Nov 12th 2014, 12:41:41
This is not a fully formed idea or a suggestion for a specific change to be made, but rather intended as a discussion of the current state of the market and the current state of play. I only play for real on alliance, so I admittedly am less away of the dynamics of things on other servers but I suspect in this case there is little difference.
Anyway!
As numbers have gone down on every server, one of the biggest impacts has been that the public market has become very shallow. As a consequence, it has become difficult to rely on it when it is easily manipulated, and there are no guarantees that the goods you want to purchase can be had in the quantities necessary. This is most evident when it comes to destocking: the NW that exists at the end of rounds is purchased almost entirely from private markets.
Indeed, there are a large number of strategies designed to avoid the public market entirely: all-x farmers and land trading farmers are as viable as they are because of the reliable way the private market works. These strategies are very popular because they're simple and predictable, where as strategies that involve more risk, variance, and participation have generally been discounted because of the weakness of the public market.
I like risk, variance, and participation and I like the things they contribute to the game. I don't like predictability, as that tends to lead to stagnation.
The public market is one of the defining features of the game, and has been from the beginning. One of the most basic concepts that new players looking to succeed need to learn is how the public market works and why, and how to navigate it. Via the market, you can see the positives and negatives for each particular strategy, and see how countries should be generally be played: everyone buys tech early, no one cares really about food except for stockpiling, and military is only really valued for starting up, destocking, and war. The market is where all countries interact, and it is pretty sad that it has become as weak as it has given that it is such an integral part of the game.
So, here is what I suggest:
Lower the private market refresh rate, decreasing the amount of NW generated on the private market every turn.
There will be two main effects from this:
1. Final NWs will for strategies that rely on the private market.
A lower refresh rate means more time needed for destocking. This necessarily will decrease stocking time, and decrease final NWs.
2. The public market will see more activity.
If strategies that don't destock on the public market take a hit, people will be more willing to play strategies that destock via the public market. The main effect here will be a stronger military market, with more volume and a sooner crash on the food market as people avoid stocking right to the end and instead try to cash out earlier, picking up lower priced military.
3. C/I becomes more viable.
The only strategy that is a clear winner in all of this is commie/indy as they gain not only from higher military prices but also from better relative NW generation compared to the private market. Looking at top scores I see that this may not be desirable for all servers, but C/I is generally one of the weaker strategies due to expenses.
More activity on the market makes the game more robust, and this is the best way I can think of to promote that.
Anyway!
As numbers have gone down on every server, one of the biggest impacts has been that the public market has become very shallow. As a consequence, it has become difficult to rely on it when it is easily manipulated, and there are no guarantees that the goods you want to purchase can be had in the quantities necessary. This is most evident when it comes to destocking: the NW that exists at the end of rounds is purchased almost entirely from private markets.
Indeed, there are a large number of strategies designed to avoid the public market entirely: all-x farmers and land trading farmers are as viable as they are because of the reliable way the private market works. These strategies are very popular because they're simple and predictable, where as strategies that involve more risk, variance, and participation have generally been discounted because of the weakness of the public market.
I like risk, variance, and participation and I like the things they contribute to the game. I don't like predictability, as that tends to lead to stagnation.
The public market is one of the defining features of the game, and has been from the beginning. One of the most basic concepts that new players looking to succeed need to learn is how the public market works and why, and how to navigate it. Via the market, you can see the positives and negatives for each particular strategy, and see how countries should be generally be played: everyone buys tech early, no one cares really about food except for stockpiling, and military is only really valued for starting up, destocking, and war. The market is where all countries interact, and it is pretty sad that it has become as weak as it has given that it is such an integral part of the game.
So, here is what I suggest:
Lower the private market refresh rate, decreasing the amount of NW generated on the private market every turn.
There will be two main effects from this:
1. Final NWs will for strategies that rely on the private market.
A lower refresh rate means more time needed for destocking. This necessarily will decrease stocking time, and decrease final NWs.
2. The public market will see more activity.
If strategies that don't destock on the public market take a hit, people will be more willing to play strategies that destock via the public market. The main effect here will be a stronger military market, with more volume and a sooner crash on the food market as people avoid stocking right to the end and instead try to cash out earlier, picking up lower priced military.
3. C/I becomes more viable.
The only strategy that is a clear winner in all of this is commie/indy as they gain not only from higher military prices but also from better relative NW generation compared to the private market. Looking at top scores I see that this may not be desirable for all servers, but C/I is generally one of the weaker strategies due to expenses.
More activity on the market makes the game more robust, and this is the best way I can think of to promote that.