Curse

Empress Amarox · Apr 18, 2009, 08:22 AM // 08:22

We need more room on the party search.

A normal chat message is close to four times the length of a party search message.

While this leaves it somewhat effective for trade, it still falls short for even that, and for other things that do require a bit more elaboration, it fails horribly.

Examples: Guild recruitment. It creates a huge spam in every district. Why? They can't fit it in the Party Search. Distinct size of text example: Cheat Enabled is recruiting int - yes, that is where it cuts off, 32 characters.

Not only is this hardly usable for recruiting, but it is also sub par for trading as well.

I logged into a district in Presearing, here is the first message I saw, and I believe this gives a good illusion to the problem at hand (aside from their atrocious spelling):

Trade message: wtb gifts 500g each, Choco bunnies 100g each, Hunney Jars 100g each (Party Search)
Party Search: wtb gifts 500g each, Choco bunn

The difference is this: Trade messages have a maximum length of 120 characters, while Party Search messages have a maximum length of only 32 characters -- a 3.75x difference.

Now, I won't pretend to know the technical limitations of this, but it's simply too short to be very useful at the moment. While the Party Search was a wonderful addition to our game, allowing trading and finding parties across districts, I believe this idea is possible to be improved upon and would greatly benefit all players.

A H O Y T · Apr 18, 2009, 09:18 AM // 09:18

/signed
It's so annoying when it takes me 30 minutes to buy an item that's been staring me in the face the whole time because half of the sale message has been cut off.

duckboy · Apr 18, 2009, 09:37 AM // 09:37

aaaah the usual phrase comes to mind for this... the concept and idea was awesome but fell over when it came to the crunch, or somethin along those lines lol

the idea of a cross district trade chat option was an awesome idea but for reasons unknown it isn't serving its purpose atm due to the fact mentioned.

so basically a 32 char limit = not fit for purpose...and that my friends is a no no

Tenebrae · Apr 18, 2009, 09:56 AM // 09:56

Separating the WTB from WTS would be a great change ..... not even introducing some kinda "search" for keywords but if its limited now ... dont think theyre gonna change it.
/notsigned

Pleikki · Apr 18, 2009, 10:05 AM // 10:05

/Signet, maybe i would start using party search then.

Spiritz · Apr 18, 2009, 10:35 AM // 10:35

Another thing about trade - I do recall one time anet "Fixed" trade so if trade chat was on and say you were in ae 1 and someone posted a trade in ae 4 it would show and vice versa.When im in a dist higher than 3 i never see in trade chat anything for districts above me and i have to keep usin the party option and attempt to scroll thru it.
Infact anyone also noticed how bad the party window is - apart from short text length , its the part where new items are added - some reason its all over the place.
Your busy scrolling thru trying to find an item and you go to read a line and suddenly ur position changes and your line is either a few above or few below or worse.
Could anet sort it so new sales are added to bottom of the list which im sure everyone would find easier - us buyers can find things easier and sellers would benifit as well.

Shayne Hawke · Apr 18, 2009, 12:45 PM // 12:45

I would rather have a place to post a large message once and be done with it, but this works too.

/signed

lewis91 · Apr 18, 2009, 01:42 PM // 13:42

Sounds like an actual good idea. I hate having to look for a seller i spotted in the trade chat because it doesnt fully list it in party search.

/signed.

newbie_of_doom · Apr 18, 2009, 02:22 PM // 14:22

/signed

Totally agreed. Even in pvp you cant put all the elites behind the professions you are looking for, when youre playing tombs.

Malchior · Apr 18, 2009, 08:29 PM // 20:29

/signed

I personally don't understand the 30 something character limit. You can't get the name of a green in there, it's stats, AND a price. Not to mention if you're buying or selling the thing.

DarkGanni · Apr 18, 2009, 08:42 PM // 20:42

Been discussed before. For the time being I try to compress whole message in that small space and keep it simple no: **/~\WTB ATTRACTION/~\** like messages.

Separating WTB and WTS would be great. However system must be able to switch channels automatically whenever the player switches messages.

/signed

Proff · Apr 19, 2009, 12:51 AM // 00:51

I personally don't find it much of a problem, but what it does need is a way to sort all the WTB and sells, anything from alphabetically to adding more categories since people tend to only use the missions and trade ones atm.

Verene · Apr 19, 2009, 02:37 AM // 02:37

/signed.

A dozen times over.

At least make it so that if you hover over the short message in the party search window, it gives you the full message in the little box that pops up.

Operative 14 · Apr 19, 2009, 03:30 AM // 03:30

/Signed

It's been an issue since they first added party search. I remember a REALLY big stink being raised about it when it also cut the messages in the actual chat channel down to 32 characters as well.

At this point it doesn't really effect me, I'm usually trading only one item at a time and I keep it trimmed down so it's coherent yet still fits in the 32 character space. However, it would be really nice if it didn't cut off and it didn't look like you were selling a Max Insc. Crystalline Sword for 100K. Even if it was just a matter of mousing over the entry to get the full description from the chat channel.

However I think Gaile said that there were major technical hurdles to overcome when trying to fix this issue. Maybe with the dedicated live team up and running they can add it to the list of things to do, however.

Stop The Storm · Apr 19, 2009, 03:39 AM // 03:39

dont understand why ANYONE would not /sign this

everyone knows the text limit is simply way too low to be of any use at all unless were selling a single item like black dye.

personally in GW2 id like to see a marketplace with player vendors where you can put your items on an npc to sell for you (for a daily fee)

Empress Amarox · Apr 19, 2009, 12:18 PM // 12:18

The way personal vending works in L2 isn't horrible either... You can make your character basically into an NPC that sells or buys stuff (if buying, you have to have one at least). You get a small colored text message above your head (diff color for b/s) for a short description of your shop.

Then, when you go to sleep at night or go to work (school for the younger players) during the day you can leave your character afk in town and people can come up to you and buy stuff from you or sell stuff to you.

An auction house would be ideal, since it wouldn't require you to afk... But, I didn't think the L2 one was horrible.

Kay84 · Apr 19, 2009, 12:51 PM // 12:51

/signed

The 32 char limit can make things pretty confusing.
Also, the setting up shop thing in L2 works pretty well imo.

Hyper.nl · Apr 20, 2009, 06:43 AM // 06:43

/signed

The current party search still seems to be in prototype state. It needs quite some improvement to be truly useful.

Shasgaliel · Apr 20, 2009, 11:50 AM // 11:50

/signed. it will help with recruiting.

Eragon Zarroc · Apr 20, 2009, 01:44 PM // 13:44

meh, regular chat is there if the party search window isn't big enough. it's much better than when there was no party search window, so deal with the limited space by using abbreviations or telling people to pm u for more info.