Treno Auction House (Programming)

[PeachClover]

When this game first came out in late 1999, I thought the auction house in Treno was a chore, but looking at it now, it seems like a complex and interesting mini game. I was wondering how it worked though. Thinking about it each noble could have a set amount of money to spend and by inflating the first few cheap items but not buying them, you could get the final item at a better price by draining away the competition.

My question is: is this really how it works or is it much less complex than that? Are there any other games that use an auction mechanic? If so, how do they differ from this one?

[Tirlititi]

The code is there:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/esi4k4x1e7uof3f/Script_TrenoAuction.txt?dl=0

More specifically, it's the two last functions, "Treno_Noble_X_Init" and "Treno_Noble_X_Loop" you are interested in (and also "Auction_Init" for the appeal of each item).
In short, nobles who bought an item will have a penalty for subsequent items and the Baron has a boost for the 4th item.

It isn't clear to me if bidding often or not or getting price high enough early are rewarding strategies.

[PeachClover]

Originally posted by Mr. Branford:

Game came out in 2000, first of all.

The copyright date is 2000, however it was a very popular christmas gift for 1999. I remember taking note of the date on the packaging before the new year and thinking how odd that was that it was dated into the future.

[PeachClover]

Originally posted by Tirlititi:

The code is there:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/esi4k4x1e7uof3f/Script_TrenoAuction.txt?dl=0

More specifically, it's the two last functions, "Treno_Noble_X_Init" and "Treno_Noble_X_Loop" you are interested in (and also "Auction_Init" for the appeal of each item).
In short, nobles who bought an item will have a penalty for subsequent items and the Baron has a boost for the 4th item.

It isn't clear to me if bidding often or not or getting price high enough early are rewarding strategies.

Wow! I didn't expect the actual code was out there. Thank you for showing me this.