So according to the blurb it mentions that one of the megas gets into a bad way and has to take desperate measures to survive and so far most seem to be assuming it's refering to Novatech. Aside from them, which other corps would you like to see - or could see - being the one in question?

Personally I'd like it to be Saedar-Krupp. Several of the books mention Lofwyr withdrawing from corp work and being distracted, thanks to draconic goings on like the Loremaster thing and the Jewel of Memory. Since he practically runs the show by micromanagement even with SK Prime picking up most of the slack he's still their biggest asset. His functioning at less than a hundred percent coupled with all the new and old enemies coming out of the woodwork could certainly hurt them, there's already been rumblings from within the senior management. It would certainly make things a little more interesting.

Ares! Ares! Ares!

C'mon, let's see them go the way of the Universal Brotherhood.

~J

Another good choice. If the affair from Threats gets too out of hand they may have to go to a scorched earth policy. As the quote goes, 'I say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.'

Not Ares! They're my groups major employer (check out my location). Send Mitsuhama down the tubes. Goodbye, generic Japanacorp.

Split vote. Half for expecting Renraku to find out they are well and truly screwed, half for really wanting to watch the flaming trainwreck that would happen should Ares fracture.

It depends on how much you buy into the horrible concept that Leonardo pretty much created all of Renraku's cool toys. If you can conveniently forget that metaplot then Renraku's still pretty decent despite getting gimped but if you can't forget it then Renraku should be excised to get rid of IE tech demigod taint

Honestly I'd love to see a credible euro corp alternative to SK but that pretty much requires SK to be taken down a peg which seems unlikely to happen.

Of course I'm tempted to do something like make CATco a French company as a quebecois megacorp is just too silly for me to handle from a macroeconomics perspective.

I don't think they'd let Ares fall if for no other reason all the guns they'd have to rename.

Well, it is clear that Nova Tech, or SK... both seem to have highly deadactated enimies with resources to burn.

Shiawase! Extraterritoriality is all their fault!

Don't get rid of S-K, Lofwyr is such a good enemy
If Ares goes down the tube so does UCAS
Aztechnology are the best evil corp around

If UCAS goes down the tube who will the Souix hate? Who will the CAS laugh at? With no UCAS, Seattle is just a little city state and will get absorbed. Lots of possibilities for Shadowruns disappear.

Maybe California will be nuked from the planet and make me happy

Renraku. It is struggling, and desperate. Novatech is a candidate too, but Renraku is more likely, considering their great losses in the whole Deus affair and all ... I mean, they cannot even force the UCAS military to give them back their arcology at cut prices, so they must have lost considerable behind-the-scenes power, right?

I'd like to see Ares fall, if only because a corp rising to AAA status with small arms sales is ludicrous, even if they had a monopoly on the US market. Small arms aren't really big business. But that's not gonna happen.

SK will likely get bashed, but will it fall? Hopefully not. I have always loved the idea of a giant, golden-scaled, cliche fantasy dragon flying into his lair, settling in front of a meeting table, staring at the assembled business types there, and say "Now, let's talk about my investment strategy ..."

If I got to choose it'd be Novatech. And CATco.

My bet would be either Novatech or Renraku as the most likely corp to have serious problems in the next five years. They've already got Novatech in trouble with the current metaplot, so it's easy to see how a matrix crash could really hurt them. Renraku also isn't as healthy as it used to be, and is heavily invested in matrix technology.

I seriously doubt Saeder-Krupp will be in jeopardy. Lofwyr may be distracted, but I'd still bet on a distracted Lofwyr vs. any other CEO at the top of his game any day of the week. Also, SK is diversified, with a strong interest in heavy industry. It's far less vulnerable to a major system crash than other megacorps.

Finally, an unlikely but interesting choice would be Aztechnology. They've gotten bogged down in the Yucatan, kicked out of Denver, and they do have formidable matrix assets. It would also have far-reaching consequences on the North American continent if Aztechnology came close to collapsing. However, I don't think it'll be them since they're NOT the most vulnerable corp to a crash, and they do have very diversified and strong interests. People aren't going to stop eating Stuff-it burgers just because the matrix is down.

Hmmmm. I actually think Novatech could have a large part in the building of the "new" matrix. However, the way things are going with that ridiculous Denkwalther crap, prolly not.

The new Matrix will be built by Transys, because the WMI is Celedyr's pet project. Actually, I think Transys might become a new AAA.

The last thing I want to see is another AAA Dragon-corp. One is enough.

But you make a hell of a point!

Actually, it just says that a struggling corp takes a drastic step, doesn't it? What if the Azzies pull the plug to keep aid out of the Yucatan?

~J

"Bomb Cambodia!"

Maybe they get desperate and decide to go the WMD route. Drop a mix of nukes and massive fuck off size FAE bombs on the Yucatan and turn it into a complete wasteland with nothing standing. Or release a new gengineered version of Ebola, new Ebola Plus+.

I still say, and have since I first read the 'blurb', that it's Novatech, and drastic action is that they merge with Transys Neuronet to implement the new WNI.

Of course you've got to remember that there's a five year gap in out knowledge. For all we know whichever corp it is could be brought low by some new situation or chain of events that happen within those five years and has absolutely no relation to any current plot line.

Novatech makes sense if the Matrix is going to go down the toilet.
And apparently it is but.... On the other hand, maybe they're the ones that engineer that and come up with the new Wireless Matrix tech, putting everyone else in jeopardy...

Renraku seems pretty vulnerable to me too though...
Aztechnology has the ever-hating attention of Ghoswalker now...
Mitsuhama is involved in a very pointless brushfire war in Tshimshan...

That's my final four for corps that could be in trouble.

1) Japan.

2) Mexico.

~J

3) China

4) All of sub-Saharan Africa

5) South-east Asia

5) Denmark. For all your complaining about California, your living area isn't waist-deep in toxic sludge.

~J

6) Luxembourg! The granddaddy of them all, they nuked the entire country and turned it into an uninhabitable radioactive dead zone.

All we know is that the Corporation will be struggling and has to take drastic step to survive.

And yet from that I can mount a staggering amount of speculation. Behold! The 10 megas in descending order of likeliness to be the "struggling" corp from SF. All IMO of course.


10 -Mitsuhama : Seems thriving these day. Major author mojo required to make them fit.

9 - SK : I could see them facing tough opposition. Losing a few feathers, taking some hits. Maybe even get knocked from the top slot. But really struggling? Needing drastic action to survive? They are the world leaders in finance, chemicals and heavy industries. Finance is the blood stream of a corporation while chemicals and heavy industries make every other industries possible. If any corporation is unsinkable, it's SK. I don't think it's them.

8 - Shiawase : That would be out of the blue. But they owe a lot of their position to their investments in Biotech. Most likely a volatile market subject to violent contraction like todays high tech markets. The rest of their position is due to their investments in Services (including transportation) and heavy industries (mostly energy, I think), tough. That's a lot more solid. Also, it's true that they have a divided board, but it's been that way forever. A cold war situation can be pretty stable for pretty long. Especially since we are not dealing with an unstable triad like old Fuchi, but with 6 people barely controlling 50%. Finally they are probably still leveraged from their acquisition of many Fuchi Assets but they had zero trouble in the past 5 years so by now I'm guessing they're pretty much in the clear with that bold investment.

7 - Aztechnology : Given that sometime they seem more involved in the business of destroying the world than in the business of business, they could have trouble any time. And the Yucatan mess just can't be good for the bottom line.

But just based on their portfolio, they are the second corp less likely to face serious survival problems after SK. After all, they are the most diversified and are the best in consumer goods. If they can't make it through tough time, no one can.

6 - Yamatetsu : Made a lot of enemies in Japanacorp world with their leap to the PPG and the election of an ork CEO. They are also not the biggest corp. Their portfolio is fairly diversified but they are only the best at cybernetics. It is a matter of opinion but I would think the cybernetic market has gotten a lot like today's PC market in SR world. Not the best horse to bet on if you want big cash flow. So they could be made to be in trouble without big author mojo.

5 - Ares : I can see why you'd think about the bug threat. But they ain't struggling now and if there's a bug outbreak in the corporation I'm not sure I would use the world struggling to describe it... Any solution would have to be drastic though. With Cross gunning for him, with Nadja and Vogel as wild card, a catastrophic (for Ares) scenario is certainly possible.

4 - Wuxing : They're PPG and making enemies, including a certain great dragon. They are 3rd Smallest corp. At least they are big in Transport and Finance. I Value that a lot.

3 - Cross : Damien Knight hate Cross and their two biggest cash cow are IMO very volatile and competitive market (Computer engineering and Science). Plus they are 2nd smallest. They can go from heaven to hell pretty fast if the Seraphim can't keep up the miracles.

2- Renraku : Yeah, they're struggling. A few other bad development, like trouble in the very competitive computer market, and they could be in real trouble. They absorbed huge chunk of Fuchi just 5 years back. They must still be heavily leveraged from that IMO. You know what bankruptcy is? It's essentially just not being able to make the required payments on your debts. If creditors are unwilling to renegotiate the payment plan because they don't believe you will be able to redress the situation in the near future and no one else is willing to lend you money, you're gonna have to file for bankruptcy. I wonder how that works for an extraterritorial corp? Anyway, if Renraku's cash flow take more hits, they could be in that position. When you are on the verge of bankruptcy, drastic action is definitely needed.

1 - Novatech : Already struggling with the the dankwalther mess. Smallest corp. Biggest cash cow are volatile markets. Could need drastic action to survive. Best fit. 'nuff said.

Because the sane don't do very much to fight against the idiots.

The sane have day jobs.

If it's Novatech, we're likely to get new header artwork across the tops of the pages in the SR4 Sourcebooks.

Of course, that wouldn't really be a bad thing.

Lofwyr and his toy S-K should get some seriuos kick in the ass. SHow the SR-community that even evil-godlike-manipulators are not invulnerable.

I don't like the whole corp and lofwyr are presented. A megacrop run by a sinle entity sounds a little too unbelievable. Oh wait, he's a GD. That'll explain it. No, i jut don't like S-K, Lofwyr and their dominant position in whole europe and the middle east. It sucks imo.

It really depends on how drastic of a hit worldwide financial data takes in the upcoming crash. If widescale gutting of consumer financial information happens even relatively secure financial empires are going to crumble. However it doesn't seem like that's likely to happen in SR.

As for WMD while numerous AAAs likely have access to tactical nukes and a variety of biological and chemical weapons which companies do you think have the really heavy hardware.

My bets for heavy hardware:

Ares: Tons of light tactical weapons, orbital massdriver weapons and heavy nukes
Aztechnology: Probably have mana boosted nukes, mana assisted VITAS or something suitably diabolical
SK: They seem to have the lock on the European fusion marketplace which almost certainly indicates fusion weapons
Renraku: Depending on how focused Keruba was in high end weapon systems I'd say a good chance of having some nukes
Shiawase: They seems to dominate fusion in the US and Asia it would be natural for them, biological weapons out the wazzoo
Yamatetsu: By virtue of thier Russian association I'd say at least some access to fusion weapons

Fuchi almost certainly had substantial capacity no telling on who has it now. So that pretty much leaves MCT, Wuxing, CATco and Novatech. As MCT is ryumyo's corporate proxy to a large degree and Wuxing seems to be Lung's I'd say they probably have something up thier sleeves.

Yeah I'm meaning Hydrogen Bombs or some variant thereof rather than fission based weaponry. I figure anyone who can manufacture fusion reactors can generate hydrogen bombs in thier sleep. Of course being profit motivated perhaps they would look more at neutron bombs for thier reduced infrastructure damaging capacity.

Of course it's really beyond reason that some sort of workable antimatter based bomb has been developed in the 65 year timeperiod.

Neutron bombs never made it into the mainstream of WMD ebcause they need an ordinary nuke set off to ignite. Makes precious little sense for a weapon desgined to leave infrastructure intact to be ignited by the most infrastructure-destroying weapon known to man, right?

And, well ... what would one need antimatter bombs for? H-bombs can be driven to 50 megatons and beyond. Who would be served by a bomb that would blow an entire continent away? Except for Winternight, which doesn't even have the ressources to dream of building such a weapon.