Staff Interference in the Mark

My Vote is No Market is fine We do need black market for minerals Tho

Thats A Verry Bad Idea To Post Food Cheaper Good Idea when there are 0 minerals on the market

The Food Is Staying High Because The Food Producers are buying the cheep food and posting higher to make more cash its not because there is less people making food theres plenty of food on the market And Plenty of food being made I think messing with this would make alot of people mad the only person mad is backoff and the reason a few people are keeping the food market high he mesed with the wrong federation The food prices will Stay high as long as we say so Backoff needs to learn how to not make so many people mad because this is just a game no need to be artied to deth because he got hit he picks on players then he crys and arti spams them when he gets hit

EE Worst Idea Ever Dont mess with the food the collectives and marus know what they are doing

I`ve always preferred it when food is between oh 8 at the lowest and 15 at the highest. Any lower and I feel like I`m stealing from the agri empires, any higher and I feel like they are stealing from me :P But yeah, I`d go for an NPC buying out food that`s below a limit and posting it higher, just like having them post it lower if it`s too high.

The main question is: what are the limits? The upper limit seems to be 18/19 so that even tax virals can play, but what should the lower limit on food be? I like your 6-7 there grantweep, but what do others think?

I feel like you need to ask the age old question that needs to be answered.


How much should agri empires make?
How much should tax empires make?

Do agri empires, that dont need loyaltying and easier setup (especially TB, read: loyaltying up a single planet could take weeks depending on the server), AND with a lower base PR deserve to earn about the same money or more as tax empires? If the answer to this question is yes, then there shouldn`t be any intervention.

Otherwise, intervene once food increases beyond 18 (this around the point where taxers [miners ofc] and agri empires make the same amount of money). Or some lower cutoff. And do the same if food drops too low (get an NPC to buy up food if it drops below 6-7)

First off I`m for the idea, but I`ll state the reasons I can see for not doing it.


Controlling the market is something that I can see being done to make players, such as backoff, not be able to play and earn money in the event of an UW attempt. Buying out the food market constantly prevents many tax empires from being able to fight. Buying out the minerals does the same thing, though to a much lesser degree, since most empires have at least a small store of minerals. This would be more of a TB problem where empires can`t afford to waste the turns waiting to mine the minerals they might need to strike.


On the other hand, currently on RT at least (sorry, I don`t play Slow or Normal, and don`t look at the market often/ever on Fast and Ultra) the food prices aren`t being bought out for the purposes of an UW, they are high because there is not enough being made to drive prices lower since Apollo restarted. In the event of something like this, which can very well drive players to quit/long VM, we need to force prices low enough that at least they can play, even if not earn buckets of credits. The mineral market at the moment tends to have something on it every time I look, so I`m not sure we need to put anything on the market, (again on RT anyway) but if we did. I would say don`t post much and at max price so that others can sell their minerals at max as well, or put lots on the market but at Black Market prices.

a wall of food at $30 or $35 would be nice

i think npc food @ 19 is fine, no need to concern ourselves with tax terran aba

I`m not sure market manipulation is a good idea

but putting mins and food in the market when there is 0 is a good idea

there should never be a situation in which you cant purchase something on the market for atleast half price

as long as it`s handled correctly and allows everyone to play the game then I have no problems with it. However if you effectively cap the food price at a mark that makes tax virals able to use turns regardless of actual player food production and posting, it could cause imbalances, maybe. Not to mention tax miners making crazy amount, but they still would regardless I guess.

If you `cap` the NPC posting of food at say 19 per, nothing below, that would make tax virals able to break even, due to going by this, there would be goods on the market all the time too (thats going to be tricky to do though with only 1-4 per for CG`s to be posted at *shrug*). They will break even but not make much, or make a negligable amount, depending on the amount of population they have. I have no idea on the amounts that taxterrans need to pay before they hit the break even/loss break point however.

Edit: made myself a little clearer...just a little

Edited by EvilAbadayos on 2012-04-21

so if anyone complains at lost profits of $35+ food being undercut, they should just stfu.

I think there should be a big disclaimer telling all the agri empires, that no one in their right mind would buy @ w/e price they have been posting that needs NPC intervention