example:
https://jsfiddle.net/fcv4np0u/

Something like:

[ build 1 cs ] [ build 4 cs ]
[ explore ]
[ build x primary building ] [ build x secondary building ]

where they're always in those slots

Can we please make the buttons appear in static locations between turns? I find myself building 1cs 4x then all of a sudden I accidentally click 10 turns of X.

lol

Nice.

Btw,. I like the new change with 0 day downtime. GJ.

It would be 15mil a turn if you sold it all; but, you wouldn't bc the demand just isnt there.

Most click "Accept the Risk" and it's stored in your browser., thus making it a non-visual issue.

Still,. with no SSL you're vunerable to MitM. I'm not sure why they don't add it. You can even put it on a cron to renew. ( which is like every 90 days? )

I see you have 19k land Ugo... that's not even 1.7 mil cash a turn if you're selling everything on private. bc from looking at public nothing is selling.

19000*1.5*60=1710000.0

and now that i think about it,. it's even lower than that bc oil wouldnt be sold at 60 for THEO

gotta have both tabs open before 1st atk :P

doh.

It's because the ssl cert is expired.

Very easy to add using certbot. It's like 2-3 commands. :/

In case it hasn't been answered yet..

What does " WAR &quote; stand for???

Means "WAR",. but it appears the quotes have been converted to html entities.

Looks the same to me, lol. :P

Good luck! lol. Report your finds here after the set if you don't mind. :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NaXp6ZLV1n0

Yup. I noticed; but, I'm sure you noticed the amount of oil consumed isn't as great as many here think.

I think I'm going to try to create a true ai solution for all x-plore.

The annoying part is reverse engineering the population code to create the env.

I see you played oiler kingme.

How'd it go? lol.

@badonkadonks:

you don't need:

if (!$stratCode) {
   return null;
}

in your code. If the key is not in the array it will return null.

Actually... lol. They coded it but never finished it:

 public static function txtStrat($cnum)
    {
        global $settings;
        if (!isset($settings->$cnum->strat)) {
            return;
        }

        switch ($settings->$cnum->strat) {
            case 'C':
                return CASHER;
            case 'F':
                return FARMER;
            case 'I':
                return INDY;
            case 'T':
                return TECHER;
                break;
            case 'R':
                return RAINBOW;
            case 'O':
                return OILER;
        }
    }//end txtStrat()

The oiler strat file is empty.

They did. It's in the ai bot code.

@slagpit

casher is 4th?

@vic

You’re misreading my argument. I’m not claiming every strat should have an equal shot at winning or that we need perfect balance. What I am saying is that when the game boils down to just three dominant strategies and everything else becomes unviable, it narrows the experience in a bad way.

Your examples from Hades, D&D, and board games actually support this. Those games succeed because even the suboptimal options still see play and can be fun, viable, or situationally strong. In Express, that's not the case. Oiler, for example, is borderline unplayable in serious competition. The diversity might technically exist, but only a few paths lead anywhere meaningful.

This isn’t about making every strategy win. It’s about ensuring the game remains rich enough that more than just a few routes are worth exploring. When only three strats are viable and one of them, delayed landgrabbing, often dominates, we’re not in the realm of deep strategy, we’re in the realm of repetition.

So no, I’m not asking for balance for balance’s sake. I’m asking for meaningful variety.

I 100% agree with you.

If I recall correctly,. there used to be oiler bots,. but it appears they've all been removed.

All I'm suggesting is that bots consume some oil, just like tehy consume tech, food or units. I mean, why do they buy jets & no oil?

@kingme

Just to clarify, I never claimed that only 3 to 4 million barrels of oil are consumed each set. That number came from what I personally sold, not a statement on total market activity. It's an important distinction because other players, especially those with rigs or running oiler setups, could be placing oil on the market and meeting some of the demand that others attribute to shortages.

The real issue isn't whether oil moves at all, it's whether the oiler strategy is competitive. There's clearly some demand, but it's highly concentrated both in timing, usually around break windows, and among a small number of active breakers. Outside those windows, oil often stagnates and oilers don’t have the tools that other strategies do to adapt.

Techers can stock tech and sell later. Cashers can hold bushels. Indies can delay building or hold units. But oil can't be stockpiled in the same way, and you can't delay your payoff if the market isn't ready. If demand isn’t there when you need it, your entire strategy suffers.

So the question isn’t whether oil sells, it’s whether oilers can win or even keep pace. Right now the answer seems to be rarely. The strategy lacks scalability, flexibility in timing, and often relies on hoping for external market conditions to align just right.

I'm not saying oilers shouldn't exist. I'm saying they deserve better structural support if they're going to compete meaningfully instead of just being background suppliers for stronger strategies.

Appreciate the discussion and always open to hearing other perspectives.

The point of the thread isn't to say oilers are not needed. It's to say oil isnt consumed enough., which in turns discourages players from playing oiler.

32 human players
9 are still in protection

Leaves 23 players.

Top 15 are clearly not playing delayed 1k turns; because you're not getting 5mil net by turn 550 w/ 200+ CS.

Leaves what maybe 8 players who *could* be playing delayed.

Also keep in mind the last 4 hrs of set (roughly 60 turns of set most can't attack <GDI RULES>, so most will NOT be buying oil).

Also techers shouldnt be attacking anymore and just teching.

And im going to bet,. much of this was bought so that they don't have to risk paying higher tomorrow.

Jun 17, 16:00 Jun 17, 17:00 $127 $128 $127.57 705,870
Jun 17, 17:00 Jun 17, 18:00 $120 $120 $120.00 305,968
Jun 17, 18:00 Jun 17, 19:00 $99 $120 $108.65 500,368
Jun 17, 19:00 Jun 17, 20:00 $120 $120 $120.00 18,185
Jun 17, 20:00 Jun 17, 21:00 $120 $127 $121.73 592,018
Jun 17, 23:00 Jun 18, 00:00 $133 $140 $138.38 468,973
Jun 18, 02:00 Jun 18, 03:00 $133 $133 $133.00 140,000
Jun 18, 03:00 Jun 18, 04:00 $133 $133 $133.00 43,226
Jun 18, 04:00 Jun 18, 05:00 $133 $133 $133.00 69,000
Jun 18, 05:00 Jun 18, 06:00 $133 $133 $133.00 185,774
Jun 18, 10:00 Jun 18, 11:00 $169 $169 $169.00 98,887
Jun 18, 11:00 Jun 18, 12:00 $168 $168 $168.00 309,637
Jun 18, 12:00 Jun 18, 13:00 $168 $225 $174.90 2,238,327
Jun 18, 14:00 Jun 18, 15:00 $170 $170 $170.00 237,424
Jun 18, 15:00 Jun 18, 16:00 $198 $198 $198.00 215,000
Jun 18, 16:00 Jun 18, 17:00 $198 $198 $198.00 503,333
Jun 18, 17:00 Jun 18, 18:00 $198 $198 $198.00 100,000
Jun 18, 18:00 Jun 18, 19:00 $149 $149 $149.00 30,000
Jun 18, 19:00 Jun 18, 20:00 $149 $149 $149.00 113,570
Jun 18, 20:00 Jun 18, 21:00 $124 $124 $124.00 444,322
Jun 18, 21:00 Jun 18, 22:00 $124 $124 $124.00 508,909
Jun 18, 22:00 Jun 18, 23:00 $124 $124 $124.00 24,466
Jun 19, 00:00 Jun 19, 01:00 $124 $124 $124.00 581,484
Jun 19, 01:00 Jun 19, 02:00 $124 $124 $124.00 273,000
Jun 19, 02:00 Jun 19, 03:00 $124 $124 $124.00 40,000
Jun 19, 03:00 Jun 19, 04:00 $124 $124 $124.00 3,522,191
Jun 19, 06:00 Jun 19, 07:00 $124 $124 $124.00 1,000,000
Jun 19, 07:00 Jun 19, 08:00 $124 $124 $124.00 302,202
Jun 19, 09:00 Jun 19, 10:00 $122 $122 $122.00 130,000
Jun 19, 10:00 Jun 19, 11:00 $122 $122 $122.00 794,653
Jun 19, 11:00 Jun 19, 12:00 $122 $122 $122.00 206,391
Jun 19, 12:00 Jun 19, 13:00 $121 $124 $122.17 1,002,289
Jun 19, 13:00 Jun 19, 14:00 $121 $225 $122.43 729,401
Jun 19, 14:00 Jun 19, 15:00 $199 $199 $199.00 200,000

This is at turn 1550. Roughly 450 turns left in set.

Total oil thus far:
16,634,868

1 oiler with 10k land could produce all this in 554 turns.

Slag,. if you want to start a repo, I'll code a single page to replace the deprecated api.

I'll code it in php & you can code review it.

I’m not saying I sold bushels at $300. I said that *if* the private market buy price is $100, the max you can list on public is 3x that, which is $300.

In my set, I had full military bases, which dropped my private market buy price below $100. So my cap for listing on public was under $300, and that’s why I couldn’t post them.

I wasn’t claiming I actually sold at $300 (just explaining the price cap mechanic).

No more mehul!

The solution I gave would fix all servers. Kinda disappointing that it isn't used. It would only cost one extra field in database.

@cathankins

What Slag was explaining is this:

The max you can sell bushels for on the public market is based on 3 times the private market buy price, not the sell price. So if the private market buy price is 100, the most you can list on public is 300.

In my case, I had military bases, which lowered my private market buy price to under 100. That means my public market cap was under 300, which is probably why I couldn't list them.

Hope that clears it up.

@Cathankins
You're looking at wrong one.

You're looking at where you SELL your units on private market.

Look at where you BUY your units on private market.

@cathakins

If you look at private market right now,. it's at $100.
I don't think it's 3x your private sell price., but rather 3x your private buy price.

Also I played Demo not Theo.

Thanks for that.

I think the issue was the base bushel price being around $100, so 3x would be $300. In the past, I didn’t really use military bases, but since I had the max this time, the price dropped which probably explains why I couldn’t list them on the market.

I'm still a lil rusty with the game.

I couldnt get my food on market so i sold it on private market. Then I was stuck buying units earlier than i wanted.

I'm pretty sure I used to sell my food at 3-400 on market., so this must be like 2-3 yr change.

I don't play here,. but #2 sounds cool idea.

Thank you, that was my error. I wasn't aware of the change.

@koh lol!!

I would have higher than 4th if i didnt have to sell my food at $26.

I didn't know there was a change to the way adding stock bushels to market. I used to always do $400 bushels.

If you guys are going to delete my thread please at least respond to emails of why you're deleting it. I'm legitimately having an issue.

I'm reporting a bug with the public market that blocked me from selling valid items at legal prices.

Here’s exactly what I tried to place:
Unit Sell Price Amount to Sell
Jets $140 7,044,515
Turrets $150 487,091
Bushels $250 64,469,792

After submitting the sell form, I received the following message:

"Some of your goods could not be placed for sale: the maximum accepted selling price is $10000 for technology and triple the private market purchase price for units."

Nothing was listed, and it didn’t specify which item caused the rejection.

So since there's 0 days in between., does that mean the rounds will last longer or does that mean the start/end date will land on different days each round?

I know you guys don't believe my ability,. which is OK, but I can offer one set I got 100mil and beat tmac on TEAMS (where there are 0 bots):

1 kerafyrm (#39) 22,863 $100,000,000 HG Darkness <--------------------- me
2 ashe (#33) 7 $73,296,055 HG zigzag
3 Top 50 (#31) Game profile 30 $67,702,230 HG HCaFC <--------------------- TMAC
4 Looten Plunder (#45) 103 $66,585,196 HG VILLAINS
5 Hyundai Sonata (#4) Game profile 18,918 $66,036,071 R HCaFC
6 Sietch Tabr (#22) Game profile 20,136 $65,293,413 DG HCaFC
7 3rd timez a charm (#35) 56 $63,202,085 HG weedylar
8 grilled halibut (#13) Game profile 20,350 $60,621,365 H zigzag
9 Sly Sludge (#49) 120 $57,848,162 HG VILLAINS
10 Peacefully Netting (#37) Game profile 43 $57,448,665 HG zigzag

I'm going to step back from posting further.

My intention was simply to share why I no longer pursue top rankings on any server particularly EXPRESS not to diminish anyone else's accomplishments.

There was a well-known issue that significantly impacted how I approached the game, and it ultimately made me less willing to invest time into detailed strategy planning. At one point, I even stopped playing entirely, which I mentioned in older threads. That only changed after adjustments were made by the moderators to the minimum oil price.

What I brought up isn't speculation it's something that was acknowledged by a game developer here:
https://earthempires.com/.../21-oil-haha-30207#542381

I understand the analogy, and I see where you're coming from.

That said, I don’t believe I’m giving feedback based on an outdated understanding of the game. I’ve been actively playing recently, and the DR behavior I referenced is from the current version. My earlier experiences may have shaped my perspective, but the observations I shared were drawn from recent sets, not from a version of the game that’s years old.

If there’s something I’m missing or if the DR system has changed in a way that isn’t reflected in how it's being calculated or displayed in-game or on third-party tools, I’m open to learning more. I’m not here to stir up drama or derail discussion. I enjoy this game and the community, and my only intention was to raise what I genuinely thought was a relevant point.

If you’d prefer I step back from this topic, I will. Just wanted to make sure you knew my comments were made in good faith and based on recent in-game experience.