Retainer Reference System to replace the Market Wards.

[ScoutX]

I have similar ideas, that makes the retainer system even more worthwhile than AH:
First of all there should be remote interactions with a retainer via pearl. Logically we can't give an item, but we can see what this retainer have and most important, we could manage the markets from everywhere. Lets say we have a high demand item to sell and we have a lot of stacks too. What do you do? Staying near the wards at the current system. With remote, you don't. So Ul'dah isn't be needed. You can craft and idle in Gridania and your items get sold in Ul'dah.
Second idea. Retainer need a licence for market wards. A merchant license is only loan. So if a character quits, the merchant license is over after a month. SE could set the license prices very low, because it's only a way to get rid of old retainers in the wards. It's an very easy way.
Set NPCs at every city, which represents the markes of the other cities. I really like the idea of 3 different markets. It worked very well in FFXI. And i think if the server population grows, characters will be set at other cities again. Why not?
The NPCs only reflect as a representative. Although you can't buy, you know there is this item in Gridania. One step further this NPCs could also buy for you for a fee e.g 15% and send it to you. Must be worthwhile to go to the city yourself.

Because there is no Moogle magic, those representatives could be a replacement of a Send menue. Although i think a home would be much better to send the items. I want to craft my own bed again ^^ and i want a way to send items. I don't need an AH, which seems to be uselees in many points anyways.
The most important part: I can finally buy HQ items and materials . With the old AH FFXI system they were all bought in an instant and tossed buy GRMTs and we were forced to look at the characters outside of Jeuno to buy incredible overpriced items. Because this system need a bit of time, RMTs don't do this as often. I think the retainer system gives more players a fair chance to buy items at reasonable prices.

[Roaran]

Thanks for your input ScoutX, I'm still mainly looking at the fundamentals of the market wards & retainers themselves. But you did bring up some points:

remote interactions with a retainer via pearl

If you can direct your retainer's actions from afar and place them in other cities, you run the risk of enhancing a single dominant market. Example: A player in Limsa Lominsa is mining valuable ore. Rather than travel to Ul'dah to sell the ore, the player can simply call his retainer in Limsa and send the items over to Ul'dah. Because players must still purchase directly from the appropriate market wards, players will still likely coalesce in one city state. The only difference is, there are an equal or greater number of retainers in that same market ward and less items are being sold at the other city-states.

Not that I'm against having more accessibility for retainers; linkpearls would certainly be a logical explanation for remote direction, but until the underlying problems are fixed, all the additions will make an eventual overhaul potentially more complicated.

Retainer need a licence for market wards

Also I am fairly certain retainers dissapear after a few days? I'm also not sure a significant # of retainers are from players not playing anymore, especially with all the market crashes.

[Viridiana]

Don't believe they do disappear, at the moment. And recent patches have stabilized the ward servers enough that I haven't seen them crash in weeks. . .

[Roaran]

I'm really interested in suggestions to simplify the steps needed to buy & sell items, and to help promote market activity in other city-states. If you have any ideas, please share them.

[Eldaena]

I think there should at least be three wards. 1 for buying items, 1 for viewing items retainers are seeking, and 1 for repairing. Then npcs in each of those wards to assist with each category. (Maybe consistent tabs on retainers for these categories too. So we can sell, seek, and repair up to 10 slots worth on each.)

[Roaran]

With a reference system, rather than having separate wards, you could have a Repair NPC a Seeking NPC and a Selling NPC. With each NPC you could summon others' retainers to you and repair, buy, or sell items without having to travel to specific wards.

Each NPC would have a search feature, allowing Blacksmiths to search out specific item types to repair for example. And also allow people to search for what other players are looking to buy.

Edit: Although I would rather have a single NPC handling everything through a menu.

[Colt47]

That actually doesn't sound like a bad idea on paper. Combining this system with a more traditional auction house search function would make utilizing the current retainer system a much more strait forward affair. The only thing that sounds like a problem is the summoning portion. Summoning and dismissing retainers could clutter up the hub more than it needs to be and make exchanges that much more difficult to complete.

A good twist on this would be to have a UI pop up and allow the player to interact with some kind of NPC organizer. The player finds what he is looking for in the search option, the NPC organizer goes off to call up the seller, and then brings the seller to the selling window where the player would interact with him. This will help keep the exchange area a bit cleaner and still provide the same service, since the NPC isn't really being summoned to the zone, but rather to the individual players UI window. It also helps prevent having several duplicate retainers out at once, unless we all want to believe the retainers have learned how to clone themselves spontaneously...

Actually, self cloning retainers sounds awsome. We need more self cloning helpers.

[Roaran]

The only thing that sounds like a problem is the summoning portion. Summoning and dismissing retainers could clutter up the hub more than it needs to be and make exchanges that much more difficult to complete.

Well, I was thinking it would work nearly identical to the Retainer Bell. You simply summon a retainer and interact with it, yet no other player can see the retainer you're interacting with. So, while you would have many players at the hub, you would not be seeing each player summoning and interacting with the retainers; also, like the Retainer Bell, once you've made your decision you would then automatically begin interacting with the retainer, no need to target it amongst all the players. I don't mind that the Retainer be behind the counter or in a window, but it would be nice to have some visual interaction with other players' retainers still.

[BlaiseLallaise]

Necro-bump, for great justice!

Also, add me to the list of people who had a similar idea without finding this thread earlier. In fact, I thought of something almost identical, with a few specifics.

1. My idea used the "multiple NPCs hosting different items" method to give it more of a market feel, and less of a pawn shop feel.

2. Instead of summoning the retainer to you for purchasing, my idea used a "buy from NPC" method. One can simply think of putting an item in a retainer's bazaar as a way of saying "Go take this to the wards for me."

Other than that, I thought up the exact same idea as you...only not as soon. I believe this is exactly the direction that the Market Wards needs to go. It has the Market Ward feel, including the use of a retainer as a sales liaison, but is more like a cleverly-masked set of mini auction houses. Brilliant.

[Roaran]

I have to say Blaise, you captured both the details and the spirit of the idea accurately.

1. My idea used the "multiple NPCs hosting different items" method to give it more of a market feel, and less of a pawn shop feel.

2. Instead of summoning the retainer to you for purchasing, my idea used a "buy from NPC" method. One can simply think of putting an item in a retainer's bazaar as a way of saying "Go take this to the wards for me."

I think this is a perfectly good implementation and,

the use of a retainer as a sales liaison

is exactly what I had in mind.

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I'm not very particular about the various methods used to accomplish the reference system, but there are a few parts that I think are absolutely necessary

1. That retainer's all retainers with items in their bazaar be available for reference.
2. That the number of 'market zones' be reduced to one.
3. That, from this zone, players are able to find and purchase items without having to travel.

Whether or not the markets be linked, I don't much mind after we have chocobos and airships. It would be even interesting if players became merchants and began, for example, buying Iron Ore in Ul'dah to sell to Blacksmiths in Limsa. I also don't much mind how the item is exactly purchased, whether it is after summoning the retainer itself or simply purchasing from an NPC.

What is absolutely important, is that players need only place items in their Retainer's bazaar and dismiss them and their items be available to the city in which they wish to sell. (You could even pay a small fee, 1,000gil for example, to have the retainer travel to another city.)

Anyways, my point is... people have been asking for an Auction house for some time now. The market wards are overly convoluted and have their own inherent problems. But, this reference system is the middleground. Combining the best of the AH, and the best of the market wards.

Also, I might redraft the OP, to add all the important points that have been made thus far, outline the basic barebones of the system, and give some reason why this is far superior to any other system we will likely see.

Edit: I think rather than redrafting, I'll make a diary post that both outlines it and use some pictures to lay out how it would work.

Just added the diary post.