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LF the Community's Feedback on an Auction House Performance Fix
m3fan
Member Posts: 31 Arc User
I'm hoping that I can get the community to weigh in on a "low hanging fruit" type fix that I want from PW to the AH to help with performance. I think we have all, at one time or another, noticed how horrendously bad performance is with the AH.
In the recent patch notes they have implemented what they call a temporary fix to address performance issues with the AH by reducing the number of searches/queries that can be performed in a given period of time by each user.
While this is great, I think there is an easier fix that would be a lot more helpful.
When you open up the AH, enter absolutely no search criteria and simply click on a "Category" like Refinement it does the equivalent of what seems like a huge search against the database with only the selected Category used as a filter. Thus bringing back 400 random items that generally mean nothing to you.
This seems like a large and completely unnecessary performance hit to have in place as the default behavior. If you really want to give your users the ability to pull back a paged result set of 400 random things from a given Category I suppose you could. I personally don't see the value in it. But at least make them click the Search button to make it a purposeful action. Don't make it the default action that is performed by everyone against the database by doing something as simple as clicking on a Category like Refinement or Equipment or whatever...
Just doing a quick poll of about 30 friends, no one responded that they find this feature useful. Most responded that they found it annoying because when they are looking for something specific, if they click a Category, all the sub-categories get grayed out and they have to wait some indeterminate amount of time while some search is done for them to pull back a list of items they didn't care about in the first place.
Just from my experience alone I would say that you would see huge performance gains by simply changing the default behavior here to not do a full unfiltered search on an entire Category when you click into said Category. Instead make someone actually click that Search button if they really want to perform that broad of a search. Don't force everyone into it.
This seems like a simple fix with big potential.
I would like the community's thoughts.
Thanks in advance for your commentary on this.
In the recent patch notes they have implemented what they call a temporary fix to address performance issues with the AH by reducing the number of searches/queries that can be performed in a given period of time by each user.
While this is great, I think there is an easier fix that would be a lot more helpful.
When you open up the AH, enter absolutely no search criteria and simply click on a "Category" like Refinement it does the equivalent of what seems like a huge search against the database with only the selected Category used as a filter. Thus bringing back 400 random items that generally mean nothing to you.
This seems like a large and completely unnecessary performance hit to have in place as the default behavior. If you really want to give your users the ability to pull back a paged result set of 400 random things from a given Category I suppose you could. I personally don't see the value in it. But at least make them click the Search button to make it a purposeful action. Don't make it the default action that is performed by everyone against the database by doing something as simple as clicking on a Category like Refinement or Equipment or whatever...
Just doing a quick poll of about 30 friends, no one responded that they find this feature useful. Most responded that they found it annoying because when they are looking for something specific, if they click a Category, all the sub-categories get grayed out and they have to wait some indeterminate amount of time while some search is done for them to pull back a list of items they didn't care about in the first place.
Just from my experience alone I would say that you would see huge performance gains by simply changing the default behavior here to not do a full unfiltered search on an entire Category when you click into said Category. Instead make someone actually click that Search button if they really want to perform that broad of a search. Don't force everyone into it.
This seems like a simple fix with big potential.
I would like the community's thoughts.
Thanks in advance for your commentary on this.
Post edited by m3fan on
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Comments
Gateway AH used to be better, but the current lack of sort headers is very limiting.
Neverwinter Census 2017
All posts pending disapproval by Cecilia
I even submitted that as a bug report. If nothing else it is very poor multiuser data query design!
Encounter Matrix | Advanced Foundry Topics
I know that the devs expressed this current "fix" is temporary, at least until they find a permanent one, but the fact of the matter is nothing will fix this problem short of turning off auto search. That's it. Simple. Done. Turn it off.
If people cannot figure out how to click "search" they should not be on a computer in the first place.
so many ways to skin a cat.
Panderus, in that very same post you've quoted, also indicated that they'd look at changing it if player feedback warranted. Player feedback, as far as I've seen it, is overwhelmingly in favour of simply getting rid of these automatic searches.
Neverwinter Census 2017
All posts pending disapproval by Cecilia
So as I see it, you have two options:
1) Get the ENTIRE game population to start doing this
or
2) Disable automatic searches.
I'm no programmer, but I know which one is going to be easier!
even if you do all the filter you still may get unnecessary searches (specially on equipments).
I am a developer and have been in the industry for 17 years. As far as temporary and small fixes go what seems small to the average user, may been a huge undertaking for the a given organization when it comes to the QA process and the regression testing that is involved. (Regression testing = more or less making sure what you just changed didn't break something else)
To not be too technical...
You basically have the refinement categories on the left that perform two actions (that we can see) when you click on one of them. A) they open up the list of available sub-categories (which I hope to god is cached somewhere and is not pulled from the db each time, but I digress...) and
All everyone is asking for is to change that click activity to simply remove the search call and require that searches can only be initiated by clicking the Search button.
I would think that this could easily be done in one or two patch cycles given that you're not really making any game play related changes, you're simply altering a UI (User Interface) interaction element of the game.
Maybe it's more complicated on their side, without actually being involved you really don't know what sort of processes they go through in order to get a change made.
In the end, this would not just benefit the players in giving us an improved gaming experience, but it would also benefit PW in reducing what is an completely unnecessary load on the database(s)/servers.
This!! 100% agree
It is so ridiculous I have to do at least one dummy search before I get to the real search.
I am currently looking for Iron leatherworking tools (Iron Shears, Iron Awl and Iron Swivel Knife). This means I enter "Iron" in the search field and have to select Professions and then Leatherworking. The first auto search on Profession is unavoidable. No mater what is set up as search parameters. If i select the category before entering in the search box, it is two unnecessary searches that is performed.
I am *so* tired of getting a timeout just for clicking the auction menu because it performs unnecessary auto searches.
Just make it like the gateway. You don't see anybody complain about the extra click there ^^
Uh oh, now you did it. Let's really talk about button clicks and searches.
I know that there are still some people out there, because I see them all the time, that feel the need to run themselves all the way over to the AH to talk to an auctioneer. However, most of us have figured out that you can pop open the auction house from anywhere by simply clicking the "gavel-looking" icon in the middle/top of our screens.
The only problem is it doesn't actually open up the AH. It opens up an initial chat dialog, that you have to click into, then it opens up a gear selection window, then and only then if you click the Find Similar button will the AH window actually launch.
Let's be honest the gear selection window is another source of unnecessary load on the AH. Every single time you open that window it kicks off a search for the availability and price of 3 pieces of gear. You know it is kicking off real-time searches because when there is any significant load on the AH, it takes 30 seconds to load that window.
Another quick poll of 14 friends...
14 click the gavel icon to access the AH when they want to find or sell something.
0 click the gavel icon to access the gear suggestion window.
In my humble opinion, I would suggest that PW decouple the Auction Broker from the gavel icon and just have the icon pop open the AH window and force people to visit the Auction Broker in person if they really have a need.
It's not like there's another useful vendor that I can pop open no matter where I am in the world to sell stuff. So what's the big deal if I can't access a useless one. I say useless because once again, let's be honest, the gear it suggests pre-60 rarely exists in the AH, and the post-60 gear is generally garbage compared to what you have equipped.
The gear suggestions from the broker were a good idea... in theory. However, currently this is more like "theory that dinosaurs evolved into birds" theory and less like "Theory of Relativity" theory. Whatever matching and weighting algorithms (that may or may not be) being used for this need a bit of work. Plus if you're going to label a button "Find Similar" logic might dictate that it would attempt to find items similar to the one suggested, not simply open the AH. But with the way things are currently set up, I'm personally glad it does not, because that would be yet another unnecessary search when we are simply trying to pop open the AH window.
In the end save yourself the AH load of everyone executing even more unnecessary searches against the AH for stuff they don't care about by simply making the gavel icon open the AH window and not the Auction Broker.
...and to come full circle back to the quoted reply. I'll trade you one more click in the AH to kick off a search for removing two extra clicks to simply open the AH window.