It is with slightly mixed emotions that I humbly come before the people of Scorched. I have been back now for less then a month and very quickly realized a devious way to get the upper hand in the game. I wanted to test this and for the first time I put it to the test this morning,and I think it worked.
Lots of people get tired of sandhogs. Well what do I get tired of? Diggers and rollers. Diggers,rollers,diggers,rollers over and over. Many of the best players use this strategy, cool with me,use what ever you want and I will do the same. Who says you must have a two part offence? Yes,yes I know the more complex strategy the better right? Well, how is this for a complex strategy!! I simply manipulate the system by raising the price of rollers artifically by saving all my money until round ten then buying a crap load of rollers raising the price to bankrupt thoes who use them. Why stop there? I can raise the price of every weapon except sandhogs. People who feel sandhogs are beneath them won't buy them and will find it much harder to save money for the next round. I don't think it would hurt excellent players because they only need one roller,but you see my point.
I have scanned the forum and found nothing about this. I don't know if this has ever been an issue before but now it's easier to do this with the bot in there.And you don't have to look anyone in the face as you do it. So with little effort one could raise the price of anything not locked.
Remember a few years back when I single-handedly raised the price of nukes? That was unintentional. So this morning I tried it to see what the price would go up to. Mabye there was a cap or something I was not aware of. In round ten I had over 200k and spent it all on heavy rollers. The price went from $2,660 to $9,480! All it took was one game. I did this not to anger people but to show how eazy it was and to expose this.
So is it ok to do this? Yes, it's very underhanded,but if I can do this to other people's weapons of choice it's only fair that people can do this to mine. No one really has an advantage if everyone is doing this. It just looks like no one has done this to an extreme yet. I'm just not the type of guy that would raise prices little by little then laugh to myself when someone makes a comment about the price of rollers.
My mixed emotions comes from thinking once this is out in the open,the powers that be may pull out the bot. If that's the case I may not be able to catch up to Astor by the time the stats end and ruin my chances of winning a second stats series do to lack of noobs,oh,I mean players. So I'm letting the cards fall where they may. I fully expect someone to jack up the price of sandhogs now.
In another post I said if you can do it then it's within "the parameters of the game"....Well, I did it. It can be done. And I also think it's a dirty trick. But if eveyone can do a dirty trick,then it's not so dirty is it. I hope no one calls for me being banned because I raised the price of rollers seven grand. Call me a nuker or hoger but I do not believe my devotion to the game is in question, LOL, to say the least.Think of me as the FBI agent that tries to smuggle a fake bomb through an airport to test the security system.
Imo all prices should be locked to aviod manipulation. Put up that fence,not just a sign. Pulling out the bot would make it harder but not by much. I know prices can be ajusted but how often does that really happen? What say you people?!

If you got the cash spend it, dont really matter what you do with it, the market shifts on what players are willing to pay for. The price of rollers will eventually even itself out again due to a high demand on some other weapon.
Kanga

Thrax is on record as advocating this type of price manipulation.

Example : Dirt Prices

Therefore, I must conclude that it is acceptable.

You might want to jack up the price on the SMIRV's too.

Several of the top players rely on them heavily.

If you don't get banned, perhaps you can jack up bubble shields too.

Have fun

Caution : Just because it is allowed, doesn't mean that you can't be
legally banned for doing it. To the best of my knowledge and belief,
the new rule is in effect and has survived the only formal challenge.

Before you do much of anything other than donating kills, perhaps you
should get a ruling from Gavin on justifiable grounds for banning players.

You wont get banned for using dirt. Just buy a riot or two if dirting is a problem, there about as cheap as dirt. teleports work well too.

You wont get banned for economically stimulating the game either. If you have the cash to raise a price and have the desire to do so, no ones stoping you.
Kanga

Perhaps you didn't understand the issue.


We weren't discussing using dirt, we were discussing price manipulation.
Naked wanted to know if doing this would label him as a problem player.


A new rule was voted into existence that essentially allowed banning
players for doing anything that upsets the enjoyment of other players.

Price manipulation of the SMIRV's could upset POM.
Under the new rule, this act could get him banned.

Sorry for that mess, but the answer is no.. it's not a flaw, and it won't be held
against you. It's a strategy, and has been used for Years on all servers that
have a propperly working Free-Market system.

With such limited items to buy, the prices won't change very fast in the
default mod. But the Stock-Market effect of buy low, and resell later when
high is sometimes more profitable than the Interest. As well, Buying a lot of
one item will also Lower the price of several other items. It is supposed to
balance out in a propperly working market code.

Gavin's code stores prices in floats that can become Negative if the item is
neglected long. These items can be tough to grow, but it can pay off
eventually in the lowering of other items.

Thank you for clearing that up Thrax. The price of heavy rollers has gone down about $1,000 in a day so any price spike would not be to long lived. Good to know this is a known strategy and there won't be any reprimands. This tactic seems not to be for the next round but for the next game.
I conducted an experiment. I tried to change the behavior of the bot through price manipulation. What does the bot use most often? From what I can tell...napalm. In three games with the bot I raised the price of napalm from $12,710 to $26,400. In the third game the bot seemed to save it's money and had to wait until the 7th or 8th round to buy napalm. A fun thing to watch unfold.
It would be just my luck that I start jacking up the prices of things so it forces the bot to start hogging me! LOL! A victim of my own design!

The bots in default mod are not really set to use clever buying tactics.
Thier pre-set weapon lists only stop them from buying something if the
price exceeds thier set limit.

The speed of growth on items can vary depending on how many similar
priced items were 'not bought'. With different arsonels, it has often grown
enough from 1-2 rounds of buying to sell it back the next for profit.
Try ramping up the prices of extremely ignored items, and see if you can
finally get them out of the negative.

Using this stock-market effect, i've seen some players of non-defaults climb
to the 999k in a short time. I'd had to take some action on the item limits a
while back to reduce this.

lol naked, you know how to put your banner as a signature and not an attachment right?


Kanga

Just to be on the safe side I will not manipulate price any more until Gavin has had his say. And my finger is getting tired from buying selling then rebuying. I have changed the bots behavior, that is enough for now.

I think it's appalling behaviour. You should be be banned asap. Outrageous!!

You are fine Naked, I do it all the time, been trying to raise hammers for awhile now.

Kanga

I know this is off my topic...but since I got you on the line Kanga...(sigh)...no I don't know how to put the banner as part of my signature. If you could give me a few directions it would be appreciated. I would give you a coupon for one "hog free" game.

In user control panel, click profile

then click edit signature
upload the banner to my custom banners post via attachment,
then click on the image after you post, there will be a url in the adress bar
copy the url and paste it into your signature between the [img] tag
[img]YOUR%20URL%20HERE[/img]



Kanga

hey.......leave my hammers alone...