Mailing System

So if I understand this right we will be unable to send items/gil to other characters on our accounts but according to the in game help when you access the mail system for the first time you can do just that for other characters? I'm a little confused here.

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Originally Posted by kanjitai

So if I understand this right we will be unable to send items/gil to other characters on our accounts but according to the in game help when you access the mail system for the first time you can do just that for other characters? I'm a little confused here.

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You have to have someone on your friends list to send them mail of any sort. You can't friend someone who is offline, ie another character on the same account.

You will not be able to transfer items to your other characters via ingame mail. This is a countermeasure to fight against RMTs (Real Money Traders) who sell ingame Gil for real world value.

This is done so you will be doing the work on every character, and not power-leveling up something unfairly.

You don't really need a second character to enjoy the game, seeing as all classes and professions can be leveled on one character.

Also, it means you have to have people you trust to try to do something of the power-level nature.

Not a bad rule at all ^^

Well, that's a shame. I guess that saves a lot of people $2 a month on sub fees at least. Thanks for looking out for our bottom line and not your own S-E!

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Originally Posted by Lucroarna

This is done so you will be doing the work on every character, and not power-leveling up something unfairly.

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I don't see how this prevents power levelling at all. Most players would know at least one person who would be willing to make a simple transfer for them. It doesn't really prevent anything, it just makes the process slightly more irritating. If they wanted to prevent power levelling type behaviour they would need to implement something much stronger than this.

In regards to deterring RMTs as Square Enix themselves mentioned in regards to this topic. That feels like a real cop out excuse to me. It would be a mild hurdle at best for them to deal with. It's a much bigger hurdle for honest players who don't have access to hundreds of hacked accounts.

But perhaps it's just one extra thing to encourage players to focus on one character. With the way the game is designed that does seem to be the optimal way to play for a huge number of reasons.

I am afraid that I must disagree with most posters here. This is a bad idea.

1. As far as RMTs are concerned this will not even be a speed bump for them. As we all know they run multiple characters under the control of 1 person. Gil and items can be transferred without the us of the mail system. All it would do is limit the amount of Gil that can be sent to a buyer.

2. During Ver 1.0 I created 2 characters. My main is my adventurer. My secondary is my crafter/gather. With the new system that is out the door and my second character is next to useless now.

Consider this post as a request to SE to reconsider their position.

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Originally Posted by Rizon

I am afraid that I must disagree with most posters here. This is a bad idea.

1. As far as RMTs are concerned this will not even be a speed bump for them. As we all know they run multiple characters under the control of 1 person. Gil and items can be transferred without the us of the mail system. All it would do is limit the amount of Gil that can be sent to a buyer.

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Thats the exact reason they did it, to limit them from selling to buyers... with this system they would have to friend each buyer before they send the money.

It's a trade-off, and i know it can be annoying (although i never had a mule in ffxiv but i had a few back in ffxi) but if you ever played 1.0 and went to Cedarwood, its even more annoying to see a bunch of RMT's running around followed by 7 tarus each who were there for the leve money farming.

Why cant SE close sites like http://www.u7buy.com/ffxiv/ http://www.ffxivgilstudio.com/ffxivgil.html etc down. (A 2 second search on the internet found those). Surely it cant be that hard for Se to take action against them?

I honestly don't know what I'm going to do with my other 7 characters from Legacy if I can't make mules.

i thought i heard something about shared storage, for multiple chars on same account, when the game was still in development? If i can find it ill post it.

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Originally Posted by Sajittarius

i thought i heard something about shared storage, for multiple chars on same account, when the game was still in development? If i can find it ill post it.

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This was kinda a misunderstanding the retainers are not shared between multiple chars the only possibility of shared storage i can think of is the upcoming housing system.

I doubt they will ever create a shared storage of any sort. It would be pointless to prevent mails to be sent to yourself but instead allow you to store everything in a convenient box for easier pickup...

I doubt this will be a hindrance for me since I don't plan on having mules (we'll see later down the road if I can live without them) but I can understand why you are upset. We'll see if this proves to be effective against RMTs...

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Originally Posted by Undrentide

text and link

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you cant close those site, the moment you get em close they ll pop up again under another name, close the RMT site is not the effective way to prevent RMT or stop it

just find a friend transfer the money you want to him then get him to transfer it to you other character :).

I remember my days in Phantasy Star Universe (mind numbing as it was) and thinking the "Common Box" was so text-book that I thought for sure most other mmorpgs should have it. With the "Common Box" you could transfer money and items by simply putting them into the box and any character on that account could pick them up as needed/wanted. Was very convenient for juggling multiple sets of gear as your characters could also level different classes.

In many games I make it a point to level multiple characters so that I stay up to date with rotations as patches go by. I don't learn things by talking or reading, I tend to learn on the job. Just my two cents.

Send items to your friend, and ask the friend to send em back to another character of yours.

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Originally Posted by Rizon

I am afraid that I must disagree with most posters here. This is a bad idea.

1. As far as RMTs are concerned this will not even be a speed bump for them. As we all know they run multiple characters under the control of 1 person. Gil and items can be transferred without the us of the mail system. All it would do is limit the amount of Gil that can be sent to a buyer.

2. During Ver 1.0 I created 2 characters. My main is my adventurer. My secondary is my crafter/gather. With the new system that is out the door and my second character is next to useless now.

Consider this post as a request to SE to reconsider their position.

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I wasn't stating an opinion.
I was stating fact, I can quote Yoshi-P for you here actually;

http://i.imgur.com/vDjlMSL.png
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...92#post1031492

Just make a second service account and pay the extra 13.99 and you'll have your mule. XD

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Originally Posted by Sasagawa

just find a friend transfer the money you want to him then get him to transfer it to you other character :).

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Exactly.

For one don't consider sending stuff to alts powerleveling by any means. Having this friend blast you thru content is powerleveling. The game does a nice job of dealing with real powerleveling by downleveling overlevel players when they'd be too high and trivialize content.

For two, this mechanism doesn't prevent anything, it just makes it a pain in the butt.

It's lazy development that only causes inconvenience not found in any reasonable or modern MMORPG.

I plan to just make one character that does everything but the principle still stands. It's a BS reason to inflict unnecessary restriction and inconvenience on players.

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Originally Posted by Rizon

I am afraid that I must disagree with most posters here. This is a bad idea.

1. As far as RMTs are concerned this will not even be a speed bump for them. As we all know they run multiple characters under the control of 1 person. Gil and items can be transferred without the us of the mail system. All it would do is limit the amount of Gil that can be sent to a buyer.

2. During Ver 1.0 I created 2 characters. My main is my adventurer. My secondary is my crafter/gather. With the new system that is out the door and my second character is next to useless now.

Consider this post as a request to SE to reconsider their position.

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I completely agree. This will do effectively nothing to solve the RMT issue but it hamstrings legitimate players.

That said its at least one step forward from 1.0 which had no delivery system at all.

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Originally Posted by Undrentide

Why cant SE close sites like http://www.u7buy.com/ffxiv/ http://www.ffxivgilstudio.com/ffxivgil.html etc down. (A 2 second search on the internet found those). Surely it cant be that hard for Se to take action against them?

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It's not that simple. It's like U.S. citizens hiding money in the Cayman Islands, if there is no agreement between the two countries you can't enforce a court action on them. The same holds true for the owners of the websites. I only wish it were that easy, FF XI wouldn't have been overrun by RMT

The hindrance to RMT is due to the fact you can only send mail to people on your friend list, not because it prevents them from sending things to themselves (they obviously have no issue overcoming this). I assume this makes it much easier to track who interacts with RMT.

I dont see why this is such a hindrance to normal players either though.. ask your FC if you can use the bank to transfer items, or ask a friend.

Afaik there isn't even a law that forbids the selling of game currency etc. It's something that the publisher doesn't want but that doesn't make it illegal.
If you sell your account, SE can bann you for it, but that's it. It's not so easy to handle RMTs.

this rule is absolutely killing me atm. in 1.0 i did a ton of spiritbonding and converting to materia. my alt kept all my materia on it to save my inventory space on my main character. now with all materia being converted to cracked that you cannot trade to yourself(or anyone else because it's untradeable) i am sitting with an alt with hundreds of pieces of materia i need to move to my main char with no possible way to do it. if cracked mater could be traded like gear with cracked materia on it i wouldn't be as upset with this rule, but i still would not support the decision. i just see zero upside to thie rule whatsoever.

You was never able to transfer items between characters on the same account in 1.0 so this has not changed coming into 2.0. The only feasible way to transfer items was to have a second account with mules on it and a multiclient app which most people had anyway because you couldn't fullscreen borderless alt tab out the game without one.

I was looking forward to some sort of item sharing between characters on the same account/server so I didn't have to keep my 4 mules on my second account. Now that idea is out the window.

I will be using 2 accounts again and trading items with my main character on PS3 and my mules on PC. This means 2 subscription costs again, but my main and mule accounts are both legacy so im fine with that.

I do look forward to some sort of sharing box in our houses or something though, obviously it would only be for tradeable items only.

The very fact you have to ask someone to give you the very same stuff you just gave them to your secondary character is retarded....I mean I'll deal with it for now but as I like to separate what my characters are proficient at this method irks me slightly. Sure I have no problem doing the content again but in there lies the problem, after meeting several players that weren't up to par using duty finder; I can't just ask my friends to replay this guildhest/dungeon etc. just so my secondary character can get gear.

Yeah, I would really see a logical explanation on how preventing you from sending YOURSELF items somehow hinders RMT.

It just makes no sense, RMT is done when people trade with others, not amongst their own characters on their own accounts.
Also, RMT people already have multiple accounts so this affects them in no way.
Also, people will have to go through friends to trade stuff to themselves, which will increase the overall amount of trades (and cross-account trades) happenning, making more white noise and hindering their attempts to track suspicious transfers.

It is also not power levelling.. *I* farmed those items/gil on my other character, *I* spent *my* time to get them, its not like I bought them, or got a friend to give them to me.

Also, there are many good and legit reasons to want to play multiple characters. if you do not share them, great for you, but do not assume the same goes for everyone.

Having to go through inconvenient/clunky features because "thats how the game is made" is a sign of bad implementation. You shouldnt HAVE to go through all that to give yourself something that is yours. Especially since the reasons given to justify the inconvenience are easily debunked.

i don't see how this will hold back rtm , but even if it douse hold them back ,
they could still make it so that you can send gil/items to your own account and not being able to send things to ppl that are not on your friend list
like make every character you make on one the same account automatically join in all the other friendlist

rmt inst going to make monny of sending gil to other characters on the same account , but by sending to other players
and if they could some how :S its still just a simple 2 trades because they got like 10 accounts all under there control

this anti-rmt policy just hinders legitimate players and dont hold back any rmt

I personally have a main account and a mule account. Crystal here is my main character and my mule account has about half a dozen mules on it (I'm a hoarder with all 50s gathering and crafting on Crystal so that takes up a lot of room XD). I made an FC and put all of my mules into it. Crystal wasn't a member but at least my mules can access the shared FC bank. That way I can collect logs and cloth and whatever on a single character when usually it'd be on 3, then mail/trade them all to Crystal at once, or mail all sorts of things from Crystal to one mule instead of to several. Certainly not ideal but better than nothing.

I don't see this having any real effect, RMTs will likely just have multiple accounts running on multiple computers, sitting next to each other and just trade it off, or you can use retainers to accomplish the same thing, put a piece of animal skin for sale @ 1,000,000gil, there ya go, cash transferred. Unless you're gonna eliminate all transactions between any characters, there will always be a way around it. So all SE is really doing is tying the hands of their paying customers. This needs to go, the intentions were good, but its not gonna do the game any favors.

If you want to limit this, the only real thing you can do is limit the amount of gil that can be transferred between characters on a daily basis, but that would prevent any real expansion of the economy.

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Originally Posted by darkstarpoet1

. my alt kept all my materia on it to save my inventory space on my main character. now with all materia being converted to cracked that you cannot trade to yourself(or anyone else because it's untradeable) i am sitting with an alt with hundreds of pieces of materia i need to move to my main char with no possible way to do it.

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Firstly im not sure how you had an alt on the same account that you was able to store your materia on, as there was no way to really do that unless you had a friend hold on to it and trade it back to your alt.

Secondly you just gave me a brief heart attack about cracked being untradeable..... I never thought of this, and ive got a mule with 100s of tier IV cracked.

Thirdly after my brief heart attack subsided lol I think it will be ok as you can just trade the cracked materia to the exchange npc with the mule and get the materia you want and then that materia will be tradeable.... I think.

Can someone confirm the materia you get from the exchange npc is tradeable?

So if I want to send something to myself I will need to send to my real life friend who plans to play and he can send it to me? This just seems like a bad feature but in the last live letter they said they might change this time. Still, I think this is a bad idea.

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Originally Posted by Kyra

Firstly im not sure how you had an alt on the same account that you was able to store your materia on, as there was no way to really do that unless you had a friend hold on to it and trade it back to your alt.

Secondly you just gave me a brief heart attack about cracked being untradeable..... I never thought of this, and ive got a mule with 100s of tier IV cracked.

Thirdly after my brief heart attack subsided lol I think it will be ok as you can just trade that materia to the exchange npc with the mule and get the materia you want and then that materia will be tradeable.

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wasn't hard. materia was able to be traded so i traded to a friend and he traded it to my alt. it was a bad work around, but it did work. with untradeable materia i can no longer do that to get it back to my main.

yes, you can trade it in towards materia of your choice , but you can't trade it in to get the darklight tokens for the alt and trade those to your main. my intentions was to trade it all over and put that towards getting full sets of darklight since the old materia was all destroyed. if i could just trade that to my main i would be a happy camper as at least the gear with the cracked materia can be traded. i just don't like the idea that i'm stuck with hundreds of pieces of materia and can't really use them for the intended purposes due to them changing it to no longer able to be traded. sure, they have a use, but not as ideal as i had hoped.

edit:

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Originally Posted by Kyra

Can someone confirm the materia you get from the exchange npc is tradeable?

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yes, i can confirm the materia you get can be traded. i did a few pieces testing in in p4. the materia you get from the exchange npc is regular materia. it's like what happened with the guild points from 1.0 when you were able to trade that in.

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Originally Posted by darkstarpoet1

but you can't trade it in to get the darklight tokens for the alt and trade those to your main. my intentions was to trade it all over and put that towards getting full sets of darklight since the old materia was all destroyed. if i could just trade that to my main i would be a happy camper as at least the gear with the cracked materia can be traded. i just don't like the idea that i'm stuck with hundreds of pieces of materia and can't really use them for the intended purposes due to them changing it to no longer able to be traded. sure, they have a use, but not as ideal as i had hoped.

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Ok Well I can put your mind at rest with this image.

http://static.finalfantasyxiv.com/to...d0eec6312bbbd8

You cant trade cracked material to the exchange npc for tomestones anyway. Only gear with cracked on it

So don't worry about it.

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Originally Posted by Kyra

Ok Well I can put your mind at rest with this image.

You cant trade cracked material to the exchange npc for tomestones anyway. Only gear with cracked on it

So don't worry about it.

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haha, yeah i forgot about that. i was just looking at it going omg. i was having the same minor heart attack. thanks for reminding me about that because i had completely forgotten the cracked materia couldn't be traded for tombstones and i never was able to make it on my alt due to servers always being full to test it.

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Originally Posted by darkstarpoet1

yes, i can confirm the materia you get can be traded. i did a few pieces testing in in p4. the materia you get from the exchange npc is regular materia. it's like what happened with the guild points from 1.0 when you were able to trade that in.

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Phew, that's good to know :)

I can not say the Idea is good or bad. personaly the concept of sending stuff to myself seems silly. I am a legacy player and there never was a mail system, so Its not like I had alts carrying stuff for me... i had retainers do that, they could match a players inventory.

The other thing to consider is that at most this effects people who made multiple charactesr in the beta.. that is to say at most were talking about the early 20 levels. which are not hard to get. I see the issue players are having, and I do not see how this really will stop too much RMT. I will say though that if SE tells us that its a counter measure for RMT then I am all on board. Players or people who want to profit off a game by enticing people into RMT are the worst, I would love a day when they do not exist.

Question:

Wasn't there something posted about being able to log into multiple characters on the same account? One on PC and one on PS3 or something like that? Thus two of your characters can be online and friend each other.

Just something I could have sworn was on the Beta forum or something.

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Originally Posted by Alerith

Question:

Wasn't there something posted about being able to log into multiple characters on the same account? One on PC and one on PS3 or something like that? Thus two of your characters can be online and friend each other.

Just something I could have sworn was on the Beta forum or something.

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nah, they check and only 1 char on your account can be on at once. even with things like sandbox you can play on 2 chars at once, but they have to be completely different accounts. that's why i do not see how this even slows down rmt's. each time you see 8 lala's running around farming gil that means it's 8 individual accounts and not 1 account and 7 mules. taking that into account with 8 individual accounts running around farming gil the rule put in place does nothing to stop them from trading to each other because they are not on the same account.

in other words, this does nothing to even slow down the way rmt functions at all.