Malchome's Mind on Gaming

By now the news has spread the Blizzard will eventually implement in game Auction House(AH) Access into the Armory, the signed in portion of course. I saw it mentioned first on mmo-champion which points to a WoW Forums post.

I think this is a really cool idea, I won’t be using this feature most of the time, but definitely something I will be using at other times. Especially since theoretically you could be on 1 character of the account and check the AH on other servers and or the Bank Alt of the same account. But they may put something in place such that is that account is logged into the game no character on that account could be checked. We will have to see.

Over all I like this idea but lets be serious the current AH in game feels like a quick fix that was added at the last moment to at least have some sort of an in-game economy going. The default interface is a pain in the ass and even with Auctioneer and other Add-ons it is still extremely tedious and a bitch to find stuff if you are just browsing. If you know exactly what you want it works otherwise it fails.

Out of the 4 in game AH like interfaces I have dealt with directly and several, more than 3, others I have heard about only 1 stands out as actually being something different, robust and useful.  EVE-Online is the only MMO I have seen that actually has a robust and useful economic interface.  I believe it is this way because, crafting and the economic game are actually acceptable play styles in EVE.  Whereas in all of the other MMOs I have dealt with and heard about those systems, crafting and trading, seem to be a quick fix to add features.

So what am I suggesting or IMO is needed. A complete overhaul of the AH. Yes our bag space may be limited by stack size but why the hell should the AH. The AH like everything in the game is ultimately a series of entries in a Database. Currently it seems like 1 entry in said DB has a stack size limitation. This is insane.

The following are IMO the way to make the AH sing.

• 1 entry in the AH per Item of unlimited quantity (ultimately an unsigned Int of either 8/16/32bit in size. 16 would be the best since dust and some rep items could get into the hundreds easily.)
• The biggest and most important one,  list Buy Orders
• Fully customizable search for gear.
• Wild Card Search-able for Name Text
• iLvL
• eLvL
• Quality(Pick-able, not Lowest filter.) If I want to find a green item I want to see green, not green, blue, and purple.
• Stat Search X [<|>|=] of Y Stat [Str|Agil|Stam|Int|Spr|SP|AP|Armor|Crit|Hit|Haste|ect....] Repeatable so add additional filters.
• Price History (at least past week) so we can in game see the price trends over the past week. (Min, Max, Avg) of both Price listed and Price Sold. Maybe a separate graph showing # sold at what price through Bid and Buyout.

Essentially look at what EVE-Online has for an in game economic interface and make something similar with the Blizzard polish, because I really can’t think of any way to really improve the EVE interface, I just know that I like it and it would be great to have something similar in WoW. Unfortunately for EVE it is about the only thing I really like in the game but I will save my dislikes of EVE for another post sometime.

Well patch 3.3 has come out and there was much rejoicing.  I will avoid discussing the Raid content.  I may be raiding it but it is not my main focus of this blog or even my usual goals so I will save comments on it for another day, most likely after the second wing opens in January.

Titanium Market

Essentially we need to add a generic level appropriate material that is gathered, so Mining nodes would become like Taconite or some similar material.  Then different fantasy rock compositions can have a chance to produce current ore in different quantities per stack of 5, like how other professions, prospect, mill etc.  For Alchemy I think we need to add a layer from herb -> (potion, elixir, flask).  Rather than use raw herbs it should be processed into powders and extracts, same with enchanting.  Actually Alchemy and Enchanting should become more closely related and cross feed into one another.  Actually come to think of it we already have rough, dense, solid stone coming form mining nodes.  If we convert everything to a stone type as the node rather than the mineral or elemental name that would be a good starting point.

I also think that enchanters should have an alternative process to create the special cloths.  Now I know most enchanters are tailors as well or at least use to be, so that may be overkill but we really need new alternative ways to balance out high end materials.  There should always be more than one way to obtain any crafting material.  Even if it is through an exchange vendor it will help to keep AH prices from getting to extreme.

So I was planning on releasing my next post as one on Rogues that I have been working on but after seeing a few things in my blog reader I changed my mind.

Ok so I read Tobold’s post about Design principles for crafting and economic systems.  In general he has a nice summary of some of the things that need to be considered when designing a crafting and economic system in a game.  I have thought about the subject at length over the years that I have been playing WoW.  In Tobold’s post he mentions another blogger’s post about crafting interfaces.  Now I looked around Ixobelle’s site a bit and read most of the post that Tobold mentions.  I say most because as soon as I got about half way through I immediately wanted to post here about the subject.

Ixobelle has some very good ideas for a crafting system and an interface for crafting.  I just don’t think they would fit into WoW unless there were major and I mean major overhaul of all crafting and market systems.   While I see the possibility of large changes coming to crafting in Cataclysm I don’t think the changes will be that drastic.  I can also say with 100% certainty that if the crafting system was changed to something like Ixobelle suggests then I would not craft at all.  Not saying that the system would not be a good one, just that it would be a system that was so time and concentration intensive that I would not want to deal with it.

Now I now the question that some may ask is how do you know that you would not want to use such an involved crafting system.  The answer to that is simple, been there done that, thanks but no thanks.  Vanguard boasts about being able to level up as a crafter.  There are 3 facets to your character that can all have independent levels: Adventurer, Diplomat, Crafter.   The system and process that Ixobelle describes is much like Vanguard in the grind-fest that is the crafting process.

The Marketplace

Now one thing that I can agree with between the 2 posts is that WoW needs a new market system regardless of any crafting changes coming.  Also when it comes to the market place be it vendors and or the AH we need to get away from the stack concept.  What I mean by this is that items in the AH are no longer sold in stacks or as individual items.

• You list items as a total number of items sold of a given type buy a player at a given price.  No more of 3 pages of infinite dust in stacks of 1 sold by the same person.  Yes I have done it to make gold, it is a prickish move I hate everyone that does it even myself when I do it.
• All AH actions should be queued and on a 1 minute basis all in game mail is sent at once.  This will allow the AH to bundle items into a single mail of up to 12 items or multiple emails 12 stacks at a time.
• When you buy or sell items to set the number you want to buy.  You then buy that many from that user or as many as they have left.  Since someone may have been able to buy from them at the same time.
• The auction house is no longer a system of only sell orders.  Users are able to put gold in escrow with the AH to auto buy X items at Y price if a user selects their buy orders.  See EVE-Online’s market.
• All named static items are now statically listed in the AH whether there are any on the market or not.  Only thing not able to have Buy Orders placed in advance are for random generated items.  So all BoE world and Dungeon drops that are not random (of the bear) types are enumerated in the AH, additionally all crafted unbound reagents, materials, and crafted Items should also be enumerated.  Players are then able to set buy orders.
• A buy order contains – Player A will buy N Number of Items X at Price Y for the next Z hours(days).

This somewhat involved change would go a long way in improving WoW’s ingame economy.  Currently there is only a trend that over time will deflate prices into absurdity.  However with the buy side of the equation added there will also be inflationary forces in the market.  This will eventually act as a stablilizing force where the buy and sell order price will approach the same value.

Crafting System minor upgrade

Before WoW gets anything like a more involved crafting system it needs to have a bit of a general overhaul first.  The following things I would hope get considered before anything overly drastic is done with how we craft.

• Full itemization on what we craft.  All slots of a character’s gear should be assigned to a crafting profession.  Not a proposed system that will be implemented 2 expansions from now.  But all slots and item times allocated to one or more professions.
• Renormalization of crafting materials required. The items we need to craft with are the resources available at the levels we would normally be encountering them and the gear crafted is useful to characters that are actually leveling the profession.  I finally get enough Thorium to buy and craft the chest piece when I hit 60 not the level 52 that the item may be.  You would now level past the point of usefulness just by gathering the resources yourself.
• Add an intermediate crafting material stage to all professions, similar to Engineering making parts first then crafting an item later.  Blacksmithing  could have Scales, Wire, Rings, Rivits, Hilts, Guards, ect that are crafted first and then combined with other raw and processed resources.

New Type of Pattern

One of my pet ideas when it has come to crafting was the concept of Meta Patterns, given more recent terminology in WoW a Heirloom pattern.  It creates an item where the ILevel of the output is based on the ILevel of the input.

If we are going to approach a mini-game requirement added to crafting I would rather it be an intellectual exercise like a puzzle than an interactive grind-fest like Vanguard.

I was going to compare crafted epics to those found in entry level raid instances however with the new patch and 5 man dungeon I don’t even need to do that.  There is now no reason to craft epics for level 80 content.  If you hit 80 find a group and hit the new 5 man dungeon.

Some may think I am QQing about this.  I am actually split over this issue.  I like the fact that the 5 man has good gear and can help gear up people who just got to 80 quickly.  I am only a little saddened that with all of the changes in this patch that there is now no reason what so ever to level any crafting profession other than JCing and Alchemy.  Anything that can be crafted in Tailoring/Leather Working/ Black Smithing is now equal to or inferior to the gear that can be obtained in the new 5 man dungeon normal or heroic.

On top of this JCers can now prospect Titanium.  This means that the cost of Titanium has skyrocketed and therefore Titansteel.  Now all weapons and plate are so cost ineffective it is disgusting.

I have to say these changes with out changing the availability of Titanium nodes drastically was piss poor planning.  There is no other way to describe it.  I am happy that there are so many new things to do, it would have been nice to see the ripple effect of those changes considered a bit more completely.

This expansion more than any at any time prior has invalidated so much gear and content even each patch it is pathetic.  I really don’t have much more to say.  Crafting other than Alchemy (Flasks) is worthless.  The cost to level is so out of proportion to the benefits or economic viability that all of the professions need a complete revamp.  I don’t know about anyone else but I am ready for the next expansion, crafting wise.  Hopefully they will get it right or at least balanced (lol) next time.

R.I.P. Crafting

We welcome our Raid or Die overlords.

Consumables

Continuing from my post yesterday on to more about Consumables and Cool Down items.

Consumables of Yesterday

Early and Before Burning Crusade

• Food
• Scrolls
• Multiple Potions/Elixirs/Flasks
• Weapon Upgrade
• Chain Pots

Later Burning Crusade

• Food
• 1 Scroll
• 1 Battle Elixir
• 1 Defense Elixir
• Weapon Upgrade
• Chain Pots

Consumables of Today

• Food
• 1 Scroll
• 1 Battle Elixir
• 1 Defense Elixir
• 1 Potion

As I mentioned at the end of my post yesterday I am torn between liking and approving of the consolidated buff/consumable system and lament to the extent that it is enforced.  I guess it is just that IMO I have always seen buffs as a crutch and not a requirement.  However Blizzard in their wisdom decided that if all of the top raiders and because of the herd mentality that occurs in raiding, all raiders were buffing themselves to insane levels, then they would have to tune encounters such that it was assumed that you had them.  So since they did not want to tune encounters in such a way they decided to codify their beliefs rather than just let the twitchy hardcore burn themselves out.  I would be of the opinion to let them burn.

So now the only professions that create real consumables for raiding are Inscription, Cooking and Alchemy.  The only profitable items that sell on the auction house are consumables.  Everything else that is somewhat worthwhile have such painful crafting requirements that when you take the cost of the materials as based on the Auction House and craft an item you are lucky if you can sell it for 80% of what it costs to make.

This leads us to the next part of the topic Cool Down crafted materials.

However before continuing onto Cool Down crafted materials I am going to take a moment and pontificate about a possible solution for this market imbalance.

All crafting professions need to create a raiding consumable.  I realize this can and will cause balancing issues but it is something that needs to be done to balance out the earning potential discrepancies between professions.

• Jewel Crafting – Ioun Stone Like item, essentially a temporary modification to helms.
• Black Smithing – (Old Sharpening and Weight Stones) or a more generic weapon modification set of items.
• Enchanting – The Old +spell power oils, or a wider array of effects from the oils.
• Engineering – Some Armor augmentation items also usable by more than just engineers.

In addition to all of these modifications the bonuses they grant would have to be bonuses that have a set duration and are not affected by death like how the current Flask system works.

A way to balance this system would be to take the buff that a flask currently gives and make an item set where if everyone had 100% of the bonuses they could get from the above then it would be equal to some multiple of the current flask.

For example if a flask give +60 spell power, then between JC, Weapon, Off Hand, Engineering and the original flask bonuses grant 150 or 2.5 times the current flask bonus.  Yes this will mean buffs scale a bit more, but if you weaken flasks a little bit you could get it down to 2 or 1.5 times.  However I do not want to suggest that we Nerf flasks just to make the other professions happy.  I would rather see more options implemented.

Back to the materials issue.

Cool Down Materials

On this topic for those of you that are not familiar with them there are 3 common Cool Down materials in WotLK at the moment.

• Titansteel – Mining
• Specialty Cloths – Tailoring
• Eternal or Titanium Transmutes shared cool down – Alchemy.

For mining and alchemy this results in a 20 hour cool down, so once a day each profession can perform 1 smelting and or 1 transmute, with the exception of the meta gems.  When I was skilling up alchemy I was really surprised to discover that there was no cool down on the meta gem transmute.  For tailoring each tailor can perform 1 transmute for each type of cloth once every 3 days and 20 hours.

So what is the result of this?  Well every material that has a cool down is kept at about a 10% return if you were to craft it from buying the materials.  However because of this 10% return the result is that it makes crafting the epic items from these items worthless for resale.  The profit that the player crafting makes is destroyed due to the small inflation from cool down items.  As the auction house is currently set up this issue will be next to impossible to fix.  Other than just removing the cool down and then moving the profit from the intermediate step to the gathering step.

In a few days when I get to my Auction House post I will get into this topic again in greater detail.  Specifically solutions or at least improvements to the whole transaction process.

This is a good place to take a break.  My next post will be looking at the crafted Epics that do not require raiding and compare them to entry level raiding items.