Auto-Buy behavior in release build

from Offworld Forums

I played the game during the Early Access days, and back then the 'auto-buy' button included text which warned the player that enabling the function could potentially lead to bankruptcy. One of my gripes about the Beta was that this feature was 'dumb' (buying resources even when output is not profitable) instead of 'intelligent' (only buying input resources as long as doing so results in a profitable output). The release build/current build doesn't contain the warning text on the 'auto-buy' button, so I figured my gripe had been addressed.

Having turned auto-supply on by default in the options menu to try to streamline my experience, I noticed some odd behavior during a game. So I ran my own little experiment in a 1v1 skirmish on Applicant with rare resources. I built a robotic HQ, claimed all iron resources on the map without deploying metal mines, and built 3 steel mills. I immediately sold the steel as it was produced to drive down the price. Iron soared and steel plummeted. I turned the steel mill's auto-supply on without any iron in stockpile to see what would happen in this situation, and as I suspected the steel mills continued producing steel even when iron was sky high and steel had plummeted. My $10,000 starting amount was quickly evaporated by this 'dumb' button whose pop-up text no longer contains the bankruptcy information unless it is written in fine print somewhere.

 

Also, in the Almanac DLC included for Early Access members, the text states that the auto-buy button will only buy resources if the output minus input yields a net profit.

I'm not sure when the Almanac was written, but it shouldn't contradict the reality of the game. The fact that the warning text disappeared from the button makes me think the developers intended to make it intelligent but somehow didn't change the functionality from its original state. Some clarification would be nice.

 

Oh, and I also remember Soren telling me that 'auto-sell per resource would be included in the next build' during my 'Fundamental Critiques' rant. Having played the game more I understand why and when auto-sell may not be desirable, but was this feature nixed before the above referenced 'next build' during (late) Early Access?

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Reply #1 from Offworld Forums Top

It's not the game's job to babysit your prices! It's YOUR job to know what markets your in and how well they are doing. That's the entire point of the game. Autobuy needs to be able to buy at a loss because the calculated value of a resource is frequently very different from the actual value. Only a player will have a good sense of real value, and thus these decisions need to be left to the players.

 

For example, what if you anticipate a massive increase in demand of a resource that will drive prices up. For example if you're producing glass or steel and expect offworlds to start constructing. Yes the price is low now, but the sudden construction demand will mean an actual value much higher than the immediate price. Conversely a surge of silicon or water will push the price of those resources down making glass/farms much more valuable over the long term.

 

Also, lets say your opponent is in a limited number of markets, but you have more diverse markets. You may want to drive down the price of a resource to your opponent's detriment because you have other markets to profit off of and your opponent does not. Especially if your opponent is scientific and can profit off of much lower priced resources than you can.

 

A third example would be if the price of the base resource is artificially inflated. Lets say You have a massive stockpile of silicon to drive your opponents out of the market. Sure, it's losing money from the short-sighted manner you're looking at, but the actual value of the base resource is much lower. The AI would stop autobuying oxygen and you would have to remember to manually buy oxygen while your stockpile is slowly burned by life support costs.

 

These are things that come up constantly in the game, and especially at high levels of play. These decisions are critical for success in this game, and forcing manual buying in these situations is dumb. Your "intelligent" autobuy is shortsigted and dumb to its own detriment. It would only make the situation worse because it doesn't have the same insight that a person does.

Reply #2 from Offworld Forums Top

Ctrl+Shift+Click on the Sell button turns on/off auto-selling for each resource.

Galactic Civilizations IV
Reply #3 from Offworld Forums Top

Thanks for clarifying that Soren. I must have overlooked it when reviewing the hotkey bindings. I will have to try it in-game to see whether it works as I expected. At least it is an option.

Speaking of, I never intended auto-buy to babysit my prices. It is simply annoying to be observing other players HQ's only to find out upon returning to my HQ that three different types of my own buildings are out of resources and then having to manually buy those resources if the situation warrants doing so (and again 30 seconds later, missing the output of the building if not constantly 'babysitting' this situation).

When I say the button is intelligent I don't mean to imply it is a replacement for human oversight/insight. It simply streamlines the game and can be turned on or off when needed. If the button remains as stands then the original warning text should be put back in place so as not to confuse players.

And maybe I'm just too much of a newbie to fully understand how intelligent auto-buy negatively affects or prevents the proper play-out of the first two situations you describe, but the third regarding silicon I can address by saying that buildings will use your stockpile as input first without performing a profitability calculation on the stockpiled resource. The calculation would simply be based on oxygen, and if profitable glass would be produced. Once silicon reserves were exhausted it would also be included in the profitability calculation and auto-bought of the market if warranted.

As I said in my original post regarding auto-sell, there are similarly some situations in which auto-buy is desired, and some where it isn't. The option to auto-buy does and should exist. The elimination of the warning text and statement found in the Almanac simply made me believe it was now intelligent and seem to support it being so.

Anyway, peace.

Reply #4 from Offworld Forums Top

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