Why don't pirates launch their attack at time = zero?

from Sins Forums
Why don't the pirates launch their attack when the timer reaches zero? It works like an eBay auction except there is an ambiguous invisible time you can bid after the auction is supposed to close  ;p 

This just makes pirates a little more frustrating because you never know when the pirates will decide who to attack and if this is a critical "auction" for you, you can't really do other things in your empire because the pirates take up the whole screen and you don't want to take your eye off of the bidding. Any chance it can be changed so the pirates decision is based on the highest bid at the end of the time?
22,145 views 9 replies
Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top
Did you think about this?

If it launched at zero, everyone would sit there watching the countdown, then click like a madman in the last few seconds. The uncertainty is needed to prevent all kinds of lameness. You can't control pirates like an ebay auction - SHOCK HORROR! THEY'RE PIRATES!

You *can* determine who it's going to be if you drop massive amounts of money. I dropped 20k on it near the start in a recent game, and the AI couldn't match that for hours (and only then because much of the bounty had been paid out by then. It only really matters if it's close, and if it's close and it launched on 0.00 whoever clicked fastest would always win. That would suck.
Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top
would be nice, especially since sometimes we can continue bidding for over 2 minutes after it hit 0 before the pirates decided who to attack (sword), think its based on the last bid and some random variable.
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Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top
its an intentional part of gameplay, and it works (even though it may be frustrating at times)
Reply #4 from Sins Forums Top
Did you think about this?

If it launched at zero, everyone would sit there watching the countdown, then click like a madman in the last few seconds. The uncertainty is needed to prevent all kinds of lameness. You can't control pirates like an ebay auction - SHOCK HORROR! THEY'RE PIRATES!

You *can* determine who it's going to be if you drop massive amounts of money. I dropped 20k on it near the start in a recent game, and the AI couldn't match that for hours (and only then because much of the bounty had been paid out by then. It only really matters if it's close, and if it's close and it launched on 0.00 whoever clicked fastest would always win. That would suck.


Haha, that's true. Well, maybe the devs could add pirate bribe buttons with live prices in the UI for the 2 minutes after the counter hits zero. That way I could keep an eye on it and still be able to do other things. (I do realize that there is an audio notification for increased bribes, but there is usually a delay and it sometimes doesn't sound if another notification is playing first)

Reply #5 from Sins Forums Top
Just for sake of information: The time they launch after the timer hits 0 is between 30 seconds and 1.5 minutes (shouldn't ever be before or after that time frame).
Reply #6 from Sins Forums Top
Yeah, in my first game I actually thought 'haha I will sploit by waiting and then dropping' because the AI does the whole bidding thing. So I 'win' at 0.00, and then... they wait! And the other guys outbid me because I spent all my money!

And I thought, 'if that had worked, it would have been really lame'. :) The idea of changing their course after launch is a good one, especially if you could directly pay them to change targets or something. It's irritating to have 100k sitting there and losing a bid by $2, having the biggest fleet and yet they still go for you and you can't just say 'listen here's 10k lets go for contestant number 2 kk'.
Reply #7 from Sins Forums Top
So what happens if no players take a bet for pirates (aka: everyone is at 0/tied) ? Pirates just choose a lucky card?
Reply #8 from Sins Forums Top
Think about it this way. The pirates need money, if they're low on money than they wait a bit and people bid more to make them more money.
Reply #9 from Sins Forums Top

So what happens if no players take a bet for pirates (aka: everyone is at 0/tied) ? Pirates just choose a lucky card?


If no one has ever bid, I think it is slightly random. If there has ever been a bid, they retain that target even if all bids are 0.