Planet M.U.L.E.

OK, this is very obviously a logical error not a syntactical one and it is a complicated process to see it so I'm going to walk you through a scenario that happened to me. The numbers won't be exact because I didn't write them down but you will get the idea.

So, here is the Senario:

Player has -5 energy and AI has +19 (in this case we will say the player is me to make this easier to write) and store has none.

So, I know from reading the forums that the AI recalculates the value it will sell at after each sale based on the shortages (among other things) on the board so while the store is buying at 20 the AI is staying pretty high up there, so I go up to meet the AI and sell my first unit but in doing so I need to raise the top end price of energy to the point where the store is no longer buying because the bottom price is now 21. Then I drop a little and see where the AI will meet me to sell when I'm at -4 (to get the best deal). Then I drop again to get a better deal on the next unit, rinse and repeat.

This process works nice for getting the best possible deal from the AI.

The problem becomes when I get down to -1 and the AI's price for sale is less than the bottom of the auction, the AI is trying to sell at 10 but can't go below 21, the store won't buy, and he keeps walking downwards forever while the clock runs out, I come up from below the 21 line to 21 but because the AI is still trying to walk the price never locks in between us even though we are at the same place.

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Possible Solution #1: The AI could be smart enough to stop walking down when it hits the bottom of an auction. The only concern here is that a player who knows about this oddity can use it to deny someone a buy in the right situation (dirty mule).

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Possible Solution #2: Auctions could just disable the down for anyone when you hit the bottom.

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Possible Solution #3: When someone is trying to go down and the bottom end of the auction and the store isn't buying it could drive down the auction just like going above the top end can drive it up and go down until you get back to the store. I know this is a departure from the original and the movement to perfectly reproduce the original, but it makes sense to me to match off against intent.

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Possible Solution #4: You can say "Shut up weenie boy and stop trying to place games with the AI, you get what you deserve for screwing up"

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Possible Solution #5: (this one is a huge departure but I think would make the auctions better all around, oh, and it's my favorite solution of this list {option #4 being my least favorite})... Add a half way point line in the auction interface, this line would have a special raising and dropping nature to it to change the overall scope of the auction. So, if you are the highest bidding buyer and you are going up or down instead the top and bottom of the market would change until you've reached the real top or bottom.... same if you are the lowest selling seller.... Doing this to auctions would also undo the sitution where the guy with the most money drives up the cost of a plot in an auction just so noone else can buy it because that guy runs the auction up to $4000 then he has to go down far enough to get off the line before he is off the hook to buy it.

 

"option #4 being my least favorite"

I lol'd, I cried, I nearly died.