Petition against the Auction House approach. -- (Dev) Replied

Discussion in 'Crafting & Gathering' started by Mitch [MGT], Mar 14, 2013.

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  1. Nhili Dragon

    Nhili Dragon Avatar

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    That is partially why I quit UO
     
  2. AlchemistikO

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    I agree with this view AH will disable people from exploring and meeting people.
     
  3. Miracle Dragon

    Miracle Dragon Legend of the Hearth

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    This is a very interesting thread. I am a big proponent of immersion and simulation in my role playing games, and I would love to see some interaction between NPC and PC vendors. Lets say a buyer is looking for a nice sword. The first thing they do is enter the town's NPC-run Arms shop. As you converse with the shopkeeper, you find that his weapons don't have the unique qualities you're looking for. Wouldn't it be nice if this shop keeper knew where in town (player vendor) you will most likely be able to find the item you seek?

    As for these NPC shopkeepers selling items for player-sellers, I really like that idea. The deal here would be the NPC shopkeepers should only be able to sell what they physically hold in the shop, so if you want to sell your goods through that shop, you have to bring your goods to the shop by hand, name your price you want to sell it for, and pay the consignment fee. The player-seller would be paying a fee like rent while the goods are in the shop, and could go to the shop anytime to adjust the prices on his/her own goods. Information on these PC-sellers should be provided by the shop keeper when prompted, so buyers could seek them out to buy more goods directly if they wish.


    Additionally, wouldn't it be nice if NPC vendors who sell products could on their daily walks, stop at shops (PC vendors) that sell the raw materials they need to keep up their own supply? A fully functional NPC economy, that interacts with PC vendors in a similar way that players do, would only help to keep the in-game economy thriving. Basically, I feel that every NPC should be able to keep track of PC vendors within their daily proximity. And they could use that knowledge to assist in their own buying/selling habits, as well as share this knowledge with players who ask.

    And finally, in speaking of resource gathering, I believe every tool that is used for gathering resources should have a durability, and break over time. Having to repeatedly buy the tools for the trade over time should help keep inflation down..
     
  4. hanskrsg

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    I have a hard time to be social with people in MMO's, so an AH options, or something similar would fit me best. I am not saying I am totally anti-social in MMO's (if I was, MMO's would not be something I would play), but for me it takes time to open up to people online, and I feel it is stressfull to ask complete strangers about selling or buying stuff (Why I never could be a good salesperson I guess :p). That said, the Multiplayer people usually have no such problems, so the Dev's probably shouldn't listen to me ;)
     
  5. Desertyeti

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    Don't think I would want an AH in SotA. I liked the old UO system, you had to put some effort into finding items you liked. I often found vendors who had good stuff at good prices and would repeatedly go back to them. Word of mouth would travel and the good vendors would build up a large clientel. As I've seen mentioned, some sort of bulletin board with messages of "I have the best goods, come see me near Yew" would be great.

    Also very much in favor of larger cities have a bazaar where players could rent stalls for their vendors. Charge rent for the spots, so that the vendors would have to be stocked with good items, otherwise they are losing money.

    Modern day MMO AH's take all the fun out of that. It's just thousands of faceless people trying to undercut everyone else on cheaper items and charge ridiculous amounts for a couple of rare items. Not enough immersion.
     
  6. Zigmalion

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    What I really disliked about the AH (in my WoW experience) is that so often, you'd find or make a rare and valuable item. For a long time, you'd see nothing or almost nothing like it on the AH. So finally you put it up for sale for, say, 5000 gold. Within an hour or so, you'd usually see someone selling the same item for 4999.99. So then you either wait it out, or you cancel your auction (eating your listing fees) and relisting for, say, 4800. At which time, again, the same person would pull theirs off and list for 4799.99.

    Lather, rinse, repeat. That was one of the main things that turned me against the AH concept, as well as that it removes most (all?) of the advantage for being a careful, thorough shopper. I liked rummaging through the vendors in UO and finding something unusual that others may have missed, at a good price.
     
  7. Seneschal

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    An auction house is great for something like WoW, where you want convenience of selling/buying gear to facilitate the main point of the game (killing stuff).
    But a lot of us, coming from Ultima games (and especially of course UO) see the main point of the game as interacting with other players (which granted might be to help each other kill stuff, of course). An auction house removes interaction, and that's reason enough not to have one.

    Of course, the auction house is one of the best solutions to market liquidity issues, and if there isn't one then some other solution to these will have to be devised.

    The core question is whether we prefer convenience or interaction. For me, it's interaction every time.
     
  8. AuroraWR

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    Hey Hankskrsg,
    I get taking time to open up to people online. I am guessing (and could be very wrong) that you haven't played a lot of UO before. One of the things that fixes your problem without needing an AH is having vendors that are NPCs that a PC can get a deed to. Basically, the player opens a shop/booth and 'pays' an NPC vendor to sell things. This way you can talk to NPCs and if you're a crafter, your wares are out to be purchased 24/7 for anyone regardless of timezones and peek play hours. It was nice. You get the flavor of going around finding things and checking out shops but you don't HAVE to get friendly with the players. Then again, if you find a shop you really like you can always try to contact the owner and do some RP in game to commission something as well.
     
  9. hanskrsg

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    I have played UO, but the Vendor NPC's was so dead, that they could as well have been an auction house for all I cared. The non-player "owned" NPC's usually have some flavour at least. Of course, if Portalarium works a lot with this, they could make they player npc vendors more "alive", and if so, I guess that works ok.
     
  10. Sperg

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    I personally think the way they are dealing with regional AH's charging a premium to use, and vendors not costing said premium is going to be a great system. I also like the fact that regional supply and demand is going to be a great immersive tool to get crafters traveling to other markets to hark their wares. Good times ahead IMO!
     
  11. Krovakin

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    I think another way they could go would to be to have traveling vendors. You could have you vendor at your house, and then you can pay your vendor a set amount to travel to a location and back. They could make it so they cannot be attacked, and it would allow you to reach other markets on the roads where there are no houses. To make it so the map is not flooded with vendors, they could also have a area cap, where you vendor can only travel to an area that is not populated by a lot of wandering vendors that day.

    Just a thought :)
     
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