Dear Devs, please consider going to an Account-wide "Unlock" system for Glamour

[Evergrey]

DCUO is a ps3 game so thats not really an excuse.

But DCUO is not FFXIV. It's like comparing an Apple and a Pear, both grow on trees but they look and taste different.

[Lambadelta]

DCUO is a ps3 game so thats not really an excuse.

And obviously they use the same Engine, Server Architecture, and store the exact same amount of data per character /sarcasmoff

[Eul]

But DCUO is not FFXIV. It's like comparing an Apple and a Pear, both grow on trees but they look and taste different.

Pear? what kind of phone is that-- oh, nevermind I didn't read the rest lol

On topic : many people request that and maybe dev worried and reply with "tank as mage will confuse player"

[FrejyaAthenes]

Pear? what kind of phone is that-- oh, nevermind I didn't read the rest lol

On topic : many people request that and maybe dev worried and reply with "tank as mage will confuse player"

Aside from the fact that tacks can que up as bunny girls or in swimsuits, this topics just asking that we not have to carry every individual piece of gear that we want to glamour at all times, not that the rules be changed.

[Alberel]

But DCUO is not FFXIV. It's like comparing an Apple and a Pear, both grow on trees but they look and taste different.

If SE doesn't have the memory to handle a system that SOE was able to have on PS3 then it speaks volumes about how poorly optimised SE's code is. 'FFXIV is not DCUO' is meaningless as it ultimately just comes down to how efficiently the game was built on the back end since we know this is a database issue. Countless other MMOs have handled a cosmetics flagging system such as the one suggested perfectly. In fact such a system is many times less resource intensive than an inventory system (since it doesn't actually store any item data, just a binary yes/no flag) so it would save them having to expand our inventories.

Why do people always make these 'FFXIV is not [insert MMO here]' statements? Most people are well aware of that but it doesn't magically invalidate comparisons to other games.

[KisaiTenshi]

Aside from the fact that tacks can que up as bunny girls or in swimsuits, this topics just asking that we not have to carry every individual piece of gear that we want to glamour at all times, not that the rules be changed.

I think "account-wide" anything is impractical since there's multiple data centers to consider.

I could see it as something that is character-specific but nothing more. As soon as you try to span past the server, you will see exploits where players trade things they acquired on one server on another server. That's why there's certain limitations on character transfers to begin with.

Having some untradeable item that acts as a "catalog" of every gear piece you ever spiritbonded to 100% or "deposited into it", solves that.

[KisaiTenshi]

If SE doesn't have the memory to handle a system that SOE was able to have on PS3 then it speaks volumes about how poorly optimised SE's code is.
...

Why do people always make these 'FFXIV is not [insert MMO here]' statements? Most people are well aware of that but it doesn't magically invalidate comparisons to other games.

How many exploits have you heard about FFXIV? How many were possible without hacking?

SE has optimized the game in a way that is specifically tuned to get rid of latency involving inventory and it shows. That's why there are such tiny inventory limits.

[FrejyaAthenes]

I think "account-wide" anything is impractical since there's multiple data centers to consider.

I could see it as something that is character-specific but nothing more. As soon as you try to span past the server, you will see exploits where players trade things they acquired on one server on another server. That's why there's certain limitations on character transfers to begin with.

Having some untradeable item that acts as a "catalog" of every gear piece you ever spiritbonded to 100% or "deposited into it", solves that.

I can see that. I only have one character so I guess I didn't fully consider what "account-wide" actually entailed. That's also why I brought up the catalogue idea as a compromise.

[Alberel]

How many exploits have you heard about FFXIV? How many were possible without hacking?

SE has optimized the game in a way that is specifically tuned to get rid of latency involving inventory and it shows. That's why there are such tiny inventory limits.

Optimisation and preventing exploits are completely different things. You can have a well optimised system yet still have an overlooked, exploitable flaw so that doesn't really have anything to do with the discussion. For the record though there were multiple exploits immediately following 2.0's launch. There was even a way to literally create gil out of thin air.

The reason for the tiny inventories is because SE's servers cannot handle the stress of loading large amounts of item data every time a player enters an area. It really is as simple as that. The servers this game runs on are very noticeably inferior to the hardware that other MMOs run on. If you want an even better example look at the housing system: look at any MMO with a housing system (barring maybe LOTRO) and you'll see a much more flexible setup that offers something for everyone. Players here have made suggestion after suggestion regarding how to improve the system in FFXIV and we're always met with comments about the limits of what the servers can handle. It is painfully obvious that SE's server infrastructure was setup by the same team that did FFXI's; it has exactly the same flaws and exactly the same limitations.

SE gets around this issue of small inventories by using retainers; since they can only be summoned in certain locations SE can control when and where the server actually needs to worry about loading that extra inventory data. I believe this is also why the retainers can sometimes have a small delay when summoned since the client only requests that data at the actual moment of summoning them.

Anyway regarding the subject at hand the facts are these:

-Players' inventories and retainer storage are getting clogged full of crafting materials and glamour items.
-SE is proposing to add yet more retainers in 3.0 to alleviate the issue.

I don't see why they couldn't add a glamour log instead of new retainers. Have it only accessible in a certain location like retainers. Hell they could even add it to the barber as a new feature if they want to really reduce the impact it might have on the server. Since it would only store binary flags for every cosmetic appearance it would be much less memory intensive than an inventory holding each of those items. That would also spare the server having to load all the other miscellaneous info regarding the retainer such as appearance, class, level and equipment. There would be no 'removing' items from the log either. You would literally just glamour the appearance directly from it.

To be totally blunt, if SE has built a system that cannot be expanded in ways such as this then they have been incredibly short-sighted.

[BreathlessTao]

Would be nice? Yes. Would it make sense? Yes. Would it help ease up on every inventory-related thing, including issues causing headaches to the devs as well? Yes.

Nah, not gonna happen.