Yes, I have seen these. I personally believe the prevalence in bots leads to complaints in all domains, and AH is one of them. In the past long time was a big source of complaints too, where Swedish players could catch things before others do.cyork2 wrote: ↑13 Jan 2023 21:28Z - thank you for taking the time and doing the due diligence on the issue. If the frequency is insufficient to merit action, perhaps in time enough complaints will be made to raise the priority.
For your reference, in the hope that at some point this issue will rise in priority, I did some research on the forums and identified all of the threads / people who would like to see something done. It looks like the reason nothing has been done in the past is that the 'best' solution proposed wound up being complicated to code (a script proof buy it now captcha that is only active the first few minutes after an auction is posted). In some cases, it seems we fall into the trap of great being the enemy of good and nothing gets done. If / when this issue does get taken up to code, I would suggest one of the simpler ideas would be sufficient.
Threads Which Include Complaining About Robot AH Buyers (and solutions in some cases)
---DATE--- : ----- FORUM TOPIC ------
Oct 29 2022 : The Auction House - a ridulous solution
Mar 25 2020 : 1 Minute Delay
Jul 19 2020 : Auction for non-robots
May 25 2016 : Scripting in Genesis
Mar 06 2016 : Stopping script-buying on the Auction House (12 pages!)
Feb 17 2016 : Imbuement and Armour Changes (the discussion went off topic, including AH scripting)
Players Who Have Complained About Scripted Buying and/or Proposed Solutions on this Forum
Avo
Boreaulam
Budwise
Chanele
Dakhor
Freya
Irk
Jar
Kelrhys
Kilrayne
Kirsach
Kitriana
Mayobe
Mim
Morgzaash
Rincon
Rixe
Salmon
Shanoga
Skykil
Skythus
Strider
Targun
Thalric
Val
Ydred
I tried to leave off Wizards even though a number of them also posted that they agreed and thought it was worth doing something.
I am aware of several other people, not on this list, who would like auto-scripted buying fixed but as they have not posted on the forums that could just as easily be me making stuff up so I did not include them and am not naming them.
Best,
Avo
I don’t have an easy answer. We discussed “let everyone BIN and random pick a winner. I looked at delaying the notification of AH items for a time for anyone who bought an item in under a certain threshold, so their snag rate is limited. It is a constant problem elsewhere - see Ticketmaster, Sneaker sales, etc. I don’t have a workable model that I can base the work on.
Say it took your approach and said 12h BIN turns on. Those with low ping times set an auto timer for 12h later. So I randomize the delay. Now those that run aulist constantly on timer see it first.
Say I only check BIN after X minutes/hours, and whoever is highest bid gets it then. Who sticks around all that time to keep outbidding? Idle bots as Quantum mentioned. And if people are mispricing, isn’t learning how to sell at the right price another aspect of game play?
Everything has trade offs, unfortunately.