From: "GearonSkywalker" <garyaswegan@yahoo.com>
Say "JOE" has a magic number of 10,000 gold on the first
turn of his availability...
That's not how it works. It's a range of probabilities that is skewed depending on the ranks of JOE and the ranks of the Emissary attempting. A super-duper emissary might get JOE quite easily for 5,000 while one of my Rhudaur emissaries would never get him for less than 20,000... 
Now say Nation X wants JOE but only offers 5,000 gold...
Sure Nation X will need to increase the gold offer...BUT
- AND this is my question...does anyone know if JOE
devaluates after 1, 2, 3, 4, turns?
The simple answer is NO his price is set and it depends
on the skills JOE has and the bribing EMI.
The simple answer is "Nobody knows" and it's a result of the price being related to the skills. That word "Set" is a misnomer. My coffee on the way to work is "set" at 1.35. Nomatter how persuasive I am, I can't get it for any less, and the automaton minimum-wage servers at the counter wouldn't under any circumstances accept a penny more.
I was just wondering if anyone has noticed a possible
trend where an EMI has tried and had better luck during
the "late" turns of any CHARs availability.
As with "probability", one can never know. Besides dealing with % chances, we've also got to be absolutely sure of how many turns said character has been available. We can't always know exactly which turn the nation died, and I'm not convinced the characters only sit 5 turns then vanish...
Compare how many times you've tried this order, how much of the above information you've had (100% sure of) and think on the task required to get well over 100 similar data items to throw together to even begin considering noticing a trent.
Anecdotal "evidence" is more often disproven than otherwise, it seems to me.
A tough thing to test or prove, but just asking to stir
up some talk, board went 3 days with nothing...
Was it only 3? Thought it was more than that...
Brad
1