The recent amalgamation of the auction houses was a welcome improvement in that it effectively increased the overall stock of items/equipment/etc that is accessible to the player. However, it seems there's still a deficiency in how the auction house (AH) works in that many lower-to-mid level items are almost always out of stock. I realize this is largely due to the majority of the player base no longer consuming lower level content, and therefore don't the lower level items intended for it. Over time, these items get sold to npc's for petty Gil, or just tossed to make room - most players don't need em'.
That said, we need to realize that there are still new players joining/starting, and that the lack of equipment options on the AH can be a huge deterrent from getting 'provoked' by the game (read: engaged). Don't forget, we too may someday want to revisit lower level content but can't really experience it unless say, we have some r/x stuff in advance. Even something like Maat's cap - which is still considered an end-game-like achievement - is tricky if you're expecting to gear your level 66+ jobs from the AH (sure, if they're all 99 no problem - but my point stands).
I don't have a solution for this yet, but here are some suggestions to consider:
- Provide incentives/rewards to players who place items on the auctionhouse that have 0 quantity for X weeks.
- Amalgamate AH items across all servers. This probably is my least favorite solution I've come up with.
- Use a computer-generated system to look for items in a level range that are out of stock and automatically add that item to the AH.
- Allow lower-to-mid level items to be placed on the auctionhouse for much longer than 7 days. Note: I would like this be done across the board, but perhaps this is a compromise. Having some dynamic dates [if possible to implement] would make for a much more interesting and active AH, while also helping to solve the lack of stock.
- Connect the AH stock for lower-to-mid level items to random effect drops (directly from the monster and/or from chests that spawn). In other words, low-to-mid level items that have existed as 0 stock on the AH for extended perious of time have a chance to drop from certain monsters and/or chests. This is probably my personal favorite solution but also likely involves the most amount of programming time.
Again, these are only suggestions. I'm hoping it might spark a conversation. What do you guys think about all this?