Stop "fixing" the MW scrap it

[Chezen]

Running around all the wards is a huge pain when you have to replace an entire set of equipment while buying food and repair mats. Instead of searching and buying everything from one window I have to search > run to NPC > buy item > search again > change ward > run to NPC > buy item > repeat 10x.

I understand your point here. To me this is fun, but I fully understand not everyone likes to shop. My husband hates it.

I still believe however, that better features could be installed to make things a bit more organized without scrapping the wards altogether. Some have suggested a direct-buy window, and I don't think it's a bad idea. Then those who just want to get their stuff can get it, and those who want to browse can browse.

I would personally add a higher tax for the convenience (game needs more gil-sinks anyway).

[Renshi]

Have you ever played any other MMO before? Running around all the wards is a huge pain when you have to replace an entire set of equipment while buying food and repair mats. Instead of searching and buying everything from one window I have to search > run to NPC > buy item > search again > change ward > run to NPC > buy item > repeat 10x. Do people really have to defend every stupid feature in this game just because it's different? This isn't immersion it's just tedious and unnecessary. Immersion is me negotiating bazaar prices with an actual player and HEY that's already in the game and doesn't need to be changed, but when I want to quickly buy an entire set of gear for a new class I don't want to spend 20 minutes doing what takes 2 minutes in ANY OTHER GAME.

Well yeah, I've played Aion WoW and Prius Online (JP). They have an Auction House.
Now I'm playing Final Fantasy XIV. It has a Market Ward.

It may not give Immersion and ***, but do I look like I care? It's just about common sense. We have a Market Ward system, and we should better it if we have it, not just scrap it and substitute it with an Auction House. It would be stupid to scrap something if they don't work it on its extent, right?

[Kilta_Firelotus]

SE truly believe the MW can work but they are wrong. They are wasting time and energy to fix it just because they want to be "different" and that's so stupid in so many ways, SE had an AH in FFXI and that was before WOW. So why try to be different and refuse to use a feature that you were one of the first to use?

Because ffxi AH was crap? And WoW had you run and click more menus? Really... you guys think back to AH's with rose colored glasses and fail to understand how long it really took you to buy an item on said AH's. The real argument isn't how AH are better it is players not enjoying walking to get ab item. They want it istant. But funny thing no AH i played was instant. Not even ffxi... placing a correct bid was not always quick. With MW there is no guessing or clicking through mail. Just search, click the item, zone into that ward and find the retainer using the pink star and blip on the map. The zone only takes 1 min to go from 1 door to the other side.

[Kilta_Firelotus]

I understand your point here. To me this is fun, but I fully understand not everyone likes to shop. My husband hates it.

I still believe however, that better features could be installed to make things a bit more organized without scrapping the wards altogether. Some have suggested a direct-buy window, and I don't think it's a bad idea. Then those who just want to get their stuff can get it, and those who want to browse can browse.

I would personally add a higher tax for the convenience (game needs more gil-sinks anyway).

If the do add a quick buy then the MW would be faster then an AH. since we would get it right there not go through biding or running to a mail box clicking the mail and accepting the item.

[Viridiana]

I do know what I'm looking for when I use it. It is finding the item cheaply, waiting for the item to be in your mail box. And then running to a mail box. No one can fail at using an AH they are not hard to use. Niether in the MW. And there is no difference in time. Or MH is faster. takes me 5 min to fully gear in ffxiv, 20-30 in WoW, due to ah congestion causing menu to lag, plus looking for the best price and finding and loading up the main box clicking on the main THEN accepting your item you use more menus in WoW for 1 item then u do in ffxiv. ffxi can take me 30 min due to bids not being sucessful and finding out the item is 30K more then what was last sold on the list. And you go through as much menus as you do the MW.

From memory, not having played WoW in ages:

Click the NPC, type what you're searching for, pretty sure you can sort by price, click "buy now", hit ESC a few times, run to mailbox, open mail, take out item. This should only take 2-3 minutes.

For XIV, same item (we'll say Tin Ore, as it's in both games):

Open search menu, click Masons Ward, click Ore, click Tin Ore, note what ward the cheapest retainer's in, click "search for retainers selling this", ESC out, click "Market Wards", click on the right ward, wait for loading screen, find the retainer, double-click the retainer, find the ore on their list, click on the ore, click the numbers for however many you want to buy, click okay.

I'm not sure how you can claim that the second option is faster.

ETA: forgot to include some of the steps in XIV

[Verecund]

It's bad enough that wards are already hitting the retainer cap with so few people actually playing this game, but factor in their flawed "tax" philosophy and the result is players being inadvertently punished for no real reason. While I think applying a general tax to sales promotes effective and thoughtful practice, SE's altered approach actually diminishes this effect... it essentially results in everything amounting to a "penalty" because too many seldom-used NPCs are sitting in your ward.

[Reinheart]

I like the concept of retainers selling your stuff to give the feel like it's market... but honestly the MW is total bull s***
Even with the search function you still have to run up to the char selling the item and buy it then search for next stuff then go to that area then run and buy again. Like everything else... they are doing it wrong! I'm not saying get rid of the idea, probably can work off of it to make better, but for god sakes listen to the players... most hate the MW... retainers fine, bazaar fine. Running areas that's exact same, looking at mannequins (retainers) is stupid.

In real world market I would think of system more like one NPC (couple to control crowd) who is the main contact guy for example only weapons (category)

You talk to the NPC he gives you list of items being sold within that category sold by other retainers. He's like the representative.

Something like that for each category and just make 1 market area with these NPC Reps for each category, that way it looks like actual market selling different stuff in one strip of area. Add ghost NPC, Retainers in the back waiving, using arm motions to make look like "Hey come here and buy my stuff"

Controls all the retainer data with few NPC reps, don't have to run to every damn MW to look for each category... it's like AH without the Auction system but divided into categories through different NPC...

But all in all.. why the hell is devs working on this right now, should be concentrating on more important issues first...

[Alhanelem]

If you can't find what you're looking for in the current state of the wards, you're doing something wrong. The search funciton brings enough AH-like functionality that you can find what you want in a reasonable time (I don't see how it could possibly take you more than the 2-3 minutes cited for WoW) and those that enjoy shopping or whatever can still get their experience.

All that is really needed is to make larger ward areas and have the same wards that are accessed regardless of city. Then all the goods will be in one place and people won't miss things that were put up for sale in another city. FFXI had its auction houses unified, the FFXIV market wards should be unified too.

[Demacia]

From memory, not having played WoW in ages:

Click the NPC, type what you're searching for, pretty sure you can sort by price, click "buy now", hit ESC a few times, run to mailbox, open mail, take out item. This should only take 2-3 minutes.

For XIV, same item (we'll say Tin Ore, as it's in both games):

Open search menu, click Masons Ward, click Ore, click Tin Ore, note what ward the cheapest retainer's in, click "search for retainers selling this", ESC out, click "Market Wards", click on the right ward, wait for loading screen, find the retainer, double-click the retainer, find the ore on their list, click on the ore, click the numbers for however many you want to buy, click okay.

I'm not sure how you can claim that the second option is faster.

ETA: forgot to include some of the steps in XIV

Don't even bother man. Some posts you just have to let slide.

Well yeah, I've played Aion WoW and Prius Online (JP). They have an Auction House.
Now I'm playing Final Fantasy XIV. It has a Market Ward.

It may not give Immersion and sh*t, but do I look like I care? It's just about common sense. We have a Market Ward system, and we should better it if we have it, not just scrap it and substitute it with an Auction House. It would be stupid to scrap something if they don't work it on its extent, right?

Common sense was thrown completely out the window when this game was designed. You know what's stupid? Continuing to polish something that's fundamentally flawed instead of replacing it with something that works. I don't care if they make it convenient and continue to call it Market Wards as long as the process of having to travel to different wards and NPCs is COMPLETELY eliminated in favor of convenience. The immersion bit was in response to someone else so please try to read the thread before coming at me like that.

[Eldaena]

Maybe they could add a buy feature from the search menu, but there is a tax for not going to the retainer. Since you would be outside, it could be like a shipping tax. =p I'm sure most people would tolerate this just to buy from the menu as well as it would be a small gil sink.

Other than that, I wish there was just a few other things in the marketwards to make them better:

1) Being able to view what players are buying as well as selling. It would make a good flow for gatherers and crafters to be able to sell off their bounty or craft something for a bit of gil.

2) I think there should also be a tab for buying and a tab for selling on each retainer and player, so we can be actively buying and selling 10 different items on each tab.

3) And lastly, I wish you could put up more than what you own for buying. Example: if I have 1 blacklip oyster, but want to buy up to 99, I should be able to put it up that I want to buy 99 if I want...or maybe an infinity option until the gil on the retainer runs out.

Just some ideas. I think the market wards could also have an AH on top of it with bidding and such going on. An ebay like market would be really nice. And just like ebay, if you like a seller you could go to their (retainer) and see what else they might be selling (or buying). I think it could be an ideal situation for all. But I'm not interested in a price history of any kind. =p


Edit: Also, as far as tabs go, I think it should allow 1 tab for selling, 1 tab for buying, 1 tab for repairs, etc. Each action you can do in your bazaar I think should be split up into several tabs. It's a headache trying to take down items to get gear repaired and such so this could be a betters solution.

These are also just fundamental ideas and not ascetic ones. I would love things like more interesting wards and retainers, but I'm trying to be realistic. Besides, if they allowed people to buy from the search menu, not many people would be zoning anymore.