So now that the price floor has been in for several months, I'm curious how it's impacted the playing experience in Express? :)

Has it changed the netting dynamics in a positive way or a negative way?

For those who like to fight/grab/attack on this server, I have assumed the 'unlimited' supply of oil on the private market (which was what the change was geared towards) has been a positive thing. Is that accurate?

Thanks!

I played an Fascist Oiler in Express this round to get a feel for the differences in Earth Empires and Earth:2025. Without technology, the strategy is not competitive for the top ranks.

The market for oil was highly limited and I've sold the majority of my oil privately. As for attacking, there were several periods where there was no oil on the market, so I took the opertunity to sell it at $180. Tried oil at $250, but was consistantly undercut before selling any.

Attacking/Grabbing extensively this round, I enjoyed the exclusion of oil from LGs, as it protected my stockpile from hits, while conversely I could hit the cash/food/tech stockpiles of cashers/farmers/techers.

The changes are positive, IMO, but they don't go far enough to diversify the game.

Well I never go Oiler, and because I could sell it in the private market I decided to give it a try, it was good enough and as mapleson said is pretty hard to reach the top 10, but is an improvement.

I think in servers with clans Oil will be stocked, this will increase demand, and make more people go Oiler and less go farmer :P

There's simply not enough time for oiler to make an impact on a product as volatile as oil nuff said.

Again, there needs to be tech which increases oil production to make it more competitive.

Thats probably the worst way to make oil competitive, didnt i teach you anything 133tz? :P

Tech for oil?

nah

Change the amount of oil needed from 1 barrel per 25 millitary units, to 1 barrel for every 10 units

I have never tried it, but the Fascist Oiler should have one of the fastest starts of any strategy. selling oil at $60 early on and producing $3.5 will allow a faster build up. I think the only way to net is to hold huge stocks of oil until the peak prices and sell then. I'm not sure how an end game could be played though.

Changing the oil usage would not affect the ability of occational attackers playing a non-discriminate strategy (farmer/indy/oiler) to keep a few rigs for self use whenever the profitability of oil exceeded military or bushels. Only cashers and techers might still buy oil to attack, as MBR should be done with that.

Having an oil tech graduates oiler from a specialty to a strategy, because non-oilers cannot have comparible output without significant investment. When there is a shortage of oilers, oil tech would be cheaper and increase efficiency of the strategy. When there is an oversupply of oilers, oil tech would be expensive and constrain supply.

Overall, I don't think anyone is complaining about the addition of oil to the private market, but you still need to switch to an mid-game/end-game strategy and the 14% government change penalty halves the gains as compared to a farm start-up when playing with a government switch.



1) Nerf production to 1 barrel per rig per turn.
2) Add oil tech (100-250%).
3) Add oil decay.
4) Increase base oil price from $60 to $100.
5) Optionally, make consumption 1 barrel per unit, cost $4 per barrel, production of 25 barrels per rig.

This would allow a max tech Fascist (+50% oil) to produce 3.75 barrels per rig or 3.6 barrels per rig after full days turns.

However, this make a farmer start-up more profitable 70% per acre. At max tech though, a farmer would make 11.66 bushels per acre and an oiler 3.75 barrels per acre, 3.1x the output.

At $100 per barrel, without tech, the rate per acre is $153.7 per farm or $150 per rig; with max tech, it's $338.14 per farm vs. $375 per rig.

Finally, the volatility of oil could be reduced by reducing the consumption and price rates, the opposite as Mehul did when he nerfed food by increasing prices by 10x and production and consumption by 1/10x to allow for greater market variation.