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Auction timers. How exactly do they work?


nev

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As mentioned in the title, I want to talk about auction timers. They appear to be very, very inconsistent, even random.

Here are some of my observations on the topic:

 

1. Some random auction that I'm really interested in. Last few minutes, bids are getting a bit crazy, so I decide to wait until the last seconds to place my bid. 5 seconds left on the countdown, I bid my items... "4, 3, 2, 1, 0, Ending Soon... LOL nope here's someone else's bid, get mugged". So, I got outbid literally after the timer had reached 0. Needless to say how mad I was.

 

2. Another random auction. Same story, same strategy, but this time I want to wait until there's just 2 seconds left, thanks to the previous auction. ...Except this one ended 20 seconds early right after someone's bid. No, it was not an instabuy, not even nearly. It was a normal bid at 20 seconds mark... and it just ended. Very frustrating. Extremely annoying.

 

3. This time, it's one of my auctions. No one has bid, no one has commented, I'm just sitting and waiting until the timer runs out to try and prevent any last second taunt snipes. About 50 seconds left on the clock and it ends prematurely again. It didn't affect anything this time, at least, but still, why the fuck is it so inconsistent?

 

So, sometimes it lets bids go through after 0, other times it finishes 20 and even 50 seconds early. I suppose there could be some timing issues due to the latencies between clients and server, bot holy shit, not by that much! And there must be ways to sync this up properly.

 

Right now, such tense auctions where even a fraction of a second matters, well, they honestly suck. It feels very random, it's only luck that gets you a win. I don't know whether the system is just horrible and needs to be fixed, or if it was intended that way to... I don't know, to fuck people over? Either way, I would like to get some insight into how those timers work, some more observations and more stories.

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1. Sometimes (and I really don't know "when" the window to bit closes) people will win by THAT much. I get it haha. I've been there too! 

2. That's weird. Sometimes the timers can be a little wonky. I know in the past on my phone i've seen timers at 4 hours (when in reality it was 6) so maybe its a timezone difference?

3. Same as 2. It's probably a timezone thing or a site bug. Personally, i've never had that issue.

 

You might have a point with the latency issues; on a related issue there seems to be site issues with bot inventory 1 so maybe this is something that will get fixed. 

Have you submitted a report on your auctions? 

 

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No, I have not, because it's not really an issue with a particular auction, but more like a flaw in the "engine".

Besides, a report like "This auction has ended before reaching 0" is unlikely to get a response, whereas a forum post may at least get me more opinions on that matter, and probably bear a higher chance of staff noticing it and giving a response.

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I feel that. The staff try, but it takes a little while to hear from them. I've found that I usually have a direct line to some mod if I report an auction (usually hearing back shortly) but when i've posted in forums it's taken between 10 to 21 hours to hear a response. Im sure this will get noticed though :)

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Here we go again. This time, a little different.

Same as usual, auction coming to an end, some bids are placed, except this time auction creator has removed all bids about 50 seconds before the ending.

So, 25 seconds on the clock, I place my bid... only to see "This auction is about to be closed; no more bids may be placed."

What the fuck is that supposed to mean?  

How come one of the aforementioned auctions just ended at 20 sec. mark, while this one basically ended, but the timer kept going? What could proc this slight, but evident difference?

Is it because other bids got rejected? It just makes no sense.

~

Oh, by the way, remember sweetstakes.tf? It has had timers too. Except they worked properly.

~

I just feel more and more stupid each time I try to buy anything on an auction. It's like tf2 with random crits, random spread, random damage and random everything else for a good measure. Scrap.tf, pls fix.

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15 hours ago, nevaad said:

Here we go again. This time, a little different.

Same as usual, auction coming to an end, some bids are placed, except this time auction creator has removed all bids about 50 seconds before the ending.

So, 25 seconds on the clock, I place my bid... only to see "This auction is about to be closed; no more bids may be placed."

What the fuck is that supposed to mean?  

How come one of the aforementioned auctions just ended at 20 sec. mark, while this one basically ended, but the timer kept going? What could proc this slight, but evident difference?

Is it because other bids got rejected? It just makes no sense.

~

Oh, by the way, remember sweetstakes.tf? It has had timers too. Except they worked properly.

~

I just feel more and more stupid each time I try to buy anything on an auction. It's like tf2 with random crits, random spread, random damage and random everything else for a good measure. Scrap.tf, pls fix.

What I do is at 30 seconds I have my items selected (and all I have to do it press the bid button) I then watch the timer and once its 10-9 seconds i click bid. Hasn't failed me yet

 

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On 11/16/2017 at 4:24 AM, CaptainOblivious said:

What I do is at 30 seconds I have my items selected (and all I have to do it press the bid button) I then watch the timer and once its 10-9 seconds i click bid. Hasn't failed me yet

 

I do this sometimes too, and I have had no issues with the timer so far (though I've only done it a few times).

 

On a side note, doing that has made me realize how many other people are doing the same thing.

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