Thread: Things to address in 2.0: Open Descending Price Auction will not work

I really disliked FF11's system, having to try and buy an item over and over just to hit the correct price was a waste of time.

I much prefer what we have at the moment with 14, yes undercutting is an issue but not a big enough one that I would want to go back to 11's archaic design.

I wanted to add on to what I said earlier about undercutting, and I think this post Jinko just made allows me to further demonstrate two points I've tride to make so far.

Originally Posted by Jinko

I really disliked FF11's system, having to try and buy an item over and over just to hit the correct price was a waste of time.

I much prefer what we have at the moment with 14, yes undercutting is an issue but not a big enough one that I would want to go back to 11's archaic design.

Specifically, the hidden prices are a hinderance to economic activity in general. Such things do nothing to help promote economic activity and production, but they are very good at slowing things down. But, to Jinko directly, the change to price history you suggested, only showing the price history when selling or only showing the average price, would be just as much of a hinderance.

Now the second point is this idea of under cutting and whether or not it is an issue. Undercutting is generally only necessary when supply exceeds demand. In other words, when, at a certain price, there is no longer anyone who wants or needs it available, the only possible way to sell the excess supply of items is by lowering the price. By lowering the price you might be able to reach people who still need or want that item, but only if the price is lower. When the price is low enough that the entire supply is able to be sold, this is called equillibrium. Undercutting is the natural way for prices to come down and reach equilibrium.

But, there is a type of undercutting that, as I see it, is more like a game. When you take two producers competing for sales, they might undercut each other by 10 gil. And let's say that every hour they check the prices and keep undercutting each other. Player A checks at 30min mark, while player B checks at the 1 hour mark. And each 30 mins one player undercuts the other. If supply exceeds demand, and each player contains an equal degree of determination, neither player will successfully sell all their goods. They will continue to play this game until finally one gives up entirely.

If you think you have the patience to outlast someone, you may be interested in playing this kind of game. However, if you're smart, you will recognize playing this game requires a great deal of time; time you could be spending making more gil. So, whether you have patience or not, there is really one thing you want to do: Beat the competition.

Rather than play the game of undercutting, price lower than you normally would. If you're selling things for 50,000g and it costs you 25,000g to make them, try selling for 30,000 or even lower. I'd suspect your competitors might no longer bother producing, and when their supply is liquidated or removed from the market, guess what? You become the only supplier, and because demand likely hasn't changed, you can raise the price again - maybe even higher than 50,000g. But if it only costs your competitor 5,000g, and they start selling for 10,000g, you ought to consider shifting into producing something else.