Hello everyone,

I know that battle and other aspects that make the game more enjoyable are a priority right now so I understand this is probably not even in the ball park of the dev's or rep's range of priorities but I've had this idea kicking around in my head for quite some time and I thought I'd share it and perhaps gather some new ideas that may go with it.

Now, I tend to sell off a lot of materials and items that may be useful to others to NPC vendors due to inventory constraints and that has always bugged me. But what if, when you sell an item to an NPC that item doesn't just disappear into the void of game code. What if that item is in turn sold to an NPC somewhere that sells that specific category of item to other players at an "NPC level" price. I think this would be an interesting way to have another competing market to control or balance the player-based market.

I think it could work in some way like the following:

I sell 1 Decorated Silver Sceptre to a foodstuffs NPC in Ul'dah. Obviously a grocer wouldn't sell a Thaumaturge weapon as part of his wares so the game could then move this item to the proper NPC in the city.

So the above would result in the magic items and weapons NPC having 1 x Decorated Silver Sceptre in stock available for players to purchase.

If I sold 2 of them, the magic items NPC would then have 2 for sale before the item is taken off the list.


But how would pricing go? I think it'd be interesting if the pricing by default is driven by it's rarity in the player market but can be set by the devs to fight inflation if needed.

For example if there were 50 of the above sceptres for sale in the player markets, then the item is pretty common. The NPC would sell at the higher of either, the average price of all the sceptres in the player market or at the price floor (lower limit) for that item set by the devs.

However if the sceptre was a rarity in the player markets, the NPC would then set the price at the higher of either, the price roof (upper limit) of the item, or the average of the few sceptres in the player market.

In this way, players will have an indication of what items are more rare and possibly more profitable to craft. As well as a reason to price their items more competitively. Best of all, items sold to NPCs would no longer be a waste since they will be made available for purchase to players despite being at a higher price than what they may find if they took the time to search the wards.

I'm sure can tell that I'm no economist nor programmer, so I don't know how difficult or how plausible this may be to implement. Perhaps some of you with more knowledge in these areas have some better ways to make the NPC markets more diverse and interactive? Perhaps a similar system is already in another game?

Please share your thoughts!