Land Auction Fix

[dynadan]

In the latest land auction fix you guys came very close to fixing the latency issues, however most the time it is still not working.  Thus it gives the player with the lowest ping the advantage if everyone holds up the entire auction.  I think everyone has come to a consensus that the lowest placed player should win the auction in these "tie" situations.

The problem:   Even if everyone holds up from the start it will show each person that they are the one blinking.  Also it is very rare that they will end up on the same price, or if some are at the same price it is extra rare to have them tied on the highest pixel of that dollar amount (it has been previously verified that there are several different levels even at identical dollar amounts).  For whatever reason (packet loss/latency) the players end up being close to each other but usually the lowest ping player/host will be higher and thus win the auction.

I believe I have come up with a fair solution that should be easy enough to implement.  It won't solve the visual latency but will end up settling the situation in a fair way.

The Solution: We currently have a maximum run up amount of around $2000.  (need some verification of the true maximum)  This amount can only be obtained by holding up the entire time.  My idea is to treat all bids within $20 of the maximum possible bid ($2000ish) as a tie bid and award the land based on lowest placed player to highest placed player. 

This amount should be small enough to not include anyone that goes down at the last second, but large enough that even high ping players should be able to get within the maximum bid limit.  And because you need to come within $20 of the maximum bid limit it should not affect any other auctions except the "tie" situation auctions where everyone holds up for the entire time.

This seems to be the last of the "host" advantages(besides the fact that if you lose connection, the game won't continue with you replaced as a bot), and it would be great if you could implement this fix.

I put this into the Bug section because i think this is a way to fix the "bug" that keeps the land auction from working how it should.

Thank you for all the effort you guys have put into this project.  Keep up the great work.

[MuleSizeMe]

Finally someone can put into words whats been driving me crazy since last version release, thanx dyna. Now i can rest easy knowing this issue is in forum and the powers that be might may just see it.(less bitching now).
1 problem though, and maybe you can explain it like i was a baby-

This seems to be the last of the "host" advantages(besides the fact that if you lose connection, the game won't continue with you replaced as a bot), and it would be great if you could implement this fix.

Imo this is not the last of the "host advantages", there IS no host advantages. I host most games and this has been happening to me while im in last, the other guy is 2nd,and he wins the 2nd auction back to back as well....how is that a host advantage when i loose 2 ties in land auction back to back??
I say its random, as the lowest rankd should ALWAYS win the land auction in a tie...i mean this doesnt happen in the other auctions when every1 reaches the store all at once.(is it a glitch?)

thanks for posting dyna, i just knew you would get around to it if i bitched about it everytime it happened.

msm.(aka dm)

[mikman]

There is one small issue that bugs me too with the land auction.  The timer ticks down slowly when someone enters the bidding area and then stays that way for the rest of the auction... If everyone stops moving it should go back to the normal quicker speed, and back to slow ticks if there is movement just like the other auctions...

[Peter]

No matter the latencies, it is actually possible to make all players abel to move to the exact same price tick if they hold their up button pressed the entire land auction. Dynadan's solution is a little quicker to program though, but it will still have a possibility of errors.

Why players don't move to the exact same spot is a remain from the old system. Back when the land auction timer slowed down when players moved it didn't matter if they ended up at the same spot or not. If a player held their up button the entire time they would reach their maximum bid long before the timer ended.

Note that players do not move at different speed no matter the lag. It is the time of the auction that is slightly different between the players. If the measured latencies never change, then all players end up at the same spot (e.g. if you play on LAN this is usually the case).

We might fix this in a later release or adjust the land auctions to work differently.