My Dream of an Improved Market Ward System (No AH necessary)

[Denmo]

I posted this in another topic about AH's, but I felt it was worthy of its own topic of discussion. Agree/disagree with my proposal and discuss.
[SIZE="7"]
SO Let's say, for example...
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You just finished a day's work of levequesting, looting, farming, gathering, what have you. You return to the city and head to what used to be the entrance to the market wards. There's a choice of where you can warp: your home, the market wards, and the grand company area.

You go to your home. Inside is your array of personalized furniture, trophies, and trappings. You drop all your recently acquired items in your chest. Then you ring a bell. Your retainer appears at the door with a report on what he/she was able to sell, and hands you the gil you earned. You give him/her a new batch of items to bazaar, naming your price - while being able to compare prices of what other people are selling at the same time. The retainer returns back to bazaar duty.

Then say, you want go to buy something. You exit your house through the door - again there's a choice of where to warp to. You enter the market wards, but instead of seeing 10,000 NPCs standing around, it's a long hall with counters along the walls, full of other people also trying to buy/sell. But it's not too crowded, because SE was clever enough to distribute people among instanced areas evenly. You search for an item, say a new sword. When you find one that's satisfactory, you ring the bell, and the retainer that's selling the item appears before you with a customized greeting message from the retainer's owner. You can buy the item while still browsing his/her other wares. Retainer disappears when you're done. No one else sees what you're doing, because that just bogs down their loading times.


[SIZE="7"]This system does several things:[/SIZE]

1. It eliminates the clutter of people standing around. Not just the clutter of NPC bazaars, but the dreaded clutter of players standing in front of AH windows that we all feared in FFXI.

2. It allows for a house, and all the benefits of said housing. The feeling of belonging to an area. The ability to display items. A much needed quiet spot to escape from the hustle of the city.

3. It does not require an AH, or AH style buying system. You could still have an AH if you wanted, though.

4. It's faster, more convenient, and less costly to server load.

5. NPC retainers still have a place and function. So all you people attached to your hot mithras get to keep em.

6. It wouldn't affect the market negatively at all. You're still buying from people's bazaars and comparing prices on the fly like you're able to now. There's just less time involved in doing so.

7. It SHOULD be relatively easy to implement. C'mon SE, why not?

8. It makes SENSE.



Now, I haven't thought this through enough to see the downsides to this kind of system vs say an AH or continuing with what we have. If anyone can point them out, please do so.

[Jinko]

I don't see how searching for an item and then ringing a bell is that much faster really, people want to be able to search an item and buy it directly from the menu, same with selling an item, you should beable to select your item from your inventory, check the prices and then put it up for sale.

There would be no need for a seperate marketward as you could do all this from within your house and through your retainers menu, granted the marketward would be gone but so would all that extra server space.

[Denmo]

A good point, but the Wards could also serve as a place for people AFK bazaaring to stand around, rather than in the city. Not only that but doing everything from your house just feels isolated and anti-social. Ever played Phantasy Star Universe? That's how it is there.

[Zantetsuken]

One market ward with different tables/booths/shops for each category of item would work pretty well.

Walk up to the Armorer's Counter, search for what you need, select and retainer appears behind the counter and bazaar auto-opens. Buy, and then leave

They could really make the wards look cool too. Multi-level, scenic views of the cities, stylized booths... I'd be a fan of this.

[Corrderio]

Not bad, but wards are still limited to city states, which another issue that needs to be fixed.

[Zantetsuken]

Not bad, but wards are still limited to city states, which another issue that needs to be fixed.

They should implement special trade-route leves/quests that allow cities to share markets as long as the routes are open...

It would solve the market issues while still keeping them separate and it would keep players involved in the process.

[Denmo]

Not bad, but wards are still limited to city states, which another issue that needs to be fixed.

It wouldn't make sense for every city-state to share the same market. It's an argument of player immersion vs player convenience, and in this case I think player immersion takes precedence. It was never a big issue in FFXI. Each city state had its own seperate AH and micro-economies. Everyone migrated to Jeuno/Whitegate, and that became the overall market.

Right now we're all in Uldah. I'd imagine we'll be in Ishgard when it comes out. The market goes where the players go.

[Malakhim]

They should implement special trade-route leves/quests that allow cities to share markets as long as the routes are open...

It would solve the market issues while still keeping them separate and it would keep players involved in the process.

I smell a tie-in with company/caravan quests.

On the note of market wards. I've said it for ages: They just need to make them livelier(the cities could go for the same treatment). Have random NPCs walking around, make them outdoors, give Limsa stone fountains and seagulls, let me hear muffled voice chatter or the sound of waves, make retainers use emotes when you select them. Make the experience feel like a real marketplace

[LeoDeSol]

I kind of have/had a similar thought as the OP. A AH at this point seems like it would almost be a waste considering how the retainer system works now and with searching, etc. I think the system, as it is now, almost accomplishes the same thing as an AH would, perhaps even improves it, but it still lacks in a few basic functions and ranks low in overall ease of use.

I would love the system to be similar to Phantasy Star 2 system, similar to the above post. You interact with your retainer at the current summoning locations and in your house if they ever add those. Then, if you want to buy something, you do it through interaction with your retainer as well, but your retainer just facilitates the search options. The search would be similar to how it is now, your retainer would say something like, "Here is a current inventory of items for sale in the market". Once you choose what you want to buy, similar to today, the game would transport you to a market alley with only retainers selling those items, in booths. It would all work similar to today, and others would still see your retainer and other wares you have, but the game would auto-populate a ward instance with retainers selling 3 or 4 items your choose. Then you could search again.

As it is now, the retainers seem so pitiful. It is almost depressing entering Ulduh wards to see all of these poor slave retainers forces to stand around all day. It is just as depressing to enter the mostly lifeless Grid and Limsa wards as well.

Add to that the numerous other issues, such as empty retainers, sometimes from people who do not even play anymore, taking up space. I could not believe it when I came back from a 3 month break from the game and my retainers where still in the Ulduh wards, empty. I was glad they where though, as the wards are all full now, I would not have gotten a spot...

[Falcus]

It wouldn't make sense for every city-state to share the same market. It's an argument of player immersion vs player convenience, and in this case I think player immersion takes precedence. It was never a big issue in FFXI. Each city state had its own seperate AH and micro-economies. Everyone migrated to Jeuno/Whitegate, and that became the overall market.

Right now we're all in Uldah. I'd imagine we'll be in Ishgard when it comes out. The market goes where the players go.

You mean just like how FFXI has all the AH's linked?