Constructive Market Ward solution...

[Rydin]

Here is an idea for the Market Wards that I feel is a good compromise for a lot of people...
Sure, some will hate it....
C'est la vie!!!!

ok... You do your item search for "Item X"
It is available...

You can purchase it directly from the counter and it goes into your retainers inventory

or

You can purchase it the old way by going to the correct retainer and getting it yourself
In which case it goes into your inventory, like normal

That way, if you are buying multiple items, you can do it all from the counter and then just retrieve it from your retainer
Think of it like sending your retainer to go pick up your supplies... makes sense within the context of what a retainer is. Less running for players but keeps the hands on approach of having actual retainers selling stuff

If you like to go physically browse retainers, then by all means you most certainly can

[Demacia]

Give me a player HOUSE, let me purchase it directly from the search window and have it sent to my player HOUSE through a DELIVERY SYSTEM and you got yourself a deal. Also let me sell things without having to ever visit my retainer.

This is simply a compromise since I would much rather just buy something from the search window and have it transferred to my inventory. Like they do in a certain game.

[Rydin]

Give me a player HOUSE, let me purchase it directly from the search window and have it sent to my player HOUSE through a DELIVERY SYSTEM and you got yourself a deal. Also let me sell things without having to ever visit my retainer.

I'd like that a lot... I see it taking longer to implement... but that would be very nice

[Gundammeister]

Here is an idea for the Market Wards that I feel is a good compromise for a lot of people...
Sure, some will hate it....
C'est la vie!!!!

ok... You do your item search for "Item X"
It is available...

You can purchase it directly from the counter and it goes into your retainers inventory

or

You can purchase it the old way by going to the correct retainer and getting it yourself
In which case it goes into your inventory, like normal

That way, if you are buying multiple items, you can do it all from the counter and then just retrieve it from your retainer
Think of it like sending your retainer to go pick up your supplies... makes sense within the context of what a retainer is. Less running for players but keeps the hands on approach of having actual retainers selling stuff

If you like to go physically browse retainers, then by all means you most certainly can

Thoughtful solution and a good compromise. I like the post!

[Renshi]

Heya!

I really like those two ideas, as they would solve problems of annoyingness with some players. I can see them live together as alternatives.

1. Purchase something with the Retainer's money. If its inventory is full then it will show that it's not possible.

2. Select the Retainer in the list of the Item Search and port (INTERACTIVE CHOICE!) Into its Ward ・Before its feet

I like this very much, and I can see this ideas seeing the light of the day!

See ya!

[Gundammeister]

Yeah. It's nice to see something constructive that actually has other players in mind, rather than the, "this suits me best so it's the best solution" mindset.

[Chezen]

Well, I just posted something similiar to this, only I suggested a tax for the convenience, which to me is realistic and adds a gil-sink to the game.

However, it's hard to know what repercussions that idea might have, plus we don't know what SE might have in mind for the wards. Such a suggestion might just interfere. I prefer to wait and watch.

[normalforce]

Here is an idea for the Market Wards that I feel is a good compromise for a lot of people...
Sure, some will hate it....
C'est la vie!!!!

ok... You do your item search for "Item X"
It is available...

You can purchase it directly from the counter and it goes into your retainers inventory

or

You can purchase it the old way by going to the correct retainer and getting it yourself
In which case it goes into your inventory, like normal

That way, if you are buying multiple items, you can do it all from the counter and then just retrieve it from your retainer
Think of it like sending your retainer to go pick up your supplies... makes sense within the context of what a retainer is. Less running for players but keeps the hands on approach of having actual retainers selling stuff

If you like to go physically browse retainers, then by all means you most certainly can

Definitely some good ideas.

What I would like to see:

• Implement the buy it now feature from the item search counter. If you buy it from here, you pay a flat tax on the item. One of your retainers appears, says something based on his/her personality type, hands you your purchase and heads back to their business.

• Create a dynamic, alive market wards, where retainers are organized behind stalls, moving around looking for deals (presumably looking for items for their players), or engaging another retainer in idle conversation, which you see. ("Have you seen a good deal on brass daggers? Master Demetra has been looking for one." Based on real time item searches.)
  
  On every corner stand little puppets which you can interact with that brings up the item search counter, where you can mark the retainer you want to buy from. A blinking yellow arrow on the mini-map points you in the direction of the retainer -- remember the wards will be significantly bigger -- and when you get close enough, the star appears over their head.
  
  Buying an item directly from a retainer's bazaar incurs either no tax or a lesser tax than buying it from the item search counter. Consider it a small reward for using the wards.

[AlexiaKidd]

I posted a topic on this sometime ago but I'll copy paste what I put here and see what you think:

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...e-Market-Wards

Ideas to help the Market Wards


1) - Keep the wards but expanded them to include buying straight from item search list but maybe add an extra 5% delivery tax to encourage you to actually go into the ward to pick the item up. This would also help remove a little bit of gill from the economy.

2) - Add filter options and a better layout for the item search lists. Filters for thing like rank, class and so on and then sort them in order high to low and so on.

3) - Also show +1, +2 +3 items in the search list and so on.

4) - Add price history please. To make it so it is more difficult to exploit could you make it so you can see price history for last 20 sold, average price over the week, month, 3 months and so on. That should make it easy to spot if someone is trying to jack the price up or crash it on an item I think.

5) - Add an Item Seek Search so you can have look and see what items people are looking for and sell them if I have them. I also want my retainers to be able to Seek for items even if I currently don't have any of them. It seems silly that you can only seek items that you already have as most of the time you wouldn't be able seeking them if you had them. I believe the Item Seek List will be a big help to give the Wards a much needed boost.

6) - When you search for an item and venture into the wards maybe you could have a different coloured star above the person who is selling the item the cheapest.

7) - Maybe also link all the wards from the other cities. This could help ease congestion in Ul'dah's wards and maybe help stop them crashing so much.

8) - Allow retainers to be called at camps so we can drop off gear or grab something we have stored.

9) - Maybe you could have MW counters in the camps and hamlets, where you could buy items straight from the list but you would have to pay a 15% delivery tax on the item.

Anyone got any more ideas to add to these other than add an AH ^^

If you like the ideas or have any new ones then post them and show your support, if you don't like them then flame me to death ^^

*Casts Barfira*

[Reinheart]

The other thread on this issue kind of getting weird... so posting my idea I posted there here... similar to the OP's post.

-------
I like the concept of retainers selling your stuff to give the feel like it's market... but honestly the 'current' 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. Sure it's possible to do it this way and it does work... BUT... 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) -

I work for import/export company so here's the idea from that.
Manufacturer (players) wants to sell goods > Distribution Company sells for them with marked up price (Representative NPC) > Once item sold Manufacturer gets the money.
If you go into import/export part of real world say you want to sell in other countries (cities), then there are few extra steps, companies involved.... so don't want to go that far LOL


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...