And you said it couldn't be done..

[cevik]

Linked auction houses next build:

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/underdev/

[Pococurante]

Very cool.  Though I wish the neutral AH had been left unlinked.

[Furiously]

Oh great - so now - I'll get 3 times the spam while in cities.

[Lt.Dan]

Spam will be the least of your worries I should think...I'm dreading the lag.

[MrHat]

Spam will be the least of your worries I should think...I'm dreading the lag.

The whole point was so that the lag would be reduced.

One Queue to rule them all is a neccessary feature.  But is it too little to late?

[Lt.Dan]

Not city lag. I fear the AH lag of old.

[Righ]

In addition, the "Looking for Group" and "Trade" channels have been unified among the corresponding cities, meaning you can trade your goods or look for groups in Ironforge while in Stormwind!

4. Looking For Group: [Legless] LF warlock and two othersh to shummon me to IF from Shtormwind tavern. I really lovesh you all.

[Phred]

Very cool.  Though I wish the neutral AH had been left unlinked.

Why? On the 2 servers I've played on the neutral AH has been virtually useless. No one uses it for anything but transferring stuff to alts from what I've seen.

[SurfD]

actually, I like the idea of having a neutral AH in Booty Bay.  MUCH less annoying to get to BB then fly all the fucking way to Gadgetzan every time i want to see if something is up.

[Dren]

I, for one, will be glad to not have to center around IF 90% of the time anymore.  I like the "other" continent, so it will be very nice to not have to continuously travel back just to sell items.  Plus, actually seeing people in the other main towns would be nice in itself.

Damn, I'll actually be annoyed if my warlock constantly gets tells to get a summons from other cities.  It will be SB all over again.

I don't care about the new raid content.  I still don't raid.

My main is a paladin so I'm both excited and yet anxious since I do not know what the changes will be.

Overall, it will be a very nice and bigger than expected patch. IMO.

[Der Helm]

There are auction houses other than IF and Orgimar ?

[Merusk]

There are auction houses other than IF and Orgimar ?

Not currently, but there will be in the next patch.

I'm more interested in where they'll be sticking them. There's already space for it in Stormwind, opposite side of the Bank, where it was in Beta.  Booty Bay also had one in part of the Beta.  Darnassus, Everlook, Undercity and Thunder Bluff make me wonder where they're going to be stuck.  There's relatively little room in TB or UC.

[Ironwood]

This is not what we wanted.  Judging from that, we get linked main cities and seperate linked neutrals.

That's Shite.

Edited to Add :  Looks like it might be a single auctioneer that opens an auction window Merusk.  Space may not be a factor.

[Dren]

The linked auction houses is what I wanted.  I'm not sure what you are hinting at.

I will be able to trade from Darnassus, IF, and SW (yes, I'm an alliance puke.)

If I want to look at what the Horde have to offer, I can now go to BB, Gadget, or Everlook.

Now I won't have to fight through the huge amount of people and lag in IF since it is the hub for all trading AND bird flight paths today. The populations can now be spread out, but we don't lose the basic function of the AH.

Were you wanting all AH's connected? (Alliance and Horde together?)

[Ironwood]

No.  But I was wanting the neutral AH's to have the option of showing faction trades.  Without actually having to get your arse to a city to do so.  Because that just doesn't work, as Gadgetzan has proved.

[Yegolev]

Tempting to sign up again.  Not going to Kalimdor is a big plus.  I hate Kalimdor.  I would, however, have a stroke as soon as I locked up trying to mine a copper node, so I think I will wait.

[Venkman]

I'm interested to see if the linked AH's actually change anything.

• By sheer location alone, Darnassus is a nice little hamlet for people who like hamlets.
• Maybe some would get attracted to Stormwind, but it shares so many services with IF that I can't see a major permanent migration.
• Without some new end-game zones near or off of these two cities, I don't think the major commerce center is going to move from IF anytime soon. Nor do I think people are going to Hearth in Darnassus just so they can get annoyed at needing to travel to IF to get the enchant or direct sale they want. There's still just enough service-side economy to compel people to the same place.
• Finally, considering the most prominent destinations for pickup groups in IF (Blackrock stuff from BRS through Ony), who's going to want to be looking for a PUG in Darnassus only to need to beg the same Warlocks/Mages who were getting begged anyway?

I do plan to rake in the cash on Portals though, until people revert to norm.

This is nothing like the EQ Bazaar when it launched. SOE moved the entire commerce from EC Tunnel through a brand new feature not yet in the game (vendors), and tacking it onto the first of two central mass transit points (Nexus, with the 2nd being Plane of Knowledge).

Blizzard is simply looking to improved the technical issues with so many people in IF through a feature that won't be any more used than Meeting Stones.

In my opinion, anyway.

[Furiously]

I see this as more helpful to lower level characters.  The treck for a NE from Darn to IF can be a bit tough, same for a Tauren to Ogrim.

[Morfiend]

This wont do any thing to even out the population from the two major cities. Not until they add Battleground NPCs to those other cities.

[cevik]

This wont do any thing to even out the population from the two major cities. Not until they add Battleground NPCs to those other cities.

If they were to allow horses inside of UC, this would change horde significantly, because there are BG NPCs in UC, and UC is a much much easier to navigate city (though the lack of horses kills it), UC is also much close to strat and scholo than Og, and is approximately the same distance from BRS as Og.. UC is a much better capital city, minus the mount thing (which surely blizzard is already thinking about changing that thing)..

And I'm not just saying that because I'm Undead..

[Jobu]

I see this as more helpful to lower level characters.  The treck for a NE from Darn to IF can be a bit tough, same for a Tauren to Ogrim.

I think it will also help when you're questing out in a weird area. Say if you're Alliance in Felwood. You can keep yourself bound nearby, and fly back to Darnassus instead of all the way back to IF. Or if you're Horde in Hillsbrad, you can jaunt back to Undercity instead of Ogrimmar, and keep your hearthstone in Tarren Mill. By default all my characters have the Auction House city as their hearth because it's a necessity for popping back and selling off your good stuff. Unless you have a bank mule, I guess.

This will definitely help encourage me to remain bound to where I'm adventuring, and cut back on the interuptions of traveling across inconvenient distances to unload.

[Mesozoic]

By default all my characters have the Auction House city as their hearth because it's a necessity for popping back and selling off your good stuff. Unless you have a bank mule, I guess.

Damn, I thought everyone used shoppers nowadays.  Faster and cheaper to mail to a mule than the round trip to do it in person. 

[Pococurante]

Very cool.  Though I wish the neutral AH had been left unlinked.

Why? On the 2 servers I've played on the neutral AH has been virtually useless. No one uses it for anything but transferring stuff to alts from what I've seen.

Well that too.  But it was a great way to exchange goods that are more common / unique to the other side.  I've made great money moving items between neutral and Horde AH on SC.  Engineering recipes of all things sold very well to Alliance via Gadgetzan.  That edge is gone now and it will make being a dedicated merchant just that much more difficult.

[Rasix]

Very cool.  Though I wish the neutral AH had been left unlinked.

Why? On the 2 servers I've played on the neutral AH has been virtually useless. No one uses it for anything but transferring stuff to alts from what I've seen.

Well that too.  But it was a great way to exchange goods that are more common / unique to the other side.  I've made great money moving items between neutral and Horde AH on SC.  Engineering recipes of all things sold very well to Alliance via Gadgetzan.  That edge is gone now and it will make being a dedicated merchant just that much more difficult.

Forgive me for being obtuse, but I'm failing to see your point here.  Now, there's some very vague and unclear wording present in their announcement that complicates things.

This system has been expanded to support the neutral Auction Houses as well. Tanaris, Everlook, and Booty Bay will all be linked for players of both factions to access.

This just sounds like either a) there's 2 new neutral AH that will work just like the Tanaris AH but now you have multiple points of access or b) you have scenario "a" but in addition you can view the neutral AH from your own side's home AH. 

How exactly would either situation hurt a trader?  I'm assuming the items would still have to be auctioned at a neutral AH and the same fees would apply. Alliance will still hunger for your engineering recipes.  It's just the whole situation is a hell of a lot more convenient. Are you just worried that your niche might be getting stepped on?

[SurfD]

The way i read it was that each of the 3 major factions (Horde, Alliance, Steamwheedle Cartel) will have Linked Auction houses in their 3 largest cities.

The neutral AHs will still be seperate from the Horde / Alliance AHs, it just means that there is now other places then just Gadgetzan where you can go to put stuff up for the opposite faction to view.

I rather like the fact that the Neutral AHs exist as a seperate entity from the Faction ones.  It means that tradeing things cross faction actually involves a bit of risk to generate your reward.

And yes, each side does have some recipies that can ONLY be found on thier side.  I believe there is a specifi firework colour that can only be found alliance side, and some tailor patterns only available horde side, and the like.

[Venkman]

BB and Everlook are no more convenient to ge to than Gadget, so it's not like we can expect a huge influx of cross-faction trading. That action requires a lot of specific thinking many people aren't interested in doing. Adding more neutral AH location just makes the job of the existing traders easier.

I see this having as much impact as a Darnassus AH ;)

[Pococurante]

I probably misunderstand how it will be implemented - my first impression was horde/neutral and alliance/neutral AH are linked so basically I can search neutral AH while I sit on my rotting undead ass in Org.  But if it's just linking like faction to like faction then I can still trade cross-faction.

Rasix, in the first scenario I can't take advantage of price disparities.  A middleman is just someone who knows how to do the legwork and once everyone can search anywhere, well they become their own middleman.  Up until now, and with the second scenario, I can.  The second scenario will still be tougher though since neutral AH are now more common.

[Merusk]

BB and Everlook are no more convenient to ge to than Gadget, so it's not like we can expect a huge influx of cross-faction trading. That action requires a lot of specific thinking many people aren't interested in doing. Adding more neutral AH location just makes the job of the existing traders easier.

I see this having as much impact as a Darnassus AH ;)

When they moved the neutral AH from Booty Bay to Tanaris back in beta there were a lot of posts about how it killed the AH. Not all of them looked to be from the usual 'omg you changed something, DOOM' crowd.  Apparently it DID get used more when it was in Booty Bay.  No idea why this may have been true, other than it's much easier to get there as a low-level hordie. All of them are a pain as low-level Alliance.

As to alleviating the crowding in some of the cities, this will help Alliance more than Horde, I think.  Horde high-levels will just shift to UC, like everyone mentioned above, since there's direct FPs to the high-level areas and it's the only city on the Easten Kingdom. After the expansion, Stormwind will be the Alliance high-level home.  It has a direct FP to Duskwood, which will be important when they open Medivh's Tower, as well as a FP to Morgan's Vigil, which gets you to Blackrock Mountain, AND a FP to Nethergarde Keep for the Dark Portal.   Ironforge will continue to be the low-level and transport hub, given it's access to Plagues, Menethril and Southshore.  Darnassus is so out of the way, it'll just remain forgotten.  Maybe if they add a FP to Silithus from the west part of the continent it'll get some action, but that's still a long fucking flight.

Edited to Add : Looks like it might be a single auctioneer that opens an auction window Merusk. Space may not be a factor.

Ah yep, you're right.

[Dren]

It would have been nice if they had added Theramore to the list of AH's.  It is more of a hub on Kalimore than Darnasius is for me. (Sorry for any mispellings, I'm terrible with fictional names.)

[Venkman]

Good point on Nethergard and Duskwood Merusk. I still prefer IF for the Thorium Point FP for getting quickly to Blackrock. It's a shorter run. But it'll be one of those things I'll worry about at any given time.

It'll be interesting to see if this sort of subtlety does change things though. Considering the linked AH is coming at least 1/2 a year, if not a full one, from the expansion, I wonder if Darnassus/SW will go so unignored during that time that the new content in Deadwind and Blasted Lands actually changes where people do business. It's already been a year, people are pretty rooted, and at present time, there's no clear reason to move to SW from IF... nor any reason to visit Darn ;)

[Simond]

SW does have one draw that OF doesn't - occasional dragonslayer buffs.
Another, minor point is that it doesn't have a gaping, lava-filled chasm between the bank and the AH. ;)