Suggestion: Auction Changes For Unreal Upgrade

[jambon]

Here's a few auction change suggestions in a single place that I'd like to see in the Unreal update....

• Make auction universal. We need to drop the whole unique auction for each planet thing. It's a nice idea but let's be real, you don't have the player base to actually support this. I get the idea of variable economies for each planet but this simply can't work with how things are setup currently and the small playerbase.
• Only charge an auction fee on sales. So many things in this game have practically no markup and the risk of loss if it doesn't sell the first time it's listed is enough to prevent people from even trying. The result is a lot of lower markup items that never get listed and instead get fired into the TT leaving only high markup items to be purchased. For example there's lots of looted L guns that can be great ArMatrix alternatives but they get chucked because the markup is only 108%, so instead we're all left having to pay the 135% of ArMatrix guns.
• Get rid of the timer extension. This game of attrition needs to end, it's not fun. There's no reason why almost every auction need to end with a multi-hour game of +1 ped tag. The auction should end when the time says - no exceptions. We shouldn't have to spend so much time glued to auction - more time spent bidding is less time spent shooting. This +1 ped issue could easily be solved with the next point.
• Allow auto-bidding. The auction should behave more like eBay where you set the max price you're willing to bid and the system will auto-bid for you up to that value as other people bid their max price. There's no reason we should have to either pay our max price right out the gate or set an alarm to wake up at 3:47am to sit and watch an auction to place a bid at the last minute for the following 2 hours till one person gets bored or has to walk away or you finally exceed their max price.
• Allow unlimited auctions or significantly more. I get you don't want people listing 100,000 auctions each with 1 lyst as it's a burden on the server. But 2 pages (with no option for expansion) is simply not even close to enough. I would say at least 5 pages is reasonable. There's also other options for offerings to expand this amount that could be added. (part of a monthly premium Entropian subscription perhaps?)
• Allow bidding to the pec. Once we do away with the timer extensions allowing bidding to the pec makes a lot more sense for small value items. New players with small bankrolls often get screwed out of being able to utilize auction for their loots because the values are so small. This results in them needing to turn to resellers who offer even lower markups and in the end leads to these players running out of money (and losing interest with the game) much faster.
• Change resource auctions to an exchange. It makes sense that resources are handled like the Entropia Exchange rather than having a ton of listings. Much easier to just list all you've got for a price and let people buy as much as they need.
• Parse out the [ and ] of item links in the search. I can't be the only person that often copies item links and pastes into the auction search and finds it annoying that I have to manually delete those off the query to actually get results.
• Show more stats / filters for items. Most people don't realize there are alternatives to the items they want and can't be bothered to take the time to hunt around of EntropiaWiki (when it's actually up and running). Showing a DPS in the columns that can be sorted or filter options to define item stats can be a great way for people to discover alternatives when what they are looking for isn't there. This could lead to more auction sales and more fees collected for MA.
• Claim TT value now option. You know the biggest problem with auctions? The fact that you've got to wait for your stuff to sell before you have any access to the funds from them. What would be nice is if you had the option to get a front of the TT value of listed items at the time of listing (for a small fee). When the items sells the fronted peds go back to MA, if the item doesn't sell and you want to take it out of auction you're required to repay the peds - after X days of not being listed or claimed the item would just be auto TT'd to return money to MA. This would kind of merge the idea of the bank with the auction. Imagine you have an item with 150 peds TT and a markup of 108%. You list the item and get 149.50 of the value when you list which you can use right away. If The item sells, you get the extra markup that was paid and MA keeps the TT value. If the item doesn't sell you can relist, buy it back for TT value or just have it auto-TT'd. Faster access to cash means more spending. This would allow more items to be listed for markup than just fired into the TT while still giving you access to the funds right away.

 

[Angela Draniie Cloud]

Only charge an auction fee on sales

omg yes! OR AT LEAST REDUCE IT!

Also let us bid in 10 pec increments

 

[Katie Chalmers]

Only charge an auction fee on sales. So many things in this game have practically no markup and the risk of loss if it doesn't sell the first time it's listed is enough to prevent people from even trying. The result is a lot of lower markup items that never get listed and instead get fired into the TT leaving only high markup items to be purchased. For example there's lots of looted L guns that can be great ArMatrix alternatives but they get chucked because the markup is only 108%, so instead we're all left having to pay the 135% of ArMatrix guns.

Removes all risk and allows sellers to be uncompetitive. Honestly I think prices for most things would increase.

Get rid of the timer extension. This game of attrition needs to end, it's not fun. There's no reason why almost every auction need to end with a multi-hour game of +1 ped tag. The auction should end when the time says - no exceptions. We shouldn't have to spend so much time glued to auction - more time spent bidding is less time spent shooting. This +1 ped issue could easily be solved with the next point.

This is an anti sniping measure and its pretty standard on all auction platforms. It is necessary

Change resource auctions to an exchange. It makes sense that resources are handled like the Entropia Exchange rather than having a ton of listings. Much easier to just list all you've got for a price and let people buy as much as they need.

Allow bidding to the pec. Once we do away with the timer extensions allowing bidding to the pec makes a lot more sense for small value items. New players with small bankrolls often get screwed out of being able to utilize auction for their loots because the values are so small. This results in them needing to turn to resellers who offer even lower markups and in the end leads to these players running out of money (and losing interest with the game) much faster.

All this does is create a race to the bottom and ignores stack sizes, which is the biggest factor for price setting. If you want to sell 10 TT of oils you now have to list it at the same markup as the 1000tt stacks instead of make decent profit from charging more of a premium

All other stuff sounds ok.

 

[PreyNaika]

Leave it as it is

 

[Legends]

Remember there was this poll on Auction changes which is still very relevant:

Here


PS: I put a ton of work into that one actually.

 

[SoberPhil]

The claim TT value part is kinda weird since the item might not sell ever. The rest seems good.

There's another major issue that needs to be addressed somehow - trading alts. To fight that maybe it would make sense to give everyone more slots or make them unlockable through missions or whatever because right now some are getting an unfair advantage over others.

 

[jambon]

Removes all risk and allows sellers to be uncompetitive. Honestly I think prices for most things would increase.

A) There shouldn't be risk associated in offering loot for sale. There's already enough risk of loss in getting the stuff in the first place lol
B) It actually does encourage more competition and there would be more people listing stuff rather than just TTing it.
C) It's not so much that prices would go up as they would take longer to come down as people wouldn't be so quick to lower prices after a failed sale. However they do run the risk of someone trying to undercut them but this is more of a concern with high markup items.

This is an anti sniping measure and its pretty standard on all auction platforms. It is necessary

Clearly you've never heard of a little site called eBay before lol... Auto-bidding solves this issue because it's not just a matter of being able to fire in a bid last second but actually bidding the highest.

All this does is create a race to the bottom and ignores stack sizes, which is the biggest factor for price setting. If you want to sell 10 TT of oils you now have to list it at the same markup as the 1000tt stacks instead of make decent profit from charging more of a premium

EU already faces this problem with all commodity items/resources because there is no variety to the items (tier rate isn't enough) and people are broke and don't want to wait for resources to sell so they always just undercut regardless of other important metrics they don't understand (like daily sales volume). The motivation to drop price just to sell first is removed when you are granted TT value upon listing. In that case people will feel less of a need to quickly cut price.

Yes, this would destroy the whole market of premiums on small quantities of common resources but that's not entirely a bad thing as it lowers the cost for players with small bankrolls.

Remember there was this poll on Auction changes which is still very relevant:

Here


PS: I put a ton of work into that one actually.

Yes and it was a great post - It's been 3 years and I wanted to once again draw attention to the subject while the Unreal update is in the works

 

[jambon]

Leave it as it is

LOL ok boomer - clearly you don't like change but I don't think keeping our heads in the sand and leaving everything the same forever is going to help this game survive another 20 years or attract more players. We need to find ways to improve things because none are perfect right now.

The claim TT value part is kinda weird since the item might not sell ever. The rest seems good.

There's another major issue that needs to be addressed somehow - trading alts. To fight that maybe it would make sense to give everyone more slots or make them unlockable through missions or whatever because right now some are getting an unfair advantage over others.

That's why I was saying it would TT eventually if it doesn't sell. Basically no different than you trying to sell a couple times then just chucking it in the TT because it's more expensive to keep listing it than it's markup could pay you back for.

Good idea of making extra slots unlockable via missions!

 

[Katie Chalmers]

Clearly you've never heard of a little site called eBay before lol... Auto-bidding solves this issue because it's not just a matter of being able to fire in a bid last second but actually bidding the highest.

I guess it would work if nobody else saw each others bids. Doesn't really sounds like an auction system I wan't to be apart of. I like transparency, and not overbidding unnecesarily. But I guess it could work, I'm apathetic to this one because of my personal playstyle with dealing with auctions.

The other points, I still disagree with you on.

Please dont take this as entirely negative. I still agree with you on the other points that you made (that i didn't mention on)

I actually think the upfront TT payment with optional buyback is brilliant.

 

[Legends]

The issue with limited slots is very complex and this will be the first time I'm actually going to take a shot at theorizing what MA's mentality is for limiting them.

The only way this game grows is by ensuring that there's opportunities for as many participants as possible. If new players join only to realize down the road that all opportunities and all markets are monopolized by a few, why would they stay and continue to play?

So by allowing people only 30 auction slots, MA is ensuring that no single individual can control a majority of markets. For example, I for one have the means and could take over the entire AP plate market if I had unlimited slots on the auction. I know some individuals that have the means and could take over the entire market for ArMatrix guns if they had unlimited slots.

So by limiting the number of slots people have on the auction, MA ensures that there are opportunities for many people to participate in these markets, as opposed to just a few with the biggest bankrolls.

I do see the importance of that now, even though I don't like it because it's preventing me from growing, but I see why it's important.

However, if MA is going to be keeping these kinds of hard limits in place, they need to figure out a way to mitigate abuse through alt accounts because there are many and it's really unfair. Perhaps auction slots should be a factor of skills, longevity and estate holdings, a kind of point system, and new accounts have the fewest, like say only 10. That way the benefit of creating alts just for more slots is drastically reduced, and real players with skills are rewarded.

Example:
Base auction slots (new account): 10
Each year of game participation: +1
Each 50k of professional skills: +1
Each Apartmen/house Deed: +1 (up to max of 2)
Each Shop Deed: +2 (up to max of 3)
Each Land Area/mall/bank: +4 (up to max of 3)

Something like that, just an example



PS: I did the math and this point system would give me 37 slots on the auction, which is mostly due to me playing EU since late 2006, so I think it would be pretty fair this way. Others may have been playing EU for a shorter period but have a lot more skills than me so could actually have more slots than that.

PPS: Perhaps there should be certain gear and certain blueprints that also grant the holder a couple more auction slots.

 

[True Juan]

What you are suggesting is nice on one hand, BUT you are completely forgeting SHOPS.
Since Im an owner of several, you will say im biased, but if ALL of this was implemented, I can basically TT the shop deeds.
Shops would become worthless and even more would become empty pixels.
The few advantages they have would disapear by implementing combination of these suggestion.

Shops should actually be encouraged not destroyed.

 

[endermigne]

Leave it as it is

I'm a bit fascinated and yet feel weird that I have to agree with this (OK, removing [ ] from item links absolutely makes sense). For the rest I see reasons why things are the way they are, e.g. asking for more filters would raise the problem that you'd have to add a lot of filters that are different from item to item.


What can be added, though, is for skill-based items to add a filter for the range of SIB-level. Let's say you want to buy a Laser Rifle

• you're maxed on: you define a range between 0 and <your level - 1> there
• you can use its SIB with: you define a range <your level - 4> and <your level + 4> there

Or maybe to make it easier have options "all", "maxed out" or "in my range".


And maybe allow ordering by item name.

 

[Mega]

However, if MA is going to be keeping these kinds of hard limits in place, they need to figure out a way to mitigate abuse through alt accounts because there are many and it's really unfair. Perhaps auction slots should be a factor of skills, longevity and estate holdings, a kind of point system, and new accounts have the fewest, like say only 10. That way the benefit of creating alts just for more slots is drastically reduced, and real players with skills are rewarded.

Some players have many brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, cousins, parents, grandparents and in some cases even children over 18.

Once MA have their ID scanned they treat them as valid Entropians.

Who cares how often they log in or who they (only) trade with - right?

If Mindark dont want to do anything then they wont.

They only act fast if they are losing money (eg. bad version update bug)

 

[jambon]

The issue with limited slots is very complex and this will be the first time I'm actually going to take a shot at theorizing what MA's mentality is for limiting them.....

You make a good point of possible motivation. Though I feel this type of hard cap is lazy game design which is easily exploited with alts. It may go a little off topic but I feel a better way to allow there to be many niches would be for there to be more variety in crafted items. IE what if every ArMatrix-50 wasn't exactly the same with like 100 people crafting them every day only competing on price by undercutting by 1 ped every time someone lists for lower? Yes there's something to be said for consistency but there's also something to be said for variability to items. What if things like a persons unique skill footprint, and adding different items in different amounts could produce enhanced effects/buffs on a (L) gun. Or if there were a point system when crafting a gun where you could customize what the gun did, each adjustment cost points to keep it "fair". You want more range? Then it does less damage. You want higher DPS then it's DPP goes down. You could adjust the damage type too.. Of course this would require an entire overhaul of pretty much everything lol

What you are suggesting is nice on one hand, BUT you are completely forgeting SHOPS.
Since Im an owner of several, you will say im biased, but if ALL of this was implemented, I can basically TT the shop deeds.
Shops would become worthless and even more would become empty pixels.
The few advantages they have would disapear by implementing combination of these suggestion.

Shops should actually be encouraged not destroyed.

Yeah.... except shops would still have the advantage of lower/no fees on sales. And they could follow with what Rocktropia was doing to allow gaming enhancements such as instances to be setup with keys that only the shop owner could make. Shops could also be equipped with loyalty programs where repeat buyers get perks. Shops definitely need their own reworking especially if there entire existence is just based on being a bit better than auction currently is....

Let's be honest... 95% of all the shops in the game are useless and get 0 traffic. So many people buy shops then never update them. Dead shops/booths outnumber useful ones like 20:1. I definitely encourage more shops but due to the insane cost and limited availability of decently located ones it is and always will be out of reach for the vast majority of players making auction the only option (especially for new/low budget players). I don't feel having only a few active major shops helps the game. To increase competition and economy there should be many many more.

Another issue is the burden of trying to find what you need at one - Just the other day I was looking for something specific so I went to every shop on Caly... it took well over 2 hours to visit them all (and I'm sure it wasn't even ALL the shops) and do a quick glance at inventory. This is NOT an efficient way to shop for the buyer, seller or MA. Picking up a replacement L gun at a good price shouldn't be an all day project.

So maybe shops need to be antiquated if the main reason people have shops is to be able to list more things for longer and to save on auction fees. Hell, these days it seems most people don't even want "shops" and instead opt for apartments jammed with shopkeepers. Implementing these auction changes doesn't have to mean shop owners get the shaft.

 

[Legends]

Some players have many brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, cousins, parents, grandparents and in some cases even children over 18.

Once MA have their ID scanned they treat them as valid Entropians.

Who cares how often they log in or who they (only) trade with - right?

If Mindark dont want to do anything then they wont.

They only act fast if they are losing money (eg. bad version update bug)

Exactly. I have reported the ones I know of in support cases to MA. Some action was taken and some of the names dissappeared from auction, but not all of them.

If you know or suspect some please make a support case and report it to MA, you might be surprised as I was to find the name dissappear from auction, who knows.

 

[TheOneOmega]

monthly premium Entropian subscription perhaps?

No.

No.



Noooooooooooooooooooooooooo.

 

[TheOneOmega]

In all seriousness, a few of these suggestions might be fine. In general, I get quite wary about optimizing convenience for convenience's sake. There is always a tradeoff in these cases, often some other profit or cost saving opportunity getting arbitraged away, so we should always carefully consider the pros and cons of streamlining things. I do not believe that "X leads to less time shooting" is a good argument against X; the Entropia experience should be multifaceted, not hyperfixated on maximizing players' PED throughput. Most of these suggestions probably deserve their own in depth thread before we get too excited about them.

 

[Atrax]

There's some good stuff here. One thing particularly stands out to me. As a huge NO, PLEASE.

Allow auto-bidding.

No no no. If everybody was being square and only bought what they wanted/needed at auction, this would be a nice idea. As it stands, this is a tool for the resellers and , you know, "market managers" in the game to squeeze out your peds keeping prices high, rather than wildly overbidding with their own PED.

If that's not clear I can try and explain more but to me it seems obvious and I don't want to bury it in rambling as I sometimes do.

The bit about getting TT value when you place an item for sale, and having it auto-TT if it doesn't sell is marvelous. Maybe just for stackables, or there has to be a per-item choice. But overall I would love this.

This next thing. I do own shops on a couple of planets, this next one is a complex argument - except that the people who are doing price controls and making RCE money running auction are already here. And they have no effective limit on the number of auctions slots they can "borrow" from their pets. As it's been mentioned, there are things that can be done to bring value for shops, and you still get no timers and the ability to build a consistent/direct market with a shop.

With that in mind I'm willing to mention, if not advocate for, nearly unlimited auction slots. Most people are going to be too lazy to bother faking up a whole platoon of alts just to hide, and in general we could see a lot more about what kinds of players you're dealing with there.

IDK sort of a nuclear option. In the end I think the value would depend on what was done to keep the shop deeds relevant.

Perhaps there's a middle road with fee brackets. Your first ten auctions at current rate. Next ten at base +5% fee increase. 5% of the fee not the price. Next ten slots at 10% increase, and so on.

Make auction universal.

And here we get to the opposite of where I started. Please do this. Please please please

 

[NevadaJake]

 

[SoberPhil]

Example:
Base auction slots (new account): 10
Each year of game participation: +1
Each 50k of professional skills: +1
Each Apartmen/house Deed: +1 (up to max of 2)
Each Shop Deed: +2 (up to max of 3)
Each Land Area/mall/bank: +4 (up to max of 3)

Missions or events can work too, say complete all starter missions on Calypso and get +1 slot, PPs can have a similar mechanic, slot rewards can also be given as prizes during official events.

Another thing that should be considered is that these alt traders diminish the value of shops since one of the benefits of owning one or multiple is that you can put more stuff for sale. But why invest in a shop when you can legally sign up your extended family, friends (like one user was bragging here on the forum), hell who knows maybe even cats and dogs. Maybe this is one of the reasons that most shops in the game are abandoned, unattended or just unsold.

 

[Atrax]

Just my opinion but, allotting a few more slots and making them hard or expensive to earn won't impact the auction alt situation at all.

You have to make it so much, and so easy, that people don't bother to alt.

Earnable/buyable slots might still be attractive to a lot of players, though. Not a bad idea, just not going to address the other problem.

 

[Legends]

Just my opinion but, allotting a few more slots and making them hard or expensive to earn won't impact the auction alt situation at all.

You have to make it so much, and so easy, that people don't bother to alt.

Earnable/buyable slots might still be attractive to a lot of players, though. Not a bad idea, just not going to address the other problem.

Which is why I recommended reducing the base number of auction slots for a brand new account down to only 10 slots. This makes it less attractive for a veteran player to create an alt just for additional auction slots, when you consider that right now, creating an alt gives you 30 and effectively doubles your slots on the auction.

Maybe 10 is still too high, maybe it should be 5. And it doesn't have to be really hard to earn more at first, but for a veteran player who just wants slots, it's just not worth the time.

 

[True Juan]

You make a good point of possible motivation. Though I feel this type of hard cap is lazy game design which is easily exploited with alts. It may go a little off topic but I feel a better way to allow there to be many niches would be for there to be more variety in crafted items. IE what if every ArMatrix-50 wasn't exactly the same with like 100 people crafting them every day only competing on price by undercutting by 1 ped every time someone lists for lower? Yes there's something to be said for consistency but there's also something to be said for variability to items. What if things like a persons unique skill footprint, and adding different items in different amounts could produce enhanced effects/buffs on a (L) gun. Or if there were a point system when crafting a gun where you could customize what the gun did, each adjustment cost points to keep it "fair". You want more range? Then it does less damage. You want higher DPS then it's DPP goes down. You could adjust the damage type too.. Of course this would require an entire overhaul of pretty much everything lol



Yeah.... except shops would still have the advantage of lower/no fees on sales. And they could follow with what Rocktropia was doing to allow gaming enhancements such as instances to be setup with keys that only the shop owner could make. Shops could also be equipped with loyalty programs where repeat buyers get perks. Shops definitely need their own reworking especially if there entire existence is just based on being a bit better than auction currently is....

Let's be honest... 95% of all the shops in the game are useless and get 0 traffic. So many people buy shops then never update them. Dead shops/booths outnumber useful ones like 20:1. I definitely encourage more shops but due to the insane cost and limited availability of decently located ones it is and always will be out of reach for the vast majority of players making auction the only option (especially for new/low budget players). I don't feel having only a few active major shops helps the game. To increase competition and economy there should be many many more.

Another issue is the burden of trying to find what you need at one - Just the other day I was looking for something specific so I went to every shop on Caly... it took well over 2 hours to visit them all (and I'm sure it wasn't even ALL the shops) and do a quick glance at inventory. This is NOT an efficient way to shop for the buyer, seller or MA. Picking up a replacement L gun at a good price shouldn't be an all day project.

So maybe shops need to be antiquated if the main reason people have shops is to be able to list more things for longer and to save on auction fees. Hell, these days it seems most people don't even want "shops" and instead opt for apartments jammed with shopkeepers. Implementing these auction changes doesn't have to mean shop owners get the shaft.

I'd like to ask. Have u owned/ran a shop?

 

[Evey]

Example:
Base auction slots (new account): 10
Each year of game participation: +1
Each 50k of professional skills: +1
Each Apartmen/house Deed: +1 (up to max of 2)
Each Shop Deed: +2 (up to max of 3)
Each Land Area/mall/bank: +4 (up to max of 3)

Something like that, just an example

I like that model with a twist tho. I would definitely go with more slots but for actual game cycle. You're a hunter, miner, crafter cycling minimum 10k? + 1 slot. You're a blank account only reselling, fine, 5 slots max. For orders too. How owning an apartment would make one need extra AH slots? While a very active crafter, miner hunter would obviously need extra slots to sell goods produced. Same for bids! You have no game activity (tt in), max 5 active bids. Why do you need slots for placing auctions and auction orders, or bids if you don't interact with the game... this would be the best use of dynamic AH access.

 

[Fanan]

- Fix orders trap, when there is a bid already from that order, a start bid but order doesn't account for that.

- Add a filter for weapon level or DPS.


The rest is fine.


PS: sometimes one more page would be cool I confess, but that would be removing usefulness to shops. Maybe ssomething like we had with voice chat, a lootable item that unlock 1/5/10/15 more entries per week or month. just an idea.

 

[SoberPhil]

I like that model with a twist tho. I would definitely go with more slots but for actual game cycle. You're a hunter, miner, crafter cycling minimum 10k? + 1 slot. You're a blank account only reselling, fine, 5 slots max. For orders too. How owning an apartment would make one need extra AH slots? While a very active crafter, miner hunter would obviously need extra slots to sell goods produced. Same for bids! You have no game activity (tt in), max 5 active bids. Why do you need slots for placing auctions and auction orders, or bids if you don't interact with the game... this would be the best use of dynamic AH access.

Yes this would be great. Like if there was something like a codex that includes everything you cycle and gives you extra auction slots based on TT cycled, either permanently or it could reset every quarter or so, or maybe a combination of both. And 5 base slots for all yes, rest you have to work for.

 

[Evey]

5 base slots for all yes, rest you have to work for.

Like missions or, snce MA like them nowadays, tokens, untradable, found in loot, crafting & mining. Yup. But extend to limit active bids also.
Missing activity but want to do business? Shops then.

 

[jetsina]

Some decisions by the developer are incredibly fundamental to what follows. MA have chosen the one-avatar-only policy and have announced in the bulletin that they plan to stick to this. Personally I dislike that, but ok, what can be done as easily and fairly as possible with regard to the alt alt alt or 'family/friends/pets?' situation that comes with that decision?

I thus love the idea of having to work for slots, as it implies gametime and/or turnover required to make life harder for the controllers of alts, as opposed to genuine individual players. But clever game design will probably only ever reduce abuse, not eliminate it.

The info we have so far suggests that contracts will have far-reaching effects on areas such as crafting to order, mining to order, etc.. User-created content that can generate revenue is also mentioned, and guilds/society areas will be easier to develop because area entry restrictions will be enhanced too it says. Thus, the auction may receive more competition from contracts as well as revamped shop/estate features in UE5.

Personally I think auction areas should remain local as an intentional restraint, but changes to how isolated economies are may be important in MA's plans for how pps fit in, how space fits in, how transport services fit in etc.. Potentially the 2/6 ped transfer system will see changes too? Our thoughts and suggestions might set the mood of what we wish for, but details for an over-arching and new system is something I fear is beyond us + !

 

[Alina]

Imo to be a bit more balance they should allow a certain number of same items so you dont overflow the auction. So a thing like a 10 item limit should work and maybe they could extend the number of total items from 30 to 50 or 70.

 

[jambon]

There's some good stuff here. One thing particularly stands out to me. As a huge NO, PLEASE.

No no no. If everybody was being square and only bought what they wanted/needed at auction, this would be a nice idea. As it stands, this is a tool for the resellers and , you know, "market managers" in the game to squeeze out your peds keeping prices high, rather than wildly overbidding with their own PED.

Yes, I can see the potential of how this could make things easier for market manipulators too. On a side note, it's actually sort of pathetic how our market is not based on real supply vs. demand but instead it's kept at the max price that some nut is willing to pay a reseller one time. Market manipulation is way too easy in this game with the best gear being so limited and there being minimal policing on alts (and selling to alts to manipulate markup). With a large enough bankroll you can price fix by just hoarding everything good and only selling at a massive markup when demand is highest (IE mayhem). Because if there is one thing I've learned in 16 years of playing this game is... there's ALWAYS a bigger fool with a bigger bankroll that will pay insane prices for something they want because money is no object in their world and they want it NOW.

I think that rather than avoiding certain changes in fear of how it could be abused we should look into solutions to the rampant market manipulation problems that keep the cost of playing at later levels prohibitively high. In the real world price fixing and manipulation is illegal and punishable by huge fines and prison. In EU, it's just another Thursday.

I'd like to ask. Have u owned/ran a shop?

Yes I have. I owned/ran a fairly successful shop on Rocktropia a number of years ago. Sold at a nice profit for a number of reasons both in and out of game. Actually was recently looking into getting another on Cyrene.