A little bit of an obscure one here. More of a info gathering than an actual question.

What kind of behaviours have people observed in the market in the past?
That is...how low has it dropped, what maps (the maze map will invariably be more expensive), has it ever gone ABOVE the starting rate, etc..

If possible, any current game data would be great - including the current turn, and the map being used (4 x open, open, maze). It shouldn't jeopardise anyone's game to reveal this info, and there's no room for abuse or exploitation other than the obvious fact we might learn something more of market habits

I'm curious, maybe some of you guys are too...enlighten me
I'll kick the ball off rolling:

Campaigns - Slow 17 : Trading Market

Reserves Values (change) Buy Sell
Gems 14k 6.89 -0.21 Graph 7.65 6.20

Metal 31k 3.15 -0.19 Graph 3.50 2.84

Stone 43k 2.22 -0.09 Graph 2.47 2.00

Wood 31k 3.13 -0.10 Graph 3.48 2.82

Slow 17 is currently on turn 37, and is a standard-open map. (10 players)
I've given away the fact I have expert trading, but I suspect most of us do at this stage in the game - if it matters to you, cover up your buy/sell rates and just give the 'value' data instead which is the ACTUAL value of the resource, prior to market and trading direction modifications.

I'll give you the evolution of a game every 20 turns.

Well....typically it seems to nose-dive and recover late-game, but it doesn't seem to be the rule any more, especially not with ranged no longer being the superpower they were and forcing the effect on the wood trade. In fact, this seems lower than I've ever seen it...or perhaps it's normal now? I realistically need more data to come up with a reasonable judgement on this...there doesn't seem to be a 'set evolution' any more...

game 63, turn 60, i think it's an open map (it's my first game, so i've never encountered the maze map) and for 40 players
Reserves Values (change) Buy Sell
Gems 91k 18.11 - Graph 20.13 16.30

Metal 223k 7.40 - Graph 8.22 6.66

Stone 253k 6.53 - Graph 7.25 5.87

Wood 200k 8.26 - Graph 9.18 7.43

It nosedives early as players sell of their extra's to buy techs/upgrades/troops. Then later in the game it spikes a bit as players buy the needed resourses with their abundance of gold.

Slow 18, Turn 98, the maze-map.

Reserves Values (change) Buy Sell

Gems 25k 14.94 - Graph 16.60 13.44

Metal 45k 8.53 - Graph 9.48 7.68

Stone 23k 16.24 - Graph 18.05 14.62

Wood 15k 25.53 - Graph 28.37 22.98

I don't think I've ever seen it THAT high, and as for the mega-map - I can only assume it's because the single-castle crowd stay that way for longer, but with the same higher rate of resources found on open maps

It is curious how in THAT case, stone outweighed metal...!!!

Building lots of towers and walls.

Clearly. But much more so that usual, apparently

cyd this study wont work each game is different some have early use some later use depending on the players...

Perhaps. BUT - it will give a range of likely values, and influencing factors/the extent of their influence. Hence giving an idea of what is normal and what is not, and also what the other players are presumably doing to produce such a set of circumstances, and therefore give insights into player actions you might otherwise be unaware of

So...still a waste?

A month on....interesting developments
Typically the market recovers....but this...?

Campaigns - Slow 17 : Trading Market
Reserves Values (change) Buy Sell
Gems 20k 2.32 - Graph 2.58 2.09
Metal 51k 0.91 - Graph 1.01 0.82
Stone 56k 0.82 - Graph 0.91 0.73
Wood 42k 1.09 - Graph 1.21 0.98

I'm aiming to make stone unsellable by game end

Wow...if you keep it up, you will probably be able to give the stone away and the market will take some of your gold!!!

Only one way to find out...
Presumably, this is one form of boundary testing Req COULDN'T do himself