Bidding in auction house bugged?

tramperos

Hello everyone. I recently came back to playing Neverwinter more and i have encountered a bug (or at least i think it is a bug). I was bidding on a few auctions and spotted that if there is like 50 seconds (the time varies, it can be 50 sec other times is like 45 etc) to the auction end i couldn't bid anymore, the option to "Bid" is greayed out and i simply couldn't clicked it, like the auction already expired but there is still some time left. Anybody else encountered that problem? Maybe there was a change in patch notes that i missed? . Of course i had enough AD to bid, I checked if I can bid on my toons (couldn't), even reinstalled the whole game just to make sure it wasn't at my end. I don't think is intentional because I saw some people bidding after that time, or mayby they were using bots, i don't know. So can somebody explain what is happening?.

plasticbat

My guess is the game client clock (not your computer clock) does not match the time in the game.
It is not your fault.
It was more obvious in gateway (when we had gateway). I have to reload to get time more accurate back then.
I suppose it is similar for the game client.

When you post something to AH and you see 5 days stays for a while before it changes to 4 days 23 hours ..., you can know the game client clock is not matching the server clock. Exit the program and come back usually fix it. But, it is pain of the butt.

P.S. Actually, if you see 5 days, your game clock is already off comparing with the server clock.

If I put on my programmer's hat, I would suspect the following.

Windows OS before Windows 8 does not provide a high resolution time API that is accurate. Hence, we, programmers, need to find a way to do the best but the mechanism is more or less a hack in my opinion to workaround the limitation. Win8 and after provides a proper solution. Since this game can run in Win7, I assume the game client is limited to that regardless if you run Win7 or not too.

tramperos

plasticbat said:

My guess is the game client clock (not your computer clock) does not match the time in the game.
It is not your fault.
It was more obvious in gateway (when we had gateway). I have to reload to get time more accurate back then.
I suppose it is similar for the game client.

When you post something to AH and you see 5 days stays for a while before it changes to 4 days 23 hours ..., you can know the game client clock is not matching the server clock. Exit the program and come back usually fix it. But, it is pain of the butt.

P.S. Actually, if you see 5 days, your game clock is already off comparing with the server clock.

If I put on my programmer's hat, I would suspect the following.

Windows OS before Windows 8 does not provide a high resolution time API that is accurate. Hence, we, programmers, need to find a way to do the best but the mechanism is more or less a hack in my opinion to workaround the limitation. Win8 and after provides a proper solution. Since this game can run in Win7, I assume the game client is limited to that regardless if you run Win7 or not too.

THANK YOU
I read what you said and googled it, i found out a little program called Atomic Clock Sync and it worked! Thanak you again, i can now bid the auctions as i was doing before.

zap275

I'm having an issue in bidding in the auctions as well. But interestingly, it is only when the items are well undervalued (e.g., 350/15k), and only in the final seconds of the auctions. When the auctions get within about 20 seconds, I start seeing notices that I cannot bid and to try again later.

I'm on at Win7 system. So if I understand Plasticbat right, this could be a time sync issue. However, I've been able to bid at the last couple seconds on items close to market price or of little interest ( such as rank 1 or 2 enchantments for 5ad). This almost makes me wonder if this is a VIP perk or the work of bots in the system.