Revenue sharing with the Godfather

[jimwinsor]

If you have a financial arrangement for a "cut" from the crime syndicate, is that money income listed anywhere in the reports? I have such a deal in place in my current campaign, but I don't seem to see any actual indication anywhere that I'm getting anything ...

[zgrssd]

I can only guess, rarely had that one.

Maybe it is on the Crime Syndicate page?
It could just be that some side effect is reduced/capped, given that you are getting a "cut" from everything he steals from you.

[newageofpower]

I just exterminate him as soon as I see him...

[Maerchen]

I switch crime syndicate off in game setup, as I did play like @newageofpower. There is no benefit I know of in having a syndicate, and fighting it off as soon as it appears is possible and relatively easy. I play wih cults and corporations.

[BlueTemplar]

The goddamn crime syndicate killed 33% of my brand new eye-wateringly expensive tanks ! (Relatively, for the stage I'm in.) And some veteran machinegunners before that.
Where it is concerned, a soldier is a soldier is a soldier I guess, regardless of that soldier's equipment...

It is useful though to either lower or raise Enforcement.
It also interacts with the Corporation, more negatively than positively I guess?

[Soar_Slitherine]

The crime syndicate can steal from and harass the corporation, and doesn't even need any visible presence in zones to do so, so the corporation's growth will be crippled until the syndicate is permanently wiped out. I've been trying out focusing on the Commerce profile and the corporation lately, and they've cost my corporation thousands of credits over the past 20 turns in my current game and were stealing about 1/3rd of its income throughout a previous one. It is possible for the corporation to fight the syndicate as well, but so far I've only seen that happen when the syndicate is either newborn or just had all its crews wiped in a crime crackdown.

[newageofpower]

I find that if I have Anima Cult active in my empire the Corp can't spread beyond your starting cities.

[KarisFraMauro]

I just play with cults because I haven't seen much of a benefit from the syndicate or corporation yet. Maybe after I'm a little more confident in my abilities and looking to mix things up.

[BlueTemplar]

I'm not sure that there *is* so much of a benefit to the crime syndicate as it is a feature that balances by giving it a boost the otherwise underpowered (?) Society : Enforcement Profile ?

(And yeah, adds even more "excitement" to the game.)

[newageofpower]

ORIGINAL: KarisFraMauro

I just play with cults because I haven't seen much of a benefit from the syndicate or corporation yet. Maybe after I'm a little more confident in my abilities and looking to mix things up.

If managed well, the Corp can give huge bonuses to you; I got a Cap IV from Corp Scientist which pushed my tech up at a most satisfying pace, then they gave me their version of Ancient Archive. Board Members was a huge relationship saver before I got my Interior Councilor skilled up.

[yutowap33]

ORIGINAL: newageofpower
If managed well, the Corp can give huge bonuses to you; I got a Cap IV from Corp Scientist which pushed my tech up at a most satisfying pace, then they gave me their version of Ancient Archive. Board Members was a huge relationship saver before I got my Interior Councilor skilled up.

How do you do that?

[newageofpower]

Commerce Profile, call them and chat once inawhile, agree to help (costs PP and cash) when they screw up and blow up a factory.

You can get board members just by asking, IIRC the board has 10 seats and the corp is willing to give you half of them. Be careful though, while giving someone a seat on the corp's board gives them stat bonuses and increases their happiness, their future happiness level is influenced by the Corp too.

(This is why I never make my Interior Councilor a Board member despite the stats being very good for Interior, I need him/her at high happiness to efficiently bribe the dissatisfied leaders back up lol)

[Maerchen]

I agree, commerce profile and corporations works well together. The corp bonuses stacked upon a foreign affairs director and board member are beautiful. I had +70 bonus alone from artifact, corp, commercial gift and medal of merit on bribery...

[KarisFraMauro]

Interesting, I am not at all averse to good leaders and bonuses. Generally not too accustomed to having a high commerce profile so that should make for a pleasant change of pace too.

[BlueTemplar]

Funnily enough, since Enforcement suppresses Commerce, being friendly with the crime syndicate (- Enforcement) will help maximizing the Commerce increases from the corporation... so maybe this means that turning on the syndicate *actually* makes Commerce even stronger and Enforcement even weaker ?

[Soar_Slitherine]

Unfortunately turning on the syndicate also tends to make the corporation weaker. Commerce might be a lot stronger if the corporation was more consistently able to gain control in established zones and invest its share of their private income in constructing more assets in less developed zones that need the investment, but right now the corporation struggles to expand. Vic did tell me he was going to address some issues relating to the syndicate-corporation interaction in a beta patch on monday, though.

[KarisFraMauro]

Either way it'll probably be a few days before I finish my current game. This time I can beat extreme, I just know it! I think...

[jimwinsor]

One interesting benefit I found to being crime-friendly was the Syndicate Governor card. It gives you a moderately decent Cap II* governor for 20PP**, and the card is replaces itself after play which makes it an infinite source of leaders. Somewhat counter-intuitively, they don't seem to be particularly corrupt:

*I've played the card only twice so far, both have been Cap II and 0 Corruption.

**Actually, since it automatically boots the previous governor, you could say it only costs about 16PP when you factor in the 4PP firing cost saved.

[BlueTemplar]

Ah, yeah, I've used that one once, for syndicate-pleasing reasons though (I expected to not being able to control that governor...)

In practice, it seems to be the opposite : they're just another leader, and despite having the same family name, they don't seem to care at all about your relation with the crime syndicate ?

[newageofpower]

@Grognerd

High Ambition/Egoism leads to rapid Corruption growth if they're dissatisfied with you or during the correct epochs.