Does Mafia ignore advertising? Should it?
- Thread starter Sarmatron
- Start date
It sorts by quantity to make sure that if you go to buy a bunch, you will be able to use fewer stores, which will result in fewer server hits (though when manually buying stuff, I usually aim for a store with exactly the right number of the item, so I can empty a meaningless amount of database space while using minimal server hits).
If there are hundreds of stores with an item at mall minimum, and you have mafia search for the top 10 stores, it will be the top 10 stores by advertising budget that KoL returns for mafia to display. They will be re-sorted by quantity, but advertising is a factor.
If there are hundreds of stores with an item at mall minimum, and you have mafia search for the top 10 stores, it will be the top 10 stores by advertising budget that KoL returns for mafia to display. They will be re-sorted by quantity, but advertising is a factor.
Certain idiots configure their store so that you cannot buy from them straight from the mall search screen. Instead, you have to actually go into their store and let hundreds of pages of crap load before you can start a purchase. KoLmafia not only lets you buy directly from such stores from the Purchases tab, but if you do a mall search in the relay browser, it helpfully provides purchase links for such stores on the search results. In other words, that "feature", used only by stupid shop owners, is a non-feature in the Relay Browser.
Now, that is a shop feature that not only does not help the buyer, but harms them. I am quite comfortable suppressing that.
Advertising budgets do not help the buyer - only the seller - but they don't harm the buyer. Therefore, I would say that KoLmafia "should not" ignore advertising intentionally - but I see no reason that we should complicate the code to do anything special to accommodate its existence. If you do a mall search in the Purchases frame, it displays the stores in the same order that KoL returns them, as lost says, and you get to make your own decision about whom to purchase from. Personally, I generally just highlight the first "n" stores and say "go buy x items" - which is to say, I am rewarding the advertisers. But then, the only things I buy from the purchase frame tend to be things that I collect, and I will buy out everything below a certain price, so it's moot; I will buy from your store if the price is right and will ignore you otherwise.
Now, using the "buy" command, you are automating purchases and one of our goals for automation is to go easy on the servers and minimize hits. If we can minimize price and also minimize server hits, then advertising be damned; as lost says, we reward those with larger stock, rather than advertising.
I see no problem with that. But then, I'm not generally sympathetic to "fairness" arguments about commerce - and I loathe advertising in real life, so why should I feel differently in a computer game? At least they haven't implemented a spam Kmail mechanism to allow store owners to fill my kmail box with messages touting their min-priced bat guano.
Now, that is a shop feature that not only does not help the buyer, but harms them. I am quite comfortable suppressing that.
Advertising budgets do not help the buyer - only the seller - but they don't harm the buyer. Therefore, I would say that KoLmafia "should not" ignore advertising intentionally - but I see no reason that we should complicate the code to do anything special to accommodate its existence. If you do a mall search in the Purchases frame, it displays the stores in the same order that KoL returns them, as lost says, and you get to make your own decision about whom to purchase from. Personally, I generally just highlight the first "n" stores and say "go buy x items" - which is to say, I am rewarding the advertisers. But then, the only things I buy from the purchase frame tend to be things that I collect, and I will buy out everything below a certain price, so it's moot; I will buy from your store if the price is right and will ignore you otherwise.
Now, using the "buy" command, you are automating purchases and one of our goals for automation is to go easy on the servers and minimize hits. If we can minimize price and also minimize server hits, then advertising be damned; as lost says, we reward those with larger stock, rather than advertising.
I see no problem with that. But then, I'm not generally sympathetic to "fairness" arguments about commerce - and I loathe advertising in real life, so why should I feel differently in a computer game? At least they haven't implemented a spam Kmail mechanism to allow store owners to fill my kmail box with messages touting their min-priced bat guano.
The only problem with this behaviour is I guess if someone knew what they were doing they could effectively "game" the KoLmafia behaviour by drowning out the competition.
Store A has 50 knob sausages @ 200 and spends 500 on advertising.
Store B has 40 knob sausages @ 200 and spends 1000 on advertising
Store C has 30 knob sausages @ 200 and spends 0 on advertising.
User wants to buy 50 knob sausages, so should go to store A.
Store C knows the KoLmafia behaviour and is currently at a competetive disadvantage to Store A, so they buy 20 knob sausages from Store A.
The order becomes:
Store C: 50 sausages
Store B: 40 sausages
Store A: 30 sausages
User buys 50 sausages from Store C, who (presumably) makes a profit on 30 and zero-sums the remaining 20.
Meanwhile, Store A (who originally would've sold 50 sausages) has only sold 20 instead, because Store C has gamed them out of KoLmafia's preferential buying system, and store B (who spends the most on advertising) has sold none.
The net effect is that you have actually not saved server hits at all, it only looks like you have for the user (but caused Store C to generate more hits in order to game the system).
Store A has 50 knob sausages @ 200 and spends 500 on advertising.
Store B has 40 knob sausages @ 200 and spends 1000 on advertising
Store C has 30 knob sausages @ 200 and spends 0 on advertising.
User wants to buy 50 knob sausages, so should go to store A.
Store C knows the KoLmafia behaviour and is currently at a competetive disadvantage to Store A, so they buy 20 knob sausages from Store A.
The order becomes:
Store C: 50 sausages
Store B: 40 sausages
Store A: 30 sausages
User buys 50 sausages from Store C, who (presumably) makes a profit on 30 and zero-sums the remaining 20.
Meanwhile, Store A (who originally would've sold 50 sausages) has only sold 20 instead, because Store C has gamed them out of KoLmafia's preferential buying system, and store B (who spends the most on advertising) has sold none.
The net effect is that you have actually not saved server hits at all, it only looks like you have for the user (but caused Store C to generate more hits in order to game the system).
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"The Mall is not The Game"
If people are buying 50 at a time, it won't stay at min price. If people are not buying, person C will normally waste meat trying that. If it isn't at mall minimum you can cut your price. If it's castle garbage then you won't show up without advertising.
I don't think there's actually a problem that needs to be fixed.
I don't think there's actually a problem that needs to be fixed.
