Retainers Will Gather For You in ARR

[KiraHime]

I'm okay with that sort of thing but for lower level people, would their retainers be high enough level to do that?

I think this depends on how retainers are leveled. I think some people are thinking as you are that retainers will level gathering up to 50 or some equivalent. Another possibility is that a retainer may have a range of lets say 5 levels and as it levels up each level unlocks new abilities.

For example
level 1 - Can be placed in Market Wards (or 2.0 equivalent)
level 2 - Can be placed in Market Wards and undertake shopping expeditions
level 3 - Can be placed in Market Wards, undertake shopping and gathering expeditions
level 4 - Can be placed in Market Wards, undertake shopping and gathering expeditions and house gardening tasks
level 5 - Can be placed in Market Wards, undertake shopping and gathering expeditions, house gardening and chocobo raising tasks


Again all the above is totally made up to illustrate a point. As an awesome but totally unlikely thought, how cool would it be that once your retainer 'capped out' its level you could change it to a pet avatar, gogo retainermon evolution!!! XD

[Kinyoto]

I'm sure there will be limitations on how much a retainer can actually do for you in gathering. If they can do everything then why would they still make those classes playable? We'll just have to wait and find out what they have in store. I'm sure it'll be something nifty!

[Zenaku]

I'm sure there will be limitations on how much a retainer can actually do for you in gathering. If they can do everything then why would they still make those classes playable? We'll just have to wait and find out what they have in store. I'm sure it'll be something nifty!

It's like people don't read the dev post.

We just wanted to let you know that relying on your retainer alone to gather for you isn't going to cover all of your gathering needs. We are planning this system very carefully to ensure it does not destroy any sort of economic balance so you can rest easy in that regard.

[jesseleewelch]

Honestly, what do you expect? Consider how the gathering process works in the first place. The following link is from a dev posting video from the old alpha version in which a botanist simply walks up to a node, clicks the item he wants, and it is handed to him. No challenging minigame or skill required.

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...010#post999010

Of course, that is not all. In the Q&A period (next link below) Yoshi-P himself outright stated that there will be no actions taken during the fishing process either. In other words, no skill or patience required here either?

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...system-changes

With this in mind it really doesn't matter if there are retainers doing it because gathering itself has become so easy that even without retainers doing it for you I don't expect ANY of the gathering items to sell for any significant amount of money at all. Also, I know Okipuit wants to regulate NPC gathering to prevent undue harm to the economy but I would argue that is not possible. Many players don't bother crafting, they're combat focused. So if they have a retainer they might as well set him to go out and gather mats they won't use and after a few weeks they'll have a good haul for the AH.

I am still very much looking forward to FFXIV ARR. I have been ever since the 1.0 servers went down. But I am deeply disappointed with how blatantly easy they are making gathering. If these items are practically handed to players in more ways than one, how can you expect to make money gathering?

[Ksenia]

I kind of like this idea. I saw no mention at all of it in Beta forums but this would eliminate the shard grind. Send out a retainer for Wind shards, go get materials for whatever it is you plan to grind yourself.

[Mjollnir]

I kind of like this idea. I saw no mention at all of it in Beta forums but this would eliminate the shard grind. Send out a retainer for Wind shards, go get materials for whatever it is you plan to grind yourself.

I have no idea why, but my 1.0 character started B3 with about eight thousand of each type of shard (I had pretty much none when Dalamud hit). Looks like my retainers won't ever need to do this and will instead live in the Market Wards for their entire life!! Haha.

[Atomisk]

Yep, no point in ever wielding the old hatchet any more. Why go out and gather items if your good ol' retainer will do it for you and then go back and sell it for you.

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...431#post946431

There had better be some restrictions on this.

Gathering is not the same as harvesting, so you will still have to don that hatchet it looks like. Just not the scythe. I also cannot find my scythes on my char. so looks like harvesting got removed from the btn class. btn harvest onry now.

[finiteHP]

Scythes are still in. BTNs get their first scythe in the level 10 quest.

[Daniolaut]

I think youre giving a bit too much credit to your retainer and its capabilities.

*****WARNING******complete personal speculation*********WARNING****

For example, if you are a level 5 DoL your retainer will not be capable of supplying your needs for your level 5 DoH, and certainly wont be capable of meeting your outputs as a DoL, probably not even meeting half your outputs.


If you are a level 50 DoL, and you need 99 Tin ore or some other 1-10 item it might take your retainer 5 days to get 99 or something along those lines.

Basically probably what they will do with the retainer is if youre very high it will, (if youre of somewhat patient) gather your supplies so you wont have to go out and farm the low level items. (Most likely a max of level 20 with a major increase in wait times for higher level items.)

[Mjollnir]

Most likely it'll be about twenty-times more useful for your retainer to be selling your stuff at the Market or in the recently announced shop that you can put up in the housing area.

It sounds like asking them to gather for you is only something you'd do if you knew you'd be away from the game for a week or so (unless you hate selling stuff).