Empty Auction-house Conundrum, and Suggestions

[Oakrest]

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?

[RAIST]

A lot of the problem simply sparked from supply/demand issues. People simply weren't willing to pay what the crafters felt the items were worth, so they stopped putting them up, and for a lot of those items that balance has not been restored. I ran into this a bit when I started up bonecraft, and instead opted for items I could simply farm or find at NPC's and then synth/desynth/resynth or concentrated on consumables I would use personally (like arrowheads) so I didn't have to keep relisting things several times only to wind up NPC'ing it in the end.

<sarcasm>Would be nice if there was some way to find crafters and ask them directly for help in crafting things....</sarcasm>

But seriously, people either need to get more vocal in-game with what they need (shouts/tells/etc.), or may need to simply take up crafting themselves perhaps? After all.. that is more or less how it all started in the first place. One thing they could (or rather should) work on is tweaking crafting/skillup issues, like skillup rates or breaks with losses (especially breaks when grossly over cap, like breaking on mithkabobs with 90-something skill...seriously, SE?). This might create an incentive for more people to craft again....maybe?

[FrankReynolds]

Add them all to NPCs.

[Fynlar]

With so much of the lower level game simply being "skippable" nowadays, there is really nothing that could be done here that will fix the problem. As stated, it's simple supply and demand, and the demand is way too low.


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.

This basically already exists. It's just that when people get the drops, they probably don't bother placing them on the AH because they know they won't sell.

[Merton9999]

Besides inventory space problems, this is the primary reason I haven't leveled my remaining jobs, despite wanting to try them out. After ten years and with so many other good games available now, I just don't have the tolerance for tracking down low level gear, and I haven't convinced myself that is perfectly fine to be totally gimp until level 75+ yet, especially if I'm soloing.

If they could make crafting quicker and more engaging I'd vote for that first. Doubting that would happen, I'd vote for simply making all these low and mid level items available at NPCs. Blah blah easy-mode whine whine but at this point I couldn't give a flying crap. I just want to experience some of the jobs I never leveled without just switching on my console to another game out of annoyance.

[Mirage]

Here's a solution using mechanics that are already in the game, but has been abandoned by the development team:

Conquest points! There is a lot of leveling gear you can get from the conquest guards, but with the invention of FoV and GoV pages, which encourages targeting the weakest possible enemies, people don't gain conquest points at nearly a fast enough rate to be able to utilize this to gear up their characters on their way to 75 and beyond.

If Field/Grounds of valor page completions granted CP in accordance with the exp you gain from them, there would be enough CP for people to get a lot of the low-mid level gear from the gate guards.

-edit-
This lack of gear for new players has been brought up several times before, and I've suggested something like this most of those times. However, Square Enix does seem to simply not care about new players at all. I mean sure, they made leveling for them easy, but in probably the most boring way they possibly could have, by limiting all the best exp spots to a handful dungeons that grow old and boring very fast. I personally would have preferred 4x exp from all mobs to all this -of valor stuff.

And here I thought they wanted new players to get a good first impression so that they would be more likely to stay. Guess they must know something I don't know.

The book support is nice though, but I use that more for non-leveling than I do for leveling.

[Sarick]

The lower level gear issue should be resolved when or if new high level craft items need them.

Rewards are collecting craft items and converting them into guild points. What if we could have a random item unique to each player (outside guild pattern) that could be used for credits whatever guild you're currently at even if you aren't in that guild.

I once proposed an alteration to the auction house where If an item had 0 on something a player could still place a bid on the item in a gil amount creating a pre-bid. If an ongoing pre-bid was up it'd turn the ITEM text red showing it's wanted. If someone posted an item for more then or equal to the ongoing pre-bid it would instantly get mailed to the bidders mail using the money placed in to pre-bid. If on the ongoing pre-bid was to low and someone posted the item for more it's color would still stay red but other players could bid on it as normal.

This would do three things.

1. It would allow people to pre-bid on items using their 7 slots, after X days the money would return to the player.
2. It would allow others to know something is wanted in advance just not know the asking price in the pre-bid
3. It would help people understand what others are willing to pay for something. If an item is up and the pre-bid is to low either the bidder is asking to little or the seller is asking to much.

Since these pre-bids would use up slot spaces and cost a posting fee people would be less likely to post for wanted items at like 1 gil.

[Mirage]

As an additional fix, I would suggest that low-level NM drops are greatly increased, so that if a new player finds himself short on some gear, he would actually not waste his time by tracking the NM that drops it down. Any "common" NM below level 60 should probably drop their "good" loot at 75% or more, and additionally, maximum respawn timers of these should be decreased.

[Sparthos]

Factor in stats of gear for play as a monster such that you have to "level" your monster by buying gear and you've just created a new demand for lowbie trash.

Until then the AH will forever remain a museum.

[Camate]

Greetings,

The development team understands the current situation where it is difficult to obtain equipment at the lower levels. The comment below from Producer Akihiko Matsui outlines a couple of adjustments that will be made in the November version update to address this issue.



Matsui here.

Thanks for all the feedback.

In order to eliminate the situation where it is difficult to obtain low to mid-level equipment, we will be making adjustments in the November version update.


Treasure Casket adjustments
As one method to obtain low to mid-level equipment, there are Treasure Caskets that appear when defeating monsters in the field, but with the current balance of the game players are leveling quicker than the pace in which they are obtaining equipment, and we will be making adjustments to this.


The rate in which brown Treasure Caskets appear when defeating monsters will be increased.
Body equipment will be added and the overall appearance rate of equipment items will be increased when successfully opening the Treasure Casket.
Additionally, we will be making it easier to open caskets by increasing the unlocking attempts to 5-6 tried for all areas.

We’d like to balance this so that you can open Treasure Caskets while gaining experience points, level up, and naturally procure equipment as you move to the next area.


Adjustments to the spawn rates and drop rates for certain notorious monsters
We will be adjusting the spawn rates for notorious monsters that appear in original areas making it easier to encounter them.

Additionally, we will be adjusting the drop rates for the items these notorious monsters drop, and this will alleviate the difficulty obtaining equipment and quest items.

We’ve received a lot of feedback about adjusting NPC prices, but just as many of you have already pointed out, this could result in the mass production of materials through desynthesis and various other problems. Also, we feel that searching for the equipment you want is an important game element, and we would like to make adjustments so that you can easily obtain equipment through your own efforts.

If after we make adjustments there are still levels that have not been covered properly, we will look into having this equipment sold by NPCs.

[Anjou]

My only problem with this, is that even if the materials were spammed, would it really be an issue? I mean you'd be helping out newer players, but you don't want to because the veterans will abuse this system. Ok so newer players are to be left out in the cold where they will get bored and unsubscribe, because they aren't willing to pay a huge price just to buy a piece of lvl 24 chain armor, when a THF has a good chance at finding pieces from Orcs in Batallia Downs for free...

[leorez]

My only problem with this, is that even if the materials were spammed, would it really be an issue? I mean you'd be helping out newer players, but you don't want to because the veterans will abuse this system. Ok so newer players are to be left out in the cold where they will get bored and unsubscribe, because they aren't willing to pay a huge price just to buy a piece of lvl 24 chain armor, when a THF has a good chance at finding pieces from Orcs in Batallia Downs for free...

i dont get that either, most equipment crafts are pretty much not being used, since the best stuff is pretty much all from SoA events. It would only effect the low to mid range levels which is dead anyways (sadly like most of the games servers now). if anything they should just make low and mid level gear drop relatively often from mobs and flat out remove the guessing game for those areas its needed.

Its mostly a 1-30 problem anyways, since its mostly only vets left, they just do the usual abysea grind to cap as it is.

[predatory]

Matsui here.

Thanks for all the feedback.

In order to eliminate the situation where it is difficult to obtain low to mid-level equipment, we will be making adjustments in the November version update.
Treasure Casket adjustments
As one method to obtain low to mid-level equipment, there are Treasure Caskets that appear when defeating monsters in the field, but with the current balance of the game players are leveling quicker than the pace in which they are obtaining equipment, and we will be making adjustments to this.
The rate in which brown Treasure Caskets appear when defeating monsters will be increased.
Body equipment will be added and the overall appearance rate of equipment items will be increased when successfully opening the Treasure Casket.
Additionally, we will be making it easier to open caskets by increasing the unlocking attempts to 5-6 tried for all areas.
We’d like to balance this so that you can open Treasure Caskets while gaining experience points, level up, and naturally procure equipment as you move to the next area.
Adjustments to the spawn rates and drop rates for certain notorious monsters
We will be adjusting the spawn rates for notorious monsters that appear in original areas making it easier to encounter them.

Additionally, we will be adjusting the drop rates for the items these notorious monsters drop, and this will alleviate the difficulty obtaining equipment and quest items.
We’ve received a lot of feedback about adjusting NPC prices, but just as many of you have already pointed out, this could result in the mass production of materials through desynthesis and various other problems. Also, we feel that searching for the equipment you want is an important game element, and we would like to make adjustments so that you can easily obtain equipment through your own efforts.

If after we make adjustments there are still levels that have not been covered properly, we will look into having this equipment sold by NPCs.

And you could also do like Mirage said above


Conquest points! There is a lot of leveling gear you can get from the conquest guards, but with the invention of FoV and GoV pages, which encourages targeting the weakest possible enemies, people don't gain conquest points at nearly a fast enough rate to be able to utilize this to gear up their characters on their way to 75 and beyond.

If Field/Grounds of valor page completions granted CP in accordance with the exp you gain from them, there would be enough CP for people to get a lot of the low-mid level gear from the gate guards.

Because let's face it the entire CP, ISP, and AN system is broken and needs a good revamp so people have a chance and getting that great lowbie gear for their jobs

[Kraggy]

My only problem with this, is that even if the materials were spammed, would it really be an issue?
But why should there be an issue anyway?

Is it really beyond the team still working on XI to simply flag vendor-bought gear as un-desynthable (or whatever else)? To me, this is a typically lame excuse for inaction.

[Anjou]

But why should there be an issue anyway?

Is it really beyond the team still working on XI to simply flag vendor-bought gear as un-desynthable (or whatever else)? To me, this is a typically lame excuse for inaction.
I under the assumption (and will be until proven otherwise) that the dev team just doesn't want to do it, so they'll make whatever excuse they can in order to keep us pacified.

[Behemothx]

There's an easy solution for this: Advertise your game SE!


If you want new players, people have to find out that this game exists.

[Kraggy]

This game isn't fit for purpose any more for a large number of new players, the entire leveling process was fatally broken by FOV and GOV due to the 'Gusgen' effect they created, and then by Abyssea by the 'Abyssea' effect IT created.

This game was designed 13 years ago and modeled on one even older, it appeals to players who grew up in EQ2 and the like, only a tiny fraction of players who came to MMOs post-WOW would tolerate the quest system (no indication of quest givers, quest text that's vague at best and at times totally useless, the rep. system that is entirely hidden and opaque, a quest system that gives no XP, etc. etc. etc.) and the many other aspects of this game which meant you spent mindless weeks and months killing crabs, flies, goblins over and over and over and over again, interspersed with brief episodes of FUN (missions) before going back to the bloody crabs, flied and goblins for more weeks.

Diehards at 99 grew up with this system and obviously accepted it, largely because this was how MMOs were, Blizzard changed it and the genie of FUN leveling instead of hours-upon-hours-upon-days shouting as LOLDRG (as the lolcommunity put it) in Jeuno instead of actually playing and enjoying the game thankfully will never be put back in the bottle.

[leorez]

This game isn't fit for purpose any more for a large number of new players, the entire leveling process was fatally broken by FOV and GOV due to the 'Gusgen' effect they created, and then by Abyssea by the 'Abyssea' effect IT created.

This game was designed 13 years ago and modeled on one even older, it appeals to players who grew up in EQ2 and the like, only a tiny fraction of players who came to MMOs post-WOW would tolerate the quest system (no indication of quest givers, quest text that's vague at best and at times totally useless, the rep. system that is entirely hidden and opaque, a quest system that gives no XP, etc. etc. etc.) and the many other aspects of this game which meant you spent mindless weeks and months killing crabs, flies, goblins over and over and over and over again, interspersed with brief episodes of FUN (missions) before going back to the bloody crabs, flied and goblins for more weeks.

Diehards at 99 grew up with this system and obviously accepted it, largely because this was how MMOs were, Blizzard changed it and the genie of FUN leveling instead of hours-upon-hours-upon-days shouting as LOLDRG (as the lolcommunity put it) in Jeuno instead of actually playing and enjoying the game thankfully will never be put back in the bottle.

though group grind may not always be fun, it had it good points like having to actually spend time with other players and learning your role pretty damn well. The problem with todays games is that they are ALL solo quest grinds or the new fashion of "we all win" zerg fest pop up events. The main issue is that when devs make these games, they pick one method to focus on for leveling and they get REALLY dull after a while. Nowadays i actually miss group grinds because ive done so much of this quest all day alone crap.

It will be a hell of a day when a dev makes multiple ways of leveling all very viable. It would take a lot to balance it all of course, but im sure if they were all close enough exp/time wise people would utilize what they like.

Another big issue with the grind is that when they makes games now, all the real events are saved for the end, which is why so many people now rush to it. People would not mind slower grinding and taking more than a week to hit cap if you opened up events to do while leveling (stuff like BCNMs/garrison/echo war..ect) toss in some NMs, open and closed dungeons and people wont have this giant urge to get right to cap. This was one thing that FFXI in its early days did well.

[Teraniku]

Low level gear , hmm Spend Conquest points?

[Xantavia]

Low level gear , hmm Spend Conquest points?
Only problem is that with book burns, you aren't getting very many conquest points. Not an issue for me (555,000+ conquest points as of last night) but it is a side effect of leveling from book xp instead of what a mob gives you. When I started playing, I was thankful for the conquest gear Windurst provided like the combat caster stuff. I wonder if new players are even aware that this point system exists.

[Arkitan]

3 words: Reset price history! Ive done it many times and made 5m from 10k investment! Its not hard to do and would persuade people to get off their butts and craft!

And if you dont believe me, check fenrir's server under darksteel harness +1 and understand!

The only whiners are the ones that cant do it themselves!

[Twille]

You're all making the assumption that there actually are new players, lol.

[Arkitan]

There are, Ive met and apprenticed many of them already

[FrankReynolds]

You're all making the assumption that there actually are new players, lol.

If you build it they will come...

[DerianX]

I've always thought it would be nice if crafted stuff could be sold to special NPCs that transfer the item to the AH (kind of like guild vendors).

They could make it so the price is generated by the sales history and put a cap on it so that the item only transfers to the AH if the quantity already on the AH is below the cap. They could even make it so that the vendor price is based on the sales history and perhaps have it so the vendor price is reduced if the AH is at or above the cap.

[FaeQueenCory]

I've always thought it would be nice if crafted stuff could be sold to special NPCs that transfer the item to the AH (kind of like guild vendors).

They could make it so the price is generated by the sales history and put a cap on it so that the item only transfers to the AH if the quantity already on the AH is below the cap. They could even make it so that the vendor price is based on the sales history and perhaps have it so the vendor price is reduced if the AH is at or above the cap.
That would be a really interesting system....
But...
D:
Do you realize just the base coding to get that to just passably function crappily would take???
D:
It's scary complex!

So while your idea is really neat... I don't think there would ever be a way to implement it in the game's current coding...
Then again I don't know the actual codes...
So....
It could be doable.

[predatory]

There's a really easy answer for the auction house being empty thing, stop standing around hoping other people will make you stuff to buy or farm gear for you to buy, and do it yourself. Stop being so damn lazy and actually go out and earn your shit like everyone else use to do in the past. And if something isn't on the auction house, try yelling for it, usually someone will send you back a /t because they have it clogging their inventory space but didn't want to use their ah slots on it because it isn't worth much and they have much higher priced items already up

[Anjou]

There's a really easy answer for the auction house being empty thing, stop standing around hoping other people will make you stuff to buy or farm gear for you to buy, and do it yourself. Stop being so damn lazy and actually go out and earn your shit like everyone else use to do in the past. And if something isn't on the auction house, try yelling for it, usually someone will send you back a /t because they have it clogging their inventory space but didn't want to use their ah slots on it because it isn't worth much and they have much higher priced items already up

I actually could not have said this any better.

There's a new system where brown boxes have quite a bit of gear dropping now. People complaining about gear have no excuse anymore, as I've walked into Xarcabard and then walked out 1 hour later with 4 lvl 41 GS', a pair of claws, a gun, and a whole mess of Carapace armor, a Great Axe, and a knife. There is seriously no excuse save for the levels that are not covered, but that is because you'll be wearing your af (You should be if you're a new player, instead of skipping your way to 70 and fighting Maat)

Personally though, I've been thinking of moving all of this stuff onto my mules and suddenly flood the market with gear, just to see how people respond. Others should follow this trend.

[Anjou]

I'd rather sell the stuff on ah but that's just me. I'm at least giving someone else something they want/need.

[Xantavia]

Yes, I have been drowning in low-level gear lately. Decided to level geo only using outside zones, and brown casket drop rate has been insane. Every one I open tends to have 2-3 pieces of gear. Must have built several full sets of bone, cotton, and chain armor sets, along with some back pieces. Have started getting some wool and beetle stuff too. So for any new players, getting armor while killing mobs appears to be easier than ever, as long as you don't park yourself at a book and go afk.