AH, but only 1 legendary/set per week + Self Found Option = Solution?!

[clueso]

I can understand why the devs decided to remove the AH, but it seems that this has pissed off some of the fanbase.

So I was thinking a bit how they could make the game (more or less) for everyone & I came up with this:

1) don't remove the AH, but design it in a way, that players can only purchase ONE legendary or set PER WEEK - that is a good compromise between the devs design goal of mainly getting the best gear via playing the game & some of the fanbase desire of trading.
Magic & rare items could be traded unlimited.

2) give us a self found option - making a tick mark in the character creation screen on this button would give your char an own stash, reset artisans, disable the AH for this char & disable in game trading - for those who want the challenge.
And you should give self found players special rewards, like titels or a shiny aura....

 

[ShadoutMapes]

Self-found shouldnt be about getting a challenge (aka getting more grind), nor should it be about shiny cosmetic rewards.
It should just be about having a viable, and equal way to get gear, without having to trade, ever.

Limiting trading to one per week would not achieve that.

 

[clueso]

The system, as you currently described it, would be hilarious.

I see your point...
I also see that trading with other players is fun
But I also see the developers point, that you should play the game to achive the best gear.
----

How about a special currency for the AH (and nothing else) that drops from monsters & which amount increases as difficulty rises.
Let's call them AH-Shards.
You also gain AH-Shards when you sucsessfuly sell a legendary or set item on the AH
Every legendary & set item has a build in amount of how much AH-Shards the seller gets when it is sold, based on rarity of the item & the quality of its affixes (that would work automatically & has to be balanced by the devs)

AH Shards do not change the owner like ordinary gold, they simply give you an increased chance of getting an item from the AH.
So the person with 10.000 AH-Shards will more likely gain the item as the one who has 25 AH-Shards.

The person who sold the very rare legendary item with very good stats also gains an adequat compensation in form of AH-Shards which increases his chance of getting another good item from the AH that he/she probably wants.

Also AH-Shards do only exist for a set amount of time (a few days to a month maybe...) - which means that after you gained the AH-Shard, it vanishes after this period.

You also could only make x requests per week/day for top tier items, so players with a lot of AH-Shards will not grind the AH empty.
Lower tier items may not be influenced by how many AH-Shards you have & you can make requests for them more frequently, only mid & top tier items would have a restriction per player.
---

Lets say you want the top quality legendary "The Grandfather".
Those items would be automatically categorizised by the game into eg. 10 tiers.
You would make the request for all currently existing top tier Grandfathers - if you have a high amount of AH-Shards, you are likely to get one, if you do not have many AH-Shards, you also could agree with getting a Grandfather from a lower tier.

---

This system would encurage trading & playing the game as well.

 

[ShadoutMapes]

Still means trading is the way to play.

I cant see any other good compromises than separate servers with droprates tuned individually for each. Any solutions that opens up trading, also means that trading is best.

 

[clueso]

I cant see any other good compromises than separate servers with droprates tuned individually for each.

That was my idea, too.

Seperate servers for AH-players & self found players....
You simply can adjust the droprates for both of them.

 

[Azzure]

There were loads of solutions to keep the AH in the game and solve the problems it caused.

Bottom line though is, that the RMAH was supposed to make Blizzard a profit and pay for the heavy maintenance and support that the AH required. This includes the Gold AH, which is technically identical to the RMAH in cost and processing power.

This is the same reason why they canned the AH for even commodities, as it would've made perfect sense to let the AH be commodity-only for some convenience with crafting.

So they canned the entire thing.