Retainer Markets vs Auction House

[Tempestmoon]

Personally, I enjoy the market ward system, Yes there is an extra step or two but it adds to the Emerson for me. It's a great system for crafters and Window shopping even with the search function. I buy things I would not even be looking for but I see them in the same inventory as the item I was searching for.

The system does need to be optimized for ease of players. They should never have been set up in tiny indoor instances stuffed full of retainers. It's to small a space. It should have been done in an open world area (on it's own server separated by invisible zone lines) A large market district with a help desk type counter for the search function. When you find the item you need, with no 20 item list restrictions you are either teleported to that person, or given a "quick" type ability cast on you to run there very fast.

Separate different parts of the zone into the different market districts/crafts so that window shoppers can just go to where they need to to buy what they are looking for. If people want to sell t heir stuff, they will just set their retainer in the woodworking section if that's what they are selling.

Make the zone big enough that you do not need to limit the amount of retainers, but put restrictions that prevent players from leaving them there constantly selling a billion gil flower.

This is just a suggestion but I think something like this could definitely appeal to most people. The ones that don't want to wade through people to find what they want, and the ones that really like the experience and like to window shop and impulse buy.

my two gil

[IStolzI]

Letz not post about the AH because it was already post about before, we wouldn't want anyone to have to read a similiar sentence on the list of topics. That would be unbearable.

[Melian]

I'm surprised how many people hate the market ward. It seems like a lot of them hate them just for the sake of hating them at this point, and that disappoints me some (not too much, though) because I kind of like the idea.

That said, the point about stuff like your Crab Bow +3 not showing up is absolutely valid and well taken. Something has to be done about that. I think it would be an easy enough fix if they allowed searches for HQ 1/2/3 items specifically, rather than lumping them in the search results with the NQ. Other stuff could be improved as well, but an AH isn't needed to improve it; further tweaks to this system seem like they could work just as well.

I'm not sure I follow the other complaint about how having undercutters named/unnamed makes a significant difference to the in game economy however. Someone in my chat ls has all his crafts at 50 too (or very close to that), and a high number of mules. If he wanted to make a new mule to sell stuff, no one would know who had actually unloaded inventory or bought everything up off the wards, whether the mule was named or unnamed. ... not saying your point here is wrong. Just that I don't follow it.

[LoydTallister]

The Market Ward right now is not really a priority for them it is at a point where it is usable with limited hassle.(not saying there isn't one) The game right now they are trying to get more content into it in order to make it worth our time and spending a bunch of time developing a change to the market wards is going to keep them from making more dungeons and instances. I am sure they are working on it and the way the system is now is good enough. This doesn't mean we should settle but it does mean to be patient.

[Gardemarine]

The retainer system is one of the non-standard ideas. There are several reasons why FFXIV was the biggest unusual game of from the previous games. The market is definitely one of them ("system of repairs" - R.I.P.! T_T).

[Speeral]

Guys don't beatthe dead horse its been dead for almost 12 months start stomping the maggots before they turn into flies!!!!

I don't mind the wards for now but ah functionality would be a god send. Its hard to manage listing ur things and also running around to ward after ward looking for all the items u need. Crafters looking for mats pay the largest price of all. Nm and dungeon gear totally taking over their markets and many materials never seem to be listed anyways bc just npc everything. The process does need an overhaul and we need to keep discussing to allow se to know our feelings and prioritize accordingly.

[akumutensai]

i think if they connected all the worlds markets and made every item for sale viewable as opposed to 20 that it would fix alot of problems. blind sells wouldnt be needed maybe a counter though lol (lazy)

[Synthesis]

+ retainers UI to put items on sale is terrible with slow latency. If you could put item on sale directly from the inventory, that would be a different story. I am for AH and I would not mind working AH.

On other hand I like retainers wards too, it is nice idea yet horrible in use, Horrible. Sad. If you like it these are your opinions. I always fight with UI for half day before I set things up.

[Melian]

I agree with you that the lag selling things on retainers is another problem. But that's not a problem of the idea so much as the implementation. I still think the idea is nice, and it certainly doesn't have to lag like that. As someone said a few posts up though, the wards are "workable" for now, and SE has other things to work on (imo, more important things - chocobos, content, etc).

Back to the market wards though, someone in my ls said that it might be a big improvement to just expand how much you can sell on a retainer as well. Because with limited slots, people throw a lot of things away or npc them. This is frustrating to others who need those items, and have no one selling them.

The theory is that if you can snap 30 items or whatever into the bazaar, you'll be more willing to use some slots on goods of this nature rather than trashing them, and that will help the economy, the players, and the wards. I'm not sure how much it would help (lazy people are still likely to toss some low value items just cause), but I do think it's an easy change that could be beneficial to everyone if it wasn't too hard on the memory or server or something (I have /no/ clue how computers work, or how much difficulty it would be to give everyone an extra ten or twenty sale slots).

[Andrien]

Got no choice but to use market wards. I hope they implement Auction House later, perhaps before PS3 release.