Item Recovery/Exchange

Hey everyone!

I have... because I guess it matters in this case, heavy Attention deficit disorder (ADD), which isn't some big issue usually, but has become with this game in particular. Specifically their very strict rule towards no Item Restoration past 1 time in ff14.

"Keep the items you care about in a safe place" is... not the easiest if you still wanna use them. "Glamour dresser" full because of the limit that exists and me playing every job in the game all with their own class locked ones.

It's not something fancy or over the top, but I keep things like my Ultimate weapons in my chocobo saddlebags to kinda take them out of the option of demolition when I turn things in for seals and just spam the agree button if it asks me about HQ items, this so I can easily take them out, glamour, then put back in. Knowing that... my head ain't the best in just mentally keep things like specific items in mind when cleaning out inventory or such.

Back to my issue, this is the third time in my around 3+ years of playing the game that I have had someone message me while I was taking one out, attention being gone, then going to the seal turn-ins or such and then a hour later realise that its just gone. Messaging support saying "Hey I have no ability to get this thing at all again because of time and real life, could I just get a new if I prove that I had it yesterday" and getting met with a flat "Sorry but it's against our policy and rules, nothing we as GM's can do about it if you already used the feature". No exceptions. None. Null. Not able to get it back because of life or lack of time? Sorry but you're out of options even if it's very easy to just add an item back for you if proven that it was an accident. Because who in their right mind would farm an ultimate to turn them in for 1,5k seals at a GC.

I get why it is the way it is, but please make some kind of exception of that rule. I really don't mind how you change it as long as it's changed in some form from the almost ridiculously strict form to something with a somewhat wide leeway in case people just mess up. Because it happens. A lot. And having to sit there like: "Hey, good job, now you can't get it back no matter what you do. All the hours spent gone." is really not a reaction I think any person should need when the GMs have the possibility to help them get it back.

TLDR: Please implement an exception, a timeframe or good reasoning behind wanting something back instead of the very strict "Once in a lifetime" rule there is now for people that have big issues with being... clumsy, or generally lack focus with problems like ADD. I already blame myself a lot when I accidentally throw legendaries in games I worked hard for. But the auto save function has saved me countless times and made me basically not even have to think about it. GM's should have the allowance to help players the same way without any "no exceptions" rules holding them from it.

Thanks for reading, and please have a nice day.

Agreed, FF14's item restoration policies are extremely outdated. For example, iirc WoW's item restoration can be done automatically from their website once a week and can restore multiple items, automatically reclaiming any gold/mats earned from when you lost the item to prevent any abuse of the system.

Sadly however, the ff14 community is dead against all forms of QoL and have generally argued strongly against this in the past, usually stating people "deserve to be punished for making mistakes". I think they'd be happier having item restoration removed entirely than having an improved system.

I certainly understand why SE limits it if it requires a GM's manual action to restore the items. Otherwise they'd be constantly getting flooded with tickets to handle, taking GM time away from more important issues that they need to handle.

Like Liam, I wish they would implement something similar to WoW's automated item restoration where you were allowed opportunities at certain time interval to restore a limited number of items. It would require you knowing what you had gotten in exchange for the item so it could be removed from your inventory when the item was restored or the restoration would fail. Such a service wouldn't harm the game in any way, nor take up GM time.