Thank you for your input. Just for clarification I could have bid on one of those first four eggs but it wasn't something I was interested in. I'm not upset about not winning something, I am just trying to look at things subjectively. Regardless, I won't be replying further because my explanations aren't being understood. Sorry to have upset anyone. None of this was meant in a personal manner.

don't agree with having any bidding caps, but I do think the automatic increment percentage could be looked at again.

maybe change it to 2.5% of starting price instead of current price, so it'll be as if someone is bidding the minimum increase every hour. Or if we want to base on current price, maybe lower it to say 1% increase instead.

So there's still an increase every hour, giving advantage to those who bid early, while not increasing so much that it discourages other players who come on later from bidding. Then if someone really wants to bid high, they can still bid their limit from the start and see if anyone else want to compete with them for it. While those that bid lower from the start will have more active bidding. And if they want to reduce competition, just keep increasing higher than the min increase.


Personally I don't bid high, but if there's competition on my egg, I'll bid increasingly higher than the min bid to test the other players and possibly discourage them since I'm making the price jump. (eg if it's a 500k fabled egg, I might up it by 50-100k instead of the min increment of 2.5k / auto increment of 12.5k)

But for some auctions, when I know I may not be able to come on actively and still really want the egg, I'll just bid high from the start. Hence the no to any bidding caps, because if that's the only time I can come on, I should be allowed to bid as high as I want.

Hi! I think I actually understand what you're saying, and I'm not sure how others aren't. You're suggesting a permanent bid range with a min and max, instead of just minimum. So, for example, the previous bid was 100,000. Your bid now must be 102,500-110,000, instead of being allowed to just slam down 10mil right then and there. I definitely like that idea!! We all know the economy in this game is--respectfully--not great. But economies are hard, I mean, the economy irl right now is pretty awful. So we do have players celebrating their first 100k gold, while others are hoarding millions. Any attempts to even out personal wealth would largely be unfair, so there isn't really any simple solution to that, but there are some solutions to the problem that the imbalance creates in the auctions.

I personally don't understand why there's an autobid in the first place. But even if there wasn't, you would still see poor players having no chance here, even if they have all the time in the world to stare at the auctions. So basically, I fully support this idea of adding a bid cap.

in terms of making the auction more "fair," there isn't really anything that can be done without placing massive restrictions on someone.

putting a bid limit (being able to bid between 2,500 and 10k for example) will lead to stress during an auction because players will be forced to watch their bids minute by minute. in the long run, it hurts people who don't have as much time to spend on the site and it also won't change much because someone with 10 mil will outlast someone who doesn't have that much.

the economy in the game is a little uneven between most players having a certain amount and older/more active players having millions--that is part of the reason for events like this. to offer something worth dumping your exorbitant wealth into.

to make things more accessible for players who don't have that wealth or time, i think it might be more effective to ask for a drawing/raffle. something similar is offered with the lucky breeding events, where they offered a high-stakes event for people with a lot of money and a low-stakes one where it was free for everyone (and i dont suggest this specific solution, i mention it as an example that they do have things balanced for players on both ends). it would be an equal chance to get the prize, it could be limited to only one prize per player, and everyone would have access to it.

edit: removed some unnecessary punctuation >.>

Clearly auctions are already stressful lol. Even if you bid into the ether, there's always a chance someone even richer will steal it immediately, so I really don't think it would cause that much more stress. You say someone with 10mil will outlast, but with these caps, it'd be taking into account wealth and time equally. If they're super rich but don't want to sit and watch (putting in work, in a way) then they get outbid, even if it goes for a fraction of their wealth.

I do get how it could be a money dump for rich players, but really... isn't it pretty awful to have a feature that newer players just don't have a chance in? Or not even newer, maybe just players that.. spend their gold. Like me. I could definitely hoard millions if I wanted to, but instead I buy things. Crazy.

Raffles are okay, yes, but then it's kind of too fair. You can't put in any work, maybe not even any money depending on how tickets are given out. So the players that are willing to sit at an auction fighting for it, are on the same level as those that click once then forget about it. With those lucky breeding games, people could still put in some work. They could buy high trait pets, watch breeding cooldowns to get as many chances as possible, etc. It's important that it's still a contest. Which is why I love the idea of those games and it's such a shame I've never been active over the time one is happening yet ;-;

The point I was trying to make with the extra stress of having to watch the auctions minute by minute was in direct reference to the original posters concerns, that not everyone is able to be on the site at all times. The original concern was people being unable to join in the first few hours of the auctions and being outbid immediately, that won't be solved by a cap on bids unless the cap is atrociously low.

As for having features suited only for older or more active players... I do think that's entirely fair. Yes, it is important to have features for new players, but there have to be features for the other end of that spectrum too. You have to keep your playerbase engaged, otherwise your game will not last because there is an obvious end. It's a very delicate balance.

For spending gold, that is kind of a double edged sword on Sylestia. Personally in the last year I've spent millions in the end game because it makes it easier to make millions. You have to spend the gold to make more, and the way to do that is simply by playing the game and progressing. That is why there are people who have so much gold, because they keep playing.

For your final comment, I'm not really sure what "too fair" means. You want the auctions to be more accessible, but you don't want an alternative to be too fair? I understand it removes the mini game part of it, but if someone is a new player they can't get their hands on a lot of things due to limited space and limited gold--both limitations could be met with a free to join raffle. It's something catered to new players.

Hi. I'm one of those gold hoarders. It's just a thing I enjoy doing in... any game. All games. If there's a currency I can stock pile, I'm going to figure out how to stock pile it. I have nearly 2 billion gil in FFXIV. I had over 100 million credits in the first year of SWTOR. Over a million gold on WoW. And I'm just getting started on Sylestia. Everyone has what they enjoy in a game, making in game currency is my jam. I don't really see anything wrong with it.

These auctions, I feel, are gold sinks. Meant to get the richest players to drop gold on to remove some of it from the game. Does that mean newer players usually can't compete? Yeah. But I tell you, my first time seeing this egg auction didn't make me mad I couldn't participate, it just made me determined to eventually have that kinda gold to be able to drop 5-10 on an auction. And I did! The last time this was done, I dropped 5 mill I'd saved up on one of the eggs, and I won it. This time, I didn't need to, so I bid on an egg. Never had any competition for it.

My advice to new players, don't sweat it. You can't afford it /now/ but these eggling auctions aren't a one off thing. They happen with most festivals. Eventually, if you work toward it you'll have the kind of gold you need to put up a decent enough bid to win.

I complained about something else that felt like I couldn't participate in, and Krin let me know it wasn't meant for me. Not yet, at least. It's something to work toward eventually.

Edit: Tarina and I were talking about this and maybe one way to make things more fair to folks who can't touch it right away is no slow increment creep until the first 12 to 24 hours are up?

Just a thought, I dunno.

In response to the original OP's suggestion on how to make this more fair to people who can't log on til later:

I think a better solution would be to only begin automatic increments of bids *after* the first 24 hours of the eggling auctions have passed. That way, everyone regardless of timezones has a chance to check in for the day and place their bids before the site itself begins marking those bids higher.