Feedback Antiques Dealer rebalance

[xivarmy]

A better use of dynamic pricing would be to start the minimums out lower to get some activity then raise them for subsequent auctions based on the results of the previous auction. A few player may get "bargains" but it would be a heck of a lot better than having everyone sit on the bench and refuse to place tie first bid.

It could be as simple atm as a test on beta to see how high they can start the bids on various items and still get auctions. Jacking the starting price up later is likely to meet with even more backlash than starting high and lowering the starting bid once they see what people will happily pay 1M+ for and even fight over and what will just go ignored.

If the opening bid starts low we get the same behavior that had me largely ignore auctions even when I wanted some stuff from them before recent power creep made the items irrelevant - people with lots of coins waiting til the last minute to bid +1. At least with a hefty starting price you know you have to raise more capital before entering the auction and the auction barons have to pay substantially for whatever it is they're winning (and therefore decide what isn't worth paying for). "Wait 2 hours and try to get a deal" was not engaging auction gameplay.

They could fix the auctions another way by allowing players to use a bidding agent to set their maximum bid and *not* have to show up at the precise time the auction's ending to get a deal.

But if they're going to keep the stupid last-30 seconds +1 coin is raise-enough auction style, then at least minimums that mean something removes some of the undesirable behavior by ruling out "win every auction noone else wants".

 

[Baledouris]

Absolutely ridiculous.
Buying prices over 1 million, and selling prices around some thousands?!
Does someone play their game, at inno's?

This comment is turned as well as this rebalance at the moment

 

[Sunshine]

i like that there are more items in the dealer. But the shop items only for gems, is very bad for newer players. And the auctions are all now very expensive items. So for me, how it is now, the dealer is useless.

 

[Martha-Marcie]

Really happy to see the AD getting attention!

I sell and use the AD very frequently, here and in my main world. I think the coins and gems need to be rebalanced though, either decrease the starting bid, or increase the value for selling items. With a lot of collecting, I have 3.3 million coins right now, which is MAX 3 start bids for a lot of (admittedly great) items.

I've seen multiple items with >1 million start bids, and most of them have 0 bids at the end of 2 hrs. Doesn't seem like that's really the point of AD right? to have one person sporadically bidding the extreme start bid, and no competition because no one can afford it.

I think making them higher priced is a good idea, and they are great prizes, but I don't think that should come at the expense of the auction bid concept.

 

[Emberguard]

A better use of dynamic pricing would be to start the minimums out lower to get some activity then raise them for subsequent auctions based on the results of the previous auction. A few player may get "bargains" but it would be a heck of a lot better than having everyone sit on the bench and refuse to place the first bid.

Or dynamic based on time since item introduction. Start it up high, then reduce it a bit each month since release.

 

[RKinG]

I would like an offer: 5 days Forge Plus = 5 gemestons

 

[grandmaster ubero]

i agree with most here. very much neeeded to update the list of items to be more up to par with the game but the cost of each item based on the start bids are to high in relation to what is currently paid out to players for selling items ! Main issue here is that it's simply going to take a massive amount of time, in some cases months just to get enough coin, to even start to bid on ONE item and then you may still not even win anything and then you are depleted and cant bid again for a long time.

let the free market decide why do innogames need to tell us what each item is worth??, set a low start bid so that it encourages bids otherwerwise people will run out of coin in afew weeks or months and then most items will not be sold at all and the whole pooint with the AD will be gone and it will again become a useless feature.

1000 to 30,000 coin for the most current items (previous event) to me is a reasonable start bid so not tolet anyone get items for free if for some reason (time of day) nobody else happen to bid for that item.

 

[XIA*]

Someone posted a screenshot of having 22M auction coins and 20k Gemstones. I knew a lot of old players had around that much. Inno must be aware of this and hence the huge prices. Imagine if they reduced the auction prices, how much they will be able to buy! Even at 100k a piece they would be able to get 220+ items. It will be a mega event giving as much as they would normally get in an entire year, or more.

and that's like 1% of players. Seriously. Most of us have around 2-3 million coins. and then those who start the game now, will not be able to buy literally anything for years? how is that fair? to make a function for 1% of the player base?

 

[xivarmy]

and that's like 1% of players. Seriously. Most of us have around 2-3 million coins. and then those who start the game now, will not be able to buy literally anything for years? how is that fair? to make a function for 1% of the player base?

It's more fair than if that same 1% is buying hundreds of items for 100k without making a dent in their pocketbook such that the newer player can never-ever hope to win something of real importance. At least with high starting bids the new player knows what it'll take to make a credible bid because the moneybags are being drained paying more than they'd have to if they could often just outbid some newbies for it from a low starting price.

 

[Jubilee]

The Antiques Dealer allowed us to get rid of things we did not want & manage to buy OLD Event Buildings no longer in the prize pool so you could finish off those bldgs hanging around in your Inventory.
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You now allow players to get upgrades & levels of New buildings still available as prizes. Not very antique, is it? This is not an Improvement.
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The idea of a game is that you should be able to PLAY strategically to gain a prize, the Antiques Bldg now is out of the reach of the majority of Players. I have been selling off my weekly GE & GBG wins that I do not want or need to keep to get coins for the Antique Bldg to buy something within reason. I have snagged some previous era goods, the odd level of an Old Building (was hoping to complete my Air Ship but I think that is now a dream too far).
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Players do not just play to fight, to get the buildings with boosts to fight more. If we are just on a treadmill going nowhere Players will leave in droves. Many Forge Players like to have a few Special buildings that are esthetically pleasing. Many like specific buildings from previous events for whatever reason, they might give us nothing much but we like to have them in our cities. Now that might be totally out of reach. I will still play but nowhere near what I used to because I do not have a snowflakes chance in hell to work towards getting the buildings I was hoping for & buying them is not worth it either. I am here to test & I will do that. It helps me with my playing the events in my cities.

 

[XIA*]

It's more fair than if that same 1% is buying hundreds of items for 100k without making a dent in their pocketbook such that the newer player can never-ever hope to win something of real importance. At least with high starting bids the new player knows what it'll take to make a credible bid because the moneybags are being drained paying more than they'd have to if they could often just outbid some newbies for it from a low starting price.

" At least with high starting bids the new player knows what it'll take to make a credible bid " -- rofl, yeah. How's that gonna encourage a new player to auction? if you literally know it will take you 2 or 3 years to amass the amount of the coins to be able to bid at all? That's not a reachable goal. That's un unrealistic goal to set to new players. Yes, the game should be challenging. But this is beyong challenging, it's just unrealistic. It's like you expect fresh out of the college graduates to be able to buy a house straight ahead. it'll take 20 years to be able to afford a house. Except that this is a game here, not RL. People come here to entertain themselves and not to replicate real life idiocies of society. If Inno wants more players and keep them in the game, they should set realistically challenging goals but nit unreachable ones. If i know I cannot buy anything from the AD for 2 years, why the heck would that motivate me to use it? why should I even bother selling items? And all this just to trip up 1 % of all players who may have amassed a larger amount of coins? This is not balancing, for god's sake. This is LITERALLY excluding 99% of the players from a game feature.

 

[xivarmy]

" At least with high starting bids the new player knows what it'll take to make a credible bid " -- rofl, yeah. How's that gonna encourage a new player to auction? if you literally know it will take you 2 or 3 years to amass the amount of the coins to be able to bid at all? That's not a reachable goal. That's un unrealistic goal to set to new players. Yes, the game should be challenging. But this is beyong challenging, it's just unrealistic. It's like you expect fresh out of the college graduates to be able to buy a house straight ahead. it'll take 20 years to be able to afford a house. Except that this is a game here, not RL. People come here to entertain themselves and not to replicate real life idiocies of society. If Inno wants more players and keep them in the game, they should set realistically challenging goals but nit unreachable ones. If i know I cannot buy anything from the AD for 2 years, why the heck would that motivate me to use it? why should I even bother selling items? And all this just to trip up 1 % of all players who may have amassed a larger amount of coins? This is not balancing, for god's sake. This is LITERALLY excluding 99% of the players from a game feature.

1) It won't take you 2 years if it's a priority to you. If it's not a priority, fine (no reason it should have to be)

2) The idea has always sortof been the shelf encourages you to use it initially while the auction is out of reach. And the auctions are for big ticket items. By separating the currencies entirely you may prioritize trading in for gems and then one day find out you have enough to bid on something. And those shelf items are way higher impact for a new player than a longtime player. (100 goods, 200 FP, a small pile of units). Is the shelf currently not appealing enough to a new player? I'm not sure really. But that's the area to improve for newbies.

3) Again, the feature has to drain the balances of the higher end player *somehow* or even the medium-range player will just always be outclassed on the most desirable items. Nevermind the new player. Prices have to be high enough for their to be more demand than supply of coins. Though perhaps some of the not so desirable items should either leave the auction rotation or get a lower starting bid. But again, maybe they're watching what people will spend at first on beta before tuning it down a little (but still hopefully expensive enough that top players have more that they wish they could afford than they actually can in the long run)?

 

[Fury the Avenger]

Most auction go without bid because most item sold make no sense, at least not at the current prices.

A silver or golden upgrade, that the max level building produce itself, will go without bidding because the price is too high (any price is high, but some might value the saved time, the current prices are just too high).

A silver/golden/platinum upgrade that was difficult to obtain originally does get a bidding war start, if the building does not produce its fragments. Example: governator villa golden upgrade kit (starting bid aroung half a million ending bid 1.2 million).

A regular upgrade wont start a bidding war, because it is interesting only to those that have an already almost complete building anyway. And with this prices if we are missing more than one, maybe two, upgrades we don't have the coin to buy multiple copies, when they appear.

A building that has a single level or just a couple has more chance to start a war. A building with 9 or even more level will usually go without any bid.

 

[Pericles the Lion]

" At least with high starting bids the new player knows what it'll take to make a credible bid " -- rofl, yeah. How's that gonna encourage a new player to auction? if you literally know it will take you 2 or 3 years to amass the amount of the coins to be able to bid at all? That's not a reachable goal. That's un unrealistic goal to set to new players. Yes, the game should be challenging. But this is beyong challenging, it's just unrealistic. It's like you expect fresh out of the college graduates to be able to buy a house straight ahead. it'll take 20 years to be able to afford a house. Except that this is a game here, not RL. People come here to entertain themselves and not to replicate real life idiocies of society. If Inno wants more players and keep them in the game, they should set realistically challenging goals but nit unreachable ones. If i know I cannot buy anything from the AD for 2 years, why the heck would that motivate me to use it? why should I even bother selling items? And all this just to trip up 1 % of all players who may have amassed a larger amount of coins? This is not balancing, for god's sake. This is LITERALLY excluding 99% of the players from a game feature.

I agree 100%. I've seen several screenshots of auctions ending with no bids. Has anyone seen one where a player dropped a million+ on something? If this were rolled out on live tomorrow I wouldn't participate even though I could afford it for a short time. I'd keep my powder dry and wait for INNO to come to their senses on the pricing.

 

[xivarmy]

I agree 100%. I've seen several screenshots of auctions ending with no bids. Has anyone seen one where a player dropped a million+ on something? If this were rolled out on live tomorrow I wouldn't participate even though I could afford it for a short time. I'd keep my powder dry and wait for INNO to come to their senses on the pricing.

Yes, I've seen two auctions sell for over a million so far (both viceroy golden upgrades). Haven't checked back in on all of the auctions.

 

[xivarmy]

On the other hand this one is just too specific to draw an audience:



So you played the elf shop (diamonds only), and were missing a specific 1 of the upgrades that presumably if you cared you'd have targeted. I think for the nog shop if they want to draw sufficient attention, at any price, they need to roll all the pieces into a big ol selection kit so that people can at least be bidding on the piece of it they want.

Even then for the nog shop I wouldn't want it at any price personally, but someone might. This has nothing to do with the starting bid - just whether or not one considers it an appealing item.

 

[SlytherinAttack]

To be honest, bidding fights max I did was 600k which is completely stupid. But with the given rebalancing amount, it prevents the bidding fights as well as bidding too.

I was happy for the items listed but for the costs, I didn't worry initially because thought like selling prize also gets the rebalancing. Now, I am still happy for the items added to AD, but costs I will get happy only if selling prize gets it balance.

Clearly waiting to see some nerfs on the auction item cost or some buffs in the selling prize. Either way or making both is upto the development team, but it is needed. Otherwise, no use of introducing these items in AD unless creating a advanced tab in the AD. Waiting to see, how Dev's will modify the changes.

 

[RI0T]

This game has the same problem as any of these types of Games, too much stuff! Cities are full right off the bat. I started a new city and within a month I had a Eagle Mountain, Autumn Vineyard, Celtic Tavern and a ton of other crud. In My Main city I am constantly trying to get rid of stuff to make room for the New GBG Towers or new Event Buildings and so never needed the Antique Dealer to buy anything.
The reason people have so many Gems and Coins and because 90% of the stuff is worthless and you get a ton of it.

 

[CrashBoom]

Or dynamic based on time since item introduction. Start it up high, then reduce it a bit each month since release.

that is what I already expect

current event = almost 2 million
last event = about 1.8 million

because if the things from anniversary event will cost almost 2 million for the next 6 month or longer
how much higher will be the things form next event and the event after would be even higher ?
at the end of the year we would be at 4 million

 

[CrashBoom]

Someone posted a screenshot of having 22M auction coins and 20k Gemstones. I knew a lot of old players had around that much. Inno must be aware of this and hence the huge prices. Imagine if they reduced the auction prices, how much they will be able to buy! Even at 100k a piece they would be able to get 220+ items. It will be a mega event giving as much as they would normally get in an entire year, or more.

with a starting prize from 100k players still won't be able to buy 200 items

because then more players are participating in the auction

and especially in the beginning the new things (for example golden orrery golden kit) will still cost a million or 2

with that in the beginning the rich people would make it other poorer

but later more players would have a chance

but with 2 million for a current event kit normal players can only buy it once every 1 or 2 years