Auction House Update - APM Limit Added

[Lumy]

Auction House Update - APM Limit Added

Hello.

The performance reported above is expected and intended, following a hotfix that went into effect a few hours ago. The hotfix is intended to both address service issues, as well as address an imbalance between the vast majority of players and a very small minority.

Through our continuing work to address service issues as they crop up, as well as our constant efforts to find gameplay issues and fix them, we’ve observed that a small minority of all players generate the majority of Auction House traffic.

The players who generate all of the AH traffic are using addon-driven automation to gain a competitive economic advantage over other players, in addition to the increasing strain on the game service. Neither of these things is good for the game as a whole.

With this hotfix, we’ve implemented a new system that effectively gives each player a “budget” of AH actions per minute, and only kicks in once that budget has been exceeded. The system is tuned so that is should never affect players using the AH typically: buying consumables, listing gathered or crafted goods for sale, searching for specific items you want to purchase, etc. It should be essentially impossible to encounter the new limits for most players.

The new system will, however, throttle players who are using addons to run rapid queries to scan the AH for specific goods, or buy and relist huge quantities of items.

The current tuning values are a starting point for this. We very much welcome feedback on AH activities are hitting the throttle. If the current settings are too strict, we’ll want to relax these measures.

[Zandalarian Paladin]

Interesting change.

I remember when AH was a powerful money-making tool for a small portion of the player base - basically, it was it's own little capitalist system.

I am mitigated about this change. Because it was a way for some to play the game, I just hope these players still have a way to manage that. Obviously not talking about bots and automatized auction add-ons. They're the reason why blizzard had to make this change.

[Railander]

this effectively destroys the biggest use of AH addons: having a database of item prices you can use to reference whether an item is worth selling or not without having to waste your time manually checking for each item.
this system was working perfectly fine before for months, so i don't see why they'd go out of their way now to change it in favor of "performance improvements". seems to me it's a way to cut on server expenses getting away with cheaper stuff, rather than benefiting the player.
the argument that these addons pose an advantage to players that have it is also of course completely ridiculous, as this is true for many many other addons as well but they never care to "fix" it in those other cases.

[jediknight12]

I swear IMO they have been adding some crap that F2P games would add.

[Redlikemyrage]

this effectively destroys the biggest use of AH addons: having a database of item prices you can use to reference whether an item is worth selling or not without having to waste your time manually checking for each item.
this system was working perfectly fine before for months, so i don't see why they'd go out of their way now to change it in favor of "performance improvements". seems to me it's a way to cut on server expenses getting away with cheaper stuff, rather than benefiting the player.
the argument that these addons pose an advantage to players that have it is also of course completely ridiculous, as this is true for many many other addons as well but they never care to "fix" it in those other cases.

You appear to be focusing on the wrong line. Yes, it said something about performance issues. That’s just a hand wave so you think it’s a multi tiered reason. If I had to guess, they are breaking this because, unlike some people here, they don’t think playing the AH is a valuable part of their gameplay.

My two cents? I agree. If all you do is play the AH, you aren’t doing anything but creating false economical issues because you have no life and can watch the AH like it’s a fucking stock market. I’m hard pressed to feel bad for anyone truly affected by this.

[Sesethi]

this effectively destroys the biggest use of AH addons: having a database of item prices you can use to reference whether an item is worth selling or not without having to waste your time manually checking for each item.
this system was working perfectly fine before for months, so i don't see why they'd go out of their way now to change it in favor of "performance improvements". seems to me it's a way to cut on server expenses getting away with cheaper stuff, rather than benefiting the player.
the argument that these addons pose an advantage to players that have it is also of course completely ridiculous, as this is true for many many other addons as well but they never care to "fix" it in those other cases.

It is likely because there is a lot, and I mean, a lot of players entering the AH now using these addons to obtain the 5M mount. it is happening on my server. So a player comes, learn an AH money making guide somewhere, and flood the AH trying to obtain money to buy the mount. What happens though is that it is just player running over each other very very fast screwing the traffic for the AH.

TLDR: Blame the 5M mount.

[xblubbx]

IMO this is more likely about the fact that the AH addons can be simply automated/botted via autohotkey etc. in a way that it's very hard to prove by Blizzard without catching too many false positives.

[music49]

If it reduces lag I'm all for it. Hopefully those how play WoW for the AH can still enjoy it

[Dreammage]

I never agreed with the AH being played like the stock market. It was never meant to be that way. Addons only made it worse.
Good change, but should have been made in 2010, not 2020.

[Accendor]

Fucking bad change but what do you expect from Blizzard these days? Damn clowns lol

[music49]

Fucking bad change but what do you expect from Blizzard these days? Damn clowns lol

How much gold per day are you losing to this change? Serious question.

[THEORACLE64]

this effectively destroys the biggest use of AH addons: having a database of item prices you can use to reference whether an item is worth selling or not without having to waste your time manually checking for each item.
this system was working perfectly fine before for months, so i don't see why they'd go out of their way now to change it in favor of "performance improvements". seems to me it's a way to cut on server expenses getting away with cheaper stuff, rather than benefiting the player.
the argument that these addons pose an advantage to players that have it is also of course completely ridiculous, as this is true for many many other addons as well but they never care to "fix" it in those other cases.

And they’re also the addons that have caused the biggest amount of issues for the AH as well. A lot of people don’t use them and it’s those players that end up being affected by them, so a welcome change honestly.

[JohnnyTheCherriesLover]

How much gold per day are you losing to this change? Serious question.

He's outraged on the behalf of others, very common thing to do these days

[Mardux]

How much gold per day are you losing to this change? Serious question.

Less than would be required for their doomsaying.

People are just pissy that they cant afk and run the auction house using botting addons like TSM.

[furydeath]

imagen trying to be a scribs and enchanter spending 40+ mins to post your crafting items

[lollerlaban]

Fucking bad change but what do you expect from Blizzard these days? Damn clowns lol

Yeah man, i just love it when people cripples my server with queries because they want to shuffle bracers for 2g margins, FUCK YES.

It's a good change, face it

[exochaft]

With these changes, you can make obscene amounts of money with the AH still. It was and is possible without an addon. This isn't the first time Blizz has implemented restrictions on how often you can call API functions, and previous times in the past was because there was activity either being promoted that was not with the original intention or spirit or the game (simplified, abuse or unintended behavior/consequences) and/or there were performance issues impacting players. In this case, it's probably a little bit of both.

[EyeOculus]

Good change. Good riddance to those which abused the Auction House with Addons.

[Nelle]

Game Over Goblins
Its been a nice ride.

[crakerjack]

Good. If you want to play the AH, you do it manually 100% and don't have some tool do most of the work for you. This is a good change for a variety of reasons, but one of the main reasons it's good is because the scenario where you list something for the wrong price and try to remove it within seconds but it's already bought won't occur anymore. Some sleezy player using an addon snipes it right away without investing any effort. Hasn't happened to me in some time, but in early BFA, I had guildies who tried selling epic BoE's in the first couple weeks but listed the wrong price. As you'd guess, the items were bought immediately after the listing because some addon picked it up and alerted the player to buy it.

Good riddance.