How to Decentralize Ul'dah

[Technolust]

On Lindblum server the busiest place is Ul'dah, everything is undertaken from here. Quests, Leves, SP Parties, Group NM's, are all formed in Ul'dah. People that spend most of their time in Limsa or Gridania are then forced to spend most of their time in Ul'dah just to take part in group activities. Limsa and Gridania are rarely populated, and when you want to do leve-linking/sharing in those regions you must first be in Ul'dah and shout their to get any real responses.

The market wards for Limsa and Gridania are dead on our server. Ul'dah's market wards are the only place you can find items. Only place worth selling items as well. It makes it so people who would prefer to be in less populated areas are pretty much forced to stay in Ul'dah for any group activities. Crafters must stay in the Ul'dah region if they want to find materials for their crafts, or want to offload some of their items crafted to sell.

It almost makes one think well then what the heck is the point of the other two regions? Well here is an idea, lets change some minor things about the game and make it so you don't have to stay in Ul'dah to enjoy group play.

Most of us know by now that the Chat log is on a different server, as you can still communicate with people while in the middle of an r0. Most of us also know that the market wards are instanced. So this is what the devs need to do to help us decentralize Ul'dah, and make the other two cities used just as much.

Create a /world chat channel that everyone can communicate in for group play. That way people who want to join groups that are forming in different regions can actually get a chance to participate. If people are off-put by a /world chat channel then fix party/quest/seeking flag system. Implement a /sea all function where we can search globally for people who might want to gather for group play.

Lastly make it so that the market wards are the same instance for Limsa, Gridania and Ul'dah. So when someone zones into the market wards from Limsa, they will see the same retainers that are in Ul'dah and vice versa. Make it so I can put items on my retainer in Limsa market wards, and people searching the market wards in either Grid, or Ul'dah can see the items as well as purchase them.

I don't understand why we need 3 separate instances of Market wards, this has made it so everything is done in Ul'dah. Make the Market Wards from all 3 city-states into one Market Ward that can be accessed from each city. One instanced market ward to rule them all.

Thank you.

[kwestro]

We just need an AH that's connected to all three cities. Problem solved. A world chat that you can toggle and filter would be great as well.

[Technolust]

We just need an AH that's connected to all three cities. Problem solved. A world chat that you can toggle and filter would be great as well.

I'd rather them spend less time having to try and create a new AH system, and focus on other aspects of the game that need more attention. Making the market wards so they share one instance is much better then rebuilding an entire AH system.

I like the market wards, I prefer them to auction houses. Yet having an Auction house wouldn't decentralize Ul'dah it would still be an issue.

[Wolfie]

I'd rather them spend less time having to try and create a new AH system, and focus on other aspects of the game that need more attention. Making the market wards so they share one instance is much better then rebuilding an entire AH system.

I like the market wards, I prefer them to auction houses. Yet having an Auction house wouldn't decentralize Ul'dah it would still be an issue.

I could argue that they should make an AH instead of developing a feature that's been met with hostility since its inception.

[Charismatic]

I could argue that they should make an AH instead of developing a feature that's been met with hostility since its inception.

Exactly. Especially considering that an Auction House wouldn't exactly be difficult for them to figure out how to implement... in fact, they already know how!
Then there's the fact that the market wards will never reach the levels of convenience that even the simplest Auction House could bring considering that you must go from ward to ward shopping around in the bazaars and also that it would likely take less resources to implement than restructuring the market wards (and you can't say they don't need it)

[Pandastirfry]

I got three words from history for the op

JEUNO, STORMWIND, ORGRIMMAR

players will always gravitate to and form a primary hub town. trying to stop it is like trying to tell the tides to stop coming in.

[Technolust]

I could argue that they should make an AH instead of developing a feature that's been met with hostility since its inception.

Yes you could, we can beat the horse even more. Sorry I forgot on these forums any mention of market wards or auction house causes that thread to degenerate into a pointless discussion of AH vs MW.

That wasn't my point. I could careless if they implement an AH or keep the market wards. Since we still have a market ward instead of an AH my OP is based on that. It's a post about decentralizing Ul'dah, something I know many players would like, because unlike most of you we would like to make another city our home place.

[Vesper]

I'd rather them spend less time having to try and create a new AH system, and focus on other aspects of the game that need more attention. Making the market wards so they share one instance is much better then rebuilding an entire AH system.

I like the market wards, I prefer them to auction houses. Yet having an Auction house wouldn't decentralize Ul'dah it would still be an issue.

Techno, at this point the market system needs to be changed drastically. As of right this minute I could go into Uldah wards on Besaid keep trying to summon a retainer and not be able to do it at all. Its so populated, people have started 'saving' spots for later in the wards by leaving retainers up or putting all their alts retainers up and flooding the wards. Its absolutely ridiculous, the system is a failure.

Whats your next suggestion? Increase the retainer cap in the area? Okay we already did that, so now it takes even longer for retainers to load, once PS3 hits the wards will be a cluster **** and no one will be able to place retainers at all, its hard enough to TRY and do it now on populated servers. The problem here is they keep tweaking the market wards when they should just add in a linked AH system with a better search feature.

As far as world chat goes, sure they can add in a world chat. But we all know whats going to happen. Asshats spamming the crap out of it for trade, RMT spamming gold selling websites and morons arguing in chat, in the end it will be a cesspool of idiots like most MMOs, most people will turn it off. The search feature just needs to be tweaked and the ability to add custom messages for Loooking for members as well as looking for group.

[Technolust]

Techno, at this point the market system needs to be changed drastically. As of right this minute I could go into Uldah wards on Besaid keep trying to summon a retainer and not be able to do it at all. Its so populated, people have started 'saving' spots for later in the wards by leaving retainers up or putting all their alts retainers up and flooding the wards. Its absolutely ridiculous, the system is a failure.

Whats your next suggestion? Increase the retainer cap in the area? Okay we already did that, so now it takes even longer for retainers to load, once PS3 hits the wards will be a cluster **** and no one will be able to place retainers at all, its hard enough to TRY and do it now on populated servers. The problem here is they keep tweaking the market wards when they should just add in a linked AH system with a better search feature.

Yes I understand the congestion you speak of, I have issues with it as well. With my OP I'm talking about having 3 separate market wards that are linked. Then the issues of everyone putting their retainers in one cities market wards will hopefully be alleviated. Despite what the popular opinion might think there are a lot of us that would love to make Limsa or Gridiana our port of call.

Linking 3 separate wards would be awesome. Hell you could even set it up insofar as this.

Keep the market wards, link all 3 market wards zones to each other, give people the ability to search through the system with current search system but allow people to buy from the search function and have the item either mailed or dropped into persons inventory.

That would solve a lot of issues people seem to have. It wouldn't scrap the market wards, so people can still access them and store their items.

World chat, yeah their will always be idiots who spam world/trade chat black list is an awesome tool to fix a lot of that.

[Vesper]

Yes I understand the congestion you speak of, I have issues with it as well. With my OP I'm talking about having 3 separate market wards that are linked. Then the issues of everyone putting their retainers in one cities market wards will hopefully be alleviated. Despite what the popular opinion might think there are a lot of us that would love to make Limsa or Gridiana our port of call.

Linking 3 separate wards would be awesome. Hell you could even set it up insofar as this.

Keep the market wards, link all 3 market wards zones to each other, give people the ability to search through the system with current search system but allow people to buy from the search function and have the item either mailed or dropped into persons inventory.

That would solve a lot of issues people seem to have. It wouldn't scrap the market wards, so people can still access them and store their items.

World chat, yeah their will always be idiots who spam world/trade chat black list is an awesome tool to fix a lot of that.

This seems like its just a single step away from being an AH house and at that point, may as well go the distance and make it an auction house. If with an AH people can still use their retainers at bells for storage.