Retainer upgrades, Market improvements, and World Market instead of AH

[Fieros]

1) If airships are added, the distance between cities becomes normalized. The current dynamic of Ul'dah being favored because it is in the center of the linear path becomes diminished. Hopefully this will reduce the 'over-centralization' of a single city like Ishgard. Agreed

2) The locations of the crafting guilds in various cities (and presumably NOT Ishgard) promotes crafting of the appropriate types within the correct cities. I suspect that as time goes by, more of the more advanced recipes (darksteel, anyone?) will require tier 3 facilities, thus requiring crafting within the appropriate city. This effectively creates more demand for certain products within those cities. Agreed. My thinking with the tax system revolved around this fact. I wanted to discourage players from selling items already available in the cities with crafting guilds.

Ex: If Buffalo Leather Spetch is sold at the Leatherworking guild in Gridania for 1600gil, I wanted traders to rent stands in Ul'dah or Limsa Lominsa if they wanted to deal in Buffalo Leather Spetch. That way the item is available on the local markets with no mark-up, as well as the World Market with buyers paying extra tax to balance the convienence- and players in Gridania would only buy the Buffalo Leather Spetch from the player economy if the free market had driven prices below the NPC price in the guild.

If retainers could more easily be placed within the market area of your city of choice WITHOUT the need to travel there (see previous suggestion for NPC linkshells for retainers), supply could be made to more easily match demand.Ok, wow. Your last suggestion about retainer linkpearl just hit my like a ton of bricks.

c) Still later, allow direction of retainer to a specific Market Area without having to "hold their hand".

YES!

3) There are high-level areas all four 'citified' zone. Coerthas stands out simply because it is missing the lower level content (monsters starting around rank 20ish), and gathering nodes of only grade 4 and 5. Heck, there are rank 65 sundrakes practically within walking distance of Ul'dah. Hopefully these high level areas will have high-rank content to go with them, and so this content will be well distributed throughout the continent. Agreed. All I could add to this point is a quote taken out of Letter from the Producer V

The people have spoken. As such, we'll be operating under the premise that new PvE content, such as dungeons containing sought-after loot, will be instanced. By instancing content in this way, we'll be able to reduce claim wars and counter-camping and all that. There's also the added merit of enabling the level design team to work with a clear theme in mind, and create much more engaging and challenging content.

4) Grand Companies will be present in at least the three cities of Gridania, Limsa Lominsa and Ul'dah (listed in order of my personal preference ^_^), but may not be present in Ishgard. Perhaps some other mechanic will take place here, since there seems to be a more 'warlike' vibe to Ishgard, as well as the small keeps surrounding it. Activity around the Grand Companies will draw people to various cities, thus upping demand in those cities. Another quote from Letter from the Producer V

Also, the solo play response for farming/gathering is extremely valuable feedback for the dev team, and I’m thinking that this is something we can tie into the in-game companies we have planned!

Well do I understand your intention. ^_^ I know a lot the ideas I've had, well ... end up with dire consequences or exploits that I hadn't originally intended. So, I'll poke around at your idea and see if we can't find weaknesses and ways to patch them up. I think that is a good concept, that if well-implemented could obviate the need for a global high-end auction house as I've proposed.

I don't think my suggestions cover the sale of high-end merchandise anywhere close to the true Auction House you proposed. I would love to see that type of AH in FFXIV.

In any event, most any item a player could want could be made available via a world market stall. If pretty much all items are available via this method, and all can be searched and purchased from via a single NPC, there would be no viable reason to place items on retainers standing in a market ward.

I could see this scenario as spelling the demise of the current market area system.

Hmmm, I see what you mean. My reasoning was that those who weren't interested in upgrading their retainers beyond increased storage (due to gil shortage, or general disinterest in playing the role of trader) could go on with business as usual not renting market stands, and selling whatever items they aquired while adventuring in the local markets. Once players purchased/quested to upgrade their retainer and were able to sell on the World Market- I think you are right- they would continue to rent stands. I saw it as somewhat of a mid-game goal for players interested in trading.

Ex: You are in Ul'dah and want to buy 20 Willow Logs to break cut into lumber and grind up your carpentry by pumping out 80 masks. You first check the World Market and find the cheapest listing is for 2000gil each. Coincidentally, the retainer selling those logs is located in Ul'dah (since selling logs on the World Market from Gridania would impose an additional tax the player would likely chose to set up shop in Ul'dah or Limsa Lominsa) and to avoid paying the convienence fee associated with using the instant delivery World Market, you instead use the existing item search. Since you already know which retainer you want to purchase from, you mark only that specific retainer and travel directly to the appropriate Ward.

So, what could correct this, and allow world markets without wrecking our current quaint system? Here are some incoherent (and likely ill-thought out) ideas.

a) Delay world market until the mail system is implemented. The seller only sends purchases via Ultra-Super-Saver shipping (i.e. Sick Chocobo), which requires a 1 hour delivery time.I purposely left out needing a mail system because I figured if they wanted one it would exist already (or at least been mentioned as something they are considering). But of course a mail system would work too.

b) Tax rate of 25% for items on the world market. Sure, you may have global presence, but can you stomach the costs of all that advertising?This was closer to the figure I first had in mind of 20%, but I settled on the more palatable 10% before originally posting. I wouldn't mind 25%

c) Items from such a long distance away are occasionally stolen by bandits during delivery. Nothing beats the assurance of receiving goods directly from the hand of the retainer.LOL

d) The shipping department occasionally mixes up the order and sends the wrong item. Within the box is a black pudding. It attacks.Yikes!

e) World Markets are only available during certain times (maybe one hour per Eorzean day). All other times show advertisements for the amazing ginsoo knife (watch it cut through this tin can!).Hmmm, maybe. But one thing that always pissed me off from XI was the guilds only being open during certain hours of certain days. Seemed I was never able to use them.

At least on my server, most of the players have migrated to Uldah. LL is relatively empty, and Grid is nearly a ghost town.

Same.

need to spend the 10 mill i have some wheir.

Yeah, definately. Gil sinks and an AH dealing in high-end merchandise, such as Ami's suggestion, would be great for end-game players sitting on fat nest eggs.