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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsNeutral Auction houses (and putting them in Northrend)
by Mike Schramm 
Mar 24th 2009 at 5:00PM
You've probably heard, by now, the reason why there are no auction houses (or class trainers) in Dalaran or Shattrath. Blizzard doesn't want the old world towns (like Ironforge and Orgrimmar) to become ghost towns. Ghost towns like, for example, Shattrath -- have you been there lately? But as Gnomeaggedon pointed out last week, there's another option: neutral Auction houses.We haven't talked about the Neutral Auction houses in the game for a long time -- they exist only in Winterspring, Booty Bay, and Tanaris, and pretty much have only served the purpose of trading items back and forth between the two factions (or scamming between them). But Gnomeaggedon has a new idea: why not reintroduce them to the newer cities, and create another option for people rather than having to go all the way back to the old world (and waste a hearthstone cooldown)? Not only would you bring people back to the Neutral Auction houses (they really are empty right now), but you'd bring the auction house back to the people, at a slightly higher cost.
I like it, and so does Mend Pet, though she sees a few issues: even with the higher cost, you might still get people forgetting about the normal Auction houses and then you've just switched where the problem is (not to mention that people leveling wouldn't see anyone in the big cities when they went). And Dalaran is laggy and crowded as it is -- creating another mess of characters won't help. And finally, this is a solution without a real problem: we're getting the Hearthstone cooldown lowered anyway, so it's not that big deal to go back home occasionally (or just use a bank alt). Still, the Neutral houses are just sort of sitting there. Giving us more access to them might be worth it.
Filed under: Items, Analysis / Opinion, Virtual selves, Odds and ends, Blizzard, Economy, Making money
Reader Comments (Page 5 of 5)
Daniel Mar 24th 2009 8:57PM
What about my fellow "Bloodsail Admirals" who can't go near any Steamwheedle Cartel places anymore to use the Neutral AH?
Arrggghhh me hearties!
No way can I grind the rep back for those guys.
Mike Mar 24th 2009 9:19PM
Personally, I think they could add one in Shat. It would allow easier access to the neutral AH (through the Dalaran portal) and wouldn't bring a higher player count in Dalaran itself.
And the same could be done to Dalaran after the next expansion is out to. That would give the older 'hub' cities a higher population, without making the lag in them too bad.
Mike Mar 24th 2009 9:20PM
Bah, I didn't notice Sajt's post when I put mine in... >.
Croe Mar 24th 2009 10:20PM
Now that Blizzard has successfully worked with phased realities, putting in portals in each major city could easily be implemented.
Maybe the portals will only appear once you've reached a new destination (such as flight paths).
Elry Mar 24th 2009 10:44PM
Perhaps if there was more in the classic zones to do with the storyline in Northrend players would go back there more often. As Daelone pointed out, just getting sent by a quest is pointless and would lead to lots just abandoning the quest, so longer lore-based quest chains, or some other long mission chains in the classic areas, could lead to a lot more players willingly visiting the zones. I mean, just because we've moved the majority of our forces to Northrend to fight Arthas on his own ground doesn't mean that the problems in the Eastern Plaguelands have gone away. Blizzard haven't used their phasing technology on those undead, so they're still very much there from my toon's point of view, and need to be dealt with! We have Ebon Hold watching over it, but once DKs finish those quests they pack up to Outland, rush through that then get into NR pretty darn quick. I agree with Beli's post that the phasing technology could be used to make going back to the older areas useful for higher levels, while not affecting lower levels levelling up.
If I were commanding the forces of the undead in the Plaguelands, and I saw how infrequently players visited the Old World, then I'd restart my invasion there, while everyone else is distracted by how pretty Northrend is! :P
Ærynn Lómëhtar Mar 24th 2009 11:19PM
Yes, to having more accessible neutral auction houses.
No, to having these in Dalaran. I think that the idea behind not wanting the starting cities and old locations to become ghost towns is sound. However, since Shattrath is now, technically, old location I think it makes sense that there should be a neutral auction house there. It fits with lore—Shattrath is a neutral city that doesn't allow horde and alliance to open hostility... surely, by now, there would be some limited trade.
Having it in Shattrath will not hurt the starting cities: people will still go there to get better deals and cheaper items, and only those who can go to Outland will have access to it.
Just my two cents.
Robby Willams Mar 25th 2009 4:40AM
I think it would be a terrible idea. Then the playerbase would be split between two AHS. Id have to go check the Dala AH then go to org and check the same thing to make sure they were the same price. Very pointless with only consequences.
seanfury Mar 24th 2009 11:41PM
I'd love it if there was a port to Wintergrasp from all the major cities. I ABHOR Dalag, it's so much worse than Shat, because it's so SMALL, unlike shit which was huge. If there was a quicker way to Northend than the boat, I'd just hang around in SW or even IF all day. Hell, I wish there was a way places from Darnassus, because I'd be happy there.
danawhitaker Mar 24th 2009 11:54PM
Frak the neutral AH idea. Just open up the faction-separate AHs in the respective parts of Dalaran already. As I've gotten higher and higher level I loathe going back to the old areas more and more, and frankly, when I was a low level, nothing annoyed me more than a bunch of level 70-80 people running around with their giant mounts and cramming in around the auctioneers taking up lots of space and spamming trade. I'm sorry, but if I'm level 80, I really shouldn't have to go back to the starting cities for anything. Same goes for class trainers, but I digress. Put the AHs in Dalaran and be done with it, Dalaran is the new hub of the game whether Blizzard *wants* it to be or not. Everyone and their level 2 alt is there now.
Alternately, if you want to ease the travel frustrations of getting back to the capital cities, put level-restricted portals to Dalaran and Shattrath in them so that only people above level 58 can use them. Then we won't have to waste other forms of travel to get there.
I'd honestly like it even better if all AHs were basically "neutral" and weren't limited by faction, as I think it would provide an overall great selection of gear/recipes, but I doubt they'll ever implement that. I don't want to see higher auction fees though. The 48 hour fees are already brutal selling off upper outlands gear and ore. I can't imagine how bad it starts to get with Northrend stuff.
I used to auction things every day. As it stands now, I auction twice a week. In between those times, I mail stuff to my alt and then return the mail on Tuesdays and Fridays (the days I've found with peak AH usage). It's not worth my time to leave where I am, currently, Shadowmoon Valley, hearth back to Dalaran or fly back to Shattrath to use a portal, then either sit around and twiddle my thumbs or pay for mage portal or hearth back to Dalaran (in the case of having flown to Shatt to use the portal) to get back where I want to go. My play time is limited, I want to maximize it. That doesn't involve going back to cities that hold no interest or use for me anymore. It wasn't so bad when I was still on Kalimdor and Eastern Kingdoms. But now that I'm completely out of those areas, forget it. Twice a week is good enough.
I just don't get Blizzard's insistence at trying to keep those hubs for HIGHER LEVEL CHARACTERS. It's pointless. There are no quests beyond 60 there. If you want to keep people where they're supposed to frakking be, stop making it so easy for low-level characters to get to Dalaran and Shattrath in the first place. *That* is where some of the greatest attrition comes from. They could introduce hard level caps to even get into those cities. We know it's possible, since they're able to effectively limit the level of characters that enter instances (there were plenty of instances I couldn't get into at 55 for the Elders during the Lunar festival, after all).
Passerby Mar 25th 2009 1:43AM
Can't see that happening unless you somehow manage to get a level cap on a city without having a loading screen to filter out all the lowbies. I like my screenless cities as they are.
MyrddinE Mar 25th 2009 12:19AM
Just put a new neutral AH in Shattrath. That will help keep some activity in that abandoned city, and won't exacerbate the crowding problems of Dalaran.
Grimtar Mar 25th 2009 12:35AM
This has been suggested a million times, and it is still stupid, for all the reasons you list in the post.
And finally, this is a solution without a real problem
Then why even think about it?
Passerby Mar 25th 2009 1:35AM
If you want to make sure that the old auction houses don't go out of style, there's an easy feature to add to neutral auction houses that might make a few buyers/sellers think twice:
Tax.
Oscar Mar 25th 2009 2:00AM
I always thought a good way to make neutral auction houses more accessible would be to add at least 1 goblin auctioneer to each auction house which would give you access to the neutral auction house.
I'm sure there will be people complaining that they accidentally auctioned something off in the neutral AH when they meant to do it on the same faction AH. To prevent this the auctioneer could be placed away from the regular auctioneers (off the platform, off to the side somewhere), or some other idea like over overemphasizing that it's a neutral AH
alex Mar 25th 2009 2:21AM
Other than the mayor cities, the old world is dead. The outlands, apart for the death knights is dead too. Bliz should really invest in making some modifications to the old world, allowing flying mounts and making areas accessible only by flying mounts. There could be completely new quest-hubs there for lvl 80's, with appropriate monsters.
Wouldn't it be cool flying over the barrens? (Of course on pvp servers there would be a lot of ganking on the lowbies.)
Reshnar Mar 25th 2009 4:43AM
There is also a Neutral Auction House in Booty Bay ;)
ManWithSword Mar 25th 2009 8:43AM
If Blizzard don't want the old world cities to become ghost towns, why not simply places like Ironforge, Darnassus and Shattrath a means of reaching Northrend? Stormwind has ships travelling back and forth. Why not have a flightpath from Ironforge and Darnassus to Northrend? And, have a portal in Shattrath that takes players directly to pink marshmallow toy town (er..I mean Dalaran). I think you could also avoid the old world cities becoming ghost towns by having some level 80 quests or dungeons in the all the old cities, to breathe some new life into the old content.
Personally, I'm not as taken with Northrend, as I was with Outland. Northrend is basically bleak tundra and arctic wastes over and over again, with little variety. Dalaran is far too pink for my taste, and too small. Compare the size of Dalaran to Shattrath...and the no fly zones don't make any sense, and stop players from showing off their new winged mounts. The no fly zone over Wintergrasp is also a pain in the butt. The lack of geographical variety, combined with the lack of flight freedom, the small size of Dalaran and its flight restrictions, has the effect of making Northrend feel smaller than Outland. I used to be a hardcore player with BC, but I've found myself bored with Northrend, reached level 80 without even really trying. I now play casually, dipping in and out for some daily quests. Its just not grabbed me in the same way that BC did.
ManWithSword Mar 25th 2009 8:45AM
"why not simply GIVE places like Ironforge...." just to correct the typo.
evankimori Mar 25th 2009 11:58AM
Well look at it this way: Neutral AH charges 15% off the top. No arguments. Now couple this with that fact that:
1-Not many people use them.
2-Commodity rates vary from faction to faction.
3-AH fees would drive price rates a bit further up. After all, no one wants some greedy goblin skimming 15% off the top of your Saronite Ore auction.
4-Some players would faster sell to their own faction solely and keep the money on 'their side' as opposed to being a profiteer and supporting whomever paid the most.
5-You can't buy your own auctions anyway, no matter the faction difference so the whole idea of increasing 'faction trade' or 'AH smuggling' is moot. You still have to find a middleman to complete the transaction.
6-AH's are what Bank alts are for. Most players I know use them anyway.
I don't even want an AH system anywhere NEAR Lagaran. That place is lag-fail-central the same way Shatt was and it continues to be so. Adding any AH mechanism remotely near a high trafficked zone at max level is asking for trouble, multiple disconnects and unhappy players. And if you do: say goodbye to anyone being remotely near Org, UC, TB, SM etc. Make them more of a ghost town why dontcha?
Pay-for portal NPC's? Yes. Yes. Yes. VERY yes. Charge me 5-10G for a portal back to Dalaran even with the reduced HS cd? Not bad. I'll pay that. Mages can easily trump the NPC's rate with their own if they want to spend time casting the portal. So they can't complain OH GOD WHY DID YOU GIVE US PORTAL SPELLS THEN. And atop of that? Make faction discounts apply. Have a cooldown on the teleport NPC. Have a level restriction on a city. It. all. works.
Dan Mar 25th 2009 7:21PM
Problems: Dala is laggy. There's no AH.
Solution 1: Create a neutral AH in Shatt. Jack the AH fees on it. Build a port BACK to dala in shatt. Call it a day.
this would fix: crowding in dala (somewhat), repopulate shatt (somewhat), and build at least a sensible neutral auction house amongst 60+'s who do not feel the need to be burdened to go to ratchet or BB or any aformentioned goblin-zone, at the same time providing the neutral AH framework with actual items.
Solution 2: for the most part, on my servers, the sewers? not crowded. to crowd them up. throw a neutral AH down there. It'd reduce lag, but not repopulate shatt (which was well designed in separating players)...
In solution one, which i'm obviously advocating, what'd help would be to just throw one on each of the three quadrants (yeah, i know), of shatt... not too difficult eh?