. The private fusion forum provides a great way for fusion members to get to know each other help each other out. This is the place to ask questions and give advice. As your team members improve their own companies, it will boost the ranks of the fusion as well.

So, let’s get back to the question: “Should I join a fusion?” This is a decision you will have to make. But I can tell you that you should only join if you expect to login regularly. Other than that, it doesn’t hurt to give it a try. Fusions with good, active leaders can be very fun.

First, the very basics. The Market is a place in the game where players buy and sell goods. Goods do not “spawn” on the market — they only appear when another player, or the bank, puts them there.

If a player puts his goods directly on the market, they will become available for purchase in 60-90 minutes. (Apparently the imaginary people who run the market are not terribly fast when it comes to processing incoming goods.)  If a player sells his goods to the bank, the bank will turn around and put them on the market, with the same 60-90 minute delay. (There is one other way the bank puts goods on the market: when a company goes bankrupt, the contents of its warehouse are placed on the market by the bank.)

The random delay has 1-second precision, meaning goods could appear on the market at any second. This is important to understand when you are trying to purchase goods that are in short supply.

Shortages typically appear when purchasing a good is very lucrative.  For example, if wheat has a price of 5 iKr, and flour has a price of 25 iKr, you can expect wheat to be in short supply. It takes two units of wheat to make one unit of flour, so it costs only 10 iKr to buy the raw materials to produce a 25 iKr good. That’s a markup of 15 iKr, or 150%.

So how do you deal with a market shortage? The short answer is to keep clicking.  Goods can show up at any time, but when there is a shortage, they will typically be bought up in mere seconds.  (Look at the trends pages, specifically “Sales on the market”, and you will see that your goods are in fact being sold on the market, even if you haven’t been able to find them.) Long term, you will probably want to build factories to produce the goods yourself, or get rid of your factories that require hard-to-get materials.

Sites like these matter, because they are the primary source of new players for Tycoon Online. Without a constant flow of new players joining the game, any online game will gradually lose players and die off. Tycoon Online has a solid player base, but it has far more room to grow. I have often stated that I want to grow the game to 15,000 players. This is a very ambitious goal, and I can’t do it without help from players like you. Will you help out by voting for Tycoon Online once per day at the major voting sites? In the game, click on “more voting sites” and cast your votes on as many sites as you have time to.  Thank you for your “votes of support”!

From a game perspective, transport is an additional way to build your Company Value. Transport is not required for your company to function, but it is important if you want to be competitive in C-Rank.

Every time a player purchases goods on the market from another player, a transport assignment is generated to transport those goods from the selling player’s city, to the buying player’s city. For the sake of simplicity, the game gives the goods to the buyer immediately, even though the transport assignment may take several hours to complete.

Any player who has a vehicle can carry out this assignment. When the assignment is created, the goods will be loaded into a vehicle already waiting in the queue in that city. Once the vehicle has enough goods in it, it starts transporting those goods to their destination city.

The owner of the vehicle earns a small amount of cash, plus a good amount of Company Value, for each transportation assignment it completes. The amount you earn is based on the number of goods transported, and the distance traveled. Ships are very good vehicles because they can carry a large quantity of goods. Airplanes are also very good, because they can cover a lot of distance quickly. Smaller vehicles are also good, especially early in the round or for players who are still learning how to manage transport.

An employee with a drivers license can operate any vehicle, but a professional Driver will usually get better speed that other types of employees. Vehicles all travel the same route and distance between cities, regardless of what type of vehicle it is. Apparently Virtual Sweden has water shipping channels right alongside all of the highways, even inland!

Don’t forget that vehicles need gasoline, so keep money in your gasoline account so drivers can fill the tanks. And keep an eye on where your vehicles queue up — some cities have much shorter wait times than others!

So, should you upgrade? In general, the answer is almost always yes. This is because the extra production you will get from upgrading will more than make up for the cost of the upgrade. Even the more expensive upgrade, at 25,000 iKr, requires only 1250 iKr of Company Value to break even. Remember that every unit you produce in a factory increases your Company Value by 1 iKr. So, it would take an extra 1250 units of production to make a 25,000 iKr upgrade worthwhile. If the upgrade increases your production by about 125 units per day, it will take 10 days for the upgrade to pay for itself. (You should do the math yourself to figure out how much extra production you can expect from the upgrade.) This doesn’t even consider the price of the goods when you sell them, or the potential market bonus from selling them on the market.

However, the question really should be: Should I upgrade now? Things get much more complicated when you think about the opportunity cost of upgrading a factory versus doing something else with your money. If you have 15,000 iKr to spend, you may be better off building another factory instead of upgrading an existing one. Or you may want to buy a vehicle instead. You’ll need to evaluate the earnings potential for each option and go with the one that gives you a better return on investment.

Here are some things to consider when deciding whether to upgrade versus spending your money on something else:

• If you are not at 25 buildings yet, it is almost always better to build another building instead of upgrading. However, if you cannot obtain the zones you want for your next building, you might choose to upgrade while you wait for the zones you want. Just make sure you keep enough savings to jump on those zones as soon as they become available.
• Don’t upgrade a factory unless you know you will keep it long enough to make the upgrade worthwhile. If you know you are going to demolish the building in a few days to build something else, don’t upgrade it.
• Don’t choose the 4th person upgrade unless you have a person available to fill that slot.
• Upgrades can be a good place to spend your money when you are trying to reduce your savings to avoid wealth tax.

Download it here: tycoon1.xls