Auction in the good old days?

[Rabamce]

Hi managers!

I started to play TE recently, so I don't know how the game looked like a few weeks/months/years ago... (which is pretty frustrating, in some way)

Many people on this forum said that the previous auction was more enjoyable than the current one.

I'm curious: how was it different?

(if it was really more fun, I wonder why the devs changed it)

[Bunzo]

The old auction was a pain in the arse
Getting up at 4.30am after daily reset to look for Nordgen players...18 year old fast trainers.
because after say 6 am it was only the dross other managers wanted to get rid off.

[khris]

The old auction was a pain in the arse
Getting up at 4.30am after daily reset to look for Nordgen players...18 year old fast trainers.
because after say 6 am it was only the dross other managers wanted to get rid off.

We all loved the Nordgens xD now we have an amount of potato bot prototypes absolutely random ...no joy :/

[jcohen42]

The old auction was a pain in the arse
Getting up at 4.30am after daily reset to look for Nordgen players...18 year old fast trainers.
because after say 6 am it was only the dross other managers wanted to get rid off.

The problem is, Nordeus should have just made Nordgens more consistent. Give out a batch of them every half hour. It would have fixed the main and pretty much only issue with the old auction system.

Instead they reinvented the wheel and we got an auction that is way less engaging.

[jcohen42]

Hi managers!

I started to play TE recently, so I don't know how the game looked like a few weeks/months/years ago... (which is pretty frustrating, in some way)

Many people on this forum said that the previous auction was more enjoyable than the current one.

I'm curious: how was it different?

(if it was really more fun, I wonder why the devs changed it)

To answer your question, here is how the old auctions were different:

• Bidding was done in rounds. The first round was a long preliminary bidding period (1-2 hours). The next round was 1 minute long, and you could only bid if you bid in the first round. Each following round was 20 seconds long, and you could only keep bidding if you bid in the previous round.
• Players were added to the auction continuously, rather than in one single batch. So while players getting added would take over an hour to finish, you would still be able to see players that had less time remaining. It also allowed you to favorite specific players that you could track and come back to later when the preliminary round was almost over.
• Each time you bid, it cost you a token you didn't get back. This resulted in a lot of strategy with only bidding on players you actually wanted and thought you could get. It also gave bidding wars higher stakes, as when you lost out in an auction, you gave away tokens for nothing. So you had to judge how long the other bidders were willing to go.
• Players were listed by quality, not stars. Therefore, you would only be bidding against managers of a similar level. This led to some interesting dynamics where you could recognize specific players that you knew were token buyers, and/or aggressive bidders, and avoid bidding against them. It also prevented older managers from having to bid against newbies.
• Perhaps most importantly, while there were some bot-generated players, managers could list their own players on auction, and then watch other managers bid on your player and then find out which manager won your player. Not only was this a fun way to sell your players, but it also made it easy to send friend requests to other managers and try to track your players through the later parts of their careers.

The main weaknesses of this system were that the preliminary bidding period was too long, and the distribution of Nordgens was not consistent. However, if they had just shortened the preliminary bidding to something like 30 minutes, and distributed Nordgens so they were released evenly throughout the day, I would have zero complaints about the auction system. Instead, we ended up with this new sterile system where all players are bot-generated, players refresh constantly and you have to continuously monitor the auction to find players you want, there's not as much bidding strategy, you can't build relationships through other managers through the auction, and if you sell your players on auction, instead of going to other teams, they are gone forever. It is so much less fun to participate in, and feels like a chore now.

Unfortunately there is no indication that Nordeus feels like going back, or even adding a sort of marketplace to supplement the current auction system, so we're stuck with this.

[Rabamce]

[*]Perhaps most importantly, while there were some bot-generated players, managers could list their own players on auction, and then watch other managers bid on your player and then find out which manager won your player. Not only was this a fun way to sell your players, but it also made it easy to send friend requests to other managers and try to track your players through the later parts of their careers. [/LIST]

So they removed this part?? (looks fun indeed)

I don't get why since that would still be compatible with any system.

[pele]

<snip>
Each time you bid, it cost you a token you didn't get back. This resulted in a lot of strategy with only bidding on players you actually wanted and thought you could get. It also gave bidding wars higher stakes, as when you lost out in an auction, you gave away tokens for nothing. So you had to judge how long the other bidders were willing to go.
<snip>

Wow. This is brutal. Managers could end up spending a lot of tokens without managing to sign a single player.

[dave1311]

Excellent explanation. I remember this old system well and whilst it did give rise to complaints, it was better than what we have now in my opinion.

[Sinany03]

If you think about it, current system IS an auction system: you keep bidding (without losing any token) until everyone else gives up as the price rises. Saying that, I also liked the old system better. I liked to grab a good player, bidding on the last second on a later round

Now I have a question about current system. I didn’t know that players we sell are gone forever. So how come the final price of the player changes?

[jcohen42]

Now I have a question about current system. I didn’t know that players we sell are gone forever. So how come the final price of the player changes?

Nordeus magic! The selling price is automatically generated by bots. Like everything else. Note that the only way your players stick around after being sold is if you sell them through Negotiations.

Wow. This is brutal. Managers could end up spending a lot of tokens without managing to sign a single player.

Yep. But on the other hand, you could also grab great 5* players for very cheap (think 2-3 tokens). It was all about identifying market inefficiencies and playing the field. You could also wait until the clock reached 1 second and the clock would not refresh; if you were the only manager to bid in that round, you won the player. It was an interesting game of "chicken".

EDIT: To add to this, I would have no problem if they changed the old system so that you get back half of the tokens you bid away. It would still reduce the amount of people who bid just to drive up the price of the player and are left unscathed (as well as "multi-bidders" who bid many times in succession).