Corporations & Companies

This page documents the fields for CORPORATIONS and COMPANIES — the two entity arrays that define who plays, who invests, and what special abilities are in the game. Both are defined in entities.rb and included into the main Game class.

For trains, phases, and market configuration see Trains, Phases & Market.

CORPORATIONS

CORPORATIONS is an array of hashes, one per major corporation. Each hash is read by Engine::Game::Base during initialisation to construct Engine::Corporation objects [lib/engine/corporation.rb:1].

Required fields

Field	Type	Description
`sym`	String	Short identifier shown on share certificates (e.g. `'PRR'`)
`name`	String	Full display name
`logo`	String	Path under `public/logos/` without the `.svg` extension (e.g. `'1830/PRR'`)
`tokens`	Array\	Token cost at each city; first element is always `0` (home token is free)
`coordinates`	String	Hex coordinate for the home token (e.g. `'H12'`)
`color`	String	CSS colour string for the corporation card

Common optional fields

Field	Type	Default	Description
`float_percent`	Integer	`60`	Percentage of shares sold before the corporation floats and receives treasury cash
`max_ownership_percent`	Integer	`60`	Maximum percentage of shares a single player may hold
`type`	Symbol	`:major`	Corporation type; affects which Steps are available and how revenue is split
`simple_logo`	String	—	Simplified logo path for small icon views
`shares`	Array\	default IPO spread	Custom share distribution percentages
`always_market_price`	Boolean	`false`	If `true`, all purchases use market price rather than IPO price
`capitalization`	Symbol	`CAPITALIZATION` constant	Per-corporation override for `:full` or `:incremental` capitalisation
`president_percent`	Integer	`20`	Size of the president's certificate
`par_via_exchange`	Boolean	`false`	Corporation is pared by exchanging a private company
`reservation_color`	String	—	Hex colour used for the IPO reservation
`city`	Integer	—	Which city slot on the home hex receives the home token (for multi-city hexes)
`second_city`	String	—	Second token coordinate for corporations that start with two tokens
`abilities`	Array	`[]`	Corporation-level abilities (same structure as company abilities)

Where to look for more options

Many titles add custom corporation types or fields. Before adding new fields, check:

lib/engine/corporation.rb — full list of attributes read from the hash
lib/engine/game/g_1830/entities.rb — canonical 1830 example
lib/engine/game/g_1867/entities.rb — title with both minors and majors

Example

CORPORATIONS = [
  {
    float_percent: 60,
    sym:          'PRR',
    name:         'Pennsylvania Railroad',
    logo:         '1830/PRR',
    simple_logo:  '1830/PRR.alt',
    tokens:       [0, 40, 100, 100],
    coordinates:  'H12',
    color:        '#32763f',
  },
].freeze

COMPANIES

COMPANIES is an array of hashes defining private companies (privates). Each hash becomes an Engine::Company object [lib/engine/company.rb:1]. Privates are auctioned or distributed at the start of the game.

Required fields

Field	Type	Description
`name`	String	Full display name
`sym`	String	Short identifier (e.g. `'CS'`)
`value`	Integer	Face value / purchase price
`revenue`	Integer	Income collected each OR while player-owned

Common optional fields

Field	Type	Default	Description
`desc`	String	`''`	Text description shown in the UI
`abilities`	Array	`[]`	Special abilities granted to the owner
`color`	String	`nil`	Card background colour (nil uses the default yellow)
`min_price`	Integer	`value / 2` rounded up	Minimum resale price to another player
`max_price`	Integer	`value * 2`	Maximum resale price
`type`	Symbol	—	Company type (used by some custom Steps to filter)
`treasury`	Integer	`value`	Starting cash inside the company (rare)
`discount`	Integer	`0`	Reduces the minimum auction bid

Abilities

Each ability is a hash with at least a type: key. Common types:

Type	Key fields	Effect
`blocks_hexes`	`owner_type:`, `hexes:`	Prevents corporations from placing tokens on listed hexes while condition holds
`tile_lay`	`owner_type:`, `hexes:`, `tiles:`, `when:`, `count:`	Grants a free or discounted tile lay on specified hexes
`teleport`	`owner_type:`, `tiles:`, `hexes:`	Allows token placement without connectivity
`exchange`	`corporation:`, `owner_type:`, `when:`, `from:`	Allows exchange for a share of the named corporation
`shares`	`shares:`	Purchaser automatically receives specified shares
`no_buy`	—	Company cannot be sold to corporations
`close`	`when:`, `corporation:`	Closes the company when the condition is met
`revenue_change`	`revenue:`, `when:`	Changes revenue at a phase trigger

For the full ability vocabulary see Ability Types.

Example

COMPANIES = [
  {
    name:    'Champlain & St.Lawrence',
    sym:     'CS',
    value:   40,
    revenue: 10,
    desc:    'The owning corporation may lay a free tile on B20.',
    abilities: [
      { type: 'blocks_hexes', owner_type: 'player', hexes: ['B20'] },
      {
        type: 'tile_lay',
        owner_type: 'corporation',
        hexes: ['B20'],
        tiles: %w[3 4 58],
        when: 'owning_corp_or_turn',
        count: 1,
      },
    ],
    color: nil,
  },
].freeze

What's Next

Train, phase, and market configuration: Trains, Phases & Market
Map and hex layout: Map Configuration
Complete ability type reference: Ability Types
Step-by-step implementation guide: Game Structure

Version: 2026-05-08 — derived from lib/engine/corporation.rb, lib/engine/company.rb, lib/engine/game/g_1830/entities.rb.