Retainers and FC Housing.

My FC has a retainer that belongs to one of the officers that sits outside so I walk by it all the time and today I couldn't help but think that this system was poorly implemented and so I just thought I'd offer some suggestions on how to make this feature more usable.

Firstly, I think that the system should be changed so that instead of placing an individual player's retainer there, the FC should be able to hire it's own retainers that can be employed by the entire FC. These retainers would not belong to any single player.

Perhaps these retainers could even replace the FC chest as the place to store items for the FC.

Since they are retainers, by nature they would also serve as a way to buy and sell items, however, unlike normal retainers whose gil is transfered to an individual, the money earned would be sent to the FC chest. So selling items from this retainer serves as a way to raise money for the FC.

Perhaps you could have a setting so that items can only be purchased by members of your own FC, so you could offer discounts to members, and create a way for players to donate money for services such as gardening activities and airship spoils. If multiple retainers can be employed you could have one set up for FC members to purchase items only, and others for more general fundraising that anyone can purchase from the MB.

If FC retainers were implemented it would help solve a number of issues including fundraising, fair distribution of gardening and airship spoils, lack of FC inventory space, and could potentially serve as another source of revenue for SE if the same system for purchasing additional retainers from the mog station is applied here as well. (I know this last bit will be controversial, and that's what discussion is for)


In summary, the current system really only makes sense for personal housing. For FC housing, I think a more robust system should be put in place that everyone in the FC can benefit from.

This was something I asked for over a year ago in the Housing Ideas and Feature Requests but never saw a response to it at all.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Malakai

This has been mentioned numerous times but a Free Company retainer.

1) A desk/counter bell that summons the retainer. Retainer has normal storage space and sells 25 items.
2) Master/Assigned ranks have access to retainer settings: "Storage/Deposit" and "Shop".
3) Storage/Deposit setting: Select any current item in the market put it on a Storage List. Members that have items on list can Deposit item to the retainer and it will be added to the retainers stock to sell.
4) Shop settings: Set prices for items and option to sell to FC members or to general public.

Example: You get a retainer, put up potash/coke/choco food/etc. as your Storage item list. Set up Shop to sell items to FC members only at a lower price than the market. Members get mats from dungeons, deposit them to retainer, crafters buy them, other members raising choco's buy what they need, and gil goes to funding FC.
I know a system like this can be abused but would like a positive build on it to make it work :)

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Would be cool to have a retainer that worked off the FC chest. Anyone could put items up for sale, and the proceeds automatically go into the FC chest. Would be a nice way to have FC goods sold in a way that everyone has a form of oversight and could also participate.

When they announced the Steward NPC I half expected it to be a role similar to this. A retainer that could work around the house, water the plants, hold housing items. Doesn't seem to be that way unfortunately.

As for FC retainer ventures, I think that's the idea behind Airships. Retainers after all answer to a single person instead of a company, and any animosity between FC members could have retainers being recalled early and sent off on ventures that others are not interested in.

As for storage I like the idea of FC donations. Perhaps a gil-based purchase by FC members. It could be set up as a weekly or monthly gil allowance perhaps. This would help item storage, though it could hurt server load time. It would also send more gil back into the void since players currently generate more than they spend.