Dear Knights-
I think we all agree that the game's economy is a royal pain in the butt. Selling, especially, is a nightmare. It can take hours--even days--to get your materials, recipes, and crafted goods into the right buyer's hands.
There's a lot of agreement among players that the game needs an auction house. The question is, what form would it take? I'd like to lay out a small proposal here. Feel free to chime in with agreements or disagreements. Maybe, possibly, the Forces That Be will take note...?
The way I see it, there are 3 criteria an auction house has to meet. First, it has to be easily accessible and well organized. Second, it has to bolster, not stunt, the in-game economy. Third--and this is a practical consideration--Three Rings has to get a cut somehow.
I propose that we have the opportunity to buy Auction Slots. That "Boost" character in the Bazaar should be the go to guy. Like his Trinket/Extra Weapon Slots, Auction Slots should expire after a fixed length of time--maybe 7 days--and they should get progressively more expensive. Say, your first one for 1K crowns, your second for 2.5K, etc. Each slot only holds one item (or stack of materials), but you can move items in and out, and adjust your asking price freely.
This system, by keeping the market from being flooded, will hopefully keep sales profits relatively high. Additionally, players can respond to fluctuations of supply/demand in real time. This is where a well-organized, easy-to-use interface is essential. The "Energy Depot Market" already has a reasonable, if limited, model that with minor adjustments could serve as an Auction House. For sellers, you would need an immediate comparison of the current range of prices, and a way of seeing, at a glance, what recipes/materials/crafted items are Not currently on the market. Buyers would need a hierarchical tree (similar to the one at http://wiki.spiralknights.com/List_of_alchemy_paths), a search function, and the ability to look at only UV crafted items, for starters.
It would make sense for the Auction House to be accessible only from Haven; or maybe Alchemy stands could become Alchemy/Market stands?
That's the sum of it. Of course, it wouldn't eliminate the need/use for hawking stuff on the street, as it were. But it would make everyone's life a lot easier--And give Three Rings a new way to skim the cream off the top.
What do you think?
-Numa
Three Rings having to get a cut. Are they getting a cut of crowns here? If so, what are they actually getting out of it? If it costs energy to trade, it doesn't solve the trading problem at all. If, on the other hand, it costs crowns, Three Rings isn't getting anything out of it, even if they DO skim off the top.
Are slots going to be equal between materials (50,000 of those) and recipes (maybe 50-100)? Would players start with a slot, or do they have to pay money to sell things to potentially make money?
If you want to make the AH a partial crown sink, I think there are better ways of doing it (e.g. a tax). The slots idea makes some degree of sense, but I think it should be more akin to weapon/trinket slots, in that you start with X and can buy Y for some monetary amount Z. Wouldn't make sense to start with 0 or 1 (yay, I can sell one material today. Which will it be? Hmm...).