SUPRISE- Stock buyouts

[76561198172448110]

Just lost my 5th game in a row to a massive zerg rush stock buyout. There really needs to be a cool down or some foil to allow well capitalized players to defend against a buyout.

[Swisspike]

Did a player just launch a rocket, just prior to this happening?

[76561198172448110]

that happened once. my complaint is going from 8 unbought slots to whammo you lose in 15 seconds. i understand the 80k influx from a rocket, however, its a broken balance issue. the ai will stockpile cash and unload it on you like a nuke with no defense

[Swisspike]

this is a common complaint. Perhaps the cooldown needs to be much longer than the current eight seconds..what are your thoughts?

[pgames-food]

+1 for 30-60 second cool down on stock purchases

in the mid-late game, the game seems to slow down for me ,i had to put it on 1 less than normal, and it was still a bit laggy. (maybe my computer but maybe others have lag too then all of a sudden, your stock is being purchased, in what seems to be several times in the space ot 10 seconds... its too much :)

i still cant win the game as a scavenger mode :)

[bluestreak2k5]

You can have up to 2 rocket launch pads per level 5 city, and I've gotten about 150k from those 2 rockets. That is enough to pretty much buy out any company.

[knightblaster]

The issue seems to be that the offworld launches are too OP in terms of cash -- it's a race to get to them, and whoever wins it, then defaults to win almost immediately. Perhaps it's intended (title of the game is "offworld trading") that this is like launching to Alpha Centauri or something like that, but at the moment it does seem imbalanced. Should probably be much harder/slower to get to the point of launches.

[muaddib]

I think we as players also need to learn how to defend against buyouts. I know I'm not fully comfortable with hacking, using the black market and working stock prices.

[Alfonzo Bumblesnatch Chungus III]

Originally posted by muaddib:

I think we as players also need to learn how to defend against buyouts. I know I'm not fully comfortable with hacking, using the black market and working stock prices.

yes the game need other ways to defend agianst stock buy outs... i have been having a hard time winning because of that...

[Cerlin]

I understand the frustration but I do really like how the end game does not drag on too far. The best way to prevent this is to own as much of your own stock as possible. Also hit your opponents income with black market attacks, especially rocket pads. If they can get two of these up you will crash quickly if you are slightly behind.

[Cerlin]

Originally posted by muaddib:

I think we as players also need to learn how to defend against buyouts. I know I'm not fully comfortable with hacking, using the black market and working stock prices.

Agreed. Just because you do not know a counter does not exist does not mean it doesnt exist (hint: it does.)

[Cerlin]

Originally posted by knightblaster:

The issue seems to be that the offworld launches are too OP in terms of cash -- it's a race to get to them, and whoever wins it, then defaults to win almost immediately. Perhaps it's intended (title of the game is "offworld trading") that this is like launching to Alpha Centauri or something like that, but at the moment it does seem imbalanced. Should probably be much harder/slower to get to the point of launches.

More bombings. It can escallate quickly but the guy who is ahead at the end tends to win, which is like every game ever. YOu can bring it back but it is not easy.

[Tenzek]

There seems to be more going on than just simple money stockpiling. I've seen games where the computer is broke when I look at their information, but can afford to buy me out for over 1,000,000 credits in less than 60 seconds. Meanwhile, I am making money faster and worth more overall according to the stats, yet in that same time I only make ~200k.

The most obvious example I had was earlier when I bought out an opposing AI player, and I had access to all of his resources for several minutes. One of the two remaining AI bought out the other, and had no funds left whatsoever afterward. He then proceeded to buy me out nearly immediately for 1,050,000. I had over 830k in cash and he had about 20k when I checked about 10-20 seconds before the buyout, and I was only seconds from being able to buy him out when the game suddenly ended in a loss.

[notu]

Pretty sure the buyout mechanic is bugged - the AI just bought me out from 0 stocks to all in seconds. They were level 2 headquarters with a stock price of ~$6.50, I was level 5 headquarters with stock price >$20. The AI is bugged in a lot of things - they also have no cooldown on blackmarket and are constantly freezing, nuking, emp multiple times in a row, all the while with $0 cash.

[Pepuo The Game]

First of all, I think that the mechanics in place really work. Let me explain:

Many times I got buy out, I even got buy out instantly, the IA didn't have a single one of my stock and suddenly, termination notice, :(, that might be a bug.

But when I get buy out I kind of see it coming, I mean, cool down or not my opponent has stablished very firmly in the resource market and is a matter of time that the IA will buy me (me having big debt, me having no enough energy, me having no expensive resources, me having less factories, etc.)

Don't forget that you can pause the game, actually I pause a lot, for me playing it like a real RTS will be mad and I'm kind of more Paradox games (Europa Universalis, Crusader Kings,...). Now, when I pause I see all the elements in the IA's hands and their probable path, and also how to use the black market (this is key in this game) to take advantage.

For example, last game I won (me and 3 IA in medium, scarce resources, employee difficulty) being 2 HQ levels being them at first and then 1 HQ level. How?

Hacker array to increase price of energy (I had surplus). Energy is key
Researching technologies like teleportation (inmunity to pirates, faster disponibility of resources for selling)
Researching production (specially food and steel)
Sabotaging their offworld rockets: "Oh, I see you are level 5 and me level 3 and that you'll going to become bloody rich and buy me out if you start to send offworld rockets, no problem, I'll do for you and then buy you out"

My point is that you need to forecast and use the mechanics (well first understand them) of this great game.
See it like a tabletop game where there is many strategies to folllow and many counter strategies (and counter-counter-counter).

Originally posted by Tenzek:

There seems to be more going on than just simple money stockpiling. I've seen games where the computer is broke when I look at their information, but can afford to buy me out for over 1,000,000 credits in less than 60 seconds. Meanwhile, I am making money faster and worth more overall according to the stats, yet in that same time I only make ~200k.

The most obvious example I had was earlier when I bought out an opposing AI player, and I had access to all of his resources for several minutes. One of the two remaining AI bought out the other, and had no funds left whatsoever afterward. He then proceeded to buy me out nearly immediately for 1,050,000. I had over 830k in cash and he had about 20k when I checked about 10-20 seconds before the buyout, and I was only seconds from being able to buy him out when the game suddenly ended in a loss.

I was bugged first with this but I think, we, the players, are missing that the IA might play different to us, I mean, instead of accumulate cash as I do, they might accumulate resources and when they need it and the price is right, bam!, sell them and buy stock. I always check more closely the money the have in resources than the cash.

Maybe there should be a limit to the stockage of the resources or the silos for stockage should be upgradable or taxable or stealable by other players or something like that.

The real cash that the IA can make in a period of 10-60 seconds could be an information very valuable (spy in black market, building that gives you this info...) but also it could ruin the excitement of the game.

In any case, and after this monumental wall of words, I think that I should be an option in the game (spy, research, building, option, whatever) that gives you more detail intel of how the IA is doing and their potential damage if they want to cash out all their resources. I think that's more interesting than giving timer to buy outs

[DeftMunky]

We're aware of this problem and we'll be working to make it more transparent. Soren checked in a fix that will be in the next version where the AI will buy your stock at a slower rate.