[Suggestion] Icon/tooltip indicating if an item can be bought from a vendor

[nranola]

On my server, I've seen several people on the marketboard listing NPC vendor items upwards 3x the original price - and a lot of unknowing players falling for it. This is particularly painful to see with the housing items being sold by merchants in the residential districts (Spirits Collection, Pile of Tomes, Scattered Documents, etc.).

What I think would help players make more informed marketboard purchases is to add an icon or a tooltip indicating that said item can be bought from an NPC. It doesn't necessarily have to say where you can buy the item, although of course it would be much better if it did.

EDIT:
After some discussion, it seems to make more sense to include vendor location and the price. This will help players become more aware of vendor items, discourage players from reselling vendor items at a ridiculous markup, and it makes the research process faster for people who like look information up online.

A more detailed implementation would be to have different stacking icons/tooltips for the different ways (desynth, airships, dungeon drop, etc.) that an item can be obtained for quick reference.

[TallonOverworld]

It would be nice if this could be implemented but fooling people or rather use peoples' laziness to your benefit might not be a bad idea after all... I've done this many times as many times i've wasted my gil on stuff that could be bought from vendors half or less price.

This case rests mostly on the crafters' side where you need many different materials. Imagine if you have to travel to, let's say, 4 different regions to buy stuff rather than waste 10k-20k more to buy them instantly. Many people are just too lazy to do this, simple as that. However, for "expensive" stuff there are certain ffxiv sites that mention where you can buy and for how much.
I don't think its just a waste of time to do a bit of research before you buy after all...

[nranola]

For items that can be bought through say beast tribes, I can understand charging a premium. But for items that you can buy from the vendor without any extra unlocks or whatnot, selling an item you can normally buy for say 6,000g and charging 20,000g in the marketboard... it seems pretty exploitative to me. Like I said in the first post, I've seen this happen in my server mostly to housing items - which can be easily mistaken for craftable items. It's pretty sad.

Speaking of helpful websites, I really like how gamerescape in particular presents the information. They use icons right next to the item name which you can hover on to tell you whether you can get an item via a vendor, through airships, etc. If we had a similar feature in the game, that would be super helpful. FFXIV does have the Lodestone where the vendors for each item are listed; the developers could program the icon/tooltip to pull the information from there.

[CayaLuna]

I don't know, but whenever I see posts like this it sounds to me like people are upset that someone is making lots of money with little work. :P I think it’s buyer’s responsibility to do research before buying stuff. If they can’t be bothered to do research, then I’m not going to be bothered about overcharging them.

[Big_Panda]

I always check google to see if some materials can be acquired more easily.

Honestly, some materials sound so rare but are sold for dirt cheap by NPC.

My first-hand experience: I was trying to acquire a teleporter for my new house. I checked my crafting log, no dice. I then checked MB and realized how expensive it is. I finally remembered to Google. And surprise, it is dirt cheap from GC (if you have the right rank).

[nranola]

I don't know, but whenever I see posts like this it sounds to me like people are upset that someone is making lots of money with little work. :P I think it’s buyer’s responsibility to do research before buying stuff. If they can’t be bothered to do research, then I’m not going to be bothered about overcharging them.

That players get screwed over in the markeboard for not doing research outside of
the game? Sounds like the game can do better informing players of where to get the stuff they need. I'm sure even if they added an icon saying that an item is from a vendor some players are still bound to miss it, but at least it's there.

What do you think about my suggestion to add the icon/tooltip? Wouldn't you like to see at a glance if the marketboard item you're looking at can be bought from a vendor?

[CayaLuna]

That players get screwed over in the markeboard for not doing research outside of
the game? Sounds like the game can do better informing players of where to get the stuff they need. I'm sure even if they added an icon saying that an item is from a vendor some players are still bound to miss it, but at least it's there.

What do you think about my suggestion to add the icon/tooltip? Wouldn't you like to see at a glance if the marketboard item you're looking at can be bought from a vendor?

What about items you can get from leves, or gathering, or desynth, or dungeon drops? There are so many ways of getting items, should SE start listing them all? After all, if an item can be gathered for free than I get ‘screwed over’ even when I buy it from vendor.

Sorry, but I’d rather SE spent time and money on more important things than adding icons for people who are too lazy to google.

[Legion88]

Do you know this: Libra Eorzea
This is the official app from SE for smartphones and such devices, IT IS PART OF THE GAME.
They give you the possibility to get all info you need to find most items ingame with their own app for the game and it doesn't cost anything.

Or just use xivdb, the best database for this game.

In the end it boils down to "I have a item, you want it and how much are you willing to do or pay for it?".
If you are not willing to do anything (google search, Libra, XIVDB, dungeon farms, gathering, crafting, leveling, ...) you have to pay the price the salesman set or you just don't get it at all.

[nranola]

What about items you can get from leves, or gathering, or desynth, or dungeon drops? There are so many ways of getting items, should SE start listing them all?

Do you mean if you get an item from a dungeon/desynth/etc. that's also an item sold by an NPC? They can have multiple icons up, similar to how Gamerescape does it. I don't see how that can be problematic.

After all, if an item can be gathered for free than I get ‘screwed over’ even when I buy it from vendor.

Assuming that the icons were implemented and that you saw them on the item, you don't get screwed over by other players on the marketboard listing that item up for 10x vendor price because now you're made more aware that this item can be bought from the vendor - or you can gather it yourself, if you choose. And then, if the vendor information isn't provided in the game, those people who are too lazy to google will hopefully start making the habit of looking up this information online to compare prices and such.

[nranola]

Do you know this: Libra Eorzea
This is the official app from SE for smartphones and such devices, IT IS PART OF THE GAME.
They give you the possibility to get all info you need to find most items ingame with their own app for the game and it doesn't cost anything.

Or just use xivdb, the best database for this game.

I know of Libra Eorzea, and I also know of the several other resources sites out there. I use them regularly. But clearly a lot of players don't know - or don't bother - to look up online whether an item can be bought from a vendor or not, because that's the only reason I can see as to why a person would buy, in the particular example I keep citing, an easily accessible 6,000g item for 20,000~30,000g on the marketboard. The suggestion I'm making is to have icons/tooltips in place for each item to give players a heads up as to whether an item can be bought from a vendor or not. This can be expanded to multiple icons/tooltips if the item can be obtained in multiple ways, similar to how Gamerescape does it.

In the end it boils down to "I have a item, you want it and how much are you willing to do or pay for it?".
If you are not willing to do anything (google search, Libra, XIVDB, dungeon farms, gathering, crafting, leveling, ...) you have to pay the price the salesman set or you just don't get it at all.

Then, as the developer, help the players develop healthier buying habits, right? Have things in place within the game that will help players become more informed buyers.

I can't find listing a 6,000g item for 20,000g on the marketboard as morally sound despite that "I list it they buy it" reasoning. 14,000g is not chump change for players who have limited resources.