FFXI AH + FFXIV wards = Our answer to a new AH?

[Crimm]

After all of my years playing FFXI there has always been one thing that people dislike with the auction house system. In FFXIV this issue has been amended, however at the expense of the things people liked in XI. My idea is a cross between XI auction house features and XIV wards.

The auction system on XI was well liked because it was one central location combining all wares people had to offer and the wards do this as well to a degre. The downside that was most disliked was the "auction" part of the system. People disliked guessing at what people had something put up for. People didn't like wasting time guessing how much to bid on. The result of this was rmt trying to control the cost of items since there was no visibility of who was selling what and for how much. On XI people had a good idea who the rmt were, but in the AH system rmt could hide behind it and sell items and a completely innocent player would end up supporting them.

In XIV, the wards corrects many of these issues by the search function listing who is selling what and for how much. It's straight forward, simple and promotes sale competition keeping prices lower. In the event an rmt is selling an item, people who knew it was an rmt, would know that and could choose to purchase from a legit player. In the market ward system it made life more difficult for rmt. However, the wards don't allow for a central location to purchase items, it still requires running around. The constant running from retainer to retainer to get what u want is simply a waste of time. Add in the fact the wards seem to crash on a regular basis, the ah system seems to be a more stable choice in that it's been proven on XI.

While I am not completely in favor of an exact copy of the XI system, and also not in favor of keeping the wards as our main means of commerce in XIV, I feel a compromise can be made. What I am suggesting is the following: (note this is all based on the fact a delivery box system is implemented)

A) Create an auction house location and system similar to XI with the following changes.
a) Keep history of sales on the AH system, but include the listing of current items up for sale, who has them listed and the listed price like the market wards currently have.

Reason: While this removes the "auction" from auction house, it makes life easier for the player. Consider, you don't go to a grocery store and guess at how much to pay for a can of soup. Keeping the features of the wards allows for complete visibility of who you are buying from and how much you are paying. While keeping the history of sales in the system, it allows for greater visibility for a person want to sell something, to know how much to put it up for.

B) Keep the wards with the following changes.
b) Remove the several ward "zones" and create one larger open location. Let the AH system remove the bulk of the necessity of selling items, but allow the use of the retainer at a players discretion in the wards.

Reasons: Keeping the retainers for use of bazaars would allow the player to sell the higher sought after items/ rare items in a bazaar while they continue exploring and gathering more loot ect. On XI we all know of the so called Rollanmarts ect ect. The reason for those was because some items couldn't be sold on the AH or were rare enough to not want to put on the AH due to fees ect. Keeping retainers would allow the player to continue with this while not having to stay logged in or parked in one location just to to make their wares available.

Other changes:
-Increase bazaar limit from 10 to full inventory.
-Increase trade limit from 4 to at least 8+. This should coincide with the delivery system and AH limit pending its implementation.
-Create a mog house type system (does not need to be a copy to XI). The nice part about the mog house was everything was centrally located for the player. Ie. delivery box & storage. It also allowed clear communication with linkshells, friends ect without the spam and extra chat. Turning on and off filters specifically for that is impractical.

An idea that has been discussed by some of my friends as of late is that if an auction house system is implemented, instead of having one central location with tons of players gathered around it, to put a link to the auction house in a mog house. This would remove the considerable lag that would be associated with a central location auction house.

The goal (from my understanding) is for XIV to be a simple, straight forward game the the casual gamer can pick up and enjoy without having to spend a lot of wasted time with the tedious tasks. Changes along these lines would remove the wasted time (according to the players) and allow for more exploring and enjoying of the game itself. Sometimes simple, is better.

I can give a more detailed explanation of my suggestion if requested.

"Those who continue to flame SE instead of giving constructive criticism will only end up burning themselves down. Be a player, not a hater." - Tebo RIP my friend

Crimm
Server - XI = Bahamut / XIV = Selbina

[Blitz0309]

So basically have the AH, but keep the retainers so you can have your bazaar up without having to afk? I'm not opposed to the idea.

Of course, when it comes to an AH... i'd rather have a real auction. You can set a reserve, but have an auction length and let people bid. Then keep the retainers for items where you have a set price.

[viion]

That post could have been soooooo much shorter and posted in one of the other 50 threads about the same thing. You also did you tags wrong XD

[Seif]

I don't really care I never bought anything from bazaars in XI and have never used retainers in XIV because buying stuff is so much of a hassle and having low level gear on my lvl 26 character seems to make absolutely no difference to when I take the gear off. I'd rather play the game than mess around with menus.

In XI I bought stuff and used my time to play through the content.

In XIV they want you to spend time in the copy/paste hell of the wards and play through. FoV over and over again. I've yet to run into a leve that is different.

Why not spend dev time on the important stuff and just make the AH because wards aren't really a gameplay mechanic to begin with?

[Malakhim]

In XIV they want you to spend time in the copy/paste hell of the wards...

I can get behind this statement.

People like to claim that all the environments in the game are the result of nothing but rabid copy/pasting, but that can be solved by placing a few huts here and there, maybe some downed trees, some farming fields, etc.

However there is no copy/paste culprit greater than the market wards in my mind. The floorboards and ceilings may be different, but the layout, the lighting, the atmosphere... It's all pretty terrible IMO. Make the market wards open air. The only wards that make partial sense to be indoors would be the Ul'dan wards and MAYBE(and that's a stretch) the Lominsan wards. Let me feel like I'm in a real market plaza. If having just one big zone for everyone causes lag issues, then let me switch "streets" or "lanes" in a fashion similar to what we have now. Give the market wards some real flair.

I can't promise that this would make everyone love the wards all of a sudden, but I'm willing to bet that it might make the experience much more enjoyable if you saw stone fountains and seagulls flying around different southern islands dotting the background of the Lominsan wards.

[Benediction]

A) Create an auction house location and system similar to XI with the following changes.
a) Keep history of sales on the AH system, but include the listing of current items up for sale, who has them listed and the listed price like the market wards currently have.

B) Keep the wards with the following changes.
b) Remove the several ward "zones" and create one larger open location. Let the AH system remove the bulk of the necessity of selling items, but allow the use of the retainer at a players discretion in the wards.

Reasons: Keeping the retainers for use of bazaars would allow the player to sell the higher sought after items/ rare items in a bazaar while they continue exploring and gathering more loot ect. On XI we all know of the so called Rollanmarts ect ect. The reason for those was because some items couldn't be sold on the AH or were rare enough to not want to put on the AH due to fees ect. Keeping retainers would allow the player to continue with this while not having to stay logged in or parked in one location just to to make their wares available.

Other changes:
-Increase bazaar limit from 10 to full inventory.
-Increase trade limit from 4 to at least 8+. This should coincide with the delivery system and AH limit pending its implementation.

Crimm
Server - XI = Bahamut / XIV = Selbina

The system we have right now is essentially an AH system, with the added nuisance of having to go pick up the item from a retainer. We have price listing, we have goods up for sale in a market and players participating in it... which basically equals to an AH. Our current system discourages monopolization of any items by one player while encouraging total unregulated price competition between sellers. Coupled this with the AH listing showing current sales... we have a buyers market wherein it's easy and cheap (aside from a few "endgame" gear) to get items we want for our characters. This, along with the fact that there's an endless supply of money coming from leves and behests, everyone is more well off in this game. Although the down side to this is that it is harder for crafters to make any money, which I forsee a sharp decline in the number of them.

While the current wards system is not perfect, the bigger issue here is that the economy in this game is flooded with items and are continually being flooded by items that old and new crafters are making. Without a reasonable way to remove some of these items from the market, it drives the prices lower and lower which discourages more and more people to take up a craft. At which then gives players no reason to take it up at all because players can just buy it off the wards.

People are just so against the wards because there is so much stigma attached to it. I admit that it can still be improved (by a longshot) and the fact that we have so much lag in this game as well as the wards keep crashing, that it's hard to aleviate the stigma off the idea.

[trinta]

People are just so against the wards because there is so much stigma attached to it. I admit that it can still be improved (by a longshot) and the fact that we have so much lag in this game as well as the wards keep crashing, that it's hard to aleviate the stigma off the idea.

You personally just listed three specific reasons to be against the market wards (It can still be improved "by a longshot", there's a lot of lag already, and the wards keep crashing). None of those three is some vague "stigma", so for you to be claiming that there is no legitimate opposition to the wards is silly.

[Benediction]

You personally just listed three specific reasons to be against the market wards (It can still be improved "by a longshot", there's a lot of lag already, and the wards keep crashing). None of those three is some vague "stigma", so for you to be claiming that there is no legitimate opposition to the wards is silly.

I wasn't for or against the market wards. You know when you write a paper... you have to show both sides of the argument to balance it? Yeah...

Reading is hard apperantly for some people.

Edit: To make it more clear for you... I did list personal reasons to be against the market wards (still doesn't say my actual stance to it). But the train of thought stops there because I didn't specially say what exactly the stigma is on the wards.