Suggestion: Patent Auctions (Like in Sid Meier's Railroads)

[Joe#]

Hi,

OpenTTD is my favorite game for making Railway networks but I also enjoy playing SMR despite it not allowing players to create realistic railway networks by not allowing them to place signals for their trains to follow.

One economic gameplay mechanic I have fun using in SMR is patent auctions and I would like this to be an optional gameplay mechanic for OpenTTD multiplayer games. I would be willing to implement this myself one day when I have time, if no one else implements it.



In SMR patents occasionally become available for players to bid for, such as the "Malleable rails" patent which reduces the cost of laying track by 25%. When a player wins a patent only they will benefit from it for 10 years after which time the patent will become public and all players will receive its benefit.

I think giving players the extra spending decision of how much money to spend on patents would add a fun new layer of strategy to OpenTTD and I also think occasionally having auctions in multiplayer games would be a fun new way for players to compete with each other.

[PikkaBird]

Sounds like a role for a gamescript.

[Joe#]

There's a 2010 forum topic taz1vass created in which he suggested having auctions for testing rights. He created an auction background and auction card hands for different company colours.

Using the graphics he created I've created a mockup image of what the auction window could look like:


The 32 bpp trains GRF I'm using is PikkaBird's "Pineapple Trains" GRF.

I like the idea of having auctions for testing rights but maybe having auctions for patents as well would be overkill.

Does anyone think having auctions for both these things would be overkill? if so would you prefer to have testing rights auctions or patent auctions?

Sounds like a role for a gamescript.

Thanks for posting this suggestion and for creating "Pineapple Trains".

[Chrill]

In multiplayer games, auctions for train testing would be brilliant. The patents seem a bit unnecessary however.

[Joe#]

In multiplayer games, auctions for train testing would be brilliant. The patents seem a bit unnecessary however.

Thanks for answering my question by posting your opinion. I now think that to start with only train test auctions should be implemented as a gameplay option for multiplayer games and then I or someone else could later do the extra work of implementing patent auctions, if we feel then that its worth implementing.

[Eddi]

a game script could do that. all it needs is an interface to override the builtin mechanism for offering the vehicle preview