Gold Capped News: Critical AH addons broken by patch 4.0.1
by Basil Berntsen 
Oct 8th 2010 at 7:00PM
If you were to install the PTR right now and try to post a batch of auctions for sale with your favorite addon, there's a good chance it wouldn't work. Blizzard has changed the way that addons can interact with the auction house so that it's no longer possible to queue up a large volume of auctions and let them post while you read my columns.
Both Auctioneer and Quickauctions 3 have been hit hard, obviously. These are the most commonly used addons for queuing up a bunch of auctions. The rule previously seemed to be that we're not allowed to buy in batches, but we are allowed to sell in batches. Well, it looks like Blizzard has decided that we can no longer sell in batches, either. In addition, QA3 has lost its ability to automatically cancel auctions that have been undercut. The new patch requires a hardware event per action, and this has not (at the time of publishing) been written into these addons.
So what is a batch? Since you can queue up multiple stacks of the same item using the default UI, that seems to be allowed still. What is no longer allowed is putting together a list of different types of items that you want to sell at the same time. Take heart, dear reader: There is a workaround!
First, the workaround is fortunately not to simply manually post all your auctions. When you have 300+ glyphs (for example) and dozens of types of cut gems that you probably want to be listing for all the new demand that 4.0.1 will generate, sitting there with the default posting interface does not cut it. It doesn't show you the similar auctions you will be competing with in the same frame, and it doesn't suggest a remotely intelligent default price.
That said, to fix QA3 (only, for now), simply download and install this addon. [edit: credit where credit's due. This was written by the awesome folks who spend their days at the JMTC forums, specifically Zerotorescue, the author of the QA-poster addon]. Without it, QA3 will just hang. With it, you're presented with a handy-dandy little box saying, "Do you want to post this auction?" It doesn't seem to work with Auctioneer (currently, the box comes up but doesn't seem to work when you click it), but I have faith in the Auctioneer dev team's ability to get a new build out fairly soon when its product stops working. Still, gems and glyphs are expected to be the big sellers come patch day, and those are both markets that QA3 does very well.
Apparently, addons are still allowed to automatically price for you, and that's one of the two biggest advantages that QA3 gives us, in addition to automated batch selling and canceling. The only change is that you need to click once for every group of auctions. Luckily, you can still keybind the action of clicking the Yes button: Simply create a macro with this line in it.
/click StaticPopup1Button1It will work for canceling as well as posting. Drag the macro to a button, keybind that button, and you're set. This type of automation was covered in another article: same principle, different application. It's not perfect, but at least it's better than using the default UI to post several hundred types of products by hand.
Why now?
I am not going to hazard a guess about what drove the fine folks at the Blizzard UI dev team to make this undocumented change to the functions used by these addons specifically to service the glyph and gem markets, but it's a little rough that it's happening simultaneously with a patch that's expected to drive more demand for them than any other patch in the history of the game. Patch 4.0.1 is drastically changing the desirability of stats to many classes in the game, and a huge number of people will be regemming from armor penetration to something other than crit (which is what ArP gems will give you after the patch). Also, now that we can learn every glyph in the game, there's going be a huge surge in demand for glyphs as people scramble to get one of each.
Maximize your profits with more advice from Gold Capped, plus the author's Call to Auction podcast. Do you have questions about selling, reselling and building your financial empire on the auction house? Basil is now taking questions for a special series, "Ask an auctioneer," at basil@wow.com.Filed under: Economy, Add-Ons, Cataclysm, Gold Capped
Reader Comments (Page 4 of 7)
wutsconflag Oct 11th 2010 2:07AM
@originaltdiddy:
If Blizzard didn't want people to make money with professions they wouldn't have created:
Alchemy
Enchanting
Blacksmithing
Engineering (I almost laughed as I typed this one, actually.)
Leatherworking
Tailoring
Jewelcrafting
Inscription
Mining
Herbalism
Skinning
Fishing
Cooking
So, I guess we can keep our First Aid, since it's the only profession I can't come up with a sale-able (sp?) item for?
Krevlorn Oct 8th 2010 8:07PM
Good thing my G15 allows me to macro button presses and repeat in a loop.
Seriously though, Blizz doesn't want you to automate the game. So it goes.
Pfooti Oct 8th 2010 8:20PM
I take offense at your implication that I cheat. I do not cheat, nor do I make use of any tools that are banned by the ToU. Those tools are widely-available, and if you took the time to learn them, they'd help you as well. I don't even use the questionable and exploitative QAPoster addon. So let's make this clear.
Current use of Auctioneer and QA3 is not cheating.
You also clearly do not spend much time doing real AH work if you think it's a thoughtless affair. You have to think a LOT about your timing, predicting market trends, and reading patterns into your opponents (even to the point of having to figure out who those opponents are, since everyone's hiding behind AH mules).
What I don't particularly want to have to do is say, "hmm, glyph of frost strike is currently listed with an 8g bid, 9g 51s buyout. I guess i'll manually type 7g50s bid/buyout into the two text areas and hit post" three hundred and thirty times (once per glyph).
I already say, "hmm, I'm down to two glyphs of crusader strike, but that one doesn't sell all that well, so that's fine. But I will create five more glyphs of raise dead, because that one DOES sell well, and my opponents tend to restock their glyphs on tuesdays but today is friday so I have a good chance of selling that stock".
What I do in managing my Glyph business looks a LOT like thinking. What I am going to have to do in the future looks a lot less like thinking and a lot more like fiddly make-work. Imagine in your example- you've decided to cast a spell with a 3.0 sec cast time, what if you had to hit the cast button four times (exactly) in order for the spell to work. Would that be "thinking" more? Because that's akin to what you're talking about.
Glyphwars also has a lot of mindless grinding (see also: buying 4,000 herbs, milling 4,000 herbs, crafting 800 glyphs, which requires approximately 1600 mouse clicks in the current environment, spaced approximately 3.0 seconds apart in time (not counting the one click to buy all the herbs which is going away and the 20 minutes to craft all the ink, also one click). This is a ridiculous grind as-is, and we're just looking at adding more annoying grindery to this process.
So: I do not cheat. Also, I think a LOT while playing Glyphwars. But like any other game, i'd rather if I could spend my time actually thinking instead of micro-managing things.
Pfooti Oct 8th 2010 8:26PM
WTB delete button or something. This was a mis-posted reply to above.
Hih Oct 8th 2010 8:29PM
I'm not a huge AH'er. I sell stuff. Not a lot of stuff, but some stuff. Occasionally. I'd say I sell more than I buy. This is a good change. It will get some of the more casual AH'ers to participate more because prices will likely go up because of the change and not feel like our time is worthless because we're not engaging in all-out AH PvP trying to corner entire professions.
Shade Oct 8th 2010 8:30PM
I like the idea of trying to make the auction house more friendly.
Keep in mind that as much as we all hate the people in trade chat going "NEED GOLD FOR EPIC FLY PLZ", there are in fact more people who quietly do what they can to make the money themselves. The combination of farmers and auction speculators (collectively 'grinders' - I don't know if there's an actual term) makes it significantly harder for these players to make a few gold.
It's true that breaking a few addon functions won't help the nongrinders on the AH very much, because as someone else stated, the truly desperate will resort to illegal bots, etc to do their dirty work. There's a chance that this policy might, however, lead some players to turn to trade chat. If, for example, there isn't a Runed Cardinal Ruby on the Auction House for less than 500 gold (?!) players could either
1) Obtain an uncut gem and try to find a jewelcrafter to make the cut in exchange for a tip. Obviously some grinders are jewelcrafters, but a player can only have 2 professions, so not all grinders are JCs.
2) Simply advertise something like 'wtb Runed Cardinal Ruby 200g' and see who bites. It's probably going to be someone who doesn't play the Auction House, since the grinders will be trying to maintain that 500g market price.
Then again, circumstances are different server-to-server and time-of-day. Larger servers probably have a consistently quasi-infinite supply of gems and glyphs, meaning prices will never get to 500g even in a world without addons.
Pfooti Oct 8th 2010 8:43PM
While I like the intent of your post, I think the reasoning is slightly flawed. Blizzard has already experimented with a tradechat-driven profession: Enchanting. Prior to WotLK, you had to find enchanters in tradechat and get them to enchant your stuff. Now we have vellums so you can buy enchantments on scrolls. It seems like they gave up on that process, and for good reason- tradechat is fairly limited by the amount of availability of players at any given time. To be honest, it's further limited by poor policing from GMs (not that there is *any* policing).
I usually keep tradechat running in a different tab, gathering links for my Gnomish Yellow Pages addon so when I ened something, I have a list of who has advertised. Actually looking at tradechat (or worse, trying to trade) is usually an invitation to anal linkspam, thunderfury spam, general trolling, and the like.
wizzums Oct 8th 2010 9:17PM
TIL: People who don't use the auction house/auction house addons read Gold Capped articles about the auction house.
And, despite how many times Pfooti posts a valid response based on his experiences and predictions, it's wrong.
Sorry Pftooi. Maybe the naysayers will see the light after the patch goes live. :-\
Ez Oct 8th 2010 8:48PM
I agree! Auction addons keep prices fair and let the little guy make more gold. You can go in, post an auction at a slight undercut or a price that i think is fair, in less than an hour usually most stuff sells. I walk away with my gold and the buyer gets a decent price. Also if i am shopping i can find the lowest price quickly and go back to grinding and raids, which is what i play and pay for in the first place. And the more things up for bid, the lower the price gets. So quit yer ******** and get Auctioneer or Auctionator!
Pfooti Oct 8th 2010 9:21PM
It seems like I've run afoul of the self-righteous here (at least that's why I assume I'm getting downvoted, since I'm not actually being offensive, just truthful), so I can feel less worried about angering the public with this follow-up. Since y'all don't seem to like what I have to say, I'll speak my mind.
If you are one of the people who thinks this change will make it easier for you to make gold, you're wrong. If you're one of the people who feel like you got edged out of the market by undercutting "cheaters" like myself, you deserve what you got. You were unable to make it in an environment where anybody could enter the market and use automating tools that cover the grindy parts of dealing with the AH, got discouraged and left. Why on earth do you think that you'll suddenly, magically, be able to do better in the post-4.0 world?
I assure you that the people who currently make money in the AH market will continue to do so, post-patch. As a matter of fact, the addon linked in the actual post makes it so that instead of just saying "post everything" and going AFK, I hit the "post everything" button and then twiddle my mouse scrollwheel, which I have bound to the "accept" button. Wow, that's a big change, I tell you. You're totally right, I'm getting out of this market so you lazy, self-entitled slobs can take it over.
Pssh.
Blizzard has not, and likely will not, create an AH environment that is "casual friendly". For casuals to make money, you have such lovely options as (a) farming materials with a gathering skill and (b) running dailies. If you want to do anything other than sell off that one cool BoE blue you found the one time while questing, you need to have the temperament, intelligence, perseverance, and attitude necessary to make money in the AH. Those requirements have not changed, as a matter of fact they have only gotten steeper.
The only noticeable effect from this will be a general trend upwards in certain markets, which is likely to be hidden by the downward pressure of unlimited epic gem cuts, reusable glyphs, and general pre-cataclysm item malaise. I still contend that the people who stay in will have a larger percentage of botters, scammers, and goldsellers among them than before, but there will still obviously be people like me who do not cheat, do not camp the AH to undercut you poor people 30 seconds after you post, but still makes plenty of gold.
But you still won't make any more gold than before. Not because I possess addons that you don't, but because I possess the drive that you lack. If you had that drive, you would have downloaded, learned, and used QA3 to dominate your corner of your server's economy, and you wouldn't be here crying about how the bad man undercut you.
See? That's me being offensive. Or at least tactless. There's a difference.
etontrifle Oct 9th 2010 7:23AM
Couldn't agree more, the end of cheap glyphs is nigh, the future will be 'WTS complete glyph package for Mage...4000gold'
Dameblanche Oct 9th 2010 8:16AM
I must say that I have followed the wave of downrating you with some amusement. There should be a sociological study on why people downrate; my feeling is that half the people who pressed the vote down button on your posts, haven't even read your elaborate posts completely, but are acting out of group behavior (somebody already down voted him, so he must be wrong, so I will down vote too) or are blindly clicking Vote This Comment Down every time they see your name.
I find it also fascinating that the readers of a column dedicated to how to make as much gold as possible, cry foul on somebody who is a successful example for this column. Why haven't the pitchforks been taken out to prosecute Basil himself? Clearly the people who read Basil's tips, would like to be successful on the AH themselves, so it's a bit hypocritical to start a witch hunt on a successful AH user.
More on topic: I agree with you. Using auction addons is not a way to make lazy gold without doing any real work. I know for a fact that I have more gold then most of my guild mates, and I also know for a fact that I devote more time to earning that gold then most of them. I read blogs, I watch market trends, I spend a lot of time leveling professions, I make notes, devise future tactics and so on.
Saying that using QA3 or Auctioneer is cheating, is simply not true until patch 4.0.1 and probably comes from jealousy. Nothing is withholding you from installing those addons too. Making gold is a mini game in itself, and part of that game is finding and using the proper tools for it.
Personally I find using addons like Omen much more cheating; you should not be able to predict the actions of a mob beforehand; that totally breaks the game. Or addons like Grid or Power Auras; they change the game in a much more profound way then any AH addon is capable of.
Ironically Blizzard has decided to incorporate their functionality into wow itself, but AH addons are deemed to be "bad". This move will not stop botters and gold sellers to manipulate the AH; they will find some workaround.
I wonder if this move is done because the new Remote Auction House apps are not doing as well as Blizzard was hoping. The hard core AH player will want to stay ahead of the game, and instead of mass posting items, will be forced to post smaller amounts more frequently, lets' say during work hours on your own Iphone, which can be used secretly without your boss being able to track your internet behavior.
And I also wonder if it's true that it is easier to program bots to manipulate the Armory AH then bots that function inside the game itself…..
QQinsider Oct 9th 2010 9:33AM
"Nothing is withholding you from installing those addons too."
Yes, you can do that, but it won't help you to compete unless you also have hours a day to spend at the AH. That is the issue, the AH camping behaviour that these addons encourage and make simple to do.
Pfooti is getting down-rated because, for all his verbiage, his basic argument is that if you don't have that time then tough shit, you don't deserve to sell your stuff.
And the argument that this will cause prices to rise is bullshit, classic FUD being spouted by people afraid of facing more competition and losing their monopolies. Thats a large part of what AH PvP is about, as evidenced many times in this column - driving your more casual competitors out of the market so that you can control the prices. Just as in any real-world market, that's not good for the consumer in the end.
Blizzard obviously sees something wrong with the way things work atm, as pretty much anyone with any sense predicted they would after the QA3 "works-just-like-a-bot-but-isn't-technically-a-bot-under-the current-rules" addon. Now they're taking steps to fix it, and Pfooti doesn't like it, and we don't care.
CVSoprano Oct 9th 2010 5:18PM
"if you don't have that time then tough shit, you don't deserve to sell your stuff."
You don't think that attitude is a problem?
Basil Berntsen Oct 11th 2010 7:22AM
@QQ I make all my money in half an hour a day. How much time does it take you to make yours?
F. Somalia Oct 8th 2010 10:17PM
Don't downrate that. The man is right. The change means nothing to AH PvPrs. Blizzard, on other hand, still don't give the tools to casuals to be competitive.
matt Oct 8th 2010 10:22PM
I was just thinking this morning , how is QA3, my beloved QA3, legit with the ToU I am posting 100s of different auctions with only 1 hardware event. I guess they decided it was not legit. Fine by me I have grown tired of competing with likely bots to sell glyphs. Seriously how can a player be online on a Lvl 1 banker 16 hours a day?
CVSoprano Oct 9th 2010 5:22PM
http://www.virginmobileusa.com/mobile-broadband/ovation-mc760.html
Easy: with devices likes this and a second WoW account. Unlimited connectivity while sitting at work, and camp while you play on main account.
Hagu Oct 8th 2010 10:50PM
1) IMHO this change will move sales from the "enthusiastic amateur" to the professional. (It took willpower to keep that clean.) People who violate the TOS with underground mining bots, BG hk farming bots, etc will have software to handle this in a few hours of release. It's the people who listen to Call to Auction, read market blogs like JMTC who will be greatly inconvenienced and greatly disadvantaged relative to the other sellers who will now have noticeably more powerful tools.
2) For those who think the title is hyperbole, if you looked at the number of entries that are facilitated by addons like this, I think you would be surprised. How many of the 7,000 glyphs in the AH do you think were lovingly posted by hand by someone without addons?
3) I think there is a valid point to be made for, even if Blizzard implements this, they exempt glyphs and perhaps gems. Managing 400 different items with multiple inks and parchments and the joys of milling make glyphs very different than producing 10 blacksmithing patterns.
3) Of course, much is exacerbated by the rudimentary AH User Interface. Why can't people without any addons say bid or buy every frostweave cloth below 30s with one hardware click? Or how about being able to place buy orders? Or better searching and filtering? Maybe my 6GB machine with a 15GB WoW on it does not need to display AH items 50 at a time???? ...
Hagu Oct 8th 2010 10:52PM
/sigh. Unlike I, addons can correctly count to four.