Repopulating Gridania and Limsa Lominsa (how can we spread out?)

[Tsukino]

There are two main things I think need to be done just to allow people to hang out in their city-state of choice.

The first is a proper search system, which is coming with the server rebuild. If you want a group for a dungeon, for EXP, or for any future content that will require one, you currently need to be where other people are because no one uses the confusing search system and just shouts instead. You're not going to see such a shout or get a response to your own shouts in, say, Gridania. Once people can look for you there though, you'll be more free to do so and still get invited.

The other is somehow fixing the market wards system to make it so centralization is no longer advantageous. Linking them all together and then making it so when you leave you exit back out to the city-state you were in, for instance, would accomplish this. Being able to search all three from the same place and then buy without entering would too, but then that would just be an auction house. Whatever is done, there needs to be a way for people to buy and sell items just the same from separate locations, rather than gathering together being superior.

Both of these things revolve around the idea of making it easier to be wherever you want. Other solutions would involve enforcing distribution, such as how guild marks are currently distributed. Those solutions force people to do something in a specific place rather than allowing them to be where they choose, but control even distribution by giving equal reason to need to be in all three.

[Gasher]

The first is a proper search system, which is coming with the server rebuild. If you want a group for a dungeon, for EXP, or for any future content that will require one, you currently need to be where other people are because no one uses the confusing search system and just shouts instead. You're not going to see such a shout or get a response to your own shouts in, say, Gridania. Once people can look for you there though, you'll be more free to do so and still get invited.

Totally agree. But. I have for some reason missed when this was publicly adressed. Could anyone provide a reference to the statement where it says the search system will be completely revised? Thanks!

[SnowTiger]

Being able to search all three from the same place and then buy without entering would too, but then that would just be an auction house.

While I agree with most of your post, I disagree here... There would still be one distinction between a wards based AH and a regular AH...

With an AH, you have to put things up for sale, either as stacks or singles,(or possible inbetween set quantities) and then after so long they get returned...

With a retainer based AH, you would be free to still list things as you now do on your retainers, then just send them to the AH as you normally would set them up in a ward.

The end result being all the best aspects of both an AH and the wards systems. Imo, it would be much better than either the current wards, or any AH I've seen. No wasting a bunch of slots selling items one by one, when you could just put the whole stack on the retainer, and people would be free to buy however many they want, instead of all or none. No more listing tons of stuff, then dealing with a bunch of returned items when someone lists a thousand of them at 1 gil under your price... No more AH related hassles in general.

And on the other side, you wouldn't have to go ward diving and sift through a thousand retainers either, because even with the search,(which is a complete godsend, and SCREW anyone who was opposed to it) it's still kind of a pain when it takes a bit to load all those retainers... Plus merging the wards with a system like that would take care of one of the core issues preventing any chance of all the cities being used.

So yeah, not to derail the topic or anything, but I felt that note was worth pointing out. And yes, that plus a /search would really take care of the problem all together imo, and I think you'd see a much more evenly distributed population.