Playing
Auctions
An auction is a contract with the price left open. It runs backwards: the issuer names the most they will pay, and contractors compete by bidding lower.
Why it runs backwards
In an ordinary auction the buyer is scarce and bidders compete upwards. Here the buyer is the one with a job and the money, and the thing being competed for is the work, so bids go down. The lowest bid when the clock runs out wins.
That is useful when you know what you want built but have no idea what it should cost. Rather than guessing a price and finding out you were wrong, you name a ceiling you would be content to pay and let the community discover the number.
How it runs
- 1
Post it with a starting price
The issuer writes the same thing a contract carries: a mission, a deadline, a fine, an optional part restriction. The difference is the price, which is a ceiling rather than an offer. The full starting amount is debited and held right then.
- 2
Contractors bid it down
Anyone can bid. A new bid has to undercut the current lowest by at least one KCoin, so the price cannot be nudged by nothing to hold a position.
- 3
Late bids extend the clock
A bid placed within the last minute pushes the end back by a minute. Sniping an auction in its final second gains you nothing, because everyone else gets a minute to answer.
- 4
The close binds a real contract
The lowest bidder becomes the contractor on an active contract for their bid amount, and the difference between the starting price and the winning bid goes back to the issuer. From here it is an ordinary contract, with the same submission, review and dispute path.
The numbers
Starting priceescrowed up front | Debited from the issuer when the auction is posted, not when it closes. An auction you cannot afford is refused at posting rather than at the close, where it would waste everyone's bidding. |
Minimum starting price2 KCoins | A bid has to undercut the current price by one and still be above zero, so an auction opened at 1 has no legal bid at all: it would take the escrow and then refuse everyone who tried. |
Minimum decrement1 KCoin | Every bid must undercut the current lowest by at least this much. |
Anti-snipe window60 seconds | A bid inside the last sixty seconds extends the end by sixty seconds. |
Duration1 hour to 7 days | Set by the issuer at posting, within those bounds. |
No bids is not a loss
An auction that closes with nobody having bid refunds the whole escrow to the issuer and cancels itself. The only thing you lose by posting one is the time it was open.
Where to post one
Auctions are opened from the contract form in the game’s sidebar, which carries an auction switch on the same screen that writes ordinary contracts. That is the only place one can be posted, for the same reason an ordinary contract can only be written there: the form reads your install as you fill it in. The auction itself is global once posted — it is mirrored into the auction channel of every server, where the post updates live as bids come in.
Bidding is the other way round. It happens on the Discord post, which carries a bid button, and on this site. The add-on posts auctions but does not bid on them, which is the right split: opening one needs to read your game, and bidding on one needs nothing but a number. The issuer can also close an auction early rather than waiting out the clock.
Everything in Contracts about mission text, part restrictions, constraints, submission and disputes applies unchanged once the auction has closed.