Market Crash

A **Market Crash** or **Economic Crash** is a random event that can occur at the start of any Turn, if certain conditions are met. It causes damage to the Economy and can do direct damage to all players' finances as well.

A Market Crash can only occur if the economy is better than its worst possible state, and only on or after Week #8. The more players there are, the lower the chance of a Market Crash each turn.

There are three different severities of Market Crashes (Minor, Moderate, Major). Each causes a different level of impact. Each Market Crash has an equal chance to be of any severity.

All Market Crashes bias the current Economic trend downwards, and typically cause prices and Wages to drop immediately.

In a Moderate or Major Market Crash, each player has a chance to receive a Pay Cut to their current Wage.

In a Major Market Crash only, each player has a chance to be fired from their Job immediately. A Major Crash also erases all money in the Bank deposits of *all* players.

On triggering a Market Crash, the player whose turn it is suffers a loss of Happiness relative to the severity of the Crash. They lose even more Happiness if they have over $1,000 in Stock Market investments. Any players who get a pay cut or lose their jobs suffer additional loss of Happiness.

## Triggering a Crash

In order for the game to trigger any **Market Crash**, the following conditions must be true:

* It is Week #8 or greater.
* The current Economic Reading is at least 80.

If both conditions are met at the start of a player's Turn, the game rolls a random number to determine whether an Economic Crash should take place.

In the **Floppy Disk version**, the chance to trigger a Crash is calculated by this formula:

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{\displaystyle Chance \ of \ Market \ Crash = {1 \over 1 + ({20 \times Number \ of \ Players})}}

In the **CD-ROM version**, the chance to trigger a Crash is calculated by this formula:

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{\displaystyle Chance \ of \ Market \ Crash = {1 \over 1 + ({30 \times Number \ of \ Players})}}

Once a Crash is triggered, the game immediately displays the Newspaper showing a headline indicating the severity of the Crash.

## Crash Severity

Once a **Market Crash** has been triggered, the game selects the severity of the Crash completely at random.

* A Minor Market Crash affects only the economy.
* A Moderate Crash affects the economy and possibly players' Jobs, resulting in firings and/or pay cuts.
* A Major Crash affects the economy but also gets all players fired. It also wipes out all Bank accounts.

Each severity of Market Crash triggers a different Newspaper headline, which appears immediately on the screen.

 Minor

## Economic Effect

When a **Market Crash** of any severity strikes, it has two sudden effects on the Economy.

First, the Crash causes the Economic Index (a general market trend) to sharply decline. This means that the economy suddenly becomes more likely to keep going down on subsequent turns. A Crash will cause a very strong economy to neutralize (it could go either way from here), or a neutral economy to reach the worst possible decline (staying low potentially for a long time).

Furthermore, the Crash instantly reduces all prices by a certain percentage. The size of the penalty depends on the severity of the crash:

* Minor Crash: **-5%**
* Moderate Crash: **-10%**
* Major Crash: **-15%**

Note that this penalty is applied after the Economic Index plunges, which means that the final price drop could be far more serious than these numbers imply.

A price drop affects the prices of all **Items** at stores, the **Wages** on offer at the Employment Office, the **Rent** for available Apartments at the Rent Office, the cost of **Enrolling** in new courses at Hi-Tech U, and indirectly the value of all **Stocks**.

Each player's current Wage and Rent are not affected; However a severe Crash can separately reduce player Wages as described below.

## Firings and Pay Cuts

When a Moderate or Major Crash occurs, each player has a chance to lose their job immediately. This includes all players, not just the one whose Turn it currently is.

In a Moderate crash, the chance to be fired is 50% for each player. However any player who does not get fired will instead get a pay cut; Their hourly Wage is reduced to 80% of its current value.

In a Major crash, all players are fired from their jobs. There is no chance to avoid this.

The game immediately displays the "Pay Cut" / "You're Fired" notice (as applicable) for each player, rather than notifying players on their own turns.

## Bank Wipe

A Major **Market Crash** immediately erases all money in each player's Bank account.

Only money in the account is affected. Money invested in Stocks or held in Cash is not affected at all.

## Happiness Penalty

If a **Market Crash** occurs during a player's turn, that player (and only that player) loses Happiness according to the severity of the Crash, and an extra penalty if they also possess more than $1,000 in Stock Market investments.

 Moderate
 Major