Another Market Ward post..

[Altena]

Not going to bother doing a search for this, even though I know this will have been posted before - because the more market ward complaints / spam on this forum - the more likely it will actually get seen and fixed.

Let me begin by saying the Mercantile Houses are a great addition (from patch 1.22), and are certainly a step forward in the right direction - along with the search function.

However I would like to stress a few already known, but major flaws in the system. Some of these will not be a simple fix and I understand the issues may have something to do with the poorly written 1.xx code in regards to the market system, however I am going to list my personal concerns with this anyway.

Not user friendly

- Once purchasing an item, the game kicks you out of the search feature, ie. forcing you to look the item up once more. This is a pain when purchasing multiple items of the same thing.

This may be difficult to improve in the current 1.xx coding, or servers, or whatever - I dunno, I'm no programmer or server expert, but it is both frustrating and time consuming.

- The UI lags and refreshes slowly.

Once again, I know UI overhaul in general has been mentioned to be improved come 2.0, and possibly impossible to do at the current state but thought it was worth flagging it.

Population & Economy

- Gridania and Limsa wards are still ignored by 90% of the server population

Let me just start off and say - the new mercuntile house is a huge improvement. Finally people who get stuck with having to put their retainers in Gridania and Limsa have a small chance to sell something. Although this chance remains small.

The item search feature should be merged into one. If you search for an item in the Ul'dah mercuntile house, all of the items in Gridania should also be shown in the list. As it stands - very few people actually bother to check all 3 mercuntile houses (I am guilty of checking only Ul'dah, as it saves time). Merge the search function of the 3 cities and most of the problems with the wards will be gone.

- Due to Ul'dah's population, every market ward is full.

A possible fix to this would be allow 1 retainer per person per city in the wards - ie. 1 player cannot have 2x retainers in Ul'dah wards. Also increase the limit on items in a retainer's bazaar.

- People overpricing items so their empty retainers do not get kicked out ie. losing their spot in the wards

Quite a simple solution to this one (from what I can tell). If a retainer does not sell a single item, or has no activity (any bazaar adjustment) within lets say 72hrs, they will be kicked from the wards. This will remove any retainers with overpriced items, no sales, no activity (just waste of space in other words).

The reason for this post was I am currently standing in Tanner's Ward (checking on my retainer that I had to purchase stall time for), in front of 3x retainers with *very* similar names, modelling full dream attire - with nothing in their wards aside from these dream pieces at capped price. This is just one of the many examples of what is going on - and it is everywhere.

The biggest, and worst problem with the current market ward system are these empty "waste of space" retainers with nothing buyable in their bazaar.

I, like a lot of players are extremely frustrated with these issues, and it would be a huge improvement to the market. You tried a unique idea, it didn't work, so ditch it or fix it.

End rant.

[Stanislaw]

Some of these will not be a simple fix and I understand the issues may have something to do with the poorly written 1.xx code in regards to the market system, however I am going to list my personal concerns with this anyway.

For the record, it's not a 'may', but it's pretty much a given fact that the whole reason why the wards are the way they are is because of the server structure and coding. For example, merging of the Mercantile Houses, which many people before you have asked for, is simply not possible with the current structures.

Quite a simple solution to this one (from what I can tell). If a retainer does not sell a single item, or has no activity (any bazaar adjustment) within lets say 72hrs, they will be kicked from the wards. This will remove any retainers with overpriced items, no sales, no activity (just waste of space in other words).

Also for the record, this is already in place, except it's within 168 hours (1 week).

[Altena]

For the record, it's not a 'may', but it's pretty much a given fact that the whole reason why the wards are the way they are is because of the server structure and coding. For example, merging of the Mercantile Houses, which many people before you have asked for, is simply not possible with the current structures.

I stated "may" because I won't be all high and mighty and claim I know how the game is written, nor will I admit I bother to delve into these forums much as they are on the most part - a waste of time. The statements I made in the OP still stand, and is a compiled list of the many issues that not only myself, but other players experience - whether or not it is due to the 1.xx code (as stated). Some of these issues will be solved come 2.0, however I feel as though many major issues that stand are small fixes that as you quite nicely proved - are already in place in the following quote:

Also for the record, this is already in place, except it's within 168 hours (1 week).

If this is the case then the time frame should be lowered considerably, perhaps even shorten it to (I know this sounds crazy) 24 hours, while increasing stalls to 48h.

You shouldn't have to pay for a temporary spot if others are getting a near-unlimited spot for free.

[Zyph]

Server code limitations, switching to a real auction house in 2.0, etc, yawn, etc

[KaplanHomahru]

Another useless thread repeating the same things that nearly everyone has already said in threads that have appeared weekly since launch because OP didn't bother to read anything about how it's pretty much all planned on being fixed in 2.0. Cool.

[Alhanelem]

repeating and exaggerating minor issues is not going to get them fixed faster, yada yada.

While the system could still work a lot better, it's still useable and I can patiently wait for them to improve it.

switching to a real auction house in 2.0

No, they're not. Not that it isn't already pretty much like a "real AH" already with the searching, price history, direct purchasing, etc. The only thing it really doesn't do, regardless of how clunky the UI is for doing it, is true auctions (e.g. everything is buyout, rather than having a bidding period) and IMO, WoW can keep those. all it really needs is a more unified interface without several levels of menus to navigate in order to operate it. Since you can now place your retainers to start selling things without ever actually entering the wards, you may as well just call it an AH now.