The whole reason for this change is that the auction houses on medium-full population servers are crawling; 40+ pages of Monelite ore. The implemented "fix" punishes players, but it is Blizzard's fault this happened in the first place. Their changes to the tradeskill and gathering systems created the perfect storm to cause this issue.
I can only speak for Alchemy, but I assume the same to be true for other tradeskills. Elixers and Combat Potions used to take 5-10 herbs to craft in prior expansions. Many people use these recipes to skill up their Alchemy in the mid skill range (75-115). Now in BfA these consumables take 3-5 times as many herbs to craft. This creates a huge demand on the herb economy.
In addition, the changes to gathering skills have allowed anyone and everyone to start gathering BfA herbs the moment they hit Zandalar/Kul'Tiras. This has created a large number of novice gatherers that are unfamiliar with the herb economy and what stack sizes typically sell well. It is understandable they started off unknowingly sell herbs in stacks of 1, and continue to do so because they sell fast.
I personally feel like the number of herbalism nodes have increased dramatically, this may be anecdotal, but I never recall being able to farm 400-800 herbs an hour in prior expansions. This seems logical as Blizzard is probably trying to scale up for demand.
So now we have a commodity market in which people are able to quickly sell large volume of single stacks, larger volume than has ever been seen in the game's history. It is obvious this could cause problems with the AH system. What doesn't make sense is this new deposit model. It will not address the core problem: large amounts of single stack materials. These items will sell, nearly every time. The only exception are commodities that have slow movement, like Anchorweed, Platinum ore, and old world materials. This system unjustly punishes people selling these items.
A better solution would be to impose account-wide auction caps (100-150 per account), enforce minimum stack sizes on select commodities, or auction limits on specific items (e.g. max of 20 auctions of Winter's Kiss at one time). Hopefully Blizzard will change their stance on this issue soon. It makes selling some items much more costly, while not addressing the root problem.
Not going to whine and say this will make me quit the game, but it does adversely affect how I and many others enjoy the game. Please consider rethinking the knee jerk reaction you've taken Blizzard.
TL;DR: Blizzard made this issue, now they punish players. Don't.
Awesome change and it is working. Looks like a lot of irritated single stackers want to get this reverted though.
Sure fire way to stop these people from doing these underhanded griefing tactics is to hit em in the pocket books!
I kinda of would have liked to see a feature to report in ah for ah spam and get their posting privileges revoked for a week at a time... and it doubles every time but this works too. 8)
Good thinking!
Sure fire way to stop these people from doing these underhanded griefing tactics is to hit em in the pocket books!
I kinda of would have liked to see a feature to report in ah for ah spam and get their posting privileges revoked for a week at a time... and it doubles every time but this works too. 8)
Good thinking!
Everything that is said about auction size is true. People get pissed off with the multitude of small material auctions but the add-ons causing them also rapidly buy them out too. The problem is that Blizz is pulling the wool over everyone's eyes by the fob off: "no need to worry, the deposit will be returned upon successful sales". By using such an all-encompassing statement they try to convince us no one is losing out. But with the majority of postings going unsold and in many noted cases this week where the deposit can be as high as 100% no sales strategy can survive for long, even for the Auction House millionaires, no matter how positive your hopes are. The reality is that it's nothing more than a means of extracting gold from the game. Keep this up and many items will permanently disappear from auctions altogether as it simply won't be worth listing. The Auction House was originally a means for players to share what they didn't want. Now, with ridiculous deposit rates, many items will just be vendored along with the trash.
Now that I've had time to get back into the AH, I can say without a doubt that THIS CHANGE IS OUTRAGEOUS. I will lose more than I will ever gain on the AH now. Muradin and Nordrassil will lose my constant, steady stream of old mats. BLIZZARD: NO ONE BUYS MATS IN STACKS OF 200!!!!! GIVE IT UP! This is a nightmare. FIX THIS!
Let me preface this by saying I understand the regular player's frustration with hundreds and hundreds of 1-stack items hogging up their search results.
That said, anyone who hails this change as the eternal solution to fix all AH problems is dangerously short-sighted.
I make non-current professions crafting reagents from several expansions because it is a niche market on my server. Can you guess why I don't list them at 200 items a stack? Because those who buy these niche crafting reagents generally only use a few of those at a time for old crafting recipes.
Again, these are OLD materials, not current expansion items that are listed in the thousands.
I'm not trying to be a trolling idiot by hogging up the listings page; I'm typically the ONLY one who sells those items. I list them at 5-a-stack, and a few 1-a-stack because I know the pain of over-buying materials. I understand the desire to buy only what I need because I have been the customer before. But also be aware that these old crafting reagents do not sell as easily as current expansion ones. My market is niche; even if I may be the only seller of something it may take several listing cycles for my items to be sold. The high deposit fees just take away any meaning to me putting these old materials up.
What this new change has essentially done is made the sales of old world materials horribly impractical for me as a seller and as a buyer who may just want small quantities for my own personal uses.
Again, I understand the frustration of hundreds/ thousands of 1-stack items hogging up search results. But please apply these changes to current expansion materials only; past content material has their own economy that functions differently from current.
That said, anyone who hails this change as the eternal solution to fix all AH problems is dangerously short-sighted.
I make non-current professions crafting reagents from several expansions because it is a niche market on my server. Can you guess why I don't list them at 200 items a stack? Because those who buy these niche crafting reagents generally only use a few of those at a time for old crafting recipes.
Again, these are OLD materials, not current expansion items that are listed in the thousands.
I'm not trying to be a trolling idiot by hogging up the listings page; I'm typically the ONLY one who sells those items. I list them at 5-a-stack, and a few 1-a-stack because I know the pain of over-buying materials. I understand the desire to buy only what I need because I have been the customer before. But also be aware that these old crafting reagents do not sell as easily as current expansion ones. My market is niche; even if I may be the only seller of something it may take several listing cycles for my items to be sold. The high deposit fees just take away any meaning to me putting these old materials up.
What this new change has essentially done is made the sales of old world materials horribly impractical for me as a seller and as a buyer who may just want small quantities for my own personal uses.
Again, I understand the frustration of hundreds/ thousands of 1-stack items hogging up search results. But please apply these changes to current expansion materials only; past content material has their own economy that functions differently from current.
How about just cap the number of stacks per item a player can have listed?
IMO the AH needs to have a check box for "filter stacks of less than ___" Then you can chose to just not look at stacks of less than 5 or 20 or whatever. I realise that would require some work on the AH interface itself, so may not be an easy change to implement. But I think it would solve a lot of issues. True, there is extra computing power required to do the search and only return specific results. But now that everyone wouldn't be FORCED to wait for each page to load, that might also decrease the amount of power used (so in theory it would even out somewhat). Though I of course also realise that I'm not a WoW dev and don't know for sure if that would be the case. Could be something to explore at any rate.
This looks great for current materials, it's going to really hurt the market for older mats from prior expansions. But i get the impression that Blizzard feels there is no longer any reason for people to do anything with professions from older expansions - the changes to making it separate for each expansion seem to have that in mind.
The changes are also deflecting from another issue - if Blizzard would update their UI to match what addons like auctionator do, one-stacks of items wouldn't be a problem. People could easily filter them out.
The changes are also deflecting from another issue - if Blizzard would update their UI to match what addons like auctionator do, one-stacks of items wouldn't be a problem. People could easily filter them out.
08/30/2018 04:15 AMPosted by Yshal20 pages of people telling you this change sucks and why it sucks and no response from Blizzard. And no update to the OP.
We know you’re reading this. So communicate please!
Personally, I like the change. Ion admits (in his blue post ABOUT THIS CHANGE) that long-term they need to re-do the Auction House internals. He says this change is just a quick-fix, a patch to improve things short-term. If you want a comment from Blizzard, then read Ion's long post! If I found it, you can find it.
But they do not reply to individual players, just because you disagree with them. 2-way ongoing conversations with the devs is NOT part of your subscription. It is also NOT a purpose of this forum.
"20 pages" is nothing! It's a drop in the bucket. There are 5 million players in the game. No matter WHAT change Blizzard makes, at least 3% of players "think this change sucks". 3% is 150,000 players. So Blizzard KNOWS that at least 150,000 players "think this change sucks". They are not impressed when 150 of them post that in the forum. The also know that players who like the change are not "just as likely to post a comment". The forum posters are not a balanced cross section of the playerbase.
Blizz devs do not reply to everyone who disagrees with them. Endless ongoing debates with players is NOT part of the dev's job. Players are NOT co-designers of the game. While the devs like feedback, they do NOT need to convince us that their decisions are good.
08/30/2018 10:54 AMPosted by AmandielThe changes are also deflecting from another issue - if Blizzard would update their UI to match what addons like auctionator do, one-stacks of items wouldn't be a problem. People could easily filter them out.
Filtering doesn't work: filtering happens AFTER the database search, and that search is what is slowing the auction house down (to a crawl, on some servers).
As you say, Auctionator filters. 1400 single-stack posts show up as ONE LINE on Auctionator. But the search takes just as long. On one of my servers, it takes a whole minute. On another server the same search takes 4 minutes.
In his recent blue post, Ion agrees with you: Blizzard needs to re-write their auction house internals to solve this slowness. But software development takes months, not hours.
08/30/2018 11:35 AMPosted by Tchalla08/30/2018 10:54 AMPosted by AmandielThe changes are also deflecting from another issue - if Blizzard would update their UI to match what addons like auctionator do, one-stacks of items wouldn't be a problem. People could easily filter them out.
Filtering doesn't work: filtering happens AFTER the database search, and that search is what is slowing the auction house down (to a crawl, on some servers).
As you say, Auctionator filters. 1400 single-stack posts show up as ONE LINE on Auctionator. But the search takes just as long. On one of my servers, it takes a whole minute. On another server the same search takes 4 minutes.
In his recent blue post, Ion agrees with you: Blizzard needs to re-write their auction house internals to solve this slowness. But software development takes months, not hours.
Um... if blizz implemented it, filtering could be a PART of the database search... thus, you could easily, and quickly, filter out those idiots that post singles of consumables/crafting mats.
why not have a separate AH for mats and such? where it automatically combines all the stacks of an item together and you can choose how many from that, like Wildstar's Commodities Exchange.
Current mats are fine, but older mats should be exempt as they're really a niche market. Just because a player doesn't need to level with them, they might want to craft the recipes for transmog.
Quite a few recipies require mats from other professions like many cloth boots require one or two pieces of leather. Why would I buy more then one or two to craft an item? It just makes it more of a pain to acquire these items.
Current listings are fine as people are buying in bulk and want too, but listings for old content this only hurts.
Quite a few recipies require mats from other professions like many cloth boots require one or two pieces of leather. Why would I buy more then one or two to craft an item? It just makes it more of a pain to acquire these items.
Current listings are fine as people are buying in bulk and want too, but listings for old content this only hurts.
I truly hope this is a temporary measure.
When I first heard about this change being implemented, I probably had the same reaction many others had. I kind of chuckled and grinned and thought "Good, I can't stand it when people flood the AH with pages of single items!" I was glad this issue was being addressed.
When I went to handle my auctions on my auction alt I found this was having a negative impact on me despite the fact that I do not post large amounts of single stacks of a crafting item.
Some of the gold I make comes from selling a variety of crafting goods, and usually I post 3 to 5 auctions of single items because those items tend to sell individually and rarely sell more than that. Some of these items sell for good gold, but they don't move very quickly so I get them back after the auction expires and so I repost them. I'm willing to eat a small fee to keep these items up so that they move gradually. Unfortunately, as of this "solution", I can no longer afford to post these items anymore because I'm losing so much gold because of a higher deposit fee on items that are unlikely going to move quickly. These various items I post don't move fast enough to warrant keeping them up anymore, and what was once a fairly nice way to make some gold has unfortunately become an expense I cannot afford.
Personally, I would have rather this action have not taken place at all. The fact that it has been implemented after all of these years of this problem existing makes me worry that a real solution is not on the way any time soon. It seems to be having an unexpected negative impact on some players.
I feel the AH needs a UI change, and there are addons that have actually been doing things that solve this issue. They list auctions by poster so they're grouped and can be expanded or bought progressively without long lists resulting in pages and pages of posts.
As of this post, this obviously isn't a game-breaking issue. For me it doesn't ruin the game. That said, my hope is that a change is being worked on and will be released fairly soon down the road, and not a year or more away. If that's not the case, I would honestly hope this temporary "solution" would be reverted, although I understand that's not likely. Until then, players such as myself will have to just adapt and make changes and hope for the best.
When I first heard about this change being implemented, I probably had the same reaction many others had. I kind of chuckled and grinned and thought "Good, I can't stand it when people flood the AH with pages of single items!" I was glad this issue was being addressed.
When I went to handle my auctions on my auction alt I found this was having a negative impact on me despite the fact that I do not post large amounts of single stacks of a crafting item.
Some of the gold I make comes from selling a variety of crafting goods, and usually I post 3 to 5 auctions of single items because those items tend to sell individually and rarely sell more than that. Some of these items sell for good gold, but they don't move very quickly so I get them back after the auction expires and so I repost them. I'm willing to eat a small fee to keep these items up so that they move gradually. Unfortunately, as of this "solution", I can no longer afford to post these items anymore because I'm losing so much gold because of a higher deposit fee on items that are unlikely going to move quickly. These various items I post don't move fast enough to warrant keeping them up anymore, and what was once a fairly nice way to make some gold has unfortunately become an expense I cannot afford.
Personally, I would have rather this action have not taken place at all. The fact that it has been implemented after all of these years of this problem existing makes me worry that a real solution is not on the way any time soon. It seems to be having an unexpected negative impact on some players.
I feel the AH needs a UI change, and there are addons that have actually been doing things that solve this issue. They list auctions by poster so they're grouped and can be expanded or bought progressively without long lists resulting in pages and pages of posts.
As of this post, this obviously isn't a game-breaking issue. For me it doesn't ruin the game. That said, my hope is that a change is being worked on and will be released fairly soon down the road, and not a year or more away. If that's not the case, I would honestly hope this temporary "solution" would be reverted, although I understand that's not likely. Until then, players such as myself will have to just adapt and make changes and hope for the best.
The reason a lot of people post stacks of 1 is the relative guarantee of a sale. If I only need 1 or 2 of something, I'm not going to spend thousands to buy a full stack of 200. Until Blizzard makes it possible to buy what you want instead of the full stack, this will never change.
Does anyone have a place to find the data on this, wondering if the whole idea of the scrapper contributing to an inflated auction amount of auctions is true.
Curious to know:
Amount of auctions on an auction house of high-pop on a server a few weeks after an expansion like legion came out, compared to amount of items on the AH today.
Curious to know:
Amount of auctions on an auction house of high-pop on a server a few weeks after an expansion like legion came out, compared to amount of items on the AH today.
08/30/2018 09:01 AMPosted by SistersueNO ONE BUYS MATS IN STACKS OF 200!!!!!
lol wut?
They have the info they need to object to that silly statement.
Only small timers sell in single stacks or stacks of 2 or 5....
Tru masters of the ah sell in stacks in 200 and buy larger stacks first and ignore singles.
So out of touch.
08/30/2018 05:09 PMPosted by JoeeyaaDoes anyone have a place to find the data on this, wondering if the whole idea of the scrapper contributing to an inflated auction amount of auctions is true.
Curious to know:
Amount of auctions on an auction house of high-pop on a server a few weeks after an expansion like legion came out, compared to amount of items on the AH today.
I'm not sure, but I would think it would have at least some effect. We saw something similar in WoD with everyone having a mine and an herb garden. Something is definitely going on with the number of materials, though. Looking at various trade skill materials on the Undermine Journal for my server shows them skyrocketing in quantity starting about a week ago (while some have cratered, I suspect because they're only useful in small batches but now they're impossible to sell as singles).
I'm not really a fan of the practice of selling 1 item, but its not really an issue with the players. The problem is the AH, along with so many other things in this game, that are built on antiquated code and need a serious over haul or a rebuild from the ground up. This is a lazy solution to a much larger problem.
How about fixing and updating the AH? Modernize it and make it more usable with some of today's more current tech. It's beyond ridiculous how this garbage system has been allowed to remain this long.
How about fixing and updating the AH? Modernize it and make it more usable with some of today's more current tech. It's beyond ridiculous how this garbage system has been allowed to remain this long.
08/30/2018 07:49 PMPosted by SerovinI'm not really a fan of the practice of selling 1 item, but its not really an issue with the players. The problem is the AH, along with so many other things in this game, that are built on antiquated code and need a serious over haul or a rebuild from the ground up. This is a lazy solution to a much larger problem.
How about fixing and updating the AH? Modernize it and make it more usable with some of today's more current tech. It's beyond ridiculous how this garbage system has been allowed to remain this long.
I like to think about it this way: The current changes are meant to temporarily mitigate a problem while a permanent solution is worked out. If a soldier is seriously injured on a battlefield, it’s not preferable to do the surgery there, so they stabilize the soldier enough to move him and move him to a field hospital. Then they get him out of life-threatening danger, and they move him to a real hospital for creating more permanent fixes and rehabilitation to his body.
This change is just the part where the soldier is stabilized in the field. There’s a lot more work to be done (yes, which should have been done years ago), but this should at least make the system workable again in the short term, while they work on a permanent solution that should last several more years.
Quite honestly, I think Blizzard should look at things like options or commodities exchanges for how to work the system in the future, as opposed to looking at individual auctions for crafting materials. Selling Felweed? Tell the system what you’re willing to accept, it goes into the heap, and then the buyer comes along and says, “I want 20 units of Felweed,”and then the system skims the lowest-priced 20 units, says, “That’ll cost you this much,” and the trade either completes or is abandoned. And then it won’t matter if you’re selling 45 stacks of 1 or 1 stack of 45; if yours is the cheapest, you get paid first. If your price is the highest, it probably won’t sell. Very simple. In this example, there would be no listings for an individual commodity, as far as the buyer is concerned; just one price for however many he’s asking for, and that may have come from one seller or it may have come from twenty; it’s completely opaque to the seller.
Furthermore, in this scenario, there would be no more need for timed auctions. It just goes on the heap (Felweed never goes bad; it’s already as bad as it’ll get), and then the seller could say, “Gee whiz, it’s not selling, so I’ll adjust my acceptable price,” or just cancel the auction and see if he can fleece someone on Trade.
Im just spitballing, here, though. I don’t have access to actual data that shows how many crafting-mat auctions go unbought or what players ultimately do with auctions that don’t sell (because I sell useless items and mats at a 20 percent discount, because that’s the value I put on my bag space), but there’s any number of ways to change the AH to be more computationally efficient and just keep the product moving. But I’m not a fan of the current system, because it’s slow, and I don’t care who I’m buying from.