Curse

dts720666 · Jul 28, 2007, 11:14 PM // 23:14

I realize that ANet is not going to give us an auction house in GW1 (I'm holding my breath and crossing my fingers for GW2). And I understand the reasons why...so I am NOT posting another request for an auction house.

I do appreciate the recent changes that ANet has made the trading system, and how they have started banning people for spamming in the all chat. THANK YOU ANET!

However, since the trade search window still can't handle more than about 30 characters, it is nearly unusuable.

SO, TRADING IS STILL a major pain, and I hate it. I have having a weapon I know is worth 20k, and I'm faced with either wasting an hour spamming about it in the trade channel, or selling it to the merchant for 342g. Recently, I have just started selling it for 2k in the trade channel. I sell in about five minutes that way...but it still hurts me knowing that I'm getting robbed.

I have also tried selling stuff on the guildwarsguru auctions pages, but we all know how well that works:
.............waiting .................waiting .............. .waiting.......

SOOOOOOO, what GW needs is a RARE WEAPON/ITEM Merchant. Here is how he works:
1. He buys stuff, but doesn't sell anything. (this avoids the database inventory problem of the auction house).
2. The prices he buys for are about 50-75% the price that one could get if they spammed in the trade channel. His prices are based on some sort of mathematical calculation for mods on the various weapons. It would be type of weapon + Req + Mod(s) + Inscription.
For example
WEAPON TYPE
-water wand - 100g
-Mursaat Hammer - 2000g
-Archaic Axe - 1000g
etc., etc., etc.,
REQUIREMENTS
-req 11-13 500g
-req 9-10 1000g
-req 8 5000g
MODS
-Sundering 20/20 - 5000g
-Sundering 20/19 - 1000g
-HP +30 - 5000g
-HP +29 - 1000g
-etc. etc. etc
INSCRIPTIONS
-Dmg +15^50 - 5000g
-Dmg +15v50 - 1000g
-Luck of the Draw -5/20 - 5000g
-Luck of the Draw -5/19 - 2000g
-etc etc etc.

SO I have a Sundering Archaic Axe of Fortitude 20/19 15^50 +30 (req 9), it is worth about 15-20k or so, but the RARE Merchant will buy it from me for
(Archaic 1000g) + (req9 1000g) + (Sundering 1000g) + (HP+30 5000g) + (Inscription 1000g) = 9000g

I WOULD BE THRILLED to sell it to the RARE merch for 9000g, rather than spamming for an hour in hopes of getting 15-20k. For those who wanted to use up game time to get the extra 6-11k (or more), they would still be able to. But I get precious little playing time in GW, and hate wasting it trying to sell stuff.

I suppose the RARE Merchant could also buy mods and inscriptions by themselves at the listed prices.

Another benefit to this is that it would help people know how much thing were worth just the the dye trader and rune trader help us know how much dyes and runes are worth.

sykoone · Jul 29, 2007, 01:48 AM // 01:48

There a a couple of problems with this. For one, Anet has added gold sinks to remove gold from the community, such as guild services, so that people don't get super rich. However, the major problem is that the community sets the prices for weapons, not Anet. So if the community decides that your example Axe is no longer really worth 15k, but rather 7k (for example only), then the merchant would end up giving more than what the item is actually worth. Then someone would have to recode the merchant to reflect the new prices. With each fluctuation in the economy, the code would need to be modified.

The only way I see this working, would be make him a trader, rather than a merchant. That way supply and demand would set the prices, and the initial starting price could be set by current market values, and then left to fluctuate at will. While it would still pay much less than player-trade value, it would still save on the trade spam.

bilateralrope · Jul 29, 2007, 01:58 AM // 01:58

Three major problems here:

1 - It will be a lot of work on ANET's part to keep this NPC having its values reflect an accurate market value. Sure you could reduce it by producing a table showing the base prices for everything, but when those values change it will be up to ANET to both monitor for those changes and to adjust for them. So please propose an algorithm that will handle the price adjustments

2 - This does nothing to help people wanting to buy a rare weapon skin. In fact, because your giving more incentive for a player to merchant them your reducing the remaining supply. This will drive prices up making the skin harder to buy. If you manage to solve problem 1, then this will make the merchants prices rise, reducing the supply even further.

3 - Inflation. Trading between players doesn't change the total amount of gold in players hands. However your idea involves creating more gold, thus pushing prices up across Guild Wars.

HawkofStorms · Jul 29, 2007, 04:08 AM // 04:08

/notsigned

The above two posters basically sum it all up.

Fitz Rinley · Jul 29, 2007, 04:46 AM // 04:46

There are strong merits to this proposal. First, it would provide a base price on items such that the worth becomes stable, but not fixed. A player can merch to the Gold Items merchant for the set value or another player can purchase for an amount greater than that value. It ensures that those trading will get a fair amount when they trade/sell whatever they get.

Second, the gold sinks are heinous and prohibitive of actual play for enjoyment. Their cost is egregiously excessive. Currently players, especially honest players, are starved for gold such that playing affords little to achievement of anything a player could want. Certainly it is not possible to max out even half the options by the time GW:EN comes out, and possibly not before GW 2 comes out.

I detest farming. I am forced to do it to get anything for my characters. I have one character that has the gear to farm and they can farm only tanks and assassins. Spikers, interupters, degen, armor ignoring damage, etc. destroy my ability to farm with the only character I have capable of it. Nor can I afford to set another character up to farm. (And I should never have had to to begin with, I should be able to get what provides my entertainment in the game through play when I need it, not at random after I have finished the game and gone on to some stupid segregation of HM elitests v "Normal" people.)

Inflation in the game is needed, especially since there is an income cap, and there are too many gold sinks to run out of ways to spend what you get before GW:EN/GW 2.

I merch rare weapon skins regularly because they are junk. Unless you have perfect stats on the "neat skin" there is no reason to keep, use, or attempt to sell it. What destroys people's ability to get the rare weapons skins is ANets loot prohition aimed at keeping players from getting what they would enjoy playing with.

ANet would not ahve to do anywork to change the base value of the items received. By setting a standard price on the requisites and stats possible in a weapon, they establish a standard that would never need to be changed (assuming they did something reasonable to begin with). However, limiting it to golds will be a problem - as this ensures what is not gold will have a market value based upon fear of gold prices (among those who cannot afford) or expectation that selling anything not gold will (as is current) be a waste of effort.

As for the community setting the prices, that is only as reflected by ANet. When you could not get a Superior of Absorption they were 95k+. Now they are regular drops and people may purchase them regularly. What they cannot get is skins of interest of value to them and weapon mods that meet their needs. I loathe the haggler's market that now exist as it is predicated solely and only on who can get the best marginal (or extreme) scam on the other guy (just like real life sales).

A pricing standard would do a lot to regulate the value of the economy for equity between those who also purchased the game.