Item Searching and Stacking (01/28/2011)

As was outlined earlier this week, patch 1.15a (scheduled for release in early February) will contain several improvements and adjustments to existing features. Today's post will focus on the changes planned for both the market search function and item stack limits.

Continue reading for the detailed report.

Discuss this in the ZAM Forums!

Additions to the Item Search Feature

Selecting individual items displayed in market search results will now provide a list of the twenty lowest asking prices for that item, as well as the following data:

Retainer Name
Set Size
Retainer Location


In addition, the number displayed next to item search results indicating how many of that item are available will now apply to the whole market, not only the area (ward/row/den) selected.

Regarding future updates, we are fully committed to improving the overall usability of the item search feature, and are currently considering the implementation of further additions, such as pin-point searches.

Adjustments to Item Stack Limits

In an effort to standardize stack limits in accordance with category type, as well alleviate inventory overload, the limits for all items (excluding those marked as Rare) in the following categories have been increased to 99:

Sundries, Throwing Stones, Eggs, Vegetables, Spices, Fruits, Mushrooms, Foodstuffs, Freshwater Fare, Saltwater Fare, Meats, Dyes, Paints, Reagents, Metals, Unrefined Metals, Metal Sheets, Metal Wires, Weapon Heads, Weapon Butts, Weapon Grips, Chainmail Meshes, Armor Metals, Clasps, Raw Wood, Hides, Leathers, Furs, Armor Hides, Armor Leathers, Footwear Parts, Bones, Teeth & Claws, Wings, Armor, Ores, Stones, Gemstones, Fibers, Cloth, Hooded Attire Cloth, Cloth Bodies, Smallclothes Cloth, Cloth Sleeves, Front Cloth, Back Cloth, Armor Cloth, Feathers, and Armor Parts

Comments

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stacking
# Feb 04 2011 at 8:26 PM Rating: Decent
34 posts
Wards... Retainers... nobody mentioned item stacks. The new stack increase is great; however, they needed to implement a way to easily combine your split up stacks. Instead of having to move all 10 stacks of ore into your inventory, make it one stack of 99 plus the additional 21, then back into retainer.
close to AH
# Jan 30 2011 at 1:53 PM Rating: Decent
gettin close to AH lol, next step is to buy off the item from the search menu, u dont even need to get in the market ward zone.
Still need an AH
# Jan 30 2011 at 6:21 AM Rating: Decent
30 posts
I still don't want to have to zone 10 times to buy the quantity of items I need. Glad they could do this in the mean time but give me my central place to buy the things I need and stop wasting my time.
you guys are wrong!
# Jan 28 2011 at 9:38 PM Rating: Default
actually you guys are wrong here.

This is NOT like auction.

Make the distinction please

Auction is a place where people are put into auction.

There is 2 type: Hidden or shown.

FFXI use a hidden, where price are hidden so people have to guess. While shown one are price are being reflect on the closely or cheapest available like the stock market.

By showing the price directly. It does NOT trigger undercut as much as hidden. Because the first item that sell below will be taken asap Unless there is no demands.

However, hidden wise, while guessing there is a higher chances for players to bid at a lower price which result to a understatement of the price being shown which led seller to readjust their prices.

quicker Information lead to perfect competition and perfect competition is said to be efficient (of course, in reality it really isn't true.)
Defeats the Purpose?
# Jan 28 2011 at 2:57 PM Rating: Default
The devs have previously said that the reason they didn't include an auction house was because it led to player's undercutting each other and drove the economy into recession. But it seems to me that this new patch will lead to exactly the same problem.
Q(-_- Q)
# Jan 28 2011 at 11:09 AM Rating: Good
Personally I don't really NEED an AH. I would agree though that an auction house system is probably the most efficient way to implement buying/selling between players, but the retainer system has a better fantasy or role-playing feel IMO. Also, the retainer has the advantage of blending your bank and the "auction house" into one system which is really convenient when your're crafting. So if I'm making some armor for myself I can run to my retainer switch to my crafting gear get some materials off of him and even search for ingredients that I'm missing by using the item search and just jumping real quick to a ward where I can buy it. Plus with the retainer system you can run around your favorite wards doing impulse browsing/buying. That's not all to say that these better search functions aren't desperately needed. I hope they add the pinpoint search soon too and it would be cool if they could implement a way to keep your item search active when you leave the wards so you can know if what you're looking for is in someone's bazaar. I would also like to see some more generalized search categories so I don't have to figure out if that headpiece I want is a armorer piece, tailor hat, jewelery, etc. Another thing I'd like to see is putting repair NPCs inside the wards.

Edited, Jan 28th 2011 12:10pm by katakuri
Q(-_- Q)
# Jan 28 2011 at 3:24 PM Rating: Good
*
53 posts
katakuri wrote:
Personally I don't really NEED an AH. I would agree though that an auction house system is probably the most efficient way to implement buying/selling between players, but the retainer system has a better fantasy or role-playing feel IMO. Also, the retainer has the advantage of blending your bank and the "auction house" into one system which is really convenient when your're crafting. So if I'm making some armor for myself I can run to my retainer switch to my crafting gear get some materials off of him and even search for ingredients that I'm missing by using the item search and just jumping real quick to a ward where I can buy it. Plus with the retainer system you can run around your favorite wards doing impulse browsing/buying. That's not all to say that these better search functions aren't desperately needed. I hope they add the pinpoint search soon too and it would be cool if they could implement a way to keep your item search active when you leave the wards so you can know if what you're looking for is in someone's bazaar. I would also like to see some more generalized search categories so I don't have to figure out if that headpiece I want is a armorer piece, tailor hat, jewelery, etc. Another thing I'd like to see is putting repair NPCs inside the wards.

Edited, Jan 28th 2011 12:10pm by katakuri


I agree with you on everything except the need for pinpointing. These upgrades appear to provide everything that an AH would. We will now have the ability to search the entire ward system thus eliminating the problem of players have different types of items for sale that are not in the appropriate wards. Listing the prices is no different from from showing the price history as they do in FFXI. Supply and demand will still rule. This has the added effect of keeping the Retainers which, in my opinion, is a much better setup then mules. Another promise kept by SE.
Improvements seem great :)
# Jan 28 2011 at 10:21 AM Rating: Good
17 posts
These new changes seem great :). I like the ward/retainer system, and better search functions will just make it even more user friendly. Not sure how I feel about the listing of sale prices in search but since undercutting prices now means that's the profit you'll make (no one can pay you more just because they overbid) I don't know if this will be a problem or not. Overall thought, Ward/Retainer is nice...you can
sell more items at once than you could with the FFXI auction house, and you can summon your retainers in any ward in any town which means your whole inventory is completely movable and available to you in any town. No more logging in and out checking 'mules' etc. I would still like a mailbox for sending crafting mats and such to friends and ls mates. But I wish the AH people would try the new changes first and then say what improvements they'd like to see based on the changes and not based on the 'I want an AH' whine.
It's an Improvement
# Jan 28 2011 at 8:39 AM Rating: Decent
So is the idea to keep th retainer system and the throe an AH in there in the near future? I like the Ideal of the improvement on the search feature but I just dont like the retainer system...
It's an Improvement
# Jan 28 2011 at 8:52 AM Rating: Good
**
812 posts
No, SE has said in the past that adding an AH is a backup plan. Don't count on one being added. All they have said recently is that they will continue evaluating if they need to add one.
It's an Improvement
# Jan 28 2011 at 12:11 PM Rating: Good
42 posts
And what they are showing is pretty much an Auction House anyways, it shows where the item is being sold and how much it is. I see no reason for them to even put an auction house in now. The time it takes zoneing and running to the retainer will help discourage people that just want to sit there and manipulate the market too.
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