2) I have used FSH "Find Buff" a lot but so often just weeding through a list of folks that aren't really online, don't want to use their stam, are willing to sell buffs for a high price and not even reinforce them. A number of evenings I've spent over 45 minutes looking for buffs, and on one particularly dark and dreary night as my potions evaporated it was over an hour and found no one was really online or with stam or desire to buff for over an hour, so this Buff Market does seem like a blessing to avoid those times.
When you're not a high level player and don't have all the buffs you need to hunt, you are dependent on others and I've met great people looking for and buying buffs, but I've also almost quit the game in frustration on several occasions when I couldn't play because I couldn't find the buffs I needed. I remember quite a few lost GvG's for this reason and I've learned my lesson - I now don't buff myself and drink my potions before I've secured all the buffs I need from others, as I know it can be a waste of game money to do so.
So while in the end we may not make the interpersonal connections we once did through automation, we will likely keep the frustration level for those lacking all the buffs they may need or want and enable them to play ... speaking as one of those without all the buffs 
I see your point - waiting an hour as your potions dried up must have been most frustrating. This makes that 10 minute thing seem not so bad! LOL! (That 10 minute wait, if it remains, should be reduced)
Is part of you looking for folk again the autorefresh thing/problem where people look online but aren't? Does that need to be looked at? I don't use it, so am utterly unaware of its benefits.
I do think 175 buffs , or at least Fury Caster status should be clearly indicated, in addition to Sustain, Extend, Reinforce. Getting a 150 buff when you expect a 175 would not be a stellar experience. Especially if payment is automatically deducted when you receive the buff. Adding indicators for level of Fury Caster and Sustain available to the seller, and icons as suggested for Extend and Reinforce, if active on a seller, would rock.
If the system can help players find buffs faster and exchange services quickly, openly and fairly, then cool. It does not seem like we are quite there yet. I fail to understand the need for packs. People have constantly shifting needs, as buffs run out and need to be replaced, if nothing else. The ability to sell buffs individually, or buy them from a sellers list individually, seems the best way to me to go. Commonly requested packs can then be created as discount vehicles. So it would be as now with FSH - click on the ones you want from a sellers list of available buffs, have the price added up for you, or click on a pre created pack and buy it. The pack does not buff on you if you already have any of the included buffs active. You should be capable of managing that much!!
The buff marketplace could then simply become a list of players who are online and willing to buff. Click on player name, go to their buff list, choose which ones you want. Click buy - buffs are bought, payment made. IF both players are online and the seller has their sell buffs option checked, this can be automatic with no wait involved This is assuming indicators for FC, Sus, Ex and Rf are available.
Or have the search sortable by buff and price - look for AL, see all online sellers ranked in order of price by level of buff, 175 at the top, etc. etc. Like the old Fallen Empire (?? was it theirs?? Sorry if misnamed!) database, but active. Only the sellers who are online will show upon the list. Active database management, baby! It is kind of like that now, but you have to click on the seller to see how recently he/she was on, and what their enhancements are,if they have the buffs you want active, and then you can't back search to the menu - you get the white screen and hit resend message, or at least I do, and that is a pain. So some streamlining there would be nice.
Having it tied to actively online players avoids the problems of gold accumulating to be stolen, or stamina being drained when not desired. However, if there are timezone blackspots - and I'd like data on those please - this system would do nothing for them.
From what I have read it did not seem like BG and Hoof really wanted to allow people to sell offline. Depends how far they want to blur that goalpost, if it becomes within X minutes of last activity etc. then the timezone issue would remain.
THAT is when a feature to allow offline selling could be useful! Imagine it like the FSP marketplace - it could be implemented where buffs can be sold one at a time, stam allowing, on an open marketplace where the seller sets the price and disappears. The number of slots a player could have could be added to the game, say 5 to start, with an upgrade to buy more slots to sell more buffs when offline. A player choosing to sell buffs offline therefore knows how much stam he is going to burn (indeed, cannot post the buffs if he does not have enough stam) and has to accept the risk of having a bunch of buffs sell, and be gold rich and possibly hit when offline, which is true of potion merchants etc. now. I would have a certain number of slots to sell buffs, and would use them in market stacks for each particular buff. So you could go into this market and look at all the AL buffs, or all the SH buffs, and see which one you wanted. They would be displayed like the FSP market - most expensive at the top, with 175 buffs at the top of the listing. If there were none there, then you are SOL, find an active buffer.
I know folk have already suggested stuff very similar to this. I heartily apologise for regurgitating your ideas!
I give away a buff pack to certain qualifying players. (Under 300, at max stam) Would the new system have a charity corner?? LOL!
I said for the longest time I'd avoid this thread until it was done. Failed.
Edited by Belaric, 16 January 2014 - 22:58.