Retainer Reference System to replace the Market Wards.

[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.