@Shyads
While I can't speak for Komodo, I admit that I made this thread with the assumption that the auction system is indeed sticking around. It's one of only a few features that keeps players checking the site throughout the day, and Komodo put a lot of effort into it, so I wouldn't blame him if he's reluctant to remove it or replace it with something different. However, I absolutely agree that it needs some changes in order to be more fair and approachable.

Yeah, I'd say usershops are related to auctions in this context, considering they could fix one of the most common complaints about auctions, if they had a search function. It's pretty much the suggestion of the year at this point, lol. We'll see what Komodo thinks, though. I seem to have a memory of him rejecting the idea because it would make people use auctions less (and also check the site less), but I've looked around and I can't 100% confirm that he said that. If he did, well, people are going to keep suggesting it until there's some kind of solution, even if it's not that.

@Rizlak
I'm also guilty of trying to pay as little as possible for something, despite having plenty of PC to dump on it. And I've also been in the position of putting down my max bid, only for someone to +1 it. It's pretty annoying.

Thanks for your feedback on the house group idea! It's hard to know for sure how the idea would affect new players. In beta, and at the start of the public release, everyone started from zero, and yet I remember people putting up auctions on the first day. Low-grade and common stuff, but still. I acknowledge that as a new player, we certainly auctioned less things than we do now, but many of us did auction things, since it was and still is the most public way to sell something without having to interact in the forums or on Discord. I'm definitely not saying house groups are the best idea, but I have hope for it. Still, I'm open to hearing other solutions that would make the auction system fair to everyone, especially new players.

I like the idea of the snipeguard reducing automatically after a certain number of triggers, as long as like you said, it's made obvious to buyers. I think I'm just a little more partial to the custom snipeguard idea though, since it would give sellers more control over it. Maybe the two ideas could be combined so that the seller chooses both the initial snipeguard and how much it reduces over time, but I don't know how confusing that might become for buyers.

Thank you for reminding me of auto-bidding/max bids! That's another popular suggestion for auctions, so I'll add it to the list. I personally like the idea, but admittedly I'm not sure if Komodo would, considering that it might defeat one of the purposes of the auction system, which is to keep players checking the site throughout the day.

@Yubelchen
Definitely agree that custom snipeguard and minimum bid increase should be transparent to buyers. Starting bid is already displayed, unless you mean something else.

You make a good point that anyone can find rare items at any stage of the game. I should probably rephrase that part of my first post, because I realize now that what's needed isn't necessarily to prevent new players from bidding on rare items in the auction market, but to actually make auctions fair for new players. Because the problem with having a free and open auction market is that new players are being stomped by everyone else, not just for rare items, but also for items that everyone needs at each stage of the game, like plant products, pumpkin products, and evobar ingredients. Dividing the auction market in some way so that players can only compete against their equals would solve that. It wouldn't have to be divided exactly the way that I've suggested. Heck, I wouldn't mind trashing the whole idea, but I still feel that something needs to be done to level the playing field in the auction market, and I'm open to hearing any alternate solutions, if you have them.

@Klaora
I like your ideas for having rarity and type limitations on the usershop if it were to get a search function. A usershop tax would definitely help too. Auctions would also become more attractive if we had more slots, I agree. I don't have much else to say; these are all good ideas to me. ^^


The larger part of my reply to Yubelchen addresses this.