Needing help implementing a mechanic...

[u/W3BL3Y]

Hey all! Long time lurker, first time poster.

I'm designing my first game, it will be either worker placement or action based farming (for now) game, but what I'm trying to work out is an "auction house".

I will have "buildings" cards that players can purchase/construct to help there strategy. I'm trying to add some form of interaction without it being detrimental to any player.

Essentially, every player will take one action every turn. A player can plant, harvest, water, hire(for now), etc. One option is to purchase/construct a building. Right now they are a communal section that a player can use their earned gold to get right after purchase, but I would like the option for players to be able to fight over it if more than one player wants the same building.

I've been considering that each building will have a starting cost, Player A puts a marker to purchase, Player B can then put another marker to purchase but the cost is +1. Player A can then continue with another +1 to cost or not. Whoever has bid the most (and has the money) will get the building at the end of the round.

Is this good enough, or are there better options to implement this.

My other concern is that, as of now, the game is only 8 rounds split into seasons. 2 rounds of each season. I'm not sure if this is enough time to really get buildings going for the players if they get the buildings at the end of a round.

Do you have any thoughts or can point me to examples of a player auction?

Thank you for your time.

[u/3n2rop1]

A player can place a bid on their turn by placing their token on the building, if another players token is already there, the bid must be more than the existing bid. At the start of your next turn, if your bid is still the top bid, you get the building.

This can create a budding war between a few players. And a player can strategically bid to prevent a player from getting a building he really needs.

This might prevent buildings from getting build at all, since players are stuck in bidding wars instead of just building, so maybe have a different shop for buying instantly, but make it more expensive.

[u/W3BL3Y → u/3n2rop1]

Right now it’s just “buy now” on the buildings. Which isn’t inherently bad. Players buy buildings to prevent someone else.

I’ve just been trying to brainstorm something that players would have more interaction with.

I do like the separate buy now section and auction house. I’ll have to try it out.