ElfFromSpace wrote: »

Badarah wrote: »

A max bid option would be AWESOME. Hell, even visible bids. That way we could at least see what someone is wanting to pay for a kiosk, and can make the decision for our guild if it's too expensive or right up our ally. It's always a risk that you're bidding on a stall that someone is going to put an outrageous bid on. If they want to keep the bidding system... at least let us see! Like eBay. Maybe a max number of bids/stalls to bid on. Something to make it just a little bit less stressful.

We discussed this option but most GMs strongly opposed the visibile bids because then you would get the same exact thing you get on Ebay... last minute snipers. I put in my bid for 800k... someone waits til 20 seconds before bids close and bids 801K. Even with max bids it would likely get ugly monday mornings and be impossible for anyone who can't be on for bid close.

The max bids is also less likely. In most cases only 1 guild bids on a stall. If we put in bids of 1K with a max of 2 mil we would probably get the stall for 1K almost every week, eliminating the gold sink possibilities.

This is why, after much discussion, the idea we thought seemed most robust is the City Bidding. You bid not on a stall but on a city. The top 5-7 guilds with the highest bids get into the city. It would reduce the guesswork because it would prevent a guild from being outbid at 800K while the stall right next door gets won for 200K. As long as your bid is within the middle of the pack for the city you're safe. Someone who tried bidding low for the city would still go without, but it would be a lot more predictable.

Yeah those are valid points. At the end of the day, all I want is some predictability. No more stress about bidding amounts/bidding times/running around the universe/server down.

Whatever needs to happen to make that happen- I'm cool with. The only problem I see with bidding on a city, is if I bid and ended up in the sewer. They can't really give stalls out according to bid- because that would ruin everything and you'd know who bid what. But if I tossed out half a mil and was in the basement all alone where no one ever goes, well... that would be less than ideal. They need to give some trader love to the refuges and make it a place people want to go more.

Hey @ZOS_RichLambert , since you like to /lurk might I recommend this thread? Much more useful than one about treasure chests.

A mail utility that is restricted in use to the guildmaster and people with particular ranks as decided by the guildmaster.

interesting thread here. Here is my two crowns:

1. recruitment for a guild should include some way to advertise your guild. text chat would work wonders here. if not, then i have played games where message boards are a big deal, it would be up to the player looking to get recruited to search the board. but having guilds be able to post on the board (this is all in-game btw) they would be able to apply or something like that

2. bank tabs was a close second for me. The bank as a guild master is a huge time sink to actively keep your guild bank stocked and also stacked. Stack all items in the game...who ever was against this for the making of this game should be cup checked with a nail'd bat and shown what a video game actually is these days.

3. guild calendar (for consoles) would be awesome. as voice chat is the only way to communicate, this would help a lot to keep players on schedule with guild events.

Pman85 wrote: »

interesting thread here. Here is my two crowns:
2. bank tabs was a close second for me. The bank as a guild master is a huge time sink to actively keep your guild bank stocked and also stacked. Stack all items in the game...who ever was against this for the making of this game should be cup checked with a nail'd bat and shown what a video game actually is these days.

The reason for this horrible bandaid is that in the first few weeks or PC release there was some "duplicating glitch" that somehow involved putting things in guild banks and having them stack. As I never saw it in action I don't know the details. However the removal of auto stacking in the guild bank was the bandaid that ZOS applied instead of fixing the bug. While I understand the use of a bandaid, I am pretty appalled that a year later they have not gone in and created an actual fix for the problem and the problems that the bandaid created. The constant restacking of guild banks is also the reason that guild banks, even private guild banks, load so slowly and don't load at all about half the time players try to open them.

I chose Change the time for one simple reason. EVERYTHING else can be gotten with an ADD-On or a Guild Website other than more kiosks. But i feel like before we add more we need to fix the bidding system. It makes it impossible for a small growing guild to get past that certain line.

Great set of suggestions; I hope ZoS will implement them. They should all be well within the capabilities of good programmers.

ElfFromSpace wrote: »

Direnni Guildleaders Suggestions
3. Allow guilds to place a backup bid on a secondary kiosk if the first is lost. Con: The backup bid would be hard to select, having to either compete with another good guild, or chose a backup in a much less desirable location. Backup bids could bump out other primary bids, which could then bump out the other guild’s backup bid causing logic errors.

This should not be hard to implement as it is really just a big sort. IMO they should let guilds place as many bids as they like, but only one bid per trader. So to resolve who wins each, just sort all the bids from all the guilds with the biggest on top. Obviously the very biggest bid wins whichever trader they bid on. Award that trader and eliminate all other bids from that guild. Also eliminate all other bids on that trader. Rinse, repeat until all bids are awarded or eliminated.

Programmatically this should not be a difficult thing to write. The only tricky part is deciding what to do with exact matching bids (either when a guild has bid on multiple traders for the exact same amount, or when multiple guilds have bid on the same trader for the same amount) and that is not a programming problem, just a game decision to be made by ZoS. IMO the answer there is to go on who had the biggest sales last week, or if those match, then make a psudo-random choice.

I think guild leaders should also be able to see how much each trader sold the previous week, and how much gold that generated for the guild before placing a bid. I don't know if you currently have that info or not.

ContraTempo wrote: »

I think guild leaders should also be able to see how much each trader sold the previous week, and how much gold that generated for the guild before placing a bid. I don't know if you currently have that info or not.

This has been discussed more than once, but most guildmasters objected on grounds that it would lead to more sniping, bidding just barely more than the other guild. I think I would prefer if GMs could see the average bid and sales in each area because the info wouldn't tell them as much that could be used against specific other guilds. Having been targeted by another guild, the more they have to work to get info to use against my guild, the better.

Recently it seems like the problem with newer/smaller guilds being unable to get grouped traders has gotten worse. Most guilds with smaller budgets find themselves unable to get a steady spot in ANY town. And there are some town spots that go for far more than the one right next to it. The backup bid system you described does seem workable, but as a GM I am reluctant to have to go and place bids all over the map. Placing multiple backup bids in many locations would be time consuming, making the bid on a city a lot less of a strain on the GMs.

I definitely agree about having at least 2 traders in each spot too. I like that! Even the roadside stalls would be better because you'd have double the chance of being actually able to find your item in them

So another example this week of the problem with the bidding system. ;( One guild in Rawlkha had an officer who had bid permissions in 2 different trade guilds. When they other guild lost their trader that officer attempted to hire an open trader. Unfortunately they accidentally placed a bid instead of a hire and placed it for the wrong guild. Even with a whole 7 day notice they were unable to undo this accidental click and lost their place in Rawl which ended up going to a guild with less than 1 page of listings

Also @ZOS_JasonLeavey did you find an answer to the question of why maintenance and bid close is at the same time and whether or not that can be adjusted?

SOOOOO!! The maintenance is on Tuesday! Is this a permanent change? It makes back up stalls much much better!

Currently updating main post. These are issues that we have brought back up to the attention of ZOS. Are there any other guild tools or improvements that the community would like to see?

Woot! All great suggestions. Guild tabards are such a fun way to show off your guild pride- but don't get used as often as I think they could be. Some suggestions for improvements:

Make guild tabards a costume slot, accessible to all account characters. I never want to buy the tabard twice, for different characters- especially because they gold doesn't go TO the guild.

Which brings us to... make the gold from purchasing the tabard go to the guild- not oblivion.

Make tabards BoE- so that guilds have the option to send out tabards as rewards/auction prizes/welcome gifts.

Allow tabards to be worn over costumes!

And of course- some new tabard customization options would be superb. Maybe even allow the use of guild logos on shields!

I would like to see a Guild Cresting system in the game to either remove or give more options to those who do not wish to have a tabard covering their armor. You would be able to stamp your heraldry on shields and armor to represent one specific guild. Then take the guild representation a step further and give guilds unlock-able bonuses for when a player chooses to represent them.

The only huge reason most players connect with a guild right now is to sell items. We need more love in game through achievements and special bonuses that guilds can offer to their members that represent them and their cause.... because... not every guild wants to be nor needs to be a trading guild!

We definitely appreciate that the maintenance was on a tuesday this week instead of monday for bidding purposes, even though it is really REALLY long! Wow

Eh for once a good thread with on-going issues that is being necromanced.

The list of tools guildmasters lack is really long in this game. Trading guilds lack tools to track individual members statistics over sales. Guildmembers being able to see bids done. A better messaging or mail system for guildmasters etc. x_x