Change Auction Bottom Price Based on a Center Line

[hightekvagabond]

I posted this as part of a bug but I want to throw it out there as an overall idea.

Here is the thing..... When the system auctions land some times the guy with the most money can lock everyone else out by running the price all the way up. Also, when there is an auction for a resource such as smithore, food, or energy. If the person buying the resource runs up the price high enough the store stops buying it, so that means anyone who still has units to sell after someone has run the price too high for the store has to let them rot if the high price buyer doesn't want more.

So, I suggest a thin gray line in the middle of the auction UI, if you are going up or down and you are the driving person for the price of an item and you hit this line and the store is not active then you stop moving and the bottom end price just keeps changing until the store is active again at which point the line freezes and you fall off of it.


Examples of how this would change game play:


Example #1:  Land for sale for 500, player 1 runs the price up to 5000 and then wants to retreat back down, as he starts going down from the top of the auction and hits the center he stops moving and instead of him backing out of the auction while he pushes down the base price on the auction starts going down. So, at this point one of two things happens, either the guy who tried to drive it up too far ends up with the property he didn't mean to take (probably at a price he didn't mean) or he retreats out and the land goes back to the price it started and one of the other players has a chance to pop in at the last minute at that price.

Example #2: Player 1 is short on food, the store is buying at $20 a unit, player 2 has 20 units,  player 1 races to the top of the screen raising the price on food to the point where the store isn't buying anymore, Player 1 buys her fill of food from player 2 then runs down to not buy anymore, player 2 still has 16 extra units of food, she goes down until she hits the center line and keeps pressing down, instead of moving on the screen her feet move but she stays still and the price at the bottom of the auction starts changing until we lock back into the $20 and then she goes past the line the rest of the way to the store who buys the remaining 16 units at $20 each.




For the sake of keeping the value of food and energy as a factor in the game I would also disregard any sales of resources made to the store after the price has drifted above it and come back down in the value equations later.

[Big Head Zach]

This is not a bug, but original spec (save for the speed at which prices can be adjusted by players), and is already being discussed here.