So you can't use patents of acquired companies...

from Offworld Forums

(and you should probably correct the tooltip when buying out a company that states you DO get to use them...)

So I am to assume the patent continues to apply for assets in the acquired company, but nowhere else. As an aside I think an explanation of how you manipulate acquired companies post-purchase would be helpful, rather than just letting them run in whatever state they were in at the time. This is noticeable when a Robotic company acquires a non-Robotic company that was essentials-deficient, and all of sudden debt soars because the Robotic company has no means to provide for them.

Perhaps clearly indicating what interface aspects reflect YOUR company vs one you acquire. I assume the Cash and Debt is always yours, and I'm pretty sure stockpiles are combined...but otherwise what I see should reflect whichever company has my focus.

 

But back to patent mechanics:

Would there be a challenge in coding a routine that allows the patent to be "acquired" by the controlling company as well, simply by spending the $/chems you normally would?

22,406 views 5 replies
Reply #1 from Offworld Forums Top

 i think acquiring a company for it's patents is an extremely strong rationale, and that patents should apply universally to all of your assets; after all, this is a real world scenario where IP holders are acquired for their patents all the time. if you're about to purchase a company with a ton of debt and no cash, it's probably an indication that you're about to acquire a ton of deficient workflows that need to be optimized. A cheap acquisition is a tradeoff, you're probably getting a good deal on the assets, patents, and claims , but you'll need to put the time in to scrap the losers and make it run efficiently. 

Reply #2 from Offworld Forums Top

Quoting MrCompletely, reply 1

 i think acquiring a company for it's patents is an extremely strong rationale, and that patents should apply universally to all of your assets; after all, this is a real world scenario where IP holders are acquired for their patents all the time. if you're about to purchase a company with a ton of debt and no cash, it's probably an indication that you're about to acquire a ton of deficient workflows that need to be optimized. A cheap acquisition is a tradeoff, you're probably getting a good deal on the assets, patents, and claims , but you'll need to put the time in to scrap the losers and make it run efficiently. 

This would be reasonable if players actually acquired the debt of the company they buy out, but I don't beiieve that is happening at the moment. As it is, the patents don't transfer because it would cause a snowballing effect allowing for an easy victory.

 

I wonder if ensuring debt is also acquired, would change that.

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Reply #3 from Offworld Forums Top

Strange, I could swear you acquire patents upon buyout.

In fact, I was just playing the scientific tutorial, had a very positive revenue stream, bought out the second to last company, and all of a sudden found myself in a massive water deficit, which, in time with a (random, as there were no hacker arrays out) water shortage led me to bleed $2000 per SECOND. I quickly stopped auto-supplying all of my farms, the primary water consumer up to that point, to no avail.

Turns out I'd just aquired the water-powered patent, and all of my blimps were now sucking down my economy's lifeblood for fuel (whereas I had a nice fuel surplus that they had been using just prior to the acquisition).

Perhaps a recent patch introduced this mechanic?

Reply #4 from Offworld Forums Top

Quoting NavyFish, reply 3

Perhaps a recent patch introduced this mechanic?

Not that recent. The change was made in v0.0.3916 released on December 5, 2014.

 

Reply #5 from Offworld Forums Top

I can't describe how disappointed I was the first time I bought out a company for the teleportation patent and still the little ships kept flying...

 

There's definitely a lot that could be done with the buyout/acquisition functionality. It seems strange that I own the HQ, and the buildings, but can't build new buildings of that type. Buying out scientific might be a lot more attractive as another type if I could either build scientific glass factories, or got a combination of the bonuses. I've also noticed that you don't get the adjacency bonus for different types of the same building, e.g. putting an expansive glass factory next to a scientific one doesn't give a bonus.