Auctioneer Problem - 3.9.0.1063 (Any help appreciated)

[Molotov 4]

Hi everyone,

I run Auctioneer 3.9.0.1063 but it has a problem and I am trying to find either a fix or an alternative solution (Different working version perhaps).

When I do a partial scan (Untick a single category) it works perfectly, scans and updates the DB correctly. But doesn't register as a full scan, as I expect.

However, if I do a full scan (all ticked) then it scans the entire AH and tells me how many things it scanned (everything, about 30,000 auctions on the PvP server) but doesn't add any of them to the DB as it seems to think nothing changed. It also doesn't seem to update the time of the last full scan, so when I go to the "Search Auctions" tab it states "Results are more than 24 hours out of date!"

This is consistent with it not updating the DB properly with a full scan.

 

Things I have tried:

Using 3.6.0 and 3.8.0 but both of these versions scan at half the rate (5 per second, rather than closer to 10), making a full scan an 1.5 hour task rather than 45 min. Which is just getting unmanageable.

 

Can anyone help me? I have tried using Aux but it just isn't to my taste. Doesn't give me enough information and doesn't display things like prices in a way that I find easy (I like the symbols for g, s and c rather than just colouring the text the corresponding colour.

 

Regards,

Molotov.

[shirsig 18]

What information are you missing exactly? Most of the "additional information" auctioneer gives you is pretty useless or even misleading afaik.

[Molotov 4]

Auctioneer tells me how many it has seen, what those prices were and similar information which tells me how good the statistical information I am using is. Sample size is very important. Then also creates approximate medians, bids and BO's etc. I prefer being informed how the information I am presented was created rather than a single 'magic' number.

It also has a complete DB of all vendor prices and doesn't rely on me seeing the price in the vendor, personally.

Thus, I prefer Auctioneer. Aux is also a touch unwieldy in control and manipulation of how it functions and displays information.

 

EDIT: Also I am running both atm and auctioneer scan time doesn't seem discernibly different from Aux - Or for me anyway. (Ignore owner name is on)

Edited January 3, 2017 by Molotov

[shirsig 18]

Yes, but you see, auctioneer's numbers are just as magical and on top of that less accurate which is why I said it's misleading.

Statistical values like a median, EMA etc. are only useful to compare when they're taken from the same data set and when you at least have some idea how this data set is even collected. Neither is true with auctioneer.

Sample size is sort of important but only if you know how to interpret it with regard to the other values. If not it can even be harmful, giving you false security. First of all the sample size isn't even accurate because it doesn't count auctions with the same item, stack size and price separately.

Then, auctioneer gives you two types of values:

The first one which it misleadingly simply calls "median", although it really is a median, is taken from a very special data set of only about 30 values or something where when it overflows values are dropped depending on where the newest was inserted and the data points are based on individual auctions so it can easily be completely wiped in a single scan, so the way the data set is collected is much more important than it being a median.

The second is an arithmetic mean of all auctions ever scanned, so a single large outlier can fuck it up essentially forever.

As you can see for neither of them even a large sample size should instill a lot of confidence.

 

For vendor prices you can import them with a script or copy the aux_merchant- variables from this file to your account wide savedvariable file: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/shirsig/stuff/master/Aux-Addon.lua

Edited January 3, 2017 by shirsig

[Molotov 4]

Accuracy only matters if you straight up believe the numbers and don't simply use them as guidance with input from present listings. Aux has the potential to be great, however without a full list of vendor prices (rather than simply what your character is exposed too) this potential will never be met.

I also believe that Auctioneer does cull the outliers. While not a perfect system, it served me well throughout Vanilla and TBC.

Don't get me wrong, Aux has the potential to be great and it does have some functions that I like, however it doesn't provide me with as much utility or functional use as Auctioneer. Especially because every search has to re-search the entire AH, and will not use data from a full search of everything done previously. Thus if I want to look for profit on more than a single criteria (or change my mind on criteria) I have to re-scan all 580 odd pages which even Aux takes about 50 minutes to complete which is the same as Auctioneer.

Edited January 3, 2017 by Molotov

[shirsig 18]

The average value has no protection against outliers whatsoever and every time you scan a "fake" auction with an insane price you have to manually reset it and the median is from too small a sample to even consider it historical.

What's the point in looking for profit in data from an hour old auctioneer scan? This method works well on retail where you have the get all scan which takes a few seconds but not so much in vanilla. All the best deals will be already gone, and the more recent good deals will not have been scanned yet. Then when you wanna buy something auctioneer makes you wait for it to rescan all the pages for that item, only to tell you at the end that the auction doesn't exist anymore.

[Molotov 4]

Auctioneer and Aux take the same time to scan for me. Getall didn't exist in this version of WoW and never did while I played retail.

Yet somehow it all still worked.

Running both at the moment and I will report back which gives me better results (if I have enough data by the time fresh releases)

 

Anyway, to the core topic. Anyone know how to fix my Auctioneer issue?

Edited January 4, 2017 by Molotov

[Tolle 3]

Try out version 3.4.3 (part of a Vanilla pack for a different 1.12.1 server):

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/4322808/Auctioneer 3.4.3.rar

[shirsig 18]

10 hours ago, Molotov said:

Auctioneer and Aux take the same time to scan for me.

Yes, the scan time is mostly determined by the client only allowing you to obtain a page every 4 or 5 seconds (much slower than in retail even without the get all scan), but aux shows you the results as they come in during the scan, so you can buy good deals immediately, not only after the ~1 hour scan. I mean, the really good deals usually stay up for at most a few minutes or even just seconds. They'll be long gone when the auctioneer scan finishes and you finally get to look at the data.

Edited January 4, 2017 by shirsig

[Molotov 4]

Somehow, I'll live. :)