Wow, no mention of Auction house / MW improvements

[Tsuga]

What I don't get is that you can't seem to see past scraping the wards entirely in favor of an entirely menu based system. Simply improving the wards that we have now can provide both.

The wards, and the retainers clutter what could be an even more streamlined system. Having everything be menu based, from an NPC in town is easier to understand for new people, and it is easier to manage for everyone else. Trying to keep retainers in such a system would only serve to unnecessarily complicate it. That is why I think that they should be two totally different systems.

To me, ideally it would be like this:

If you feel like browsing for goods, you can go to the market wards and browse retainers, similar to "rolanberry market" in XI. If you need items now, or are regearing a class, you would have the Auction House, where you could instantly search for, and purchase the items that you need, or list the items that you want to sell whenever you want to sell them.

[Molly_Millions]

To separate an AH from the wards and have two simultaneous systems that do the same thing would make selling things even more confusing. That is no solution I'd settle for.

[Tsuga]

To separate an AH from the wards and have two simultaneous systems that do the same thing would make selling things even more confusing. That is no solution I'd settle for.

Just like the Rolanberry Markets were separate entity from the AH in XI, the wards would be separate from an AH in XIV.

The MW would just be there for whoever still uses it. It would not be the featured means of buying and selling goods. All of the tutorials in the game would lead people to the AH, because it would be the focal point of trade in the economy.

The auction house that I proposed is the most logical, user-friendly method to buy and sell goods, and it is close enough to the current system that people would not have to learn something completely new in regards to the mechanics. It would just cut out the completely unnecessary middle man of zoning into the wards, and hunting down an NPC for every item you want to buy. It would save time, solve confusion, and frustration on both ends of the market.

[Molly_Millions]

Just like the Rolanberry Markets were separate entity from the AH in XI, the wards would be separate from an AH in XIV.

The MW would just be there for whoever still uses it. It would not be the featured means of buying and selling goods. All of the tutorials in the game would lead people to the AH, because it would be the focal point of trade in the economy.

The auction house that I proposed is the most logical, user-friendly method to buy and sell goods, and it is close enough to the current system that people would not have to learn something completely new in regards to the mechanics. It would just cut out the completely unnecessary middle man of zoning into the wards, and hunting down an NPC for every item you want to buy. It would save time, solve confusion, and frustration on both ends of the market.

Oh I get it, but there is no reason to have two distinct systems, just improve the one we have in a way that leaves the wards in tact but improves searching for and buying items. To start from scratch is a waste of dev time.

[AmyRae]

What I don't get is that you can't seem to see past scraping the wards entirely in favor of an entirely menu based system. Simply improving the wards that we have now can provide both.

I don't think the Wards should be scrapped, but there's no way they can function as anything resembling an Auction House. In fact, trying to add Auction House functionality is a waste of time because any attempt to do so not only ruins the off-line bazaar environment that the Wards now have, but also makes for a poor Auction House because it would be based on a system that's too different.

Better to have two systems in place.

[grandm]

Just like the Rolanberry Markets were separate entity from the AH in XI, the wards would be separate from an AH in XIV.

The MW would just be there for whoever still uses it. It would not be the featured means of buying and selling goods. All of the tutorials in the game would lead people to the AH, because it would be the focal point of trade in the economy.

The auction house that I proposed is the most logical, user-friendly method to buy and sell goods, and it is close enough to the current system that people would not have to learn something completely new in regards to the mechanics. It would just cut out the completely unnecessary middle man of zoning into the wards, and hunting down an NPC for every item you want to buy. It would save time, solve confusion, and frustration on both ends of the market.

you seem to be over looking the fact SE went with market wards to stand this game apart from other MMO's. if they wanted a AH in the first place you would have one. its most likely a re-vamp of the market wards you can expect in the future

[Molly_Millions]

I don't think the Wards should be scrapped, but there's no way they can function as anything resembling an Auction House. In fact, trying to add Auction House functionality is a waste of time because any attempt to do so not only ruins the off-line bazaar environment that the Wards now have, but also makes for a poor Auction House because it would be based on a system that's too different.

Better to have two systems in place.

Follow the url in my sig, there definitely is a way to turn the wards into a 'best of both'.

[AmyRae]

Follow the url in my sig, there definitely is a way to turn the wards into a 'best of both'.

I don't think your plan will work. You'll ruin the wards, and have a crappy Auction House. Absolutely no one will be happy with that.

[Tsuga]

I don't think your plan will work. You'll ruin the wards, and have a crappy Auction House. Absolutely no one will be happy with that.

Exactly. With that plan (Molly's plan I mean) you're only getting a half-hashed version of both systems. You aren't getting a streamlined AH, and you aren't getting an open bazaar that the wards are supposed to be.

you seem to be over looking the fact SE went with market wards to stand this game apart from other MMO's. if they wanted a AH in the first place you would have one. its most likely a re-vamp of the market wards you can expect in the future

Functional, easy to understand, user-friendly mechanics need to come before "immersion", and "differentiation" in EVERY facet of EVERY game. It isn't an excuse for a sloppy, half-assed system. They could have differentiated this game from every other MMO by making me control it with my via spiked dildo, that wouldn't have made it any better.

[Molly_Millions]

I don't think your plan will work. You'll ruin the wards, and have a crappy Auction House. Absolutely no one will be happy with that.

Vastly improving the search, for example by reorganizing items by category rather then ward and improving the search results, and allowing people to buy items from the menu, would ruin the wards in what way? please be specific. I also don't see how that would be so different from an entirely menu driven AH that it would be a crappy AH.