Auctioneers need maintenance too!

[*Chobbs*]

Mornin' folks,

Temporarily disabled consigning new items for the auctioneers. Seems after running for a year and a half, it finally decided to hit the buffer limit. Will fix when I get the chance, but I will be perfectly blunt and say that these next few days are brutal for me, so don't expect any sort of timely fix.

Was adding the finishing touches on another project before this little snafu came up; hopefully they'll be ingame sometime during the memorial day weekend.

Chobbs!

[victory]

The auctioneer is a nice convenience, but it has some non-technical issues.
Primarily, my gripe is that if I bid on something early, I can't rebid, so someone can just put in a couple of extra coins a few seconds before the auction ends and there is nothing you can do about it. This is a classic ebay issue.

In general, there are 2 options for using it; do a direct buyout if the price is reasonable, or wait until last minute or so to bid, or just bid out of laziness and assume you won't get the item.

Suggestions for improvement
1. Offer hidden bids that automatically increment as others bid, up to a max bid.
2. Extend auctions for 1/2/5 minutes after the last bid made. This would make it quite similar to the old auction channel. Combine this with short auction options like 10 minutes, so you get near-instant gratification.
3. Have the auctioneer advertise using the auction channel with the auction status and periodic bids. People can always shut off if annoying using the existing command.

Just a few thoughts...

[Insomniac]

Any news on this? My junk is building up baaaaad

[Harm]

My coins are building up, and I've been looking to buy all different kinds of equipment. Sure would like to have this back, but in the meantime, perhaps just an old school auction on the auction channel would help sellers (and buyers). I actually come here to check the Emporium every day. If y'all list some stuff in there I'll send you an ingame mail or something.

Good day
Harm

[*Chobbs*]

Mornin' folks,

Barring any unforeseen circumstances, auctioneers will be up and running sometime during the first weekend of July. The current records will be wiped clean in favor of a more streamlined model, so if you have things still unclaimed, I highly recommend you reclaim them within the next week or those items WILL BE LOST.

On a related note, if that rascal Testbacon or his other breakfast buddies auction some weird stuff over the auction channel, ignore them! Probably debugging something, those jerks.

There will also be some improvements and bug fixes here and there. Stay tuned!

My apologies for the delay; real life and all that jazz.
Chobbs!

[Insomniac]

Any news?

[*Chobbs*]

Mornin' folks,

Plenty of unseen circumstance ran interference (largely in the form of a bazillion hours of overtime), but finally got around to patching the auctioneers.

Not enough time to implement everything that I wanted to sadly, but did get one or two things in.

New in version 0.6:
- It is now possible to consign multiple items in one listing (e.g. 3 hex tokens in one listing, up to a limit of probably 10). Format is generally consign 3 hex etc.
- Various bug fixes, you know who you are!
- Increased speed (no more 4 second lag when typing lots, hopefully)
- Won't eat items once it hits the buffer limit (shame really, they were delicious!)
- Commission fee probably fixed?
- New name and description! Very important fix. No self-aggrandizing there at all! *wink*

Still to be done:
- making charms salable
- making items with runes attached salable (currently it'll detach the rune and eat it. I don't recommend doing so!)
- extending auction time when someone bids at the last second (a la Victory's suggestion)
- better alert system for overbids/wins

Maybe will be done:
- having half day auctions/quickfire ones. need to figure out syntax for this
- auction advertising. how much spam is too much spam?

Probably won't be done (due to can't figure out how/probably not possible)
- sorting the list
- hidden bids a la ebay (would require a fair amount of rewrite)

No time to debug the chap properly, so please bear with me if they exhibit some funny behavior (not of the "ha ha variety", but of the "target chobbold" one).

Let me know what I forgot/anything else you want to see implemented.

/whee
Chobbs

[Insomniac]

Mornin' folks,

Chobbs

Thanks a lot Chobbs. Really appreciate the work on this!

Since you asked for suggestions and at the risk of giving you a heart attack, how much work would it take to allow the auctioneer to facilitate trading of items?

I.e. I have, say a Rhodochrosite gem that I want to trade for a Jet gem, I put it up on the auction and someone has to hand over a Jet to get it.

Further heart attack material:

Trading of 1 item for several items:

i.e. I have, say a Rhodochrosite gem that I want to trade for a 2 Jet gems, I put it up on the auction and someone has to hand over 2 Jets to get it.

Fuuuurther heart attack material:

Trading of 1 item for 1 of a selection of several items:

i.e. I have, say a Rhodochrosite gem that I want to trade for an Obsidian or a Jet or a Star Ruby. The first person to hand over 1 of those 3 gems gets the Rhodochrosite.

Fuuuuuuuuuurther heart attack material:

Trading of 1 or a batch of items for 1 or a batch of a selection of several items/batches:

i.e. I have 3 Rhodochrosite that I want to trade for 3 Obsidians or 3 Jets or 1 Star Ruby. The first person to hand over 3 Obsidians or 3 Jets or 1 Star Ruby gets the 3 Rhodochrosites.

Still alive?!

[jezer]

i.e. I have 3 Rhodochrosite that I want to trade for 3 Obsidians or 3 Jets or 1 Star Ruby. The first person to hand over 3 Obsidians or 3 Jets or 1 Star Ruby gets the 3 Rhodochrosites.

And what about if I want the above condition, but I only want it available to some players... because such and such called my mob last group and I'm still getting over it...

[blackmore]

Can I just pay the auctioneer to whack Insomniac and steal his gems?

[Tigris]

Just a thought....

As none of the people that would actually have to code the above mention idea about a "gem house" has said its not possible lets just assume for a second it was possible. As we already have a jewler which is pretty much unused except for the occasional item needed to read a spellbook or to sell a ioun because the other stores are out of money, couldn't we just use that as a gem house. Also assuming this was feasable what would the chances of gems being able to be sold for drach and bought for drach. Only gems that players had sold would be available for sale, at a mark up of course.

This would allow players to be able to gain drachma, which is something most players would want more of I would think and get more of that fantastic drachma equip in the game. Its great that we get the occasional scatter and the bronto gets loaded from time to time (more frequently as late, thank you) but still some of the drachma equip is off the charts expensive. Also I know Splork has repeatedly said that he doesn't want us to be able to remove runes from equip but on the off chance that was to change it could also be done at this house and would cost the player drachma maybe with a chance of the rune being destroyed or at least damaged.

Players would, of course, still be able to sell gems at the auction house on lots if money was something they needed a little more then drachma at the time.

I love the drachma scheme in sloth and think it is one of the many many things that makes sloth unique to other muds. I just think there is so more we could do with it.

Anyhow just a few ideas.....

[Thraxas]

Just a thought....

... gems being able to be sold for drach and bought for drach. Only gems that players had sold would be available for sale, at a mark up of course. ...

Anyhow just a few ideas.....

Surely it would be simpler to just code a machine where if you entered a 'secret' code you'd get unlimited drachma .. then tell everyone the code.

to elaborate I sell a rhodo for 1dr, then make a newbie char cycle the 120dr valk quests and buy the rhodo for 3dr, hand back to my main and repeat til the newbie is out of dr (main is up 40dr based on the 2 hours it takes to do this) then make another ... instant (well maybe not instant but quick and simple) unlimited dr ...
.... no wait .... actually theres not much point in doing this or the secret dr code machine as it can already be done with flawed gems .... pretty sure no-one would ever ever ever exploit this though ... just my thought

[Tigris]

Someone poop in your cereal this morning Thrax?

[Thraxas]

Someone poop in your cereal this morning Thrax?

sorry mate didnt notice it was you that had posted, would have gentled the ridicule but yeah having a bad day ... they happen sometimes.
Good to see you're still kicking around and dont take my comments personally they werent meant that way.

[celerra7]

Error on auction board? Items listed twice (handwraps and leather armor):

lots
A chobbold auctioneer tells you 'Alright, let's see here.'
Showing all current listings:
id Item last bid bidder buyout time seller
------ ---------------------------------- --------- --------- --------- -------- --------
SDCES handwraps of Kun-Tua 30000 | Wilmer | --- | 8hr 25m Zamper
5PNNT a set of finely tooled leather arm 500000 | Wilmer | 600000 | 13hr 51m Greedo
M04UP a string of pearls 111111 | Oboe | 999999 | 3hr 18m Scaind
8TA59 a chunk of red volcanic glass 100000 | --- | 225000 | 6hr 57m Ezekiel
VEJ6F old leather boots 22000 | Perse | --- | 11hr 14m Aryan
YUBPS a serpent skin coif 1000000 |Breezewoo | --- | 15hr 34m Ramza
FDCD9 trocar of the demilich 100000 | --- | 200000 | 16hr 6m Tigris
W2J6T 2 an uncut sapphire 200000 | --- | 350000 | 16hr 58m Tigris
HV8X8 Amethyst Helm of the Karuto 500000 | --- | 750000 | 34hr 34m Vortex
APY9Q some hot embers 300000 | Vortex | 3000001 | 1hr 53m Surfnazi
SDCES handwraps of Kun-Tua 30000 | Wilmer | --- | 8hr 25m Zamper
6XATC 2 a purple minidemon brooch 100000 | --- | --- | 12hr 6m Mug
5PNNT a set of finely tooled leather arm 500000 | Wilmer | 600000 | 13hr 51m Greedo
NPB8W dinoskin leg plates 300000 |Breezewoo | --- | 62hr 57m An
74661 a shadow bracer 50000 |Breezewoo | 150000 | 38hr 58m An
5XW5U an octagonal shaped token 150000 | --- | 300000 | 68hr 37m Insomniac
------ ---------------------------------- --------- --------- --------- -------- --------
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