We need an AH

[Hubert]

Yes it does work for now but what's your solution for a player influx out of curiosity? Longer tunnels to run through to find the retainer with the star? more wards?

More wards would probably work since most people are simply searching and then heading to the appropriate ward. For example, Ironmongers Ward I and Ironmongers Ward II. Possible to also restructure the physical shape of the wards themselves. Maybe a square room with the stalls in the middle or along the sides? Maybe wards with 3 floors, basement, middle, top. Upon entering the ward you start in the middle floor with stairwells in the center and along the ends of the halls (retainers cannot be summoned on stairwells). Search function will also tell you what floor the specific retainer is on.

If ever the population gets too high it's probably time for free server transfers, not at all uncommon in any MMO.

[Physic]

More wards would probably work since most people are simply searching and then heading to the appropriate ward. For example, Ironmongers Ward I and Ironmongers Ward II. Possible to also restructure the physical shape of the wards themselves. Maybe a square room with the stalls in the middle or along the sides? Maybe wards with 3 floors, basement, middle, top. Upon entering the ward you start in the middle floor with stairwells in the center and along the ends of the halls (retainers cannot be summoned on stairwells). Search function will also tell you what floor the specific retainer is on.

If ever the population gets too high it's probably time for free server transfers, not at all uncommon in any MMO.

the answer would probably be to create a self replicating ward area, basically its as big or as small as it needs to be, of course you might have a large upper limit, so as not to have an infinite loop, but it could be pretty large.

Basically you have it kind of similar to how it is now, in that it has a repetive structure, then you have it expand to fulfill the space, the simplest case would be you make it add additional length depending on the number of npcs, also at a certain point, you cant put any more npcs in a particular block.

a more complex structure would be, say you have a central square, with most of the main shops/stands, and you have the area expand out into retainer only space (no shops) that could theoretically create and reorganize itself as needed. think like you have the main shop area, and then a bunch of side streets.
As an expansion of this idea, extremely populus shopping areas could get an upgrade to their main areas size. say your market area for iron monger hits like 200 npcs, once a week or a month or whatever, it would upgrade the main hall space. this is interesting because it could be like, in gridania there is a bustling woodworking ward that looks visually huge and advanced, whereas in say limsa the woodworking ward is a rinkydink room on the side. (not that i expect this would ever happen, but it sounds like a pretty cool idea, and an extension of the MW idea.)

I still think price history is not a needed function overall, but if i had to do it, id create an npc/counter appraiser, that for a small fee would tell you the overall worth over the last say year, if its on an upward or downward trend, and its minimal worth (npc price (the appraiser may also at the same time offer to buy said items at npc price)) each search would be fairly cheap (like 100-500gil) or you may have as suggested, a limited amount of appraisals

This would put a slight cost on constantly searching, basically giving people who dont have any idea what something costs, a ball park figure, but by no means price fixing, people would remember in general what somethings worth is if they sell it more than once. Since it would just be ballpark, a long with showing a trend, people could price it however they want still, but they can be aware in general of its worth. For scoping competition, you can just use the current search mechanism, but that wont give you any history context.