We need an AH

[Peregrine]

It's probably time for a one-point procurement system. Two persistant flaws are that the best items up on the market don't show up in the searches because they're bumped by 20 NQ trash products of the same kind, and every time an item's market count goes to 0, we have to re-negotiate the item's market value between buyers and sellers all over again. At every old market crash, prices would literally triple then coast down over the next 3 days as people tried to take advantage of those 0-item supplies while they could. Scavenger "entrepeneurs" have taken to buying all the onions from producers in india before anyone else can get to them. Because onions are such a big part of indian cooking, people will pay high prices for the onions that these people are now essentially holding for ransom. It's gotten so bad that the middlemen are doing what online scrubs have been doing for years--buying produce and intentionally throwing it away just to create false demand in their high prices. Producers can't primarily raise prices to cut the middlemen out--the middlemen will still squat the produce and just charge even more, and they can't not sell to middlemen because they can't distinguish who is a real consumer and who just wants to jack the price of onions up.

So people pay for onions what we pay for gasoline. Some people will argue that "that is supply and demand" when no, it's not. That's anticapitalist obstruction of supply and demand.

The huge issue with an Auction house is how easy it is to bot, "play the market", and flip items for profit. Essentially to take a cut for obstructing what would have been someone else's direct-from-seller-to-buyer transaction. Middlmanning is a huge problem with one-point procurement systems because of the massive ease of obtaining dozens to hundreds of transactions in a short time. One needs only to look at the price of onions in india to realize how excessive middlemen hurts economies.

But there's really no way to not eventually have an AH here. I think the market price history needs to come back online, and an AH should be added, with the exception that you can only perform 10 searches in 24 hours. Someone doing more than that is looking to squat the AH, not legitimately use it.

[Hubert]

Yes it does work for now but what's your solution for a player influx out of curiosity? Longer tunnels to run through to find the retainer with the star? more wards?

More wards would probably work since most people are simply searching and then heading to the appropriate ward. For example, Ironmongers Ward I and Ironmongers Ward II. Possible to also restructure the physical shape of the wards themselves. Maybe a square room with the stalls in the middle or along the sides? Maybe wards with 3 floors, basement, middle, top. Upon entering the ward you start in the middle floor with stairwells in the center and along the ends of the halls (retainers cannot be summoned on stairwells). Search function will also tell you what floor the specific retainer is on.

If ever the population gets too high it's probably time for free server transfers, not at all uncommon in any MMO.

[Physic]

More wards would probably work since most people are simply searching and then heading to the appropriate ward. For example, Ironmongers Ward I and Ironmongers Ward II. Possible to also restructure the physical shape of the wards themselves. Maybe a square room with the stalls in the middle or along the sides? Maybe wards with 3 floors, basement, middle, top. Upon entering the ward you start in the middle floor with stairwells in the center and along the ends of the halls (retainers cannot be summoned on stairwells). Search function will also tell you what floor the specific retainer is on.

If ever the population gets too high it's probably time for free server transfers, not at all uncommon in any MMO.

the answer would probably be to create a self replicating ward area, basically its as big or as small as it needs to be, of course you might have a large upper limit, so as not to have an infinite loop, but it could be pretty large.

Basically you have it kind of similar to how it is now, in that it has a repetive structure, then you have it expand to fulfill the space, the simplest case would be you make it add additional length depending on the number of npcs, also at a certain point, you cant put any more npcs in a particular block.

a more complex structure would be, say you have a central square, with most of the main shops/stands, and you have the area expand out into retainer only space (no shops) that could theoretically create and reorganize itself as needed. think like you have the main shop area, and then a bunch of side streets.
As an expansion of this idea, extremely populus shopping areas could get an upgrade to their main areas size. say your market area for iron monger hits like 200 npcs, once a week or a month or whatever, it would upgrade the main hall space. this is interesting because it could be like, in gridania there is a bustling woodworking ward that looks visually huge and advanced, whereas in say limsa the woodworking ward is a rinkydink room on the side. (not that i expect this would ever happen, but it sounds like a pretty cool idea, and an extension of the MW idea.)

I still think price history is not a needed function overall, but if i had to do it, id create an npc/counter appraiser, that for a small fee would tell you the overall worth over the last say year, if its on an upward or downward trend, and its minimal worth (npc price (the appraiser may also at the same time offer to buy said items at npc price)) each search would be fairly cheap (like 100-500gil) or you may have as suggested, a limited amount of appraisals

This would put a slight cost on constantly searching, basically giving people who dont have any idea what something costs, a ball park figure, but by no means price fixing, people would remember in general what somethings worth is if they sell it more than once. Since it would just be ballpark, a long with showing a trend, people could price it however they want still, but they can be aware in general of its worth. For scoping competition, you can just use the current search mechanism, but that wont give you any history context.

[Leowilde]

People talk about wanting this game to be realistic and unique. Now, swapping the NPC market system for a single-window AH is not what I call neither realistic nor unique. The Market Wards makes the player part of the world. Having to walk among the retainers to find what you're looking for is part of the gameplay, part of the pretend. And in all honesty: if we can walk from Limsa to Coerthas, we can stroll for a couple of minutes to get our new gear.

However, there are improvements that need to be done, and both we and the developers know this. For one, it is essential to adjust the prizes of items already in the bazaar, without having to remove them and add again. And as already mentioned, linking the wards from each city state into one single ward would be beneficial. As it stands at the moment, Gridania's market is dry, and new adventurers starting out there will have to undertake a long journey early on if they want to upgrade their gear at all. A common market wards would solve that.

[Hubert]

However, there are improvements that need to be done, and both we and the developers know this. For one, it is essential to adjust the prizes of items already in the bazaar, without having to remove them and add again. And as already mentioned, linking the wards from each city state into one single ward would be beneficial. As it stands at the moment, Gridania's market is dry, and new adventurers starting out there will have to undertake a long journey early on if they want to upgrade their gear at all. A common market wards would solve that.

Most likely when Ishgard is released the majority of retainers will be parked in the Ishgard ward (assuming there is one). New players would find it extremely beneficial to visit all the cities early on to access additional leves anyhow, and now there are NPCs who sell low level weapons and armor within the wards themselves. Furthermore, linking the wards will bring about overcrowding and shouldn't be done without first restructuring the ward system.

[Jinko]

No AH needed anymore - the system in place works fine. Plus, I actually like the retainers (still want a moghouse though).

So you want a moghouse, what exactly would the purpose of a moghouse be if you didn't have a moogle (because we have retainers) or we didn't have AH's or mail.

[Leowilde]

Furthermore, linking the wards will bring about overcrowding and shouldn't be done without first restructuring the ward system.

That is a good point.

[Jinko]

I think the structure of the market wards makes the world feel more real.

If the technical issues and teleport times can be resolved, the market wards are an excellent way to facilitate player to player sales. The MW represent forward progress in game design, but a failure in implementation.

What part of the system is progressive ? the market system EQ2 had was more progressive than the MW.

I can't see how making a system that is slow, clunky and less accessible than an AH is moving forward.

Pretty much anything SE has done in this game has been badly implemented, so that goes without saying.

I think the market price history needs to come back online, and an AH should be added, with the exception that you can only perform 10 searches in 24 hours. Someone doing more than that is looking to squat the AH, not legitimately use it.

I think 10 is way way way too low.

[Hubert]

So you want a moghouse, what exactly would the purpose of a moghouse be if you didn't have a moogle (because we have retainers) or we didn't have AH's or mail.

Just for fun. I'm not the only one who enjoyed decorating my moghouse am I? I kept my starlight celebration trees up year round because they looked nice. And I use the word moghouse to describe the same style housing as FFXI, I don't really care if there is a moogle or not. In fact it might be more fun to have your retainers just kinda chill inside the house when they aren't doing anything.

As for the mail system, I think they will implement it some day. Might be better to have actual mailboxes scattered around the city instead of going to your house every time.

[Cairdeas]

Mog houses did more then house a moogle, and your mail box.