Corporations, Technology and Product Creation

I've been poking round the wiki and the "New submissions Forums" and noticed that most expansions upon current technology are recistered under player owned corporation and companies. I was wondering what the rules and regulatiuons were on creating such entities.

I have a couple of ideas mostly based off of the Ke-M2-G2902 Nodal Fabrication Module and the applications of such technology however I am unsure of how to proceed. As of the current time I believe they are best submitted as Ketsurui Zaibatsu Technology.

The general rule is to talk to whomever owns the company that you plan to submit something for.

It is possible that:

a) They may already be working on something similar, in which case perhaps collaborating, or brainstorming together would be a good idea
b) It may be something that they do not want their company to make
c) They may provide you with some input on how to create it and have it fit within their product line.

Alright Ill geet on that then. Also what are the general rules on creating a corporation yourself given that i've seen more then one player owned conglomeration.

Thanks for the help Nashoba

Anyone can technically create a Corporation. But before doing so, one should probably look for what market they hope to fill. Otherwise you will be fighting other more established companies.

Ok then. Thanks for the info.

What kind of corporation did you have in mind? Please tell me it's something other than a broad military arms company like 90% of the other corps on SARP.

I guess I should list (if not for you, for others reading this thread) some businesses I really want. These are business with untapped niches that there are room for on or near every Star Army of Yamatai facility so they're almost guaranteed to spread across the universe:

Clothing shops
Jewelry store
Food/restaurant chains (Pizza, burgers, Fried Chicken, subs, Mexican, Chinese, Japanese, German, ice cream vendors)
Barber shops and/or Beauty Salons
Florists
Car Dealerships
Shoe store
Blanket and bedding shop
Photo studios
Souvenirs and Gifts
A tavern/bar chain
Office space
Bus terminals
Furniture stores
Laundromat chain
Dry Cleaner chain
Movie theaters
Taxis
Banks
Grocery Marts
Bakery chain
Apartment complexes

Mostly I was thinking about tapping into Neshaten to start a corporation given that they are a mostly new faction. I was going to do consumer electronics since I think Kyle has military technology and such pretty much covered.

Other then that though I would be interested in civilian vehicle design.

As far as Yamatai goes I was thinking of creating a background character who works for Ketsurui Zaibatsu as most of my ideas so far are built upon their femtomachine technology.

Actually I don't really have the military market covered as much as it appears

If you want to set up a company, go for it!, it helps to add more flavor and also more life into the faction. Not to mention that depending on what tech you create, it could also help out in certain plots as well.

Let me know what you decide to do and I'll give ya a hand

Ohhhh...we can create player corporations? Wow, that is great. I have done this in the past on forums and it turned out to be really fun. It might be a way for me to get back into the swing of things and contribute to fleshing out the background and under-appreciated parts of the setting. A sci-fi empire does not just happen in a day after all, it takes lots of little moving parts not always as glorious as a spaceship or a mecha armor, but might be just as valuable.

Since you mentioned it, I like the idea of running a transportation service that operates buses, taxis, shuttles, etc. Like the Greyhound of Yamatai. A great insert into stories where characters might be traveling off duty or to visit family. I bet there is room for military subcontracting in there somewhere too for logistics support, maybe even some kind of UPS-like service for important packages/baggage delivery could be done if it's not all government run.

I'm not so exceptional at beauty salons, but could also handle clothing and jewelry, but I might be able to make some kind of department store chain (ala JCPenny) or maybe a boutique setting/gift store. I suppose that comes down to if I am creating items, or just facilitating a setting for others to enjoy that style of RP in?

Lastly, I think I also find the idea of a laundromat very very funny. Who knows whose' dirty laundry could end up there.

It could be just creating wiki articles, or both roleplaying and creating articles. Basically you would be able to lay out the details of the product/service/location(s) and then, if you want, you should show it in action with RP posts like in the Open RP forum. Some players like the creation side more than actual RP and they get their enjoyment out of just making new stuff for the Star Army universe and that's okay too. At present, a long-recurring question for new players, upon their character getting the standard 3000 KS starting pay is "where can I spend this?" Having services with listed prices and descriptions can help solve that.

Indeed, I think creating content is very fun, if a little daunting at first. And the thought that SARP needs to develop a functioning economy to feed into that salary system you have makes good sense, too, as I can definitely agree it confused me a few years back about why nothing like that existed. Maybe I could work on creating some sort of ubiquitous army base exchange (BX) equivalent or use the superstore format (ie, Walmart) to establish a sort of baseline of everyday goods and services for characters to use as a guide for shopping with their credits?

This could function easily as an Open RP thread too for, say, those neko girlfriends who want to do a little mall-trawling together, heh. I used to have a very similar setup in an Ancient China sim forum, where I used to take personal item crafting and war supply sales orders with a character with flamboyant and unique style that ended up with me married to the future Emperor in the end.

There's also always Origin. I've been trying to shift Origin's focus from pseudo-military and military contract gear into more civilian products, especially every day things like laundry machines, dishwashers, and other household appliances, as well as having Origin-branded generic products like canned foods, basic clothing, toys, and other things you'd find in a department store or grocery store.

I've even started work on a Department Store which was based off A store I made for a plot that fell through. I'm also working on a concept for a space gas station of sorts which could serve as a hub for independent plotships, open roleplay events, or even just random encounters and whatnot.

I'm also trying to fill Abwehrland with more Corporations (since I've always said it's a Free Market Area---though with some government regulation and SOEs here and there). So I'm always more open to Corporations and Businesses there.

I think we're starting to see more civilian level stuff because it's coming up more in plots. For a long time, there weren't really any civilian plots (kudos to Toshiro for the Yggdrasil, which I believe was the first civilian plot), so most stuff was focused around the plots that we had, which were military. And most military plots give you many more opportunities to display weapons, body armor and the like than they do your board games.

After much thought, I think the shopping idea might be a little too heavy on time to create so many items from scratch. but I am wondering how the sim would respond to a taxi service? Is there a demand for this in off-duty and civilian plots? What about something like cool apartments for characters to actually live in and possibly display said huge board game collection? (good money sink via paying rent).

Those are pretty interesting ideas. Most characters in military factions normally have their room & board provided, but independents and some more wealthy military peeps may want different housing. We have a few corporations that do video games, but board games don't seem to have been done at all. As for taxi services, it might be nice.

Update: I've started a Guide to Being a Merchant in Star Army using stuff from this thread. Immediate contributions are wanted from merchant players and faction managers!

Thanks Wes, it is nice to see you published that list on the wiki. I hope to be able to get something up in the near future to serve one or more of those untapped niches!

Since innovation isn't coming from within governments, private entities are taking it upon themselves.

If you want access to these proprietary technologies, you need to pay for them.

Simply put? The big factions are going to have to come to us if they want the best kit.

Just how it is IRL.

You say that, but Yamatai has extensive research and development that dwarfs private entities' resources. For example, SARA developed and made the first teleportation devices, and in YE 31 the Star Army Research Administration started the Star Army's only monopole research facility, making it the only organization to even work on that tech branch.