Retainers Will Gather For You in ARR

[Kinseykinz]

Well, it depends on how they implement it. I see both sides as I have FSH/BTN/CUL/ALC all 50 and wouldn't want that time and energy negated by NPC's...but also sometimes would love if my NPC could go fish a couple things up while I gather on btn the other mats.

1. They could make it hard for your retainer to level a DOH. This would end up discouraging over-use.
2. They could put restrictions on your retainer that allow it to only do 'one thing'...or 'one thing at a time. So the player would have to choose between allowing the retainer to go out and gather, hold supplies, or sell/buy stuff etc.
3. They could limit it to lower quality items and/or lower zones...so basically, retainers just get the commonplace raw mats....with maybe the occasional chance for a super-rare item ONLY retainers can find. (This way, they aren't directly competing with gathers).
4. They could make it so that they make the basic mats while you are out of game...but that they can only make 'x' amount.
5. They could put long cool-downs on NPC abilities so that people can't just constantly spam them.
6. They could even make it that the NPC has to come with you and assist you while you gather, so you still do all the work, but the NPC raises the amount of chances/items/ or HQ's you might find.
7. They could cap NPC levels to that far below Player level cap. So NPC's can only gather grades 1-3, but players all zones/levels.

[HiirNoivl]

Thanks Kinsey.

I know that the idea of retainers gathering low level, or NQ, mats may seem more palatable on the surface, but low level, does not equate to low demand, and even low level gatherers would like to have their own economy that they make for themselves without the "help" (read: competition) of thousands of bots on the server.

If your retainer can only do one thing, and one thing ONLY, that might help somewhat. For example, you can have ONE gather retainer that cannot be used for any other function ever. Not holding stuff, not selling anything. But in the end that's just puts up a UI constraint, as all you would have to do would be transfer your gather retainers things to your seller retainer's things.

I do agree that retainers should be able to gather their own items, but I feel these should be untradeable (though not unique, so they can stack) to keep them from the marketplace. No retainer searching should ever take place on the markets as everyone would have to get a market search bot to ever find a deal.

And even if all these things were true, AFK play is still AFK play. Botting by definition. Being as I hate botting, I don't see myself ever liking this, regardless of how it's implemented. I don't understand why they are doing this. What problem are they solving. WHY do we need retainers to buy our things and gather our items while we're AFK or raiding?

[Reinheart]

Rukki just posted the official translated one here:

I have a small update regarding retainer levels to share with you.

Based on the feedback we collected in the past, the dev. team is looking to implement different features for your retainer as they level up. For example, we are looking into allowing retainers to perform chores, such as gathering.

As soon as we receive detailed information on leveling up your friendly caretakers and the tasks that they will be able to perform at certain levels, we will be sure to let you know!

[HiirNoivl]

*sigh*

I have a bad feeling about this. By the time we have detailed information, it'll already be done.

I wonder if they're making plans to remove gathering completely from the game. No other current MMO with popularity around here has gathering as a class, but as a "task", "activity", or "chore".

[Zenaku]

I don't see this as a big deal so what they going to gather very small amount of item for you everyday while you go out and gather no limit amount of item per hour.

I bet the retainer would take months to even get to darksteel lol and bring in 1-10 HQ lol

[HiirNoivl]

I don't see this as a big deal so what they going to gather very small amount of item for you everyday while you go out and gather no limit amount of item per hour.

I bet the retainer would take months to even get to darksteel lol and bring in 1-10 HQ lol

You don't know this is true and even if it was...

multiply it by thousands. You can have multiple retainers per character and multiple characters.

Thousands of bots.

[AmandaHuggenkiss]

1. 8 characters per world
2. Mail system
3. ?????
4. Profit!!!

This could get messy.

[syntaxlies]

I hope it works on a somewhat large cool down. Maybe like 12 logs a day or something. No HQ

[Atoli]

Well it's nice for people who hate gathering but still need mats for synthesis.
And it's also nice for people who have their own gatherer classes leveled but don't want to bother with collecting low lvl mats for some stuff they want to make.

But I'm REALLY afraid of how it could affect the markets if what they gathered was sold..so if the items are not bound to the character and therefore untradeable, I don't like this feature very much so far :/

[LlenCoram]

Throwing in as well. This could end up being problematic, and may be a sign of things to come. Namely, gatherers being pushed by the wayside.