Retainer Venture Suggestions
First off, let me say I really like the Venture system. I've been using it extensively since it was released. That said however, I feel there are a few things that could be done to improve it and make it even more fun!
Suggestion 1: Retainers Retain their level.
Right now, if you change their class, the retainer goes back to level 1. IE: Retainer is level 50 miner, change him/her to FSH, then back to MIN and MIN is back at 1. Why? Retainers are not efficient at all. It takes them an hour to gather like 20 mats. In an hour, I could get 10 stacks. It would be a pain then to re-level them and re-gear them up no matter how fast they level.
Suggestion 2: Give them a gear set.
If they can change their classes, then allow them to remember what gear they had assigned to each class, not unlike players with their gear sets. If that means I need to make 3 separate sets of the same gathering gear for their DoL, I can live with that. And my inventory would be happy too.
Suggestion 3: Put a cooldown on their class change.
If allowing them to change class while retaining the class level is too OP, I'd be happy with a limit of how often you can change their class. Put it on a cooldown of like a week. Once a week, you can change their class. Shouldn't be too OP then, right?
Are those good, anything you would like to add? Remember, they can only be the class you unlocked and their cap is the same as your cap. People who haven't touched a DoL can't use retainers to gather stuff for them anyway...
Retainer perks and limits
Good post, Naoki.
At the risk of ruining a profitable business for myself, I would like to see retainers automatically receive the level 1 tool for their guild. It should be "pre-spiritbound" at 1%, so you can't just turn around and sell it on the market boards. A lot of players haven't tipped to the fact that level 1 gear is available from the NPC traders. This results in inflated prices on the market board, and a lot of resentment when people finally figure it out. Since we, as players, get the level 1 tool for free when we join a guild, it would make sense for a retainer to receive it as well.
I also agree that retainers should keep their earned skill level, though I can see having some kind of limit or penalty for changing classes.