Market Wards, enough is enough

[Akuun]

Rest assured that the team is in the process on stabilizing and improving the current retainer system. Something that I want everyone to keep in mind is that even if we simply changed the current system over to an auction house, that doesn’t mean it would solve all of our problems overnight. There are more things that would still need to be adjusted if that were to happen. As such we aren't currently planning on switching over to an auction house system as of yet.

If Yoshi-P really wants to make that system work, then they will need to create retainer models, ones that are much lower poly counts than the player models currently used. Displaying all those high poly models is very tasking on any system.

Also another thing that would help is removing retainers once they have run out of items to sell, unless they are renting a booth (that would only be fair).

My honest opinion of the market is it's unstable, over crowded, very tasking on clients/server, it looks horrid and not even one bit like a market. and I think it would probably be better to replace it with something like the Ul'dah market strips with open sky, and have NPCs sell for players on commission (not retainers). With these changes it might even be possible to have npcs that walk around shopping (adjusted by number of players in the ward) which would give atmosphere and make the game feel a little more alive (seriously, the game feels pretty dead in towns, npcs wandering around going about daily tasks adds a nice feel)

[Elexia]

Also, lol@people still thinking an AH is an instant fix.

[Jinko]

Agree with the OP enough is enough, time to call its death and replace it with an AH.

Funny thing is they keep saying its being considered but I get the feeling its actually not, its just them biding their time until they can fix the existing one.

I wish they would just come out and say yes we have decided to add an AH.

You don't even have to give us a date just tell us that one is in the works.

[TheVedis]

Agree with the OP enough is enough, time to call its death and replace it with an AH.

Funny thing is they keep saying its being considered but I get the feeling its actually not, its just them biding their time until they can fix the existing one.

I wish they would just come out and say yes we have decided to add an AH.

You don't even have to give us a date just tell us that one is in the works.

lol you obviously didnt read the dev post that resurected this thread 5 minutes ago

[Jinko]

lol you obviously didnt read the dev post that resurected this thread 5 minutes ago

Actually I did and I understood every word of it, it basically says yes we realise there is an issue we are working to fix it.

AH is still not planned any time soon. (not that they would tell us if it was)

It still doesn't change the fact that I hate the market wards and think it is a failed attempt at bettering an AH.

[Holy_Dragoon]

I'm quite happy the team is working to keep the Market Ward. It's something different. Good Different.

[Dreadnought]

i think its fine that they want to keep and improve retainers
but i have to see anyone answer the one big question
what would actually happen if this game grew to 500,000+ players, at least half using those retainers..... would you just keep adding more and more wards?
an AH UI itself seems to be so much easier for a developer to manipulate than having to deal with market wards from the very start!

[Cairdeas]

i think its fine that they want to keep and improve retainers
but i have to see anyone answer the one big question
what would actually happen if this game grew to 500,000+ players, at least half using those retainers..... would you just keep adding more and more wards?
an AH UI itself seems to be so much easier for a developer to manipulate than having to deal with market wards from the very start!

I've already explained how they could implement a Market UI in a central location, keep the market wards and the features that retainers offer.

Market Wards Stay intact. When you visit your retainer in any place they offer you a search interface. In the search interface you can search for a specific item. It populates a list of the cheapest 10-20 on sale with the retainers name listed and the price. You click on the one you want to buy, it brings up the list of inventory for that retainer so you can have the option of window shopping. You pick out the item you want to buy and instantly buy it. Then depending on where the item is.

A. You are given it directly if its in the same city.
B. You are given the choice to have it delivered to your retainer over Time for free (1 hour wait) if its in another city.
C. You can pay to have a delivery expedited (Cost a tax).

Afterwards you pick up the item and go about your merry way.

[Anty]

i think its fine that they want to keep and improve retainers
but i have to see anyone answer the one big question
what would actually happen if this game grew to 500,000+ players, at least half using those retainers..... would you just keep adding more and more wards?
an AH UI itself seems to be so much easier for a developer to manipulate than having to deal with market wards from the very start!

i was thinking about the same issue. and i think that will be the time when they will have to implement an AH.
Having every player X 2 as a rendered character (retainer) in the wards just doenst make sense at all. And especially not considering the engine cant even handle more then a hand full of npcs/pcs at a time anyways.

i hope they having good solutions towards a system that can be reached no matter in which city you are since that makes it really annoying and people will always stay in one city where everything happens. An all-over AH would be a good solution. That's why they implemented it in ffxi. Very late but they did it.

[Rizon]

i think its fine that they want to keep and improve retainers
but i have to see anyone answer the one big question
what would actually happen if this game grew to 500,000+ players, at least half using those retainers..... would you just keep adding more and more wards?
an AH UI itself seems to be so much easier for a developer to manipulate than having to deal with market wards from the very start!

What you would have is people having to purchase Mules which would require you to log out of 1 character and on to another in order to have items we want in storage sent to us through some sort of delivery system which we would have to sift through upon our return. Highly inefficient.