Let us imagine this:

You're out on a mission to fight Vanaduke with a couple of your buddies. You think that you have enough time between doing the hokey pokey with him and getting back to haven for the auction to end. What's the auction for? Why, nothing else but two Perplexing Elements that you desperately need for your shiny new Obsidian Edge! You have everything else, it's finally time to upgrade your Silent Nightblade! Your patience finally rewards you... The moment you defeat Vanaduke is the moment you get a message from the Auction House: someone has outbid you. You rush as soon as you have your tokens, you don't care about the loot now you need those materials! Alas, it is far too late when you reach the Auction House. The auction is over, and the items are gone... Might as well wait until the next Shroud event comes along...

I bet that has happened to you more than once, it's happened to me plenty of times. What I'm suggesting is an app for the iPhone and Android (those are the two phones I'm familiar with, there's probably more out there) that mimics the Auction House. Obviously you'd have to use your SK account or your Steam account to log in and select your knight on startup. You'll be able to switch between Knights if you have more than one under the settings tab. Once you've logged in, you'll be at...

The main menu. Any featured or rare items will be featured here in a list view. Tapping on a item will give you an expanded view of the item, including an image, the name, flavor text and its current bid price/buy now price. Obviously, if you tap bid you can enter an amount (if you have the crowns) or you can tap buy now and the item will be sent to your mailbox, waiting for you the next time you log in on your desktop or you can redeem it immediately if you're in game. The amount of crowns you have will be displayed in the lower right hand footer. In the top left hand corner is a menu bar, tapping on it will give you a selection of: Home, By Category, By Recipe, Current Bids and Settings.

The next section I want to talk about is the By Category. Tap on it, and you will be taken to a new list view. It would go: Sword, Handgun, Bomb, Armor, Helm, Shield, Trinket, Material, Recipe, Accessory, Battle Sprite, Costume, Furnishing, Rarity, Key, Ticket, and Useable. You can scroll down this list until you find the subsection you wish to explore, tap it, and you'll be taken to a similar list of what you saw on the main menu but all items are related to what you've chosen. If you want to choose a different section, swipe right to go back to the subsection list. If you're looking for a specific item, there is a search bar in the header which you can use. Type in whatever item you're looking for and hit search. There will either be a match, or you will get a notification that the item that you're looking for is currently unavailable. Once again, if you see a item you would like you can tap on a item and you'll see an expanded view of the item, including an image, the name, flavor text and its current bid price/buy now price. Tap bid you can enter an amount (if you have the crowns) or you can tap buy now and the item will be sent to your mailbox.

The By Recipe section is next. You'll see a similar sublist like what you've saw on the By Category section, but tapping a section will bring up a list of known recipe's that knight knows in that category. Tapping on a recipe will bring up a list of all materials that is needed for it. At the end of each material or item is a box, checking it will collapse the list to only the items that you need. If you want to see all items again, there will be a refresh button in the top right that will bring all checked items back. Tapping on a item directly will bring you to a screen that looks similar to buying items from the By Category and from the Home menu. Same song third verse, tap on a item for a detailed view, bid or buy now.

Our next contestant is the Current Bids section. Tap on that from the menu bar and you will see a list like from what you've seen on the Home page. It will display the item, tell you if you're in the lead or you've been outbid, and how much time the auction has left. If it's completed, it will be greyed out and you cannot interact with it and it will go away in the next few days. The lame the same, tap on a item and if you're outbid simply put in your new amount and you will be put back in the lead. Or, if you have enough crowns, you can tap buy now.

Lastly is Settings. Nothing too fancy here, you can either switch your knight (if you have more than one) so then they can buy things from the Auction house, make personal notes (which is not tied into the game, it's just a place to make notes or a shopping list), and you can log out.

I'm currently working on mock sketches in ArtRage4 of what it might look like and, if I happen to get Reflector 2 for Christmas, I will build a mock app on FileMaker and give a demo of how it would look and how it would behave. It won't be official and I most certainly won't give it away, as it's just a mock up and nothing official, just to show off on how it might work. I'll update this when I've finished the sketches and when I have Reflector I'll record a demo. Obviously I'm psyched for my own idea because I think it sounds amazing.

What do you guys think? Yay or nay?