Imagine that you could put out certain units for sale. At a fixed point you have an auction screen turn up.
There you have sellers on top and buyers in the bottom. There you start a timed action sequence where buyers/sellers move their bids until they sort of meet.
Maybe this is tough to code but I think it would be a feature which could actually ADD to gameplay without making it more complex. It would also allow for a nice way to sell military hardware(and/or resources) in a centralized manner.
I like that idea. I was trying to sell units in MP yesterday and it took a lot of my attention. Putting about anything out for bids (that isn't already controlled by the market) seems pretty logical - units, unit designs, basic tech.
Not terribly realistic though. Trade is more along the lines of the old bartering system. Country A has xxx amount of y and country b needs that item. If country b chooses to deal in cash or has nothing that country A needs but cash, then negotiations ensue. Once it is agreeable to both parties they sign the trade agreement.
What I would rather see is just what I described. Would take longer, but could be done with the "minister" signing the agreements.
The game would need a dynamic list of all tradable items, their static worth at a given point in time (when the talks are begun) vs. the static worth of all other items (each). This would give the players, the AI ministers and the engine the ability to value the talks.
here is an example:
SW Texas has 1000 barrels of oil surplus a day.
They need wood and food
Dallas is trading Oil for food, ore and wood.
Dallas doesn't need oil, but LA does.
LA has food, Ore and Wood.
Dallas starts talks informally with LA to get an idea of how much food, ore and wood they can get per barrel of oil. once they get a firm number they agree and both parties sign the treaty.
Dallas then turns and offers food and wood to sw texas for oil. As long as they get 75% of the deal they offered they come out on top. (because they get to cancel their original deal of oil for food wood and ore, or at the very least renegoitate
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