time to update the "offline" bazaar seller having to be logged in

So as i'm sure many former eq players like to come back to the game after feeling a little nostalgic about the game or a time. one thing that is amazing to me is how the bazaar functionality is still only available to an active subscription.

eq is the only game that you have to pay to not play when you want to sell some of your items. i understand that this "offline mode" was great back in the early days of leaving your computer on all night to set up your trader in the stalls during luclin...

so devs quick thinking, make an offline mode. everybody high fives, problem solved.

except for the part that i actually would like to play my account that i'm paying for an active subscription for.

being realistic here, i know there is almost no chance of an auction house or npc listing agent or anything of that in the works to replace the bazaar, obviously!

what i propose is another band aid fix. this time, allow the function of leaving a character logged into ONLY the bazaar while playing another character on the account. this would work for most people i think, just simply allow the account to go to character select instead of "kicking" the trader offline.

whatever code that needs to be done to treat the "offline trader" as something other than an active character logged in or what, i don't know but this is a reasonable request i think.

frankly this part of the game is a big turn off, i have stuff to sell to better my characters with upgrades, but i can't because i must choose between trading or playing. this is just silly in 2022.

i see nice changes coming on the roadmap with the new folks running things, hoping that we can see more modernizing of eq to make it fun for new players or returning old players.

What is your playing time compared to your offline mule selling time? I bet the Mule wins every day.

It's a good point, if you are playing 1 account and lets say you play every evening you are going to be online actively playing during peak hours and in vendor mode during slow periods. Kind of the opposite of how you would run a storefront if you want to make any money.

A solution, though a bit of a kludgy one, would be make a second free account, park a toon there at your trader. When it comes time for you to play, log both your traders in and hand all the bags frm trader 1 to trader 2 and then just have him stand there are on the platform (not offline mode) until you're ready for bed and trade back. You can even copy over your char baz ini files so you don't have to reprice anything.

Not exactly what you were looking for I know, but it does solve your problem none the less and much more quickly than waiting for a new feature to be added.

There is a reason that most bars are not open at 9am and most clothing stores are not open at 2am. It doesn't matter if you play 2 hours and are offline 22 hours, if the 2 hours the customers are available are the 2 hours you are closed.

FTP accounts can't baz and there is a parcel guy next to the banker. Trade satchels are also no-trade so you can't hand them over. I am pretty sure nothing you just suggested works.

Had forgotten about the trade satchels being no-trade. I use a tradable 40 slot bag to load my trader up and just dump it out into his trade bags, totally spaced on not being able to trade the actual bags. An extra step and a bit of an annoying one but it can still be done

I could've sworn FTP accounts could use the baz but couldn't go offline mode. If that's not the case you're correct, I was wrong.

A retainer system would be nice. Kinda like a bazaar merc.

patch day so... any chance of a dev acknowledging this?

a fully stocked bazaar at peak play time would be so nice. not to mention how many accounts that would be gold simply because we can actually play them while they sell during an active subscription.

doesn't feel like a big ask at this point, as no other online game has such a dated archaic system in place.

No.

#1 there has to be some incentive to pay for the game.

#2 There is no peak time in baz. We are not all on the same time zone. And if your peak time is raiding then everyone else who is raiding with you is not shopping in the baz

#3 This would allow farmers to farm while they have a trader set up in baz thereby cutting out at least one All Access account they currently pay for.

#4 I am not a farmer but am just a casual player and set up trader on my off times. He makes plat here and there. What many do not realize is you don't get rich in 1 hour on trader mode. It takes many hours - supply vs demand. He makes enough for my purposes but again I am not greedy.

So instead of everyone coming up with ways to kill All Access so everything is free then how do you expect the game to stay afloat. In other words what would you players pay for? Not maintenance stuff like graphics, ui or connections but what in game services would you pay for?

Seems to me the recent perks that allow a trader more slots is pretty popular.

And is another $9 really that dramatic? (discount for yearly rate - pay it off on your credit card at your pace)

I always thought it was a reasonable trade off OVER keeping your seller online overnight. Counts in the
"Green" column, which is important in CA. Not sure it changes much on the server end, but does allow
me to shut down the client side. Doing that across a couple of hundred systems is not chump change.
Yes, a offline web based market would be a vast improvement, but would a much larger costly project.

Lol, had hardware issues and the system was down for a few months. Happened while in offline vender
mode. The little guy was in there selling for me for several weeks prior to patch day. Had a nice long list
of sold items once I got back into the game

1. if you're trying to sell me on a paid membership to park a character and not be able to play the game while i'm trying to sell in the year 2022... you need to take a step outside. most of us have played for 20+ years, we know how it was when it was released or when the bazaar was added. there have been TONS of quality of life updates to eq in that time, this is no different. more people would pay for a game that they can actually play. have you played ANY other game in the last 20 years? every one of them almost has a better system than eq and its not a massive resource hog like leaving characters logged in and locking your account to do it. this isn't a selling point, its a negative.

2. peak time is when players are online in the game. that means that if your trader isn't online at the time when other players are, then you are not able to sell the items. i'm sure you realize that people can't play at 3am and be at work at 6am so they can run their trader when most players are playing (whether you think theres a peak time or not, there are factual numbers.)

3. farmers are going to farm regardless of any trading system... they exist, sorry. allowing someone to play on an account while selling? for me as a manual 2 or 3 boxer... i would sub the other boxes more frequently just because i don't feel like i'm forced to decide between playing or selling. its lame and just because you accept it doesn't change the rest of the world of gaming.

4. not sure why you bothered typing this. has nothing to do with the conversation.

ways to kill all access? i'm trying to point out reasons why people don't subscribe to a 25 year old game. i see the new management making some serious changes that this game has been lacking in recent years. movement to actual bring the game into the 2020's like 64 bit client and removing outdated code/bloat like extra merc's that aren't used etc.

again, you're quick to pat on the back for something like a 2 slot bag increase for a trader. sorry, that ain't it.

paying for another sub to sell on, great if you're able to trade the gear to sell right? what about other servers. i'm talking about people paying for more accounts because they can actually play them instead of leave them offline trading forever. thats a net positive no matter how "happy" you are with having an active subscription just to leave idle.

I am not trying to sell you on anything, and yes, having played for over 20 years, I remember when you could edge another player out of their baz stall and take their place.

I merely posted my views. You are welcome to disagree which you have. I am not here to argue with you. Have a nice night.

WTB feature that remembers to turn my trader on automatically when I log out of the game.

This reminds me that I am not the center of the universe and not everybody plays like I do. The old raiders keep the lights on cuz I raid thing.

You may be surprised to know what's going on when you are drooling on your pillow.

Paying for a seperate account to sell on is basically cash for plat.

Pay to Win is not a good feature.

It's 2022. An auction house type system would be ideal, but i know it's not gonna happen, so at least make it easier on us. I don't have multiple accounts, i have one, and for me selling in the bazaar means i'm not playing the game. Wich makes me not bother with it at all.

I cannot play the game 24/7 so setting up in baz while I am off in the real world is convenient for me.

I think if I were to have a character in baz at same time as I was doing other things in the game on another character that the other things (raids, tradeskills whatever) would get neglected since I would always be messing with the trader lol.

I'm sure there's a technical reason why it's not possible, but it'd be super nice to have a trader that can be up all the time even while logged onto a character I'm playing. FFXIV (which, yes, is made by a much bigger team) has retainers, which are basically offline traders who will sell whatever you want to sell at all hours, though you do have to check on them every couple days or they'll stop posting your stuff for sale. The money from sales is stored on them until you retrieve it.

So, there's at least one MMO that's solved the issue.

please read what you just wrote. you're describing how the bazaar system works right now...

I think what I wrote was not understood. Let me offer some clarity

Currently the baz only allows one character on one account be online trading. If you want to go fight you have to log off the trader or make a second account.

I said nothing about using a second account. In fact I said having character in baz at same time as I was doing other things in the game on another character would be distracting.

I am saying the way it works now is ok with me. And that to allow a trader be up in the baz and another character on the same account go out and do whatever would be distracting. Get it?

I thought that is what this was about?
what i propose is another band aid fix. this time, allow the function of leaving a character logged into ONLY the bazaar while playing another character on the account

Besides how would the trader character be designated that it only be allowed in the baz? People change around characters all the time.