Auction Houses vs. Market Wards

[Alhanelem]

All they do is add server clutter and make the zone lag.

actually, they do neither. I don't lag at all in the market wards, and the wards are on their own servers- they don't clutter anything.

but they should really streamline the MW before thinking of doing some sort of interesting hybrid.

That's basically what they're doing. Some things we already know:

-The three cities' wards will be truly integrated, you can search for items from one place regardless of where you are.
- The markets will be accessible directly instead of walking up to a nondescript zone line and picking from a menu.
- You will be able to seperately search for materia-enhanced and +1 items.

[Shougun]

actually, they do neither. I don't lag at all in the market wards, and the wards are on their own servers- they don't clutter anything.

That's basically what they're doing. Some things we already know:

-The three cities' wards will be truly integrated, you can search for items from one place regardless of where you are.
- The markets will be accessible directly instead of walking up to a nondescript zone line and picking from a menu.
- You will be able to seperately search for materia-enhanced and +1 items.

Actually -_-

- Its a whole unimmersive cluster F*ck that takes up server processing power
- I do lag, glad you don't (are your settings turned down? or a beast computer >.> its like 60 guys loading at once (its not really "lag" as much as it is ugly ass popping in of characters and out))



And I know of all those points you mentioned. If its not obvious, I frequent here on the forums.. lol

[Alhanelem]

- Its a whole unimmersive cluster F*ck that takes up server processing power

They don't take up the "server power" you think they do. Retainers are just a bunch of numbers, bits and bytes. The server doesn't have to render the characters and retainers themselves, only their locations. An auction house is also on its own server machine, because it is something constantly used by many players and requires a lot of resources- this is not different because of retainers.

The market wards are on their own server machine. Each "world" or "server" we call it is actually made up of several machines. Nothing that happens in the wards affects any other part of the game.

Any "lag" you are experiencing is not really lag at all, but rather low frame rate- something that will be addressed in 2.0 with its more efficient rendering engine. This is a pet peeve of mine- low frame rate is not "lag." When your frame rate drops, the game doesn't slow down (It can't, since it's an online game)- it drops frames. Lag is a delay in response- only a network problem can do this.

[Shougun]

They don't take up the "server power" you think they do. Retainers are just a bunch of numbers, bits and bytes. The server doesn't have to render the characters and retainers themselves, only their locations.

The market wards are on their own server machine. Each "world" or "server" we call it is actually made up of several machines. Nothing that happens in the wards affects any other part of the game.

Any "lag" you are experiencing is not lag at all, but rather low frame rate- something that will be addressed in 2.0 with its more efficient rendering engine.

Every time someone wants to purchase something they enter the market - a whole swath of retainers are pooled.

I know the server doesnt render shit -_- thats obvious.

And the wards crashing all the time because people are pooling all the items stored in the server, and also the characters in that that server. Rather inefficient, it would be worth it if it added immersion.

But as i said, retainers is a nasty cluster its is so ugly to look at. Random angles and lines of people with empty side shops because of server limitations, its like a riot and less like a market. This is the major reason why I think retainers are useless. It just makes the markets look stupid and you have to walk through the stupid to sell anything. (There are things they can do to tidy up and make the market seem more like a market though, so its not a hopeless case).

Perhaps the lag will be fixed, I look forward to that. Also look forward to being able to set up more players so there isnt as much ugly chunk popping when lots of players are around.

[Newton]

I said it before and I'll say it again. Market wards = 10 clicks just get put an item for sell:

-Click on menu to go into the market wards
-Choose which market ward your retainer is (if both your retainers are in the same ward, then good for you) if not you have to repeat this step to go to another ward were your 2nd retainer is.
-Wait for loading
-Click on retainer
-Click on exchange items
-Click on item you want to transfer from your inventory to the retainer inventory
-Get out of the exchange menu
-Now click on check bazaar menu
-Scroll through inventory to find item
-Click on item
-Click on quantity of items you want to sell
-Click on price you want to sell item for
-Click submit

AH = about 5 at most, if not less steps, to sell an item.

and to add insult to injury...

To check price trends so you know what price you will have to use to sell an item = a trip back and forward from market ward door to your retainer. AH = 1 window to see everything.

well put. a simplified approach would be better in my opinion. not a long list of menus go thru before you can actually get anything done.

[Alhanelem]

Every time someone wants to purchase something they enter the market - a whole swath of retainers are pooled.

Every time someone wants to purhcase something they access the auction house - a whole swath of goods in a database are pooled.

Again- the retainers, on the server side, are little more than a bunch of data entries tied to a name and XY coordnates. The server overhead is not substantially different, and even if it was, the sever load is isolated- it has no impact on anything other than itself, because the markets are handled by a server node that handles nothing else.

well put. a simplified approach would be better in my opinion. not a long list of menus go thru before you can actually get anything done.

It is, but it is not really hard to address. They've condensed and streamlined a lot of menus and windows, and they're continuing to do so for 2.0- we're just not seeing it here because they're working on the new version instead of updating the old one.

AH = 1 window to see everything.

This doesn't have to be just an "AH" feature. There's no reason they can't also do it for the markets, while retaining all the unique features markets have that an AH doesn't, like the ability to request to buy items instead of just sell them, seek repairs while offline/away, and store items and money independent of your desire to sell or buy. I in fact already described how they can make the selling process much simpler without rebuilding a new system from scratch.

[IBloodmoon]

Guess you didn't see the other 28 threads on this exact same subject. I think we can all agree that no one is changing their mind at this point.

[Biggs]

Explain how this could not have just been part of one of the 1000's of ongoing threads this topic has already spawned.....

We get it, the market wards suck. Suck it up for 18 more days.

[Felis]

We get it, the market wards 1.0 suck. Suck it up for 18 more days.

Fixed it a bit ^^

[Hanabira]

sorry but bidding is a stupid system. i like that the prices are visible because undercutting is more obvious.. and price hikers are also more obvious. the retainers serve a purpose to me, i like to be able to identify people who constantly flood markets, but without being able to track their character.. unless im really pissed off and sit there and camp the retainer, which i may or may not have tried once. we can all agree that the market wards need alot of improvement, but a blind bidding war isnt the answer

Who remembers this?:

hmm last 10 of this item sold for 100k... theres 1 left.
Bid: 95k ... fail (ok np)
Bid: 100k .....fail (...umm ok)
Bid: 105k .....fail ( >.>)
Bid: 115k ......fail (son of a bi...)
Bid: 130k .....fail (F*** YOU!)