Galactic Trade Network (Auction House) Suggestions

[philoscifi]

A hearty HEAR, HEAR! to many of the suggestions already made on this thread.

 

At the risk of re-suggesting, I would like to be able to make buy orders as an auction. For instance, if I require 200 mats, I would like to be able to place an order for them on the GTN. Then, another player can fill my order if the offered price pleases him or her.

 

In other words, I'm auctioning off credits for goods rather than goods for credits. This would not only instill more flexibility in the system, but it would also allow for a more robust economy in the galaxy.

 

Of course, I can't take credit for this idea, but I sure would like to see it implemented!

[DarthVaper]

The Trade Network is abhorrent. This is a HUGE disappointment to me, as in every MMO I"ve ever played, the mercantile side of the game is always one of my favorite aspects. Also can be one of the most addicting facets of any game, and you're after long-term subscribers right?

 

I could survive without right-click-to-fill, but with no search without category pulldowns first, and no way to filter which slot you're looking for, its practically unusable. Curious if there are any head pieces available for you? Want to sell a nice blue chest piece you just picked up, and curious what your competition is? No problem, here are 100 pages of every piece of armor within that light/medium/heavy category. See you in half an hour.

 

I am also surprised, after scanning through all pages of this thread, to see zero response from Bioware staff. I found THIS thread, by reading a different (similar) thread, which was closed by "Zoggel | Community Representative" - referring people to this one instead. OK, you want to keep all suggestions consolidated, SPEAK UP and let us know that this is where you're listening!

Edited December 21, 2011 by DarthVaper

[mphill]

Not much to add to what needs to be fixed as the OP pretty much hit the nail on the head as to what is wrong with the GTN, but I would at least like to add another voice to those who say that the GTN is unbelievably bad.

[Karquile]

GTN is essentially unusable in its current form - I don't even bother with it. You need working Usable filters, fewer required Categories, and some more terminals. It feels like a reluctant afterthought.

[Soulskar]

Yep, GTN is utterly useless in it's current form; it's laughable. Hopefully there's a technical issue that's being worked on by Bioware that prevented them from implementing something better. But if this is as good as it gets by design, then this company is absolutely blind and has no business in this genre. Makes me want to grab the decision making authority on this and shake the stupid out of them.

 

I'm beginning to feel I should just wait a few months before getting into this game - not just because of this GTN issue. Some things are great, and others are equally horrid. Anyway, change the GTN UI please!

[Craftamancer]

This is a list of ways I think the GTN could be more user-friendly.... (repost from diff thread)

 

-Allow a way to search without having to select a category, and then another category, and then another....

 

-Make a way that we can shift-click search an item that's in our bags.

 

-Make it so that stacks of items can be sold by a certain stack size. We should be able to sell more than 1 stack of the same thing at a time

 

-Lower the deposit amount of the GTN, its WAY too expensive for brand new economies! People have NO idea how much to sell for and placing things on the GTN is a HUGE risk right now with the deposits so high.

 

-Make it so that when you "drag an item", it doesnt "fall through" the window and start stacking the item underneath in your bag. Very frustrating, very annoying.

 

-Splitting stacks right now is super frustrating. =(

 

Trying to make creds right now is making my head want to explode!

 

YES! The cost of posting auctions is MUCH too high. 12%-15% for 1-2 days up front is a horrible design. It penalizes the crafters. I don't mind paying that if the item sells, but it's FAR too much to pay in advance, with no guaranteed sale. If an item doesn't sell within a week, I've just lost every credit spent creating the item.

 

Players will pay what they think is reasonable. There's no need to penalize crafters with high surcharges before the item even sells. The decision to run an AH like this is a slap in the face to all the serious crafters out there.

 

I'll probably avoid selling on the AH altogether... it's simply not worth the risk. Guess it's back to spamming trade & general chat with my wares.

 

Truly unbelieveable.

[Xelorph]

To whom it may concern.

 

I did an experiment: over the last 24 hours I put 10 Items for sale on Imperial fleet GTN (I assumed perhaps wrongly that it would be the most active, still unclear if all the GTN's are linked)

 

Experiment is pretty simple, I put ten green items up for auction at the same time, items ranging from 18-25 of all types, and I put them all up on the GTN for LESS than the vendor price of the LEAST expensive item out of the ten. (120 credits) This price was less than 10% of the auto price on GTN for the higher level items.

 

Out of the ten items I sold One. Just one. Considering how awful the GTN is that one item that sold could have been a miss-click or accidental buy... Point is, anyone who bought those items would have definitely made a profit from them, but the interface and search functions are so broken that nobody did.

 

So what use is a GTN if selling to vendor is more profitable?

 

 

There are plenty of great suggestions on this thread for fixing it. Something needs to be done, not sure who actually came up with the design as it is now, but you should probably fire them and check what else they worked on.... I could understand if the GTN as it is, is just a placeholder for the real GTN, but if it is not, and you really thought it would fly as is, that is tremendously worrying....

[vankis]

Bump because this is important!

 

Economy is a huge part of the fun in MMO's for me. I like most things about SWTOR but there are two things that is pretty bad, VERY bad actually.

 

The GUI in general, and the GUI of the GTN in particular.

 

First of huge bloated GUI's are ugly, period. Second they take away screenspace from what's important, the content. Why show 10 rows of information at a time when you could easily make room for 30 or more? Why have to make lots of mouseclicks to get information that could have been presented instantly?

 

I'm actually not going to mention all the faults and how to fix it because most of it have already been mentioned by others. The important thing is that you realize that it is bad and it is important that you fix it ASAP!

 

I'm pretty sure this issue will make me stop playing the game when I've gone through the storyline once. It's a nice game but without a usable marketplace and a working economy it won't be interesting for me in the long term.

Edited December 23, 2011 by vankis

[raistiff]

Not much else I can add to this besides my support by bumping this thread again. The Galactic Trade Network really needs to be reworked

[Amonet]

Dont know why people bother making these lists, these exact same issues have been brought up over and over again in 9 months of beta testing, and here we are days after launch and it still has not been addressed. Bioware does not want/need our feedback. They believe this game is flawless.

[bobothewizard]

Im not sure if this will be any use at all besides for my personal listing of things I would like to see fixed with the Galactic Trade Network. Everyone knows that GTN is horrible in its current state and should really be re-done from the ground up. Put the GTN back on the whiteboard and startover.

 

In most of the MMO's I have played I am very heavily involved in the trading of items and goods on the "Auction Houses". Hell my guild tells me I ruin economies as soon as I log on.

 

 

1 - Searchable items right from the initial page. Remove the requirement on the dropdowns to be selected before I can search for something.

 

2 - I need to have my crafting window opened at the same time I am browsing the GTN. As it stands now, If I am looking for an item that is in a recipe that I have, I need to write it down from the crafting window then go and do a seach. Most of the time I forget how to spell the ingredient I am searching for before I get all the dropdowns selected and as soon as the GTN opens up it closes my crafting window.

 

3 - When selling items - if I blank out the ""Your buyout price"" there should not be a "1" that pops up in the "Your buyout price" textbox. To me if I remove the intial price and leave a blank in that textbox the "create auction" or what ever that button is to create the auction, should not be enabled to begin with. It should be disabled (dimmed out) until I put a price in the asking price.

 

4- Initial email on purchase - Personally, I do not care to have an email sent every time someone purchases one of my auctions. I really only care about the email that comes with either the cash from the purchase or the "auction expired" email.

 

5- When searching for purchasable items I need a way to have that search box filled in with the name of the item from my inventory. Basically if I have an item in my inventory and I want to see how many and what price they are on the GTN, I need to be able to have the search box selected with the curson in it and be able to do some kind of click event on the item in my inventory to pre-populate that search box. Right click on the item or something to automatically have the search box filled in with the item name. This relates back to #2.

 

6- When posting multiple single items or stacks of items, I would like to see the GTN remember the previous amount that I posted the auction for. I.e. If I post 5 pieces of heavy armor, one right after the other, I would like to not have to put in the same amount over and over again. If I sell the first piece for 5k credits, if I put the exact named piece in again I would like to see it pre-populate the "Your buyout price" box with the previous price I just posted.

 

7- When searching for items, I would like to be able to search by body part. i.e. heavy armor / chest - Heavy armor / legs

 

These are my suggestions, will they be viewed by a developer? I dunno but at least I have them somewhere now that I can reference and possibly add too or remove items from the list above.

[Elqueue]

YES! The cost of posting auctions is MUCH too high. 12%-15% for 1-2 days up front is a horrible design. It penalizes the crafters. I don't mind paying that if the item sells, but it's FAR too much to pay in advance, with no guaranteed sale. If an item doesn't sell within a week, I've just lost every credit spent creating the item.

I thought this too, until I noticed you get your full deposit back regardless if it sells or not. It is purely to discourage ridiculous prices.

[zmoose]

I agree with the OP but I would also like to append to his/her list.

 

When selling items the UI should detect if you have several identical items of the type you're selling and if so allow you to post multiple stacks at a time. Example: if you have 99 green goo and want to sell 50 of them in stacks of 5 you should be able to tell the GTN GUI to sell 10x [Green Goo] 5 stacks. The user shouldn't have to manually create 10 5 stacks of Green Goo and then post 10 times.

[bchorn]

Thanks for making this post as I was planning on doing the same thing. I love so much about this game that it's really frustrating when I try to use the AH because it's clear there wasn't too much thought put in the AH tool.

 

Rift has a great auction house tool. I recommend Bioware copy that as quickly as possible.

[Ancallagon]

/agree with everything from the OP. The lack of polish on the GTN makes it feel like something thrown in at last minute. So much core functionality missing to make it a really user-friendly aspect of the game.

 

Made many fortunes in other games on the AH, can't see myself even trying to here with the cumbersome system currently in place.

[Davvik]

Signed.

 

I love this game but the GTN needs an overhaul; sooner rather than later. I'm actually put off using it because if it's functionality.

 

Things for me:

 

Search by item type ie head, legs etc

Copy paste item for search (without having to add search criteria first)

The "search by items usable by" doesn't work

2 mails for items sale

[Shaiar]

Made the similar post at crafting forums, but you have described the GTN much better than I managed. Totally waiting for some Bioware action and maybe some improvements in the GTN interface.

 

Also, I've just heard a terrible rumour that GTN is, in fact, regional and you can't see on Nar Shaddaa auction the items you can see on Coruscant. Can someone check this mad idea? I am at work atm and can't do it myself, but the very possibility of it eats me alive.

Edited December 24, 2011 by Shaiar

[NancyWhiske]

A few of my thoughts. Some have likely been said already.

 

• For starters there aren't enough terminals around. I didn't see any on Alderaan or Tatooine. Eventually I was running out of space in my inventory and had to go to the fleet.
  
• Selecting filters to search is INFURIATING! If I know the name of the item, I should just be able to type it.
  
• I also would like to sell things using the "per item" amount. I have to open calc.exe everytime i want to use the GTN.
  
• Being able to sort by the "per item" amount would be helpful as well.
  

[Glower]

8. Armor should have slot categories so someone doesn't have to browse through all armor slots for say, a pair of boots.

 

It's my dream!

[CristianoD]

I am not sure if it has already been suggested, but nothing should close the auction window. It is very frustrating when you want to look at your character while in auction, and it closes the window. That is just bad UI.

[Nirosu]

/signed

Everything the OP has one the first post I agree with wholeheartedly. The current implementation does not work and if it isn't fixed by end of free month I don't see myself subbing as crafting and game economy is a large part of what I enjoy doing.

Edited December 27, 2011 by Nirosu

[HelluvaJedi]

I agree with the OP SO HARD on every point.

 

I have faith that Bioware will make GTN what it really deserves to be.

[Malibutomi]

Just an addition. Im playing a BH, if i search armor->heavy armor-> usable by me it doesnt list anything. If i just switch to usable by all, it list a ton of items i could use (aim-endurance)

[Luewen]

First-- congratulations to Bioware for their first foray into MMO gaming. The game is very good and will be around for many years, however, as good as things are they can get better. I'd like to talk about the Galactic Trade Network (aka the auction house)-- because it seems to be the least polished aspect of the game.

 

1. I hope a 50 posting limit is a temporary limit until full release because if not that will turn off players whose main source of enjoyment is the auction house. The only reason I see this type of limit is hardware issues, it serves virtually no in-game purpose except frustration.

 

2. Requiring people to enter categories and sub-categories is a waste of time for most users. They know what they want and should be allowed to just type in the name of the item.

 

3. A function to remember your previous pricing and auction length would be greatly appreciated. Having to re-enter pricing on like items is very annoying.

 

4. Being able to shift-click an item in your inventory and have it auto-fill the search category is a staple of most MMOs that is taken for granted...until you notice you can't.

 

5. The default price on items posted should either be vendor price or left blank. The current system of a standard price above the vendor price is creating a needless price ceiling. If new players see the price is above vendor price they will most likely just click post without thinking about the value of their goods or searching for what others are selling theirs for. In effect when the lowest price is always what the game defaults to there is a lack of dynamism in the marketplace. Sure, one could buy out all the default priced items that are undervalued, but with the current 50 posting limit it would be impossible to re-sell all those items at appropriate prices in any reasonable time frame.

 

6. Allow for true auctions and not just buy-outs. On higher end rare items with no previous auction history sometimes the market itself needs to set a price point, not the vendor. Allowing people to bid on said items helps set the standard price and can be exciting and fun for both the vendor and the bidders.

 

7. Don't send mail for notification of a sale and then a message when the credits arrive. A simple system notification of "your auction for XX item has sold" and then just the message with credits itself would do. Having the extra messages in the mailbox with notification of sale just creates mailbox clutter and confusion.

EDIT: After reading comments I'd like to add a few more suggestions from this post's contributers so they are on the front page:

 

8. Armor should have slot categories so someone doesn't have to browse through all armor slots for say, a pair of boots.

 

9. Companions closing the AH window (or any window for that matter) is beyond annoying.

 

10. Shift-clicking to break up stacks is bugged and annoying. It should not post in chat when breaking stacks, and should be an easier than shift+click+dragging...shift+click would work better without the dragging.

 

11. Like items should always auto-stack. They auto-stack from the bank to your bags, but not the other way around. Also, they do not stack from mail to your bags.

 

12. Windows should be movable. At some resolutions half the bag space gets placed behind the auction window and is inaccessible.

Please voice your opinions/suggestions for auction house improvements in this thread so together we can let Bioware know we want the auction house fixes to be a priority.

 

Agreed whole heartedly. Current system is totally crap. I wonder what they were doing during planning auction houses.

[jettemakaron]

I really hope they do these changes, what i want most is a proper search function and being able to post more then 50 auctions, since i have 3 gathering proffesions i have way more then 50 things i wana sell.