[dev1019] Examination of an auction house system

[Meenkieblade]

Personally, I think the latest update on the Market Wards solved the majority of the problems I was having.

I can now find the items I want without spending days running around hopping I get lucky.

I only have two problems;
1) There's not a sort feature for armor by level, stats, etc. within a search page.
For example;
If I'm looking for good leg armor, it's hard to figure out what is better for me without scrolling up and down the page listing every leg armor.

2) Most of the wards make sense now....but only 3 separate wards for most of the armor groups makes it hard to track down what level range lays in which ward.



Personally, I'd like to avoid an AH if at all possible.

To my knowledge, a main reason against an AH is the fact that RMT can 'read' it, get character's names, then spam them in /tell. This got annoying when I played FFXI, and I know it really gets to some people.

Another is the fact that inflation of the high-demand items will skyrocket. Right now, everyone lowballs everything a bit because it's hard to figure out how much gil is a lot gil. With the wards system, there's nearly always someone selling something cheaper than someone else and if you're quick you can get a bargain!

[Lusavari]

I stick to what I've said the whole time, it's best in a way to have both. Though admittedly the most recent updates have dramatically alleviated a lot of issues. At this point though, it's hard to really scream we need the dedicated AH anymore. It'd be nice to have, but a lot of items are just as easily found in the wards now. The one thing I can say is you don't have to compete for space as much. The Ul'Dah Rows often will tell you the area is to full to summon anymore in some parts. I would like to see something like a history added to the wards though so I can have an idea how to do my pricing. But then again, many people claim that caused problems in XI. Of course here, the pricing is public, which is nice as well.

The thing with the RMT, they don't need the AH to spam tells to you. They just had a bot run alphabetically down the search list.

[Yuuki_Talamara]

I honestly don't see a point in having an ah anymore either. the current system has taken away the ever rolanmart feel of things. But what i do miss is a mail box. as a person playing a crafter on one and a melee gatherer on the other, this is sorely missed and needed.

[Reika]

If we have both, I will never look at the AH. I hated FFXI's "Guess the price" AH. Market wards are A-OK.

[Lusavari]

We need a house for a Delivery box though. Which we totally need already.

[Reika]

I do miss the mog house...

[Rjain]

I don't really think an auction house is necessary right now. Market wards are fine with a few more adjustments.

[Fensfield]

Ditto.

I'd much, much prefer continued development of the wards concept. RMT benefits already discussed aside... I just prefer them. It feels like wandering around a market, when you just browse around, and yet as is you can still go shooting off after whatever it is you need if you want to be quick about things. I've never had bother with them, not really, and especially not since the more recent changes.

That aside, Auction Houses for me have always been annoyingly.. difficult to suspend disbelief on, especially when they're worldwide and instantaneous, which also takes a lot of the fun out of travelling around.

And beyond that, I always wanted to play a travelling merchant type role. I know the Market Wards don't much support that, but they're a damn-sight less of an impediment to the idea than an Auction house system would be.

Right now what I'd like for the wards is for them to be developed into a more believable market-place, rather than the disorganised jumble of loitering NPCs they currently are.. thus enhancing the 'shopping experience' aspect of the system >.>

[Aldwin]

There has been another post on this topic, and there I mentioned I don't believe the market ward system can support a large playerbase. Currently there is not many people playing the game, maybe 3-500 online on any server at a time. If the game was more popular, which of course is the goal, there could be around 2500-5000+ online at a time. Imagine zoning in to say, the battlecraft ward, waiting for your retainer to load among the other 10,000 in there, then trying to target him.
The number of retainers in wards would probably cause massive server load crashes to them, more so than they already are. In top of that imagine if all 3 cities wards were combined with a high population, as they should already be. Even worse.
The current market wards system works similar to an auction house that is not streamlined. RMT seems to be the largest complaint that I see against an auction house, but I don't believe punishing the playerbase and forcing them to use a very bad (in my opinion) system is the way to divert them.

[Raistlin]

It may be too lazy, but prefer to buy items from the Search menu, and that there was some kind of "Retainer" to bring the object where you are at, something like a "Seeker". This would turn the system on a fully AH with the difference that to put the items you have to use a retainer, and maybe it ease traffic at Markets.