Bidding System - Specifics

[LoloMo]

So if there are 10 nations, each player has to bid for 10 nations, he can not just bid for one nation?

[DrPraetorious]

wfb - Niefelheim would have a population of 28000 (you only pay the bid that actually goes through.)

LoloMo - you absolutely must bid for 10 nations. You could bid something like:

nationA 12,000
nationB 9
nationC 8
...
nationJ 1

Note that since you only pay the winning bid, and you want the total bids for opponent's nations to be high, it is to your advantage to bid something on all nine nations, provided you actually do get your first choice.

[LoloMo]

Seems like a workable system. The bidding process is like a game unto itself, each bidder has to think really carefully.

When do we test this out? =)

[LoloMo]

What happens if a player bids the highest for say 3 nations?

[Micah]

Lolo-

He gets the one he bid the most on (and he can't bid the same amount on 2 nations).

My question is what do you do about LE Ermor? They don't really care much about their capital's population.

Likewise, some resource-intensive nations might get skewed, since you have to rely on other people bidding low to get the iron mine bonus, which won't happen if people all decide to bid fairly high on, say, MA Ulm, realizing that they can take a lower gold:resource ratio and do fine...the person that ends up with them will end up in a bad spot not because people all thoght Ulm was awesome enough to overcome, but because they thought they'd get some bonuses to compensate for it being crappy.

Finally, people tend to have nation preferences that are independant of balance. Some people simply don't want to play, say, LE Rlyeh because they don't like the feel of it, which again will skew the bidding, giving the person that does end up with it a big boost since everyone else bid low to avoid getting it.

I like the idea a lot, and I know every system has flaws, so I'm not trying to nitpick, I'm just pointing out what I see as potential problems so that maybe someone can come up with a tweak to fix them, or just tell me I'm being overly anal. =)

[LoloMo]

Micah, I think if lots of people bid high on MA Ulm in your example, then it probably means Ulm with the iron mine bonus is pretty much in demand.

To prevent extreme imbalances due to LE Rlyeh theme unpopularity for example, a suggestion would be to have a second or third round of bidding, where you can adjust your bid upwards (upwards only never downwards, and by a minimum of 30% higher than the winning bid).

The more rounds of bidding the lower the minimum bid increase can be. But a lot of work to tally it though unless it is automated.

Edit: Can also limit the second and successive bidding rounds to submitting only one increased bid per player.

[Velusion]

In the past I've proposed a bidding system based on Pretender Points - as they are worth about the same to every nation - were population might not be.

I've always liked the idea of a bidding system though.