Mail, AH and Banks

[Medura]

Honestly? I don't think there is a way to still keep the graphical market wards and still have it be viable. There's way too much overhead involved when keeping rendered retainers around, and if they introduce a secondary system that isn't severely crippled like FFXI's AH, MW will pretty much die off.

But they can make it be a good, viable system while still not giving it a WOW-esque feel by just moving everything to a menu/text based interface. By that, I mean you'd still have to place items on a retainer to sell/repair/whatever them, you just don't have to go toss him in a dungeon. Removing the need to place retainers in a zone will have amazing effects on the organization, user friendliness, and stability.

To give you an idea of what that might look like, it would be like player shops from Neopets or Amazon.com's scheme (user-made shops, no auctions, can browse whole shop, etc).

If they really want market wards, its actually old news, or rather, nothing new. See perfect world, they got both wards and AH, and it works great! Let us put up shops in town, that would be cool!

[Onidemon]

If they really want market wards, its actually old news, or rather, nothing new. See perfect world, they got both wards and AH, and it works great! Let us put up shops in town, that would be cool!

Yeah i too believe that wards and AH can co-exist if done properly. Maybe AH could concentrate on gear and rare items or just gear from drops and the wards would be for raw materials, gear that was made by crafters, repairs etc....

[Wolfie]

Yeah i too believe that wards and AH can co-exist if done properly. Maybe AH could concentrate on gear and rare items or just gear from drops and the wards would be for raw materials, gear that was made by crafters, repairs etc....

I would say it would be the other way around. Raw materials and things that are in high demand need to be able to sell fast and easily, while rare items, finished items, and slow selling things can sit on a retainer for a while with no issue. It's how it went in FFXI; bazaars only sold things that were too slow selling and expensive to keep relisting on the AH, and things that literally could not be put up on the AH.

[Cairdeas]

I would say it would be the other way around. Raw materials and things that are in high demand need to be able to sell fast and easily, while rare items, finished items, and slow selling things can sit on a retainer for a while with no issue. It's how it went in FFXI; bazaars only sold things that were too slow selling and expensive to keep relisting on the AH, and things that literally could not be put up on the AH.

My Organics sat in my bazaar so long it devalued more then I ever paid for it, so I just decided to keep the damn thing and was using it as an offhand on my War/Dancer

[Onidemon]

I would say it would be the other way around. Raw materials and things that are in high demand need to be able to sell fast and easily, while rare items, finished items, and slow selling things can sit on a retainer for a while with no issue. It's how it went in FFXI; bazaars only sold things that were too slow selling and expensive to keep relisting on the AH, and things that literally could not be put up on the AH.

That works too, either way as long as we can have both to please everyone and make buy/selling more efficient and enjoyable.

[Atoli]

See perfect world, they got both wards and AH, and it works great! Let us put up shops in town, that would be cool!

NO! Please don't ever do this!
Perfect World is the best example on how things should NEVER be..>,<'
There are few things more ugly and horrible and inconvient and more slowing down my internet connection than hundreds and thousands of retainers camping the streets of every bigger town.
The market wards are great, and if they ever allow retainers to stand around ANYWHERE ELSE, I'll quit instantly.

Btw, I don't think we need an AH.
It would be enough to update the search function we have right now, so it shows ALL items you search for, and items already sold vanishing from the list.
But I wouldn't mind an AH either.
Just no retainers on my streets!=___='

[Shika]

In the translated Famitsu interview, Yoshida did touch on retainers and delivery systems slightly (all credit to Reinheart for translating ^^) :

Famitsu: There is a level showing for the retainer when you call them out. Does this mean there is a feature being prepared where they grow and you can give more commands?

Yoshida: In future planning for a feature where retainers can search for you while you’re logged out but this has low priority. First we have to make sure perfect the feature for the market.

Famitsu: When calling out retainer in the same window we see the cancel the contract option and that is worrisome. Isn’t it possible to make this option available at the hiring counter?

Yoshida: We already received comments in the forums and making changes for this in 1.18 so please don’t worry.

Famitsu: Would be nice if we able to have a sign or a comment for items being sold in the retainer

Yoshida: We also have an idea for this, personally would like to add more human like animations like thanking the customer after they buy.

Famitsu: How about delivery?

Yoshida: We will implement delivery, but it will be after server modifications. Message and letter will be same.

No time frame given but I would imagine it would be 1.20+

[Renshi]

This is what I think about the Banks.

[Verecund]

Mail system is definitely needed, but the retainer system can still be expanded and refined to accommodate banking. As for an AH, it depends how they decide to proceed with a vision for the game's economy (IMO if they keep retainers, they need to find someway to downplay wards and get retainers out into the world and the camps).

[grausekopf]

It is also annoying to be forced to check for each and every item what the current value is, then run back to the retainer to adjust the price in order to sell it whenever you have a new item you want to sell or when you notice an item is not selling after quite a while. This is way too much effort and no fun at all. In an AH one could see that instantly. So once again... Please finally add an AH.