Thread: The new Market Ward system - thoughts and observations

Well, I did a good bit of crafting/merchanting this weekend amidst the distraction of a sick family. I also made good usage of the new sorted ward system. Over on Eorzapedia, they have their first blog up about the new wards. Their person found that about 30-40% of the items up in a ward are correct - I'd generally confirm that.

The problem seems most pronounced in the Battleward and Tradeskill Wards. Many retainers in those wards seem to have random mixes of whatever item (I'm glaring at you Mr. Selling 1 rat-tail). However, a good 30-40% of the retainers DO have items of the appropriate type. This is playable, if not optimal. Many of the other wards have very few retainers, but closer to 100% appropriate item listings. There are several reasons the results are below 50-50:

1. In some cases, the retainer may have had an appropriate item(s) which have already sold. For instance, I tend to list one or two misc. items that I'm trying to move along with my focused sales. Sometimes the misc. items move, sometimes they don't.

2. In some cases, the misc. items are related. The sort system still needs work. It doesn't make sense to have one ward for all DoW weapons and five (or so) wards to buy armor (hats, gloves, boots, chest, legs are all separate wards). In a number of cases, the Battleward off-items are metal and leather armor while the off items in the tradeskill ward are hempen or cotton crafter gear. In other words, logical alternatives where the merchant was willing to pay the higher tax. To some extent this will improve with more retainers, to some extent it would improve if the ward sorts were a bit more logical, and to some extent this will just happen.

3. In some cases, people don't use the system well at all. The system, as designed, is predicated on the notion that the player will take the time to think through what they should sell and where they should sell it. Unfortunately, some players seem to think that weevil-elytrons are perfectly suited for melee weapons and drop them in the Battle Ward - cluttering up the place. There is an adage I like to go back to at times like these: "No one has ever gone broke underestimating human intelligence." People collectively do some outright silly things. While some do very well, many will disappoint you. The problem with the current system is largely that it depends on people behaving logically. To that end, this system will always be a messy one.

4. There is a learning curve to the current system. As people succeed in buying/selling in the right ward, they will find themselves looking to buy\sell in other right wards. This will reward people playing within the system and gradually influence cooperation with the policy.

In other words: (1) it's a lot better than it used to be, (2) it will get better over time, (3) it will get better over a few patches, but (4) it will always be a messy system.

So, my experiences this weekend?

I made a run of 12 DoW items. I positioned four in each city (two characters on my account, one on my wife's account). As of Monday morning, 9 of 12 had moved. Additionally, I managed to sell several crafting tools I created along with several misc. pieces of cloth armor I had picked up through leve's. I also bought five or six pieces of Hempen/Cotton crafting gear for my two characters. All told, that's about 300,000 gil moving back and forth in the economy (my level is still pretty low, so this wasn't too bad in my opinion).

Now, realistically, I have done as well selling things in bazaar mode at leve-camps. I netted a good 400k two specific DoW items in the pre-order week all in bazaar mode. So, all told, the improvements are minor at a gil level. That said, I didn't have that much time this weekend to make gear - I may have been able to move 2-3x the quantity of items had I had a bit more time to process crafting runs.

However, I was able to meet three markets where I could have done at best two before. I was also able to craft/adventure while selling, something that was impossible before. To that end, I knocked off at least a level of blacksmith and armorer this weekend while selling. I also didn't have to leave myself logged in perpetually, which is a major step up.

November will be a crucial patch for this game. However, the new system is playable where the former system was barely functional (and arguably only functional in the "technically the system responds to button clicks" definition).

What have you found? Other than the rat tails, of course!

Originally Posted by Chime

Yeah they should up it to 10% tax out of ward. .

10% isn't a disincentive - it's the outdoor bazaar. Before MarketWard revamp 1.0, I did my entire sales through bazaar mode and just accepted the 10% tax.

At any rate, I don't think penalizing people is as efficient as rewarding them - although I understand some people see the lower tax as a reward while others see the higher tax as a penalty. Raising a tax, though, is certainly a penalty.

I agree with Ruwyn's point. The sorting of the Wards, while conceptually a good idea, needs some serious tweaking. Raw materials should be its own ward. Heavy armor, Medium Armor, Light Armor and Mage (names should be better selected than my example) should be the first four wards and should reward those selling armor and weapons appropriate for the class. Follow this with DoL ward which discounts for armor and weapons favoring harvesters and DoH ward doing the same for tradeskillers. Use your recommended class list to determine whether an item qualifies for the discount - and yeah, that means some gear might be discounted in more than one ward.

The key is, make it easy to shop and you make it easy to sell. Add more retainers and search features in November and it just gets better.

Or, just put in the darned AH that you'd be gradually turning the system into anyhow!

An auction house seems like the easiest and most efficient way of doing business. As the seem extremely determined to force this retainer system to work, it would be nice if they gave us a way to find what they have on them without manually rifling through every one. Something along the lines of typing in some command like 'I want a chest-piece for under 50,000g' and every retainer in the ward that meets that criteria waves at you. That would at least narrow things down a bit.

it sure is taking a long time for people to adjust to what goes in the new wards...


Btw, can anyone tell me reasons why my nifty little Character Ranks sig might not be showing up on my posts?

Just waiting for the retainer cap to increase. Most of my friends don't like it any better to lump together random items in the wrong item ward, but they gotta unload the crap and sell them all en masse.