Paintings? Auctions? And a suggestion!

meatfortress · 2013-05-31 14:59:42

Where do paintings come from? Do they just appear at certain intervals in the auction house, or is the auction house player-controlled?

Also, I'd like to suggest a feature. If you can't enter your house (because someone is currently in it), how about the house's owner has the option to wait in "queue" to enter the house? So as soon as the burglar leaves, the owner in queue is immediately allowed in.

Earlier, I was locked out of my house for a long, long time. I must have pissed somebody off because they invested an enormous amount of time testing my system. Then later used several characters to burn it to the ground. And there was really nothing for me to do in the game except wait, randomly check if my house was still occupied, and browse through other people's blueprints.

While I'm tossing out suggestions, maybe move the suicide button to a completely different area? I know, you have to click the verify button, but it still seems counterintuitive to have "suicide" and "done" share the same space. Or is it a reflection on the human condition?

meatfortress · 2013-05-31 15:07:17

Off-topic, I love every one of you. The guy who figured out my puzzle (I literally applauded), the guy who burned my house to the ground, even the guy who killed my wife (because he later came back and fried himself on an electric floor). I haven't laughed this hard at a game in a long time.

colorfusion · 2013-05-31 15:12:14

Paintings start in the auction and will keep falling in price until someone buys them. If someone robs that person's house then they get the painting too, but if the person who owns a painting dies then it is moved back onto the auction.

I agree with you on the queue to join your house, as a home owner you should have a higher priority of getting into your home than a robber.

I also agree on the suicide button. I think the main problem before was while looking around houses you get in a habit of clicking the "Done" button every time you leave the house (to exit your house and go back to the list) and it just takes a small trip out of pattern to accidentally click the "Suicide" button in the exact same place.

The confirmation has kind of fixed it though.

jasonrohrer · 2013-05-31 15:13:57

They are put back up for auction, starting at $10K each, whenever the owner of a painting dies while owning that painting.

Right after the reset, all the paintings went up for auction. But a few rich players bought/stole them all. I believe that all paintings are currently owned by two individuals. As so as they are robbed, they will change hands. If someone wants to be Robin Hood about it.... steal the paintings and then commit suicide. That will bring them back to the auction house!

One could imagine mechanics where painting owners put them back up for auction and get the money. But that veers too much into the art-dealer/market-speculation side of game design. I don't want the focus of the game diluted. The paintings are there simply to give you physical possessions that you might care about, and to allow you to track your possessions and potentially steal them back.

Sounds really frustrating to get blocked out of your house like that. I'll think about some kind of queuing mechanism.

The screen is pretty crowded... the suicide button is where it is because it was the only spot left (a full gallery can occupy the whole left side of the screen).

ukuko · 2013-05-31 19:17:25

Please don't move the suicide button. All I see at the moment is

Suicide
Tapas

and I wouldn't want that to change for the world.

bey bey · 2013-06-01 06:59:13

I thought about this whole painting thing for a while now, and I have a simple suggestion: limit the number of paintings one can have in their house. (There's only so many walls to hang them after all.) Let's say between 5 or 10 per person. This would mean more circulation, and one could still obsess about special paintings one covets. This would probably also mean some kind of "put for auction" mechanism for ditching unwanted paintings, but given the changes it wouldn't be about "marketing art".

DrNoid · 2013-06-01 08:13:35

I would love to have a way to get rid of unwanted paintings...
Putting 'em up for auction seems a sensible way to do that. You could even associate a cost with that so one can potentially make a loss from it.

jasonrohrer · 2013-06-01 10:18:51

Hmm... yeah, there certainly is a circulation problem right now. I think paintings are too easy to acquire in the very beginning, so people snatch them all up, and then they get consolidated quickly among top players.

Maybe a limit of 4 per person would help (but man did I spend a lot of time tweaking that gallery widget to allow more than 4 to fit in that space!). And yeah, it would also simplify the UI somewhat.

The problem, of course, is what to do with the paintings that you steel if you already have 4! That would add a whole new layer of UI complexity. And then a way to ditch paintings (like auction them off, etc.) Like I said, I really don't want to go down the wheel-and-deal design path. This isn't a game about art trading.

Probably raising the starting price (like $100K instead of $10K) and then slowing the auction down (takes a week to drop to $1, instead of just 6 hours), and then reclaiming all paintings and starting that part of the game over would help. Better try that first before doing something more drastic.

bey bey · 2013-06-01 10:41:51

Sounds like a good idea. At the moment,there is a flood of paintings again, looks like Robin Hood was here. They're at about 140ish if I'm not mistaken.

I see the UI concerns. As I said, trading is unnecessary I guess. However, something along the lines of "pick four" could be realised without too much complexity. (So if you rob somebody for one painting and already own 4, you would have to chose 4 to go on with and the other one would go up for auction.) Or you could make it 5 so your tweaking hasn't been in vain.

But then again, I don't have to do the programming so I see your point. Upping the starting price would definitely make sense.

One might also consider having a "lowest bid" for some of the paintings, so that a few paintings never drop below 10000, 1000, 100 etc. But that's just another suggestion to add a more precious feel to them.

jasonrohrer · 2013-06-01 10:48:38

Good point! Maybe dropping down to $1 eventually is too low... It seems that starting out at $100K (out of reach for everyone) and dropping down to $10K (reachable for the rich, but it's not like they could afford 50 of them) would be good. A poor player could still get one by stealing it from the rich.

bey bey · 2013-06-01 11:07:58

Sounds good!!

jasonrohrer · 2013-06-01 19:55:27

On the other hand, there might be some paintings that no one at all would want at $10K, if this was the bottom limit. That would be sad! So, I think it should go down to $1, just very slowly.

Matrix · 2013-06-02 08:48:37

Starting at a higher auction price and slowing down the price drop rate will definitely make it longer before the same situation happens.

But when the same situation happens, will there be another painting reset?

jasonrohrer · 2013-06-02 09:31:17

Hmm...

Well, at that point, there might need to be an overhaul of how paintings work, generally. In that case, a reset will be part of that process. However, that's pretty far down the line.

I'm NOT going to keep resetting paintings over and over in attempt to band-aid the problem over and over, so don't worry about that.

The Castle Doctrine Forums

#1 2013-05-31 14:59:42

Paintings? Auctions? And a suggestion!

#2 2013-05-31 15:07:17

Re: Paintings? Auctions? And a suggestion!

#3 2013-05-31 15:12:14

Re: Paintings? Auctions? And a suggestion!

#4 2013-05-31 15:13:57

Re: Paintings? Auctions? And a suggestion!

#5 2013-05-31 19:17:25

Re: Paintings? Auctions? And a suggestion!

#6 2013-06-01 06:59:13

Re: Paintings? Auctions? And a suggestion!

#7 2013-06-01 08:13:35

Re: Paintings? Auctions? And a suggestion!

#8 2013-06-01 10:18:51

Re: Paintings? Auctions? And a suggestion!

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Re: Paintings? Auctions? And a suggestion!

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Re: Paintings? Auctions? And a suggestion!

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Re: Paintings? Auctions? And a suggestion!

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Re: Paintings? Auctions? And a suggestion!

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