Keeping it all organized?

How do you know what to keep and what to get rid of? Pretty much have both my retainers filled with crafting mats(minus about a pack and a half keeping more of the unique loot in) and my gathering professions are all 25(ish). o_O

Am I keeping too much, am I gathering too much, I'm being overwhelmed by the quantity of materials here and I can't tell what to do with it all. I'm worried half of it will be like Iron Ore where I had to gather a crap ton of that for iron bars, and then go back and gather more to make steel. So now it's sucking up space as bars of iron and ore while I try to raise my skill more to get the bomb ash I need to make that ore into steel. I'm pretty much ready to throw the towel in on cooking and fishing, I think those are half my storage problem as is. But then again I needed those little yellow fish(yay for alch vendor) for those smithing patterns and no idea which (if any) fish I'll need to grind into paste to hold the next weapon together.

Wishing I could hire a third retainer....

You're keeping too much. There's rarely a reason to keep more than a single stack of any crafting material. 99 is really rather a lot. It may not be enough to last you forever, but just replenish as you run out. Conversely, if you've only got one or two of an item and you're not going to be using immediately, sell it. Slots are too valuable to hold so few of an item. Sell your HQ materials. They fetch good money, and with good equipment and food and good technique, you should be able to HQ things without using HQ mats. Don't generally keep intermediate mats that you can make. Keep only the base raw materials and make intermediate mats as you need them.

A bunch of stuff is only used in 1~3 random low/mid-level recipes, and is hardly worth hanging on to. Check the markets, and if it's dirt cheap, you're probably better off selling it to an NPC vendor.

My advice is to go to xivdb.com and look up whatever you have and see what it crafts into. If you intend on making all items at some point, at least that site will let you know how many you need. When I was mining raw stones like spinels, goshenites, zircon, etc, ffxivdb was able to show me how many I would need to craft every item they can be used in, so that's how many I kept, and I sold the rest. Also, have a look on the marketboards. If you are hoarding NQ chocobo feathers, don't bother, as they are probably dirt cheap- any level 25+ gathering mat is probably in this same category due to the number it takes to level as a gatherer. Logs are the same way. Why keep them when you can buy 99 for like 900 gil?

Someone mentioned only keeping raw base materials though, which I disagree with- if you only keep the raws, you will need to craft them into intermediate materials (ingots, lumbers, etc) which all uses many SHARDS- which become the crafting bottleneck at about level 35. You WILL run out, and have to buy them, and RMT are pretty much controlling the market, so you will not get them cheap. Why waste them if you don't have to. Example, Mythril Ingot is 3 ores + 4 wind or fire shards. Cost to craft an ingot, roughly 200 gil. Price to buy one can be as low as 120 depending on how many are for sale. Don't craft these unless you are trying to HQ them for other crafts, or you are leveling on them.

Thread bookmarked, because I'm in the exact same position as the OP and am/was getting extremely frustrated. Factor in how incredibly difficult it is to find anything when it is split between 3 places AND one can only look at one page at a time...

The whole inventory system is in need of a massive overhaul, as I've said in other threads.

Anyway, thanks for starting the thread, Razeal and thanks to those who've provided hints and tips for inventory management. "Likes" for everyone!

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Originally Posted by Amiabelle

Thread bookmarked, because I'm in the exact same position as the OP and am/was getting extremely frustrated. Factor in how incredibly difficult it is to find anything when it is split between 3 places AND one can only look at one page at a time...

The whole inventory system is in need of a massive overhaul, as I've said in other threads.

Anyway, thanks for starting the thread, Razeal and thanks to those who've provided hints and tips for inventory management. "Likes" for everyone!

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When not sure where to find materials, FFXIVDB is definitely going to help. It lists all vendors who sell, and usually users will comment if the item can be acquired via gathering point or mob drop. Hang in there! Oh and keep all your crafting gear for your other DoH classes so you don't have to make it all again (assuming you crafted your own HQ)

The insuficient storage place is a fair issue once you start leveling multiply classes on the same character. I'm already using one of my secondary characters as additional storage and I'm considering to level it up a bit so I can hire other two retainers there - for both extra 350 slots of storage as well as additional 40 sale slots as every day I get back home and start the game most of my items put on sale are gone and I like to sell mats in various stock sizes to allow most the the people to purchase them at quantities they need. (And this is on top of the 150 storage slots in FC chest.)

I think they should add at least one more retainer and increase a storage a bit in FC chest and retainers by at least one more page plus double the amount of the selling slots as well.

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Originally Posted by Ramzi

When not sure where to find materials, FFXIVDB is definitely going to help.

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I doubt FFXIVDB would help here as I'm pretty sure Amiabelle is refering to own inventory and two retainers storage space ... ;)

Nice site for crafting and gathering is also http://craftingasaservice.com/

I adore FFXIVDB (wish it was an app, hint hint). I use it all the time, to find out where to get a resource and to determine what it crafts into. What I haven't done (and should do) is take the time to go through everything currently in my inventories and research what is and is not worth keeping. As someone who is leveling all 8 DoH and all 3 DoL simultaneously (most are between level 26-30), I have a LOT of stuff clogging up my bags. Factor in, too, that I have both NQ and HQ versions of everything, that's a lot of inventory space chewed up.

If I could just clear up some of the ingredients, rocks and fish (oh, lordy, all those stinkin' fish!), I'm sure things would be a bit better.

Problem is, I know there are low-level items which come back into play on upper level recipes. I wish we could level past an item and dump the leftovers.

For anyone who doesn't know the site craftingasaservice.com is an amazing resource to plan out materials needed to level classes. You could use that to help see which materials you will need to keep and what you can get rid of. It also links items to ffxivdb to make it easier to find where to acquire said items.

The big chore is putting stuff back. If you have it set up right you won't find it's hard to keep it ordered as long as you remember that Vendor one, Bag six is where the wood goes, Bag three is where the weaver stuff goes.

For leveling purposes all you truly need are whatever is required for 3/3 turn ins. Once you have that addressed you can decide if you want to use a single craft at all levels and be a true professional of that class. Know what you need for cross class components and so on.

As already mentioned, if you're a crafter or gatherer, the craftingasaservice site is a must to get organized: http://craftingasaservice.com/career...N,BTN,FSH/1/70

You all keep pushing crafting as a service, and i agree, it's nice. But it's not the end all crafting bible. Crafting as a service only calculates you doing one of each recipe. But there's one main problem with this.

A lot of people do leves, which is way more than one of each item in the recipe log. A lot of people will waste materials on one item several times trying to HQ it for their own or a friend's use. A lot of people will make items or materials in HQ to sell on the market. Again, more than one.

So yes, crafting as a service is nice. But only as a very, very, very, very general overview. I assume that when I'm done I'll probably use way more copper and iron than it says just because I'm sure I've already surpassed its total.

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Originally Posted by TemprusofTime

You all keep pushing crafting as a service, and i agree, it's nice. But it's not the end all crafting bible. Crafting as a service only calculates you doing one of each recipe. But there's one main problem with this.

A lot of people do leves, which is way more than one of each item in the recipe log. A lot of people will waste materials on one item several times trying to HQ it for their own or a friend's use. A lot of people will make items or materials in HQ to sell on the market. Again, more than one.

So yes, crafting as a service is nice. But only as a very, very, very, very general overview. I assume that when I'm done I'll probably use way more copper and iron than it says just because I'm sure I've already surpassed its total.

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You know there's a leve section right? http://craftingasaservice.com/leve

If that's not enough, there's even a crafting calculator where you punch in the number if items needed and it will tell you exactly how many mats you need.

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Originally Posted by Kyronex

You know there's a leve section right? http://craftingasaservice.com/leve

If that's not enough, there's even a crafting calculator where you punch in the number if items needed and it will tell you exactly how many mats you need.

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And yet this still doesn't help with telling a self-gathering crafter what they really should keep. Typically you'll always go out gathering and you'll always have stores full of materials. Again, that site is nice, but it's not the end-all gather/craft bible.

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Originally Posted by TemprusofTime

And yet this still doesn't help with telling a self-gathering crafter what they really should keep. Typically you'll always go out gathering and you'll always have stores full of materials. Again, that site is nice, but it's not the end-all gather/craft bible.

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Do you want to be spoon fed everything? Expend a "little" effort on your part, seriously. How hard is it to look up the item you're gathering and see if it's a mat you need for what you're crafting? Every item on that site is cross-referenced with xivdb too.

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Originally Posted by Kyronex

Do you want to be spoon fed everything? Expend a "little" effort on your part, seriously. How hard is it to look up the item you're gathering and see if it's a mat you need for what you're crafting? Every item on that site is cross-referenced with xivdb too.

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Seems you're still not getting me. Personally I only use that site when I'm hunting mobs like diremites so i can get a general idea of how many drops I might need from them. I'm the type of crafter who insures that he gathers all of the materials he needs before leveling a class (as I recently gathered two stacks of silver and over 20 of each gem for doing the current log I have as I level goldsmithing from 25 to 30). I am merely saying don't use it as an end-all site. I don't hate the site, and have used it and linked it in the past. I, however, tend to research on the fly and get prepared using all the tools at my disposal.

So don't confuse me with those who need to be spoon fed. You obviously have no idea how I do things.

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Originally Posted by TemprusofTime

I'm the type of crafter who insures that he gathers all of the materials he needs before leveling a class (as I recently gathered two stacks of silver and over 20 of each gem for doing the current log I have as I level goldsmithing from 25 to 30).

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If you divided up that gathering into small chunks done as you need them instead of trying to do it all before you do any crafting, you might find you'll have more space on your retainers.

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Originally Posted by Conradus

If you divided up that gathering into small chunks done as you need them instead of trying to do it all before you do any crafting, you might find you'll have more space on your retainers.

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Oh I do. I just have a hard time tossing anything I've gathered since I just know I'm gonna need some of them later (unlike those stupid crab shells which will only be needed in like two recipes!). I actually use the last two pages of my own inventory for the standards of crafting (cloth, metal, lumber, leather, oil, etc). You'll always see me switching classes in the guild as i complete the logs. ^.^

Quote:

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Originally Posted by TemprusofTime

Seems you're still not getting me. Personally I only use that site when I'm hunting mobs like diremites so i can get a general idea of how many drops I might need from them. I'm the type of crafter who insures that he gathers all of the materials he needs before leveling a class (as I recently gathered two stacks of silver and over 20 of each gem for doing the current log I have as I level goldsmithing from 25 to 30). I am merely saying don't use it as an end-all site. I don't hate the site, and have used it and linked it in the past. I, however, tend to research on the fly and get prepared using all the tools at my disposal.

So don't confuse me with those who need to be spoon fed. You obviously have no idea how I do things.

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Crafting Calculator - Indicate your DoH and level range and it shows you exactly how many of each mat you need and what to craft
Carreer - Indicate your DoL and which DoH's you want to support, level range and it shows you the quantity/which mats you need to gather
Leves - Indicate your DoH and it gives you a list of which items to craft
Crafting List - Add items you want to craft more than once into this "cart" and indicate the number you need and it shows you how many mats required
Mouse over any item and it shows you the recipe from XIVDB


What else is it missing?

I use that site to level all DoH and DoL jobs at the same time and have no issues with inventory because I know what to keep and what to vendor.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by TemprusofTime

Oh I do. I just have a hard time tossing anything I've gathered since I just know I'm gonna need some of them later (unlike those stupid crab shells which will only be needed in like two recipes!). I actually use the last two pages of my own inventory for the standards of crafting (cloth, metal, lumber, leather, oil, etc). You'll always see me switching classes in the guild as i complete the logs. ^.^

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You might want to save a shell for the CRP 50 quest.

For me, key things for inventory managing are:

1) Know vendor item locations (Iron Ore at Limsa vendor, Cotton Thread at Ul'dah vendor, etc) and only stock when needed or if it's used in too many things (like Rock Salt).
2) Sell anything that doesn't say "Crafting Material" and isn't used for the adventurer jobs.
3) Only convert raw goods if there's a single option (Gigantoad Skin -> Toad Leather). Otherwise, only convert when you need them (like with Rock Salt's MANY uses.)

Well both of your points are good, but again, I plan on crafting for my company (so having stuff on hands is always my plan). Also with the upcoming housing and 80+% of it being crafted, I don't wanna vendor anything. ^.^;

As for buying from vendors, I try not to. When I need stuff, I tend to mine/forage it in stacks.

I have all my DoH and DoL at 40+ so you can imagine how full my retainers are.

What you simply HAVE to do is check each item on one of the database sites out there (I use gamerescape) and get rid of anything you will not need any more.

Find out how much of an item you will need in the future and keep just over that amount (for catastrophic failures etc). Don't hoard stacks of raw gems for example.

For culinarist especially, they need so few of each item that it might be simpler just to harvest or buy what you need for each crafting level.

Also, don't store items you can buy cheaply from the crafting guilds: i.e. rock salt, iron ore, cotton bolls can all be bought cheaply from the crafting guilds.

I also tend to only store raw materials. For example I make ingots as I need them and keep them in my inventory if I made a few too many and I know I will use them soon.

I use the first tab of each retainer for items I'm selling (i.e. finished goods or materials I no longer need that have some value). If that tab is full then I stop crafting till I've sold some stuff.

Why ff14 couldnt have a storage like gw2 is beyond me.
Why ff14 wont let you craft from items in your storage is beyond me.
Why ff14 cant tell you how much of a material you keep in storage is beyond me..

Its 2013, not 2001. Streamline mundane stuff like sifting thru rubbish looking for 1 bat wing and add real content like 20 new dungeons, 15 new mini bosses, 10 new raids with varying difficulty...Yes, i know, its a casual mmo...

So many QOL issues missing from the game. Why cant we auto dismount when talking to a npc....
List goes on and on...

I really feel there's a qol issue here. I completely agree with getting rid of items NPCs sell, or those that are cheap on AH... but it's sooo hard to keep track of them all :( I wish when you selected an item it would tell your more information like it's uses etc. It's odd that they designed the game so the max benefit was to raise them all together, but didn't provide the tools or space needed.


Crafting and gathering are very synergetic - and I'm leveling all DoH and Min + Btn at the same time (lv 29+ in all). Furthermore, I keep them greater than or equal to my battle class, so the stuff I make is actually useful. If you don't keep them close in level, you also run into an armory space issue.


I really don't like that website for detailed planning. I'm very opportunistic with leves; if I'm nearby and happen to have materials, or the reward is nice, and if I'm going to the nps for one leve, I might as well do another... Leveling al DoH simultaneously I would have to spend more time planning than it takes to do it. Also, IMO if you have to go to a different website to play a game, there's something missing from the game (i feel the same way about mods/addons, and hoped the console aspect of this game would limit the need for them).

Well, if it helps, here are the vendor mats that I can remember. This is from memory, so there may be some errors when I list more than one guild. Bold items are ones that I stock anyway because I get annoyed repetitively going back for them (even at level 50).

Weaving items:
Moko Grass (Weaver's Guild)
Hempen Yarn (Tradeskill vendors, various other guilds)
Undyed Hempen Cloth (Tradeskill vendors, various other guilds)
Cotton Boll (Weaver's Guild)
Cotton Yarn (Alchemist Guild)
Cotton Cloth (Blacksmith Guild)
Carnation (Weaver Guild)
Straw (Weaver Guild)

Leather Items:
Animal Skin (Leatherworker's Guild)
Leather (Tradeskill vendors, various other guilds)
Animal Hide (Leatherworker's Guild)
Animal Sinew (Tradeskill vendors, various other guilds)
Hard Leather (Weaver's Guild, Blacksmith's Guild)
Beast Sinew (Leatherworker's Guild and Weaver's Guild at the very least)

Blacksmith/Armorer:
Copper Ore (Tradeskill vendors, Goldsmith Guild, Armorer Guild, Blacksmith Guild)
Tin Ore (Armorer Guild, Blacksmith Guild)
Iron Ore (Armorer Guild)
Jellyfish Humours (Blacksmith Guild)
Clove Oil (Blacksmith Guild)
Bronze Ingot (Tradeskill vendors, Blacksmith Guild)
Bronze Plate (Blacksmith Guild)
Bronze Rivets (Tradeskill vendors, Blacksmith Guild, Carpenter Guild)

Goldsmith:
Copper Ore (Tradeskill vendors, Goldsmith Guild, Armorer Guild, Blacksmith Guild)
Copper Ingot (Tradeskill vendors, Blacksmith Guild)
Zinc Ore (Goldsmith Guild)
Brass Ingot (Blacksmith Guild)
Clear Glass Lens (Goldsmith Guild)
Ram Horn (Goldsmith Guild)
Bat Wing (Goldsmith Guild, Tradeskill vendor)
Bat Fang (Goldsmith Guild)
Soiled Femur (Goldsmith Guild)
Bone Chip (Tradeskill vendors, Goldsmith Guild)
Raw ~Level 14 Gems (Malachite, Lapis Lazuli, etc) (Goldsmith Guild)

Alchemist:
Rock Salt (Tradeskill vendors, Alchemist Guild)
Muddy Water (Alchemist Guild)
Jellyfish Umbrella (Alchemist Guild)
Chanterelle (Alchemist Guild)
Coral Butterfly (Alchemist Guild)
Princess Trout (Limsa Lominsa Fishmonger - May be remembering wrong on this)
Copper Sand (Alchemist Guild)

Carpenter:
Maple Log (Tradeskill vendor, Carpenter Guild, Alchemist Guild, Blacksmith Guild)
Maple Lumber (Tradeskill vendor, Alchemist Guild, Blacksmith Guild)
Maple Branch (Carpenter Guild, Alchemist Guild)
Ash Log (Tradeskill vendor, Alchemist Guild, Blacksmith Guild)
Ash Lumber (Tradeskill vendor, Alchemist Guild, Blacksmith Guild)
Ash Branch (Carpenter Guild, Alchemist Guild)

Culinarian:
Too many, but they're all accessible in Limsa. Visit the Bismarck, Tradeskill vendor and Fishmonger. Since you can see how many of each existing item you have in the menu, can use it as a reference to vendor.