Automation lane
Market
This is the clearest case for the whole design, so it is worth spelling out.
On the market
380 wood for 300 silver
Warehouse comfortable
Nothing waits on wood.
Refused
Costs silver the harbour needs.
Trireme blocked on wood
The rest is paid for.
Taken
Ship finishes 2h 55m sooner.
Why a ratio setting is the wrong control
Every trading bot in this game asks you for a ratio: take anything better than 1.2 to 1, say. The trouble is that the same trade is a different decision at different moments. Three wood for one silver is robbery when your warehouse is comfortable. It is a bargain when wood is the only thing standing between you and a finished trireme, and the trireme is what the town is for.
A threshold cannot see that difference, because the only thing it is looking at is the ratio. Grepobot prices the offer in seconds removed from the town's goal, which is why it will take the three-to-one when it matters and refuse a one-to-one an hour later.
The listing is global, the cache was not
A market offer belongs to the market, not to your town — so two of your own towns looking at the same cached listing could both decide to take it, and the second spend would land somewhere you did not intend. The listing cache is now shared, which is the only way that arithmetic is correct.
Merchants are the scarce thing
A trade is not free even when the rate is good: it occupies merchants, and merchants are what every other trade in that town is waiting for. So a market action is scored per merchant rather than per resource, and a marginally good offer that would tie up the whole fleet loses to a better one that fits.
What it does not do
- Grepobot accepts offers other players have posted. It does not post offers of its own.
The rest of what it automates
- FarmingClaims every farm village on its real cooldown, takes the trades worth taking, and keeps going while the tab is in the background. Free, no subscription.
- BuildingAuto build that raises what your town's goal needs next, including the warehouse and farm levels the game's own requirement tree never mentions.
- RecruitingKeeps the barracks and harbour working towards the army your goal needs, splitting a unit count into as many orders as the queue will really take.
- ResearchSpends academy points on the research your town's goal is waiting for, not on whatever is cheapest, and raises the Academy when the bill needs it.
- CultureRuns festivals, plays and victory processions towards your next town slot, choosing the celebration that pays and stopping once the slot is covered.
- QuestsCollects finished quest rewards across the whole account, and decides the daily login bonus rather than just taking it, so nothing sits uncollected.