The cheapest price

not really a bug but...

I've noticed that when i'm trading with another race, it's too easy to find the cheapest price to obtain a technology, or a ship, or a planet etc..
The only thing to do is to select the bc button, and begin to move the slider back and forward: when the price is accepted, the alien words become green, if the price is too low, the word are red..
So, with a little patience, it's obviously the way to find the cheapest price and there's no more risk to pay more money for an acquirement. In substance: is not a trade.

I think it should be better if the "sliding" of the price was penalized, for example, if you try more than 3 different offers, the alien race will become a little angry with you, and the price grown.

What do you think?
10,543 views 12 replies
Reply #1 Top
The slider doesn't increment by 1 each time so you actually might pay a few more bc than you have to if you do it that way. To really get the cheapest price possibl you have to type the number in manually. We get a lot of people who say this is too time comsuming and there should just be a button you can press to get the optimal deal. I've got to say, I thought this post was a refreshing change. Personally, I like it fine the way it is.
Reply #2 Top
I'd quite like a fade from green to red. If it's fully green you definately get a deal, if it's fully red, you'll never get a deal. In between, the chance of getting a deal depends on how close you are to the fully green side. If you make a failed deal, you can't make another offer until the next turn.

That would mean that if you definately wanted a deal, you'd have to pay through the nose to get it. You'd have to balance getting the best deal with how long it would take you to reach an agreement.
Reply #3 Top
uhm... you've a slider but you've also the arrows that increments by one the offer.. and i've tried: if the price is 820, when i get 819 the words are red.. increment by one with the arrows and become green, subtract and become red, reincrement and return green. In the same turn.
Pheraphs i'm wrong, i'll check another time but i've done on this way a lot of time.

Another thing: mission 5 of the campaign. Is the alternative mission: i've to get an alliance with a race (excuse, i'm a newbie so i don't remember the name).
I was at 62% of the victory, the other race has colonized a lot of planet, i only 4.
Victory was far.
So i've tried this: i've make a gift to other race: all my ships, all my techs, all my planets excepts my homeworld.
Other race become friendly and accept the alliance.

Ok, it sounds logical but.. is an unusual way to win a play

Reply #4 Top
Actually, I've found that after clicking on the slider, you can change the price incrementally much faster using the mouse wheel. It beats clicking on the arrows to get 1 bc increments.
Reply #5 Top
Pharris73 is right ... put the mouse pointer over the bottom slider and use the mouse wheel to get 1 bc increments. Also, put the pointer on the arrow above to move in increments of 10 bc. I really like it the way it is. Before I discovered the mouse wheel technique, I found it pretty tedious to type in numbers or click repeatedly on the slider arrows.
Reply #6 Top
Kinda funny no 1 knew about the mouse wheel , been using it since february Lol


Monc34
Reply #7 Top
I think that a solution could be this:

- the colours of the words don't' change until you press the "send" button.
- if you have made a good offer, (not only bc, but also in excanging tech, or plantets etc..), your opponent accepts the transation, the words become green and your reputation grow a little with him.
- if you have made a bad offer, your opponent decline, the words become red, and your reputation decrease. Decreasing process is limited by a lower bound: it has no sense that a race starts a war with you because you're not a good trader, but pheraps has more sense that the race is disappointed.

This should make not convenient to try and try until you find the best offer, because any bad offer costs to you in reputation (and the less reputation you've, the more the price growns).
Pheraphs it could be funny to introduce on tech tree a new ability, for example "telepaty": if you get it, you regain the actual behaviour. (but if the race has telepaty, you obtains wrong information...)
Reply #8 Top
mazzuco: Sorry, but that would be just plain stupid. I have no motivation to memorize the value formula for starships, the cost of each trade good, the bargaining value of each tech, and the modifiers for diplomacy and wonders. Oh, and the formula determining the value of a peace treaty.

For example: I once got Zero Point Armor and Adamantium II for a simple Laser II. I would have offered way too much on that, which is fine for the game.

But suppose that I had offered Anti-Matter Tropedoes II and HD Driver I for a Disruptor. Seems like a good deal to me, but OOPS! I've offended the Torians, started a war, and died horribly.

The current system isn't perfect, but I can honestly say that your idea is one of the worst I've ever heard.   
Reply #9 Top
lol.
I'm not a game developer, so it's not my business, so my solution is just an idea.
The fact are that, actually, trading for a tech or a ship, is only another variant of "guess the number game. Tell me a number, if is greather than mine i'll tell you 'too big', otherwise i'll tell you 'too small'".
The dicotomic search alghoritm. there is no ability to guess.

Anyway it's only my point of view.
Reply #10 Top
Wouldnt like memorizing a lenghty formula for prices either, leave it just as it is now, Thx you

Monc34
Reply #11 Top
ok, leave it is an option.
In this case should be more direct a button with "the price is xxx bc" instead of the slider that actually is useless.
Reply #12 Top
I'd quite like a fade from green to red. If it's fully green you definately get a deal, if it's fully red, you'll never get a deal. In between, the chance of getting a deal depends on how close you are to the fully green side. If you make a failed deal, you can't make another offer until the next turn.

That would mean that if you definately wanted a deal, you'd have to pay through the nose to get it. You'd have to balance getting the best deal with how long it would take you to reach an agreement.
[Very Evil] [Cake Walk]


I think that is an excellent idea!