Cartel Black Market Auction House

[BladedDingo]

Inflation is rampant, and the game seems to lack and meaningful credit sinks.

I propose that SWTOR implement a version of the World of Warcraft Black Market Auction House.

This Auction house would be in the Cartel Market fleet and would be different from the GTN.

Players cannot post items to the Black Market Auction House, (BMAH), only items that Bioware decide will appear there.

 

How it works

Players must be max level to access the BMAH.

Instead of buying items from other players like a regular auction house, items on the BMAH are generated and listed by NPCS like (like Fa'athra, Nemro, or other promient trader/smuggler/merchant NPC's throughout the SWTOR universe.)

The items listed on the BMAH are only listed for 1 (one) day. 24 hours.

The items on sale vary from a list of items that were made unobtainable, to rare drops and promotional items (like the cantina mounts/flairs)

All of the items will be listed infrequently to ensure that it's not a reliable way to farm for these rare items and each item is character or legacy bound to ensure it cannot be turned around and re-sold.

Each item has a set starting bid, these are for example and can be tweaked as needed for adjusted for especially rare items.

Mounts: 100 million credits
Armor sets: 50 million credits
Weapons: 20 million credits
Pets: 10 million credits
Decorations: 10 million credits
Flairs: 5 million credits

etc.

There is no buyout option, players can only bid up. the maximum bid is 4,294,817,295 cr. (the max a single character can carry at one time)

The supply of items is server bound. So, what's for sale on SS, might not be the same over on SF.

If the auction house has no items, a message will be displayed advising the player to check back later for a new shipment.

Remember when I said the auction is only posted for 24 hours? The exception is if someone makes a bid within the last half hour of the auction. Then the listing will be extended for another hour (or longer, depending on the rarity/popularity/demand for the item). This will prevent players from sitting on the auction and placing a bid at the last minute and will allow someone who is outbid a chance to bid again, further driving the price up so that the only person who gets the item is the person with the most cash.

Since the BMAH is run by the NPC's, the credits are not moved around the economy, they are instead removed completely from the game.

If popular enough and the items for bid are good enough, that will over time remove billions of credits from the game.

Examples of items that can be sold on the BMAH

Examples of mounts that exist in the game files but cannot be obtained.
Unobtainable Mounts in SWTOR (swtorista.com)

Mounts that have been retired and cannot be obtained
Retired Mounts in SWTOR (swtorista.com)

Retired crafting schematics for armor
Battlemaster, War HeroNC, L and QSA Armors in Star Wars: The Old Republic - Swtorista.com

Armor that is unbuyable, but instead rewarded for completion of something (rep, flashpoints, quest lines, etc) Allowing players to skip the grind or re-obtain them if they accidently deleted them.
Battlemaster, War HeroNC, L and QSA Armors in Star Wars: The Old Republic - Swtorista.com

retired Pets
Retired Pets in SWTOR (swtorista.com)

retired color crystals
All Retired Crystals in SWTOR (swtorista.com)

retired decorations
Retired Decorations | SWTOR Strongholds (swtorista.com)

 

[felleto]

I think it could be a good idea for those players with millions of credits with nothing to spend on. I don't know if there were any negative effects to the implementation of the Black Martke AH in Wow. I can't think of any on the top of my head so I think it would be a positive implementation for the game. 

[Qson]

I believe this will absolutely work. Just have basic minimum start prices.