It’s very likely. But double the bid is a huge bonus for that player - usually you’d expect second place to be only slightly above your own bid. This would add back weird incentives for everyone to bid on projects they didn’t want, to stop another player from getting too big a reward for them.

If only one contractor is bidding, its probably an indication that the project isn’t ready to be bid on yet.

Per derrick and Kevan

What would be a good amount then? You can’t have then earn only what they put in, since you’re losing net funds via resources. A fixed number doesn’t seem right since the other contracts are determined via bidding.

Not sure what you mean by “put in” here. A sole winner would be picking a number out of the air, and being given that much money. Even having the prize as 5% of the bid would allow a lucky sole winner to bid $99999B and do very well out of it.

Although in reality you’d be second-guessing against rational just-high-enough bids from other players, to avoid handing someone else that $99999B.

I think the pick-any-number project auction probably needs an overhaul to avoid lucrative edge cases, but my suggestion failed.

Its possible that a blind auction is the wrong mechanic and that players should be able to see what others are bidding.

I don’t think that a contract with only one bid should be awarded. Though really, all contractors should be bidding on all contracts. If you have to bid really high to make a project worth it, bid really high.