With the market fix that just came out that makes autobuying cheaper goods on the private market, it hurts CIs. I noticed this immediately when the same day this rolled out, all my stuff on the market stopped selling.

Now I know this was a feature in the game before, but with the increased Communism production bonus, CI was just starting to become a feasible mid-game strat.

Now prices are sinking and will never go above the pvt market rates ever again -- which combined with a 10% commission is seriously going to make going CI worthless.

In order to compensate for this, I think that the admins ought to give Communism another bonus -- maybe another production bonus, or maybe a higher percentage of goods you can put on the market. Perhaps even lowering the commission to a more reasonable rate.

Anyone who is currently running a CI will be able to confirm the sudden collapse of prices on us. It's hard enough to run the strat and stay afloat, and with sinking prices, it's making it clear that CI has returned to the realm of not being a viable strat anymore.

Discuss.

Prices started falling in alliance before the feature was announced.

My stuff stopped selling after the feature was announced, not before.

It's quite possible that the change had a negative effect on military prices, but prices were probably falling in general as well, as Slagpit states :p

They were falling slightly, it's true.

But they completely crashed after the change was made.

I was selling millions of jets for over $200. now the price will barely ever go above $192 or whatever the pvt market cost of jets is.

What you've basically done is turn CI into an MBR since public market prices will now mirrow the pvt market prices, with the only difference being you produce your own units rather than buy them and you sell them at 10% instead of 6 or even 0%.

Some evidence:

Using the Boxcar tools, let's look at the max prices for troops, jets, turrets and tanks:

Last 72 hours:

Troops - $350
Jets - $210
Turrets - $333
Tanks - $675

Last 48 hours:

Troops - $224
Jets - $187
Turrets - $203
Tanks - $605

Last 24 hours (the market changes were made 33 hours ago as of this post):

Troops - $149
Jets - $179
Turrets - $200
Tanks - $579

So yes, prices were already going down before, but now the prices are all pretty much floating beneath the pvt market cost.

It's ridiculous.

It's less ridiculous when we realize there was an FS by a fully prepped, fully stocked 55 member alliance... and a CS by a 60 member alliance on those first two days

like I said, I think it will definitely lower prices -- as it will put more of a price ceiling on for people who don't know the prices of their priv vs public, but comparing it to what will probably be the biggest military buying day of the set (without TMBR's online) isn't an apples to apples comparison.

Like I said in my post announcing this, it's a good change that is necessary for a new generation of users. Slag is one of the best commie-indy runners in the game, if not THE best, and he didn't object to this change, so I'm hesitant to say it's ruined and no longer viable. We discussed this change pretty in depth before making it, as we wanted to do it right.

Fair enough. I'll give it a chance and see how it goes. I still think there ought to be more discussion on this, but seeing how I seem to be alone in this, perhaps I am wrong.

im not being funny either anybody with enough sense would go private then public unless they were desperate,

so 9/10 times it wouldnt happen anyways and at this stage most people should have enough acres/regen for day to day running on private if publlic was more expensive or if they cleared it.

ya, there is also the school of thought that would say, like trainboy alludes to, that there was an unnatural bubble because of a bug in the game -- not auto-buying from private when people would want to if they knew about it.

it'll work itself out. We'll be continuing to tweak things to keep some level of balance :p

I'm fairly sure that CI is overpowered right now.

Here's some evidence:

http://primary.www.earthempires.com/topplayers?round=4

Because a Commie finally made it to #1 at the end of the set? Thank god, it's about time.

If you'll notice, there is only one other commie in the top 10, and he's at 10. There are also 3 demos in the top 10, one of them is #2.

But I've noticed the NW margin between #1 and #2 is quite a bit, but then again, the acreage difference will do it.

I think Communism is just right.

i was that #10 commie

i actually grabbed that #1 guy earlier in the set :P he retalled though...

would have finished top 5 if i wasn't AB'd for most my buildings a week before set end.

the guy that finished #1 played rather well, i watched him a good part of the set, no idea who it was though

i definitely could have played better myself... i love C/I's

i don't think their bonus' need changing though. its nice to see them able to compete for top slots. if you know what you're doing with any government though, you can finish up high... this was my 3rd consecutive top 10 finish in a row in 3 different servers that ended in past month and with 3 different strats for each server

CI has won team (before the CI boosts), tourney, and express, and primary.

slag was that team CI win

:P

Tan, I dont think we should increase it because you no longer have the idiots who didnt use their PM's buying off of you ;) There should have been a message informing them of their stupidity before the change :P

yeh that commie did play well big countries like that dont really need to stock which is a good bonus for CI in my opinion to avoid the 10% i do support a 8% commision

which is still alot more think buying,selling and then possibily buying miltary again. adds 6% more to commisional costs.

or if you look at tweaking expensives or give a reduction for indies on base units. As single sell large commies essentially expand beyond great profitability quite quickly.

that would be more thoughts on it. I play one of each strat generally in FFA and i do tend to find that my C/I is the lowest finisher. but tech stays high alot longer miltary tends to be low and food spikes to 60+

Pang. SOL was not at 55 members only 45 minor technicality :-P