Random Complaint Thread. No white knighting allowed.

[Sephiroth]

The wards will help buyers somewhat, but they'll hurt sellers. This means even more NPCing of crafting materials. My retainer could probably fit in five different categories right now, as it happens I've put it in the first one just because I know it will get the most views there. Once people realise that the other wards won't be used much. Of course if you're a dedicated seller and only want to sell rock salt for example, you'll sell it quickly and love the wards. But they suck for crafters.

[Dooom]

But they suck for crafters.

And given how much this game relies on crafting (how else do we get armor and weapons? NPCs are over-priced for what little they hold, leves give dick all really; and repairs!), that's a terrible, terrible thing. They need to encourage people to craft, not make it even harder for them to shift the end product.

[Nevex]

Forget what I said earlier. 90% of the sellers still use the first ward with only a few retainers being placed in the most appropriate ones. And of course nobody is going to check every single zone when they're looking to buy something.
In short, the only thing this update did was lowering the chances of your retainer being checked (read: you sell less) like it was said above.

[CrstyCptSteveWitherspoon]

Multiple retainers will go a long way in helping. Not sure how they'll implement them though. If they charge $1 more a month to sell in multiple wards, people won't be happy, as they shouldn't be. We should be allowed at least two retainers for free. Not totally sure how retainers work outside of stands(lol crazy that I don't know this), but if you summon one in a ward I know you have to dismiss it to summon it at a bell else where. This is essential for me as a crafter as I need room for more than I can carry. Due to this I never put my retainer in a ward anymore simply due to lack of inv space. They need to do something about this as well.

[Elrina]

Multiple retainers will go a long way in helping. Not sure how they'll implement them though. If they charge $1 more a month to sell in multiple wards, people won't be happy, as they shouldn't be. We should be allowed at least two retainers for free. Not totally sure how retainers work outside of stands(lol crazy that I don't know this), but if you summon one in a ward I know you have to dismiss it to summon it at a bell else where. This is essential for me as a crafter as I need room for more than I can carry. Due to this I never put my retainer in a ward anymore simply due to lack of inv space. They need to do something about this as well.

I could dig up where they said it if I had to, but they've already said that each character gets 1 retainer "free", and that the option will be made available to lease/purchase/whatever more for $1/month, per additional retainer.

[Sephiroth]

My retainer often has:

Slot 1 & 2 - buying fire crystals
Slot 3 - A DoW weapon.
Slot 4 - A DoH tool.
Slot 5 - Armour from a leve I don't need.
Slot 6 and 7 - Alchemy crafting materials.
Slot 8 - Carpenter crafting materials.
Slots 9 & 10 - Jewellery.

So yeah, if people use the wards as they're supposed to now I can expect to sell things 7 times as slow. I'm not a fan of sticking 10 of the same item on a retainer when only 2 or 3 will sell per day, which is what this system encourages you to do.

[Dooom]

On Kashuan at least, all is as it was pre-update. 95% of NPCs in the first ward, the others are desolate.

[Dantrag]

I could dig up where they said it if I had to, but they've already said that each character gets 1 retainer "free", and that the option will be made available to lease/purchase/whatever more for $1/month, per additional retainer.

Honestly, it should be a weekly or monthly in-game fee. Kind of like having to pay coins for access to your mog house. There is no reason we should have to pay RL money for fucking space in a game.

[miokomioko]

They actually made it cheaper to do what people were doing in XI, paying for more characters for 7 more AH slots, 30 more inventory, and to bazaar more shit.

[Meresgi]

Market Ward changes. Yay! But oh wait. My retainer is currently selling 2 PUG weapons, 2 THM weapons, an earring, a bracelet, looking to buy crystals, and some smithing gloves and a scarf, plus some bits of leather. Where the fuck do I put her? I've already noticed people putting their retainers in the "wrong" wards, and frankly for me - someone who is doing what a good seller should do and diversifying my wares - there isn't a "right" one.

Sad face.

So place her where you have the MOST of a certain type of item you are selling, when you check in on her, and those items have sold...move her to the next ward while you craft more items to put on her.

You want to sell your most expensive items, with the least tax and where there is the most chance to sell them.

[Elrina]

Honestly, it should be a weekly or monthly in-game fee. Kind of like having to pay coins for access to your mog house. There is no reason we should have to pay RL money for fucking space in a game.

I agree 100%. The problem, however, is that I have this overwhelming feeling that they designed it this way (and are attempting to fix this in a way that prevents them from implementing a real Auction House that would establish a true economy) deliberately to cash in on the extra money. A lot of people paid for mules in FFXI, and they wanted that extra cash every month again. But now we have even less of a reason to have secondary characters than we did then, especially since those are $3/month extra.

By restricting inventory (giving 80 slots from the beginning, yet no discernible quests to increase it) and adding in many versions of items that don't stack (the +1/2/3 shit), on top of making crafting an enormous part of the game (thus requiring a lot of those items, as well as what you make, as well as the gear you need for multiple classes), there is no way it isn't deliberate. Now, not only can they cash in on the people who may have paid for mules anyway (although the only reason it was necessary before was because of "PS2 limitations" restricting inventory on our main characters), but everyone else as well, since pretty much everyone will need inventory space and the ability to spread retainers across wards to sell things properly.

I wouldn't be surprised if the "search function" only let you search for items in the specific ward they were supposed to be in. Would be just like SE to put that kind of restriction on it.

[Dantrag]

I agree 100%. The problem, however, is that I have this overwhelming feeling that they designed it this way (and are attempting to fix this in a way that prevents them from implementing a real Auction House that would establish a true economy) deliberately to cash in on the extra money. A lot of people paid for mules in FFXI, and they wanted that extra cash every month again. But now we have even less of a reason to have secondary characters than we did then, especially since those are $3/month extra.

By restricting inventory (giving 80 slots from the beginning, yet no discernible quests to increase it) and adding in many versions of items that don't stack (the +1/2/3 shit), on top of making crafting an enormous part of the game (thus requiring a lot of those items, as well as what you make, as well as the gear you need for multiple classes), there is no way it isn't deliberate. Now, not only can they cash in on the people who may have paid for mules anyway (although the only reason it was necessary before was because of "PS2 limitations" restricting inventory on our main characters), but everyone else as well, since pretty much everyone will need inventory space and the ability to spread retainers across wards to sell things properly.

I wouldn't be surprised if the "search function" only let you search for items in the specific ward they were supposed to be in. Would be just like SE to put that kind of restriction on it.

I've been thinking about it. I still think paying an in-game fee for a retainer is the way to go. I agree with your assessment that this is 100% on purpose, there's no way you can even try to make up some random ass system like this without putting in effort.

But the sad part is, a new character would probably benefit you more than 2-3 retainers. $3 buys a character + a retainer. With this you would lose 80 spaces over just 3 retainers but you could gain the freedom of having a mule in a city that you rarely visit. This would allow you, once a mail system is in place, to mail youself things from different cities and even setup retainers in different cities without having to go there. I could see this being far more useful than 3 retainers.

[dubs]

The market wards are simply a flea market. I happen to love flea markets. It is a great way to kill a slow summer sunday morning. Walking around with friends or family hoping to find a gem buried under heaps of useless junk. I have a wonderful classroom teaching aid from the '40s showing the final stage of human evolution being the separation of straight haired and wooly haired man.. a true gem.

When I want something specific I go to a store that sells that.. never the flea market. That isn't what flea markets are for, period.

The longer SE fucks with the current wards system making incremental, and in this case meaningless, changes the long it will bleed it's player base. No one outside unemployed masochists and people paid to play has the time and patience to make it work.

Also, there seems to be this odd notion that some how market wards will stop RMT. I really don't understand this line of reasoning. The assumption seems to be that RMT are only capable of listing things on an AH. Or maybe the assumption is that they can only make faceroll names? I really don't know, but, there is no question at all that anyone "playing" this game for profit will be very adept at managing their retainers. They will always be fully stocked and in the correct wards with only the correct items because they will be the ONLY ones with enough time, patience and retainers to fully manage this system.

[CrstyCptSteveWitherspoon]

The ingame fee is what should be done. Kinda like the mog locker lease. You can hire another retainer and pay them in advance for their services(so you can prolong your lease for a month or w/e). Again, it all comes down to this being an unfinished game and SE being at fault for not learning from XI. Inv space has always been an issue, which COULD have been not as big a deal IF they left out the +1/2/3 items in this game. The addition of that just pushed it over the edge. But I agree, paying $1 more a month for another 80 slots is retarded. Not saying I wouldn't do it, as I'd sign up in a heart beat for a second retainer, but charging me more money so I can play the game better is wack. This game gives me a headache just thinking about it. It's like they hired a completely new staff that has never programmed or played a MMO in their life.

[Elrina]

After the news they just posted to the Lodestone, maybe we'll get lucky and they'll let us get at least a couple retainers via in-game currency.

And I really don't understand why the +1/2/3 items couldn't be bag sacked into one stack or something, and when you select the stack it opens up a small mini-menu of how many NQ/+1/+2/+3 there are of that specific item.

In the end, the market ward still won't really suffice in the long term. Especially since they may be doing exactly what I was afraid of as far as the search function

Search feature to allow item searches by individual wards
Icon display to identify retainers selling sought-after items
Increase in the number of retainers that may be employed

Instead of letting us do a search of the entire market ward for an item, it sounds like it may be ward by ward. (Lets hope that there's a blanket option to search all the wards and they don't really restrict it to that.)

[Elcura]

I think their intention was that, if someone is in the weapons ward looking for a weapon, this will help. Instead of, someone looking for a Dodo Strap across all wards and finding the ward and retainer that has it (which ideally in their vision would be in the tanner ward).

[Lucavi]

^ Probably this, and people are just going to have to dill with it until the search function is implemented. SE is learning to crawl now, so it won't be long before they're walking, and then jogging, and then doing the Michael Johnson. Just bear with it, or don't play until late November which is their estimated time frame for the search function.

[Katlan]

SE has to be the most retarded company ever. I canceled my account a few days ago and can no longer log in.. so they prorated my 30 day free trial when it even says under the account management for XIV:

"No service fees will be incurred for these first 30 days.
This period is usable until the end date.
If you continue to use options after the free trial period has ended, service fees will be incurred. "

So if you cancel before the end they don't let you play. So don't you always pay for the month upfront? So if you cancel your account mid month they no longer let you play even though you alrdy paid for the rest of the month? the ToS even says "If you cancel in the middle of a subscription period, the Option will still be available for use until the sub period ends" but its a load of shit since it doesn't and they discontinue your service from the start.

I can't wait until you have to pay to play the game. If i pay for a month and then cancel and no longer get access to my account, they seem to be begging for a lawsuit

[Nevex]

This whole game is an act of revenge from SE.
I knew as soon as I read the extra free month thing that it was going to be a big "fuck you" to those who cancelled their subscriptions.

[Sephiroth]

The trial extension didn't come as a surprise for me. It's pretty normal for companies to extend a trial if the original release goes badly. I didn't expect 30 days however. I don't know why people hurried to cancel their subscription so earlier, it's not like any payments were due until another week.

I'm done complaining about the game. They've done all they can to assure me they're working on the issues that I find most annoying. Just sucks that we have to wait another month or two, but in development things don't happen over night.