Retainer Markets vs Auction House

[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.

[Akusushi]

Despite all the bad points, I'm interested in what they plan on doing with it. Right now, it's obviously an alternative to an AH/extra repair, but I want to see what the plan to do with Retainer levels, etc. I think what they're trying to do is draw the potential out of the retainer system (the possibilities, etc.), rather than just have a more taxing Auction House.

On the other hand, while it's tolerable, if there's constantly a limit on the amount of retainers in a Ward, that's not very good for a type of game that thrives on having an increasing number of people (even though they've been increasing the maximum amount as needed).

[SuMDRGMAN]

wards suck, give us AH, and i want a mog room or some other cute creature from FF series to plant my flowers ^^

[Seif]

wards suck, give us AH, and i want a mog room or some other cute creature from FF series to plant my flowers ^^

Yup this sums it up!

AH doesn't need a 4 pages manual to understand why it's worth to put up with 10 kinds of hell to get something done. AH just works. No ifs or buts about it.

OT I just don't ever go to MW at all anymore it's just too much bs to deal with when I'm trying to relax by playing a game. If I want inventory management I'll quit my job and get a job at McDonald's where they pay me for doing that.

[Melian]

I just don't get it. Complaints like the OP has about rare hq's not being visible are totally valid. But the basic system of using a market ward involves "put[ting] up with 10 kinds of hell to get something done"? Really? It's hard to click item search > armor fitters > war garb > whatever you're after? ... Really? Or going to your retainer to put stuff up for sale is /that/ much harder than going to an AH to put stuff up for sale? Retainer UI lag - sure, that's a problem. But saying it takes a manual to understand how to get things sold on your retainer? That's just nonsense.

As a complete aside, since it's been brought up, I want a mog house too. It was so fun to play with those and decorate them. And it would give crafters new stuff to make (vanity furniture), along with maybe some extra storage space for players (let mog store event items?). I'd rather the devs work on mog houses much more than that they work on scrapping market wards for an AH, really (and I don't think mog houses are a priority in the first place, despite wanting one).

Edit: This ended up taking a bit of a snarky tone. Sorry about that, I really didn't mean to direct it against you personally or anything. Was just being sarcastic.

[Gardemarine]

«Nm and dungeon gear totally taking over their markets and many materials never seem to be listed anyways bc just npc everything.»

NQ and unique items drop from monsters - kill the market. Why buy in the market if items drop free and they are better? No motivation - no effort. Hands made items need something different from the unique. For example, armor and weapons could "wear out". The more often repairs - the lower the item's sturdiness. This process is slower at Hands made items.

“On the other hand, while it's tolerable, if there's constantly a limit on the amount of retainers in a Ward, that's not very good…”

You not enough markets in THREE cities? SE need to think how to make the players put on sale in three cities, rather than in one Uldah.

[Melian]

The Anima system, I think, is a big part of why people use uldah. If people were more able to travel around quickly things might have shaped up differently, with leatherworking materials and carpentry materials being sold mainly in gridania - goldsmithing and weaving materials being sold mainly in uldah, etc. As the game was/is though, no one wants to spend the anima teleporting between cities repeatedly to get their materials. And it's certainly too inconvenient to walk back and forth between each city multiple times a day to pick up your various items when they could be localized in the middle instead.

Chocobos and airships are officially on the way now, and I'm interested in how that'll impact this.

Had they been available at the start, I really think we'd see more use of the wards in the three cities. Will people start using all three cities now that transportation has opened up, after nearly a year of having gotten used to uldah as their home-market? I don't know. I'm a bit skeptical, because habits are hard to change. But in theory it seems like it would be a lot more manageable at least. Whether the community will decide to or not is another matter.