Auctions: something that's been bugging me

[Techwright]

I've been bugged for some time about the auctions and finally managed to catch it in action.

 

Are multiple, unrelated items sharing auction pricing by design or by flaw?  Because, as you can see below, two unrelated items, save for their orange status, are sharing the bids process, probably artificially inflating one or both in the process. 

 

In this example, I followed both the Essence of the Furies and Synthetic Intelligence Unit for a few minutes.  Left pair shows the first time recorded, right pair shows the second time.  As you can see, they share the exact same number of units for sale, number of persons bidding and the exact same last 5 bids.  When Essence gained a new 500k bid, I snapped a shot and immediately checked the SIU, which had changed to match, both in quantity available, and in that 500k bid.

 

I believe if I were to dig further, I'd find that several items are sharing the same elements.  So why is this?  Flaw or design?  And if design, why?

 

[Blackbird71]

They're not unrelated; they're both rare salvage.

All salvage shares a pool based on rarity.  All common is lumped together, uncommon is together, and rare is together.  Meaning if someone puts an Essence of the Furies on the auction house, and you bid on a Synthetic Intelligence Unit, that Essence of the Furies will be transformed into a Synthetic Intelligence Unit for you to purchase.  The AH doesn't care what the salvage is; just what the rarity is.  At the time you captured those screenshots, there were 10,007,319 pieces of rare salvage for sale, and if someone purchased 10,007,319 Essence of the Furies, that's what they would all come out as.  Or, they could all be Synthetic Intelligence Units.  This keeps the prices lower, not "artificially inflating" them higher.

[Pixie_Knight]

Homecoming does something that didn't occur on Live. Salvage gets converted from one type to another within the same rarity when sold This means that if you're shopping for an Essence of the Furies, for example, then it only matters that this is a rare salvage. Any rare salvage someone lists for sale can be used to fill your buy order.

[Parabola]

In my head I know this as 'the fix for the luck charm problem'.

[Yomo Kimyata]

Some items that are fungible or pooled in the AH:

 

Invention salvage by rarity.  Inanimate rods = luck charms.  Steel <> Pangean soil.

Invention recipes by level.  Steadfast Protection Def lvl 30 = Steadfast Def lvl 15.  Steadfast Res/End lvl 30 <> Steadfast Knockback lvl 30.

 

Invention enhancements by level.  Just like the previous example, but in IO form.

 

Invention enhancement by attuned.  Miracle Healing lvl 35 IO = attuned Miracle Healing.  Winters Bite A/D <> Superior Winters Bite A/D.

 

Hami Os v. synthetic Hami Os.  Lysosome lvl 50 = Synthetic Lysosome lvl 50.  Lysosome lvl 50 <> Lysosome lvl 47 <> Cyto lvl 50.

 

Im sure I’m forgetting some, but I haven’t had coffee yet today.

[Ukase]

To provide a little more information - I'd have to go back and revisit the patch notes from the first ...six months, I think since HC came out. The HC devs seeded the AH with 10M units of rare, uncommon and common salvage, each. 

They placed these salvage at a price of 1M for rare, 100k for uncommon, 10k for common. As mentioned before, any common salvage listed is bought in the form of whatever common salvage was bid upon. (assuming someone meets the auction price, of course)

Those patch notes came out in the Pre-5/16/19 Patch Notes (including i25). 

But, just so you're fully informed, the AH can certainly be glitchy from time to time. It is quite susceptible to lag. 

 

[Techwright]

3 hours ago, Parabola said:

In my head I know this as 'the fix for the luck charm problem'.

Hilarious!  But, it does answer another question I'd had as to why luck charm wasn't hitting the ridiculous levels that were in the original game.