Wow, no mention of Auction house / MW improvements

[Molly_Millions]

I don't think the Wards should be scrapped, but there's no way they can function as anything resembling an Auction House. In fact, trying to add Auction House functionality is a waste of time because any attempt to do so not only ruins the off-line bazaar environment that the Wards now have, but also makes for a poor Auction House because it would be based on a system that's too different.

Better to have two systems in place.

Follow the url in my sig, there definitely is a way to turn the wards into a 'best of both'.

[AmyRae]

Follow the url in my sig, there definitely is a way to turn the wards into a 'best of both'.

I don't think your plan will work. You'll ruin the wards, and have a crappy Auction House. Absolutely no one will be happy with that.

[Molly_Millions]

I don't think your plan will work. You'll ruin the wards, and have a crappy Auction House. Absolutely no one will be happy with that.

Vastly improving the search, for example by reorganizing items by category rather then ward and improving the search results, and allowing people to buy items from the menu, would ruin the wards in what way? please be specific. I also don't see how that would be so different from an entirely menu driven AH that it would be a crappy AH.

[Tsuga]

Vastly improving the search, for example by reorganizing items by category rather then ward and improving the search results, and allowing people to buy items from the menu, would ruin the wards in what way? please be specific. I also don't see how that would be so different from an entirely menu driven AH that it would be a crappy AH.

Your plan limits people to selling things on retainers still, basically forcing us to use the limited capacity wards, and it relies on items being sent to mailboxes, a system that is not simple, or time efficient. This hurts the AH side.

It also takes out pretty much any reason to go window shopping, because anybody with a brain (or without 30 minutes plus to try to find a few items) would use the buy it now function, thus negating the need for retainers in this system at all. They would only serve to limit the sellers, and waste people's time by forcing us to set up the retainer in a ward, and go back and check it whenever we want money, or to exchange items with it.

This could all be handled by an auction house NPC instead, so the process of buying and selling would be streamlined. The Wards would just be there for anyone else who really wants to use them (or if there were items that could only be sold on characters/retainers, they'd be sold here, like XI's RBF).

[Molly_Millions]

I'm going to reply to each of these points so bear with me...

Your plan limits people to selling things on retainers still, basically forcing us to use the limited capacity wards,

Yes, and so does the AH as implemented in XI in that only 7 items could be sold by a single player at any given time.

and it relies on items being sent to mailboxes, a system that is not simple, or time efficient. This hurts the AH side.

You'd have the option to pick up the item immediately by warping to the retainer. Yes it requires a few more seconds. So?

It also takes out pretty much any reason to go window shopping, because anybody with a brain (or without 30 minutes plus to try to find a few items) would use the buy it now function, thus negating the need for retainers in this system at all.

I agree, most people will buy from the menu but that doesn't mean that everyone will all the time. Options, it's about options.

They would only serve to limit the sellers, and waste people's time by forcing us to set up the retainer in a ward, and go back and check it whenever we want money, or to exchange items with it.

Ok, so lets say SE separates item storage from buying and selling, but then we have to create a place to store items which you still have to go visit and give items to. No time saved either way in the end.

This could all be handled by an auction house NPC instead, so the process of buying and selling would be streamlined. The Wards would just be there for anyone else who really wants to use them (or if there were items that could only be sold on characters/retainers, they'd be sold here, like XI's RBF).

I think i've addressed this, fix the search and allow people to buy from the menu. How much more streamlined can you get? The option for a time delay for receiving items bought in that way was a suggestion, not really one that I'm tied to for any particular reason, it's intended to create incentive to use the retainers. An alternative incentive would be a higher delivery fee.

[Tsuga]

I'm going to reply to each of these points so bear with me...


Yes, and so does the AH as implemented in XI in that only 7 items could be sold by a single player at any given time.

My problem with limiting us to retainers, is that retainers are limited to wards, and wards are limited to a certain number of retainers, and retainers are taxed if they aren't in the right ward for some of their wares. So basically the sellers are getting completely screwed by this deal, when they could have an auction window without ANY of these limits.

You'd have the option to pick up the item immediately by warping to the retainer. Yes it requires a few more seconds. So?

Why have that extra step? What purpose does it serve? How does it improve anything? It's inefficient.

I agree, most people will buy from the menu but that doesn't mean that everyone will all the time. Options, it's about options.

Exactly, I'd like the option to not ever step foot into the godawful wards ever again, on the buying AND the selling end of things (I craft y'know, but I can never sell my crap thanks to the wards!).

Ok, so lets say SE separates item storage from buying and selling, but then we have to create a place to store items which you still have to go visit and give items to. No time saved either way in the end.

We have a place to store our items. It's the retainers. I use the bells to access my retainers because I can never set them up in the wards, and that's convenient. But when I DID have them set up in the wards, I'd have to open my menu, figure out what ward they're in, and then warp to it, otherwise I'd lose my spot. Why should I have to go through all of those steps to access my storage? There is no merit to it.

I think i've addressed this, fix the search and allow people to buy from the menu. How much more streamlined can you get? The option for a time delay for receiving items bought in that way was a suggestion, not really one that I'm tied to for any particular reason, it's intended to create incentive to use the retainers. An alternative incentive would be a higher delivery fee.

If that was all it was, I'd be fine. But in your suggested solution, you're undermining the retainer system, and the wards - to which I ask: Why keep them in this system at all?

Yet another 100+ posts and still no comment from SE.

Yup, and I'm gonna keep on pushing this until SE puts it back on their forecast for the upcoming patches.

[Molly_Millions]

Hang on, you never sell anything, but you never set your retainers up in the wards. I think we found your problem with the wards.

I'm done here.