First, get rid of the separate specific wards, just turn them into generic wards numbered from 1 to 20, also have a tax for every ward, only 10%. Except for the Menders Ward, but I'll get to that in a bit. I.E. Spellcraft Ward, Battlecraft Ward -> Ward 1, Ward 2
Most people throw their retainer in the wrong ward anyway, so just get rid of it. Each of these wards should hold at least 300 retainers. That should give a server population of 3000 with 5 retainers each more than enough space across the three cities.
Second, levy a lease tax. By doing this you can give every retainer their own small booth. Just increase the length of the hallways to hold up to 300 small booths. The tax would be only about 1000-2000 gil every Earth week. This should reduce the clutter in the hallways and bring about a Gil sink.
Third, improve accessing the wards and the retainers. I think beside the path leading to the wards and inside the wards, there should be a booth where you handle searching for items and maintaining your retainer. I think it looks pretty bad that your character runs up to an invisible wall and you do your searches from there. The only thing that should pop up is which ward you want to go to. Anyway here's how the counter would work:
- Talk the person at the counter
- 6 choices pop up: Search Wards, Manage Retainers, Add Retainers, Remove Retainers, Menders Ward, Leave.
- When you select Search Wards, you can search by Category like we do now or type in the item you want to find. When you find the item you're looking for, a list shows you pops up showing this things in this order: which ward it's in, the retainer's name, the price, and the item's quality(NQ,HQ). You can select up to 10 items to put into a "queue" so you don't have to take note of which wards they're in. Pink stars still appear above the retainer's head but those stars also appear only on retainer's you put into your queue and disappear after you view that retainer. Also little pink stars appear next to the ward names when you're going to get your items, so you don't have to keep track of which ward the retainer you're looking for is in. If you wanna skip running to the wards, there's a purchase button next to the item you want to buy, there's a slight fee either 5% or 10% if you purchase from the menu, but this is quick way for people to get their items and leave. The fee is the same as ordering something online but paying one day shipping to get it faster. Also it counts a gil sink.
- When you select Manage Retainers, a list pops up with the with names of your retainers and their locations. Select a retainer, then a their inventory list comes up and so does yours and you can add items from your inventory to their bazaar or to their storage. Also you can see the last 20 items they sold. No need to go searching for you retainer.
- When you select Add Retainers, a list of retainers not currently in a ward can be added to a ward. Just select the retainer, pay the lease tax for one week or up to four weeks if you don't want to keep coming back every week to pay the lease tax, then your retainer is randomly assigned to a ward. That's it!
- When you select Remove Retainers, a list of retainers currently in the wards is listed, just select a retainer to remove it from a ward.
- When you select Menders Ward, a list comes up with your retainers not in a ward, select a retainer, select items you need repaired(only items with a condition lower than 100 can be added), assign what you want to pay or trade, then you're done. The retainer is placed into the Menders Wards and it's kept there for only one Earth day.
- Leave, is self-explanatory.
To get a retainer you still have to go to the Adventurer's Guild, also the retainer bells would allow you to add or remove your retainers from the wards and you can manage them from there as well.