[dev1019] A look at how we can improve the Market Wards!

Hello everyone!

I was just wanting to consolidate some of the suggestions and thoughts on the market wards that I have come across while contributing to the following posts.

I like the market wards - http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...e-market-wards
We need an AH - http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...-We-need-an-AH

There has been a lot of 'back and forth' talk in both of these threads, and I feel that many good points were brought up in both. It seems they are getting on in post count, so I figured I would take a moment to post up my own suggestion and link some of the conversation I found in both of those topics.

My hope is that the SE Forum Mods will take notice of these comments and suggestions, and forward them on to the Dev teams. Also, a comment from the Mods would be welcome as well! ;)

Now, I would like to start this off with my own suggestion on how I would like to see the Market Wards changed.

After reading and discussing different options on how the Wards could be improved I think the best option would be to keep the current Ward system and build on it. By keeping the current Retainer/Ward setup and adding a central purchasing location where players who don't want to browse the wards manually can go, I think we could satisfy players on both sides of the fence.

You would keep the current system as it is, nothing would be changed for those who want to continue to manually browse the different wards.

In addition to manually browsing, you would add a 'central purchasing location'. This could be an NPC housed in a grand Auction Hall, or a shady dealer found in a back ally. Honestly, it could even be a simple menu like the one that pops up when you first try to enter the Ward area. Whatever floats your boat, SE! :p

This central location would ideally tie all the main cities together since it involves no zoning. By visiting this NPC (or whatever SE decides to use), player will be able to search for any item they desire and instantly bring up all postings that are being offered by any retainer on their realm at that time.

Now, I would like to stop here for a moment and explain that this system would be different from the FF11 Auction House in that there would be no 'blind' bidding. Players will simply search for the item they want, see the price the seller put it up on the retainer for, and choose from there which 'auctions' he wants to purchase. Many people also are concerned that bidding and long waits would be involved, but under this system that would not be an issue. Players will see the total price set like they would when inspecting retainers manually, and can buy out the item right then and there. No zoning needed.

Once the player makes their purchase with this system the item is delivered to them. This can be done through a few different options, but I feel that mog housing would be the best bet with this situation. If that takes too much work, SE can implement a normal mailing system like the ones found in other MMO's. There is also the option of simply giving the item to the player right then and there, but I would also like to see a delivery system added to the game so I prefer my previous two ideas.


This system would give everyone a fast and easy way to effectively browse through all the items posted up by the retainer system. Players would be able to sort through to look for the best prices between all the cities, and make their purchases from there. On the flip side of this, the players who enjoy or prefer manually browsing will still be able to enter the wards and search for items that way as well.

The sales portion of the system would work the same as it does now. Players will post up items through their retainers, and pick up gold from sales in the same place. The 'central location' would simply be tied to all retainers so everyone has a single place they can visit to take a look at the available sales.

Now I know you cant please everyone, but I honestly cant think of a downfall with this type of addition. SE would get to keep the Ward system, and everyone clamoring for an Auction House would get what they want as well. This is my suggestion to SE, and if you have any comments or see anything I missed please let me know!

Now I would like to pull a few clips from the two posts I mentioned earlier. I wont be taking everything that was talked about, but I would like to bring over some of the highlights I took interest in. Im sorry in advance to those posts I dont link here, I just dont want to put *too* much information in the OP ;)

First I will cover the posts I was interested in on the 'I like the market wards' post.

You can find this post at http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...e-market-wards

Quote from Dreamer, post #17

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Maybe I'm in the minority, but I enjoy being able to browse the markets. My normal routine is to buy the specific item (if I'm looking for something specific), then I check a few of the surrounding retainers to see what they're selling as well. People seem to be so caught up in just going through everything so quickly that they simply don't take the time to enjoy the scenery.

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This is something that I have seen mentioned a couple of times, and that is why I feel it is important to keep the current Ward system and upgrade it from there. Many people enjoy the 'roll play' type feel they get from manually browsing the wards, and I can understand that.

Quote from Delsus, post #29

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Undercutting

All I am worried about is that people will see x item for 100k, you sell for 99k and if that trend continues for people it will end up crashing the market of NQ items, and HQ items will be stupidly expencive like in FFXI to cover losses.

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Another concern I have seen come up a few times now is undercutting. I understand how some might be afraid of this, but its already happening right now. Any time players try to sell something the first thing you will see is prices start off at one point then gradually lower as others undercut to sell their items first. You cannot escape the fact that there will always be undercutting in any type of situation where items are being sold, but by making the Ward system more accessible through the changes I mentioned earlier the economy should continue to thrive and grow.

Quote from Kaedan, post #31

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As for getting the item instantly... I'm sorry, but I just find this to be a silly argument. "Oh no! I can't possibly be expected to actually move my character for a few seconds to pick up my item!" Those 15 seconds could have been spent killing a mob! Damn you SE for wasting 15 seconds of my time! I demand instant satisfaction since those 15 seconds are very important to me!"

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This is another thing I have seen come up every once in a while. I just want to take a moment to assure you, making the selling and purchasing of items easier and more accessible will not damage the game at all. Sure, making content and other goal related thing easier can dumb down a game, but saving time while using the Ward system by not having to zone every other second can only make things better.

Quote from ObeiKinstar, post #78

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I like the idea of a centralized buy station or desk or something, where you could browse same menu as MW but have an option for delivery and just add tax/delivery fee for conveinience.

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ObeiKinstar brought the 'tax' idea up for players using the centralized purchasing location, and I could honestly see that being implemented if SE felt that was a fair tradeoff for the players. This player goes on to explain how the taxes could be higher depending on if the item you are purchasing is in a different city, and even goes on to suggest a possible 'miniquest' type situation where players could deliver goods for other players for a bit of gil or a small SP reward.

A tax system could help to supply a 'gold sink', and to keep things fair between the players who use the centralized purchasing location and the players who continue to manually browse the wards. This is a sort of rough idea at the moment, so feedback is welcome!

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I will now cover the 'We need an AH' posts I was interested in. I started super late on this thread, so sorry if I miss any great posts in these points!

You can find this post at http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...-We-need-an-AH

Quote from Dreamer, post #215

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That's not an auction house. That's a NPC vendor disguised as an AH.

The bottom line is that people don't want an actual auction house. They simply want a system that is as convenient as possible and needs zero thought on their part.

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In this post Dreamer was replying to another player showing how simple an Auction House system can be. While I agree that the players description was very simple, I still feel that this is another type of 'casual versus hardcore' situation. Some players are afraid of things getting dumbed down and being made easier, and I can fully understand that. My main point is the buying and selling of goods is not something that needs to be incredibly complicated or long winded. By making the system more accessible SE will help the economy grow!

Quote from sasukeuchiha, post #224

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I myself could care less i want to by the 1 item i want not see another item i want and be look oo i want that too. I have enough problems with inventory space do to having to carry a billion crafting items because of gear repairs i don't need another item i may never use.

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This player was replying to anothers post dealing with impulse bying and shopping around in the wards. He mentioned how he trieds not to buy things he does not need due to limited storage, and that ties in with my suggestion. By implementing these changes SE would very likely need to add either a mail delivery system, or go full out and put in a mog house. That would help to alleviate storage problems while also pleasing people who are unhappy with the Ward system.

Alright! In an effort to not overcrowd this topic on the first post ill go ahead and leave things where they are for right now. There were many other bits and pieces of conversations that were touched on in the two threads I mentioned earlier. For anyone interested in the Wards or an Auction system I would suggest checking them out!

For now though, let me know what you think about my suggestion! Would the ideas I proposed hurt the game in any way? Would they hurt your individual gameplay, or anyone elses for that matter? Are there any cons to introducing such a system? Do you have any ideas you would like to see added on to it? Whether you are for or against my suggestion, let me know, and let SE know! Its honestly the only way the game will ever change.

And I think ill hold this page for any general comments or to explain any edits for this suggestion in case this thread gets some attention ;)

These are my ideas to help the wards which I posted HERE

Ideas to help the Market Wards

1) - Keep the wards but expanded them to include buying straight from item search list but maybe add an extra 5% delivery tax to encourage you to actually go into the ward to pick the item up. This would also help remove a little bit of gill from the economy.

2) - Add filter options and a better layout for the item search lists. Filters for thing like rank, class and so on and then sort them in order high to low and so on.

3) - Also show +1, +2 +3 items in the search list and so on.

4) - Add price history please. To make it so it is more difficult to exploit could you make it so you can see price history for last 20 sold, average price over the week, month, 3 months and so on. That should make it easy to spot if someone is trying to jack the price up or crash it on an item I think.

5) - Add an Item Seek Search so you can have look and see what items people are looking for and sell them if I have them. I also want my retainers to be able to Seek for items even if I currently don't have any of them. It seems silly that you can only seek items that you already have as most of the time you wouldn't be able seeking them if you had them. I believe the Item Seek List will be a big help to give the Wards a much needed boost.

6) - When you search for an item and venture into the wards maybe you could have a different coloured star above the person who is selling the item the cheapest.

7) - Maybe also link all the wards from the other cities. This could help ease congestion in Ul'dah's wards and maybe help stop them crashing so much.

8) - Allow retainers to be called at camps so we can drop off gear or grab something we have stored.

9) - Maybe you could have MW counters in the camps and hamlets, where you could buy items straight from the list but you would have to pay a 15% delivery tax on the item.

Anyone got any more ideas to add to these other than add an AH ^^

If you like the ideas or have any new ones then post them and show your support, if you don't like them then flame me to death ^^

*Casts Barfira*

Like I said in the last topic...well, here it is:

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Originally Posted by insaneshadow

I like the market wards too, but there's one thing I'd like to see SE do to improve it. I've been looking for a green cotton bandana for a while now but it always seems to be sold out, or no one makes them anymore and has been sold out for a while. What I'm suggesting is, even though the green bandana item icon is still there even though it's sold out, I can click on it and have the option to commision someone to make it for me. Or just show crafters that there are people that would buy that item. That way crafters know what will sell and what would just sit there for weeks.

Kind of like this.
*Player sees Iron Spear for sale but can't buy it since it's sold out*
*Player clicks on the icon and gets the option to commision/let crafters know that someone would like to buy it*
*Crafters see this and decide to make one and put it for sale in the market*
*Player goes back the next day to see that there's an Iron Spear available for purchase*
*Player gets his/her spear and crafter gets his/her gil*

Maybe you can even have the option to name who wants to buy said item.

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And Mack here cleaned my idea up a little to make it better:

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Originally Posted by Mack

BTW this is a great idea but I wanna tweak it a little: you search for an item you want in the wards, you find its sold out, you can then click it and seek item at a given price of your choice and it'll show up in your retainer - a crafter runs by and sees it just found himself some work, he makes the item for you, sells it to your retainer and you come back later and you have that item. This is honestly the best idea anyone has come up with so far with regards to the wards.

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I hope something like this gets put in. Mainly for people who can equip the item they're looking for but can't find it for sale and are not at a high enough crafting rank to make it themselves.

That's a great idea insaneshadow, sorry I missed it! I'm surprised at how many suggestions are popping up with this particular topic, and how they are bleeding in to other areas of the game. Being able to commission items like that would be amazing, both of you keep up the work and post those ideas ;)

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Originally Posted by RinL

That's a great idea insaneshadow, sorry I missed it! I'm surprised at how many suggestions are popping up with this particular topic, and how they are bleeding in to other areas of the game. Being able to commission items like that would be amazing, both of you keep up the work and post those ideas ;)

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Thanks, and don't worry about it; there are a bunch of ideas on that thread =).
But, that's all I've got for the market ward lol
I'm not much of an idea person. I only get ideas like that when I'm almost desperate for something; kind of like how I was for my green cotton bandana, which I now have. Woooo!

Haha, kudos on that insane, hopefully the wait just made things better when you finally managed to snag the bandanna!

Anyone else out there have any suggestions or comments? We are going to need them if we want to see changes made to the game!