Market Wards vs AH

[Spellstar]

The only thing missing is a price history. The only "Hit and miss" is if the wards have crashed or not.

It is more than hit and miss, for a start you cant see other areas retainers, (true in FFXI not all AH were linked, but you knew roughly which was the best one to head to for the item you wanted), it doesn't show high quality items, it only shows 20 items, there is no price history as you said, If you want to buy say three items you have to go through multiple loading screens into overpopulated wards, hope the retainer loads up fast (if somebody hasn't gotten there before you), then search for your next item, wait for all the dialogue boxes to do their thing, go through another loading screen etc etc....you know i could carry on and on. That is not on Par with an ingame Auction System that modern gamers expect. From a lore / role-playing standpoint market wards are nice - in theory (heck i thought they sounded great and really immersive when they launched information about them pre-beta), but in practise...well you only have to see all the complaints on here.

FFXI has a sound AH, it could be better but they (the devs) should look there for a starting point. Which they are doing by all accounts so all you AH haters need to come to terms with the fact that people that want to play the game and not spend 10 times the necessary amount of time to do a simple task like (eg) buy brass buckles, and spend more time, using the items you just bought quickly from an AH to craft, wear, kill stuff with and have more fun. period.

[Spellstar]

Since you've mentioned efficence, let's talk about efficence.

Market wards serve their purpose, you can get every item you need in acceptable times. Even faster the more features and search improvement are implemented, because let us say is clearly, there's NO feature included in any AH that can't be implemented in the market wards system.

Biggest load of rubbish I read on here today.
And the new production team clearly do not agree with you or they would not be wasting their time on investigating / preparing for an AH to be implemented.

I give you one (for starters) feature that cannot be implemented with the current system - clicking an item from a search screen which it appears in your mailbox in seconds. Then enabling you to instantly search for your next item...and so on.

And there are plenty more !

[Spellstar]

Just put the AH in already please. Many players are using bad gear in parties because they don't even want to go into that mess.

Here here Seif well said

[Wolfie]

One of the biggest issues facing the market wards is overpopulation and retainer placement. When a ward becomes full, say the weapons ward, everyone trying to sell weapons will have to take a penalty because they put their retainer in a different ward. And then everyone that sells multiple, different types of items also takes a penalty on some of them for not being in the right ward.

In reality, the only issue about market wards that was solved was item search. Every other problem still exists and will likely not go away until it's turned basically into an AH (it's not an AH yet).

[Xzen]

It is more than hit and miss, for a start you cant see other areas retainers, (true in FFXI not all AH were linked, but you knew roughly which was the best one to head to for the item you wanted), it doesn't show high quality items, it only shows 20 items, there is no price history as you said, If you want to buy say three items you have to go through multiple loading screens into overpopulated wards, hope the retainer loads up fast (if somebody hasn't gotten there before you), then search for your next item, wait for all the dialogue boxes to do their thing, go through another loading screen etc etc....you know i could carry on and on. That is not on Par with an ingame Auction System that modern gamers expect. From a lore / role-playing standpoint market wards are nice - in theory (heck i thought they sounded great and really immersive when they launched information about them pre-beta), but in practise...well you only have to see all the complaints on here.

FFXI has a sound AH, it could be better but they (the devs) should look there for a starting point. Which they are doing by all accounts so all you AH haters need to come to terms with the fact that people that want to play the game and not spend 10 times the necessary amount of time to do a simple task like (eg) buy brass buckles, and spend more time, using the items you just bought quickly form an AH to craft, wear, kill stuff with and have more fun. period.

Everything is sold in Ul'dah. Also you seem to be under the impression that an AH implemented by SE would just magically work and have all of the features you desire. As evidence to the contrary I submit to you FFXIV.

[Abriael]

Biggest load of rubbish I read on here today.
And the new production team clearly do not agree with you or they would not be wasting their time on investigating / preparing for an AH to be implemented.

I give you one (for starters) feature that cannot be implemented with the current system - clicking an item from a search screen which it appears in your mailbox in seconds. Then enabling you to instantly search for your next item...and so on.

And there are plenty more !

And who exactly said that a consignment system cannot be implemented in the market ward system? You sure lack imagination, my friend. Ain't it lucky that you aren't a developer?

[JackDaniels]

To the people who think market wards prevent price fixing: you're wrong. Anything steel on wutai is far more expensive than any other server.

To the people who think the market wards prevent price gouging: you're wrong. Every day I have to drop my prices to be competetive.

To the people who think the market wards add immersion as well as make the game more interesting and unique: you're right, but it's at the cost of efficiency and consistent crashes in ul'dah wards.

Once PS3 launches, and we start paying for a subscription, how many retainers do you think the average person will have, I know I would want at least four, 20 items isn't enough to sell at once, 40 slots should cover the mess that is NQ,+1,+2,+3. There's no way in hell Ul'dah will go more than 12 hours without crashing.

I for one vote for AH, I'll take convenience over immersion any day. It wouldn't be that huge of a sacrifice anyway, and tbh I wouldn't miss the retainers Adolf and Hitler at all.

[Wolfie]

And who exactly said that a consignment system cannot be implemented in the market ward system? You sure lack imagination, my friend. Ain't it lucky that you aren't a developer?

Let me hear your idea for fixing full wards/overcrowding and people trying to sell different types of items, while still keeping the wards organized and streamlined.

[Abriael]

Let me hear your idea for fixing full wards/overcrowding and people trying to sell different types of items, while still keeping the wards organized and streamlined.

1: Bigger wards. More efficent code.
2: Multiple wards of the same kind, divided by level (exactly like the current tailors wards, I cannot really fathom why they did that only for tailors, it works wonders and there are other kinds of items that would need that more, see battlecraft)

Last but not least: 3: phase out by-wards search and implement Centralized search.

I search for an item and i'm told Retainer, price, and ward where it is.

Easy peasy. And I don't even think those are the only solutions possible. Just those that come off the top of my head in 2 minutes of thinking.

[JackDaniels]

Last but not least: 3: phase out by-wards search and implement Centralized search.

I think the reason why we search by ward is to make it easier on us, not just because they didn't think it through.