Hey,
Our servers do not try to make free slots for other players based on the number of players/ spectators in game. Our servers have this thing called auto-clean which is variable on a per server basis. This basically allows the server to automatically reset companies that have been empty, aka player has left for a set amount of months. Using "!resetinfo" ingame will tell you such values. Typically the maximum set value is 72 months which equates to 5 ingame years or 1 hour 8 minutes. So this allows players to leave to have a meal or watch a tv program or something. There is also an automatic restart for the servers that take place if there is no players connected nor been no players joining for 2 hours, which results in a fresh game.
What you suggest of having large loans for those who join later in game could work if inflation was active again. However with inflation the increase in loan value is offset by increase in building transportation, hence offers no real benefit. It would take some complicated patching to the client to achieve this and isn't really a good idea.
Starting late can be a difficult thing with such a large gap in terms of goal value but still achievable to win.
Most of the servers have been designed so the average game length is between 1 to 3 hours at most. This means it wouldn't take long for the game to start afresh for everyone
If you can't wait till then there is the "!voterestart" command which players can vote to get the server to restart if their is a majority wanting this. Obviously servers such as the 15 billion euro goal are an exception with games taking over 8 hours to win.
Something that may be a solution would be the development of a system that has the game to restart every 2 (for example hours) with no defined goals. Then players must strive to achieve the most company value and hence more points in this time frame.
I hope this helps clear up some of the limitations of the game itself
Oh, I've just realised that this topic is over a year old too. The actual point of this topic was that players wanted to have their companies still available come morning. So they would start on a 1 billion euro goal server in the evening and earn around 5-20 million a year, for example, then go to sleep and come morning the goal progress would be around ~90-95% which they would then rejoin their company in order to get their points. This method of farming isn't one that is encouraged.
Regards,
cxc