Capitalism 2 Balance Mod v. 0.91
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This is a mod for Capitalism 2 that attempts to rebalance the game and fix various
bugs.

The main page for the mod (containing the latest version) is:
  http://www.adammil.net/blog/v113_Capitalism_2_Balance_Mod.html

Feel free to contact me:
  http://www.adammil.net/contact.html

Installation instructions:
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The mod was built with version 1.03 of Capitalism 2 but should work with 1.05 as
well. (I tested it.)

Method 1 (quick and easy):
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1. Navigate to the "gameset" directory within your Capitalism 2 installation directory.
2. Make a backup of the 1STD.SET file.
3. Replace the 1STD.SET file with the one from the archive.
4. Enjoy!

Method 2 (more flexible, requires Microsoft Excel):
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1. Navigate to the "gameset" directory within your Capitalism 2 installation directory.
2. Make a backup of the 1STD.SET file.
3. Download the Capitalism 2 mod kit from http://www.adammil.net/files/cap2mod.zip
4. Use the mod kit to import the BalanceMod.xlsx into the game database.

If you'd like to change the mod, feel free to edit it and apply your changes with the
mod kit.

Main features:
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* Rebalances profit margins: In the original game, the average profit margin for a
  product was over 14000% and went up to a million percent. At the same time, most
  semifinished products had negative profit margins (including citric acid, coconut
  oil, corn syrup, dyestuff, flour, linen, polyester, textiles, and wheat germ oil).
  I've rebalanced them somewhat so that you can make a profit selling any product,
  but the average profit margin is much lower -- "only" about 150%, with a median of
  about 67%. I would like to eventually get it down to 30-40%, but that requires
  more extensive changes.
* Rebalances demand: The original game balanced the demand for products so that
  every product or product group had roughly the same revenue ceiling. This resulted
  in people buying ridiculously large or small numbers of some products, and overall
  people bought too little. I tried to make the demand a bit more realistic. Overall,
  people buy a lot more things, which helps counteract the reduced profit margins,
  and some fields are now much more lucrative than others.
* Reduces freight costs: One of the main complaints about the original game was that
  freight costs were so high that it was pointless to try to ship products between
  cities and even within the same city you may not be able to make much of a profit
  unless you placed your production buildings close to your retail stores. On
  average I cut freight costs in half, but I also made them somewhat more realistic
  by basing them on the approximate weight and size of the objects, so the freight
  costs for a few items are actually higher than before. But overall, it's now
  worthwhile to ship finished products to other cities.
* Warehouses: I converted one of the factory types into a warehouse. Now there are
  1 small, 2 medium, and 2 large factories, and the warehouse. Essentially, it's a
  building with a large amount of internal space and a low monthly overhead. You can
  use it to merge product flow from multiple sources or buffer goods from unreliable
  manufacturers. However, it's not possible to prevent you from manufacturing things
  there, so only the honor system prevents you from using it as a large, cheap
  factory; the AI has no honor and uses warehouses for manufacturing, but I figure
  it's not a problem because the AI is so weak that it needs all the help it can get.
* Increased costs for extractive industries: I've greatly increased the setup and
  monthly costs for logging camps, mines, and oil wells. It's hard to believe that
  you could run an oil well for only $300,000 per month. Nonetheless, those
  industries are still overpowered. In fact, they may be even more profitable now
  due to the reduced freight costs.
* Increased competition and activity: This wasn't exactly planned, but due to the
  changes I made, the AI seems to be a lot more active. There's a lot more
  competition and a lot more products available from the AI. The AI also seems to
  buy products that you produce more often. Perhaps it's due to the fact that
  semifinished products are now profitable, so the AI produces them and is then
  able to produce the finished products that they enable. Additionally, the reduced
  freight costs probably allow the AI to be more flexible in its operations.
* Executives are cheaper to hire: In the original game, excutives often demanded a
  salary higher than the company's entire annual profit! They were worse than
  useless. I've decreased their salary demands by about 80%, and now it may actually
  be worthwhile to hire some executives.

Minor features / miscellaneous changes:
---------------------------------------
* R&D buildings and advertising cost a bit more. $5,000 is really too cheap to set up
  an advertising group, so I raised it to $50,000.
* I made the AI value oil and chemical minerals a bit more, because they enable the
  creation of many other products even if they're not that profitable in their own
  right.
* On a few products, such as computers, I made people care more about the quality of
  the product than about the brand.

Known problems:
---------------
* The game is still too easy. I need to reduce profit margins more and find a way to
  make extractive industries more expensive without discouraging the AI from entering
  the market.
* The mod hasn't been extensively tested. I've played a few games and it seems
  like a real improvement, but I certainly haven't tried out all the industries and
  products.
