So about that Glamour Log...

[SummerSkye]

Farm/dungeon crawl/RNG the gear just like we do now. Wear the gear just like we do now. When you out level the gear, instead of sticking it in a retainer or your inventory like we do now, or choosing which sets to keep, you can choose to "release" it into the glamour catalog. Instead of having that piece in your inventory, it is now a lit up area of a logbook. Is a piece of armor in your inventory less memory intensive than a lit up object on a page of a glamor log?

Again, it is utterly ridiculous that we cannot have things like this in a globally successful subscription based game because we are perpetually out of character memory at their servers end.

[Nutz]

Is a piece of armor in your inventory less memory intensive than a lit up object on a page of a glamor log?

To this bit alone, yes. This is just due to how the database works with your inventory. Each item has some numerical tag such that your inventory is essentially an array of all of those numbers and each empty spot is occupied by 0000...(however many digits). Having the tag refer to an actual item instead of nothing doesn't increase the size of the character save file.

That's just to point out that particular inaccuracy. In pretty much all MMOs they increase available inventory by some means over time and they could easily forgo doing that at least for a decent amount of time by creating a glamour log such that in practice the glamour log is a less capacity intensive endeavor than not making one.

[Duelle]

I'd probably make the glamour log only for dungeon/raid gear. So AF and anything that can be crafted would not go in it. If the concern for data is that great, this would cut down on the amount of space needed.

[slml320]

As per the usual parading around of concept art, we were presented with a good amount of new outfit options. I was left wondering where they expect us to store all of these new items. I'm hoping they have something planned, like some sort of Glamour Log, to record the pieces we've collected for glamours. Otherwise, I suppose the appropriate phrase is "RIP Inventory."

2 extra payed for retainers not enough buy another 2 more for $2 more please look forward to it!!

[BreathlessTao]

So it's not SE's fault that they continue to add more and more content (and so often at that) - as they should. But it's totally the player's fault that they want to actually have those things, right? Because all the time and energy the devs put into making them should be wasted, and the new items be left alone to collect digital dust in closed treasure chests. Yeah, that's some logic.

While the glamour log would add data to characters indeed....... consider this: the item itself is already in the game. That's not extra data once something is added. We collect something though and have it in our inventory (whether our own or a retainer's) - it's extra data there, just the thing being stored; it gets the extra data of spiritbond progress; it gets the extra data of condition; it gets the extra data of color; it even gets the extra data of who made it, if it's a crafted item. All this has to be stored for each and every single item on each and every character (equipment stored on retainers included). And what happens is, you do run out of space, sooner or later, 2 retainers or 4. Opposing this, if we have a glamour book, that's one set of data containing, say, the hex code of each piece of equipment (already in game, like i said, as per the item being added), and one single yes/no flag for every player character, indicating whether or not they "unlocked" it. And if actually used in a glamour, I think at most 6 pieces in a set, may contain a color code in addition. That's it. Don't tell me that actually increases character data compared to how things are now...

Bad system is bad, and yes, SE fails at server storage / configuration / coding / whatever. Especially with this much amount of stuff added to the game this often, doing nothing to lighten the load - on their end or on ours. Never have I heard devs saying they have difficulties adding items to a single "permanent" storage (one that's as restricted as the Armoire here is, at that), but continue to flood the game with tons more of items every few weeks. We might not know what's going on in the background. Sure we can't possibly tell how things are actually set up over there. But we do live with the system, we do use it, we do experience the issues, we do hear and see the signs.

[SokiYagami]

Doesn't change the reality that every suggestion that would require more character data space was shot down for that exact reason. It's happened tons of times already. Arguing with me won't change that reality. I'm just pointing out a truth that is clearly inconvenient for some of you guys.

And we are trying to point out to you that we CAN save character data space if the solution is implemented correctly. Of course, neither of us know how SE code the system, but with the coding techniques we have at our disposal these days, it CAN be done (in terms of coding). It's more of a question on the complexity of changing the system and whether SE have the resources to do so. From the past live letters and interviews, it appears that they are really short on manpower on the developers team so I speculate that this issue has been shove aside for the sake of pumping out new content regularly.

I agree to your other points such as "we should manage our own inventory space" and "we simply can't hog everything", but I'm afraid I have to disagree with re-farming glamour gears (as it is simply unrealistic) and the idea of glamour log was shot down because it wouldn't help with saving data space (because it's possible).

So it's not SE's fault that they continue to add more and more content (and so often at that) - as they should. But it's totally the player's fault that they want to actually have those things, right? Because all the time and energy the devs put into making them should be wasted, and the new items be left alone to collect digital dust in closed treasure chests. Yeah, that's some logic.

While the glamour log would add data to characters indeed....... consider this: the item itself is already in the game. That's not extra data once something is added. We collect something though and have it in our inventory (whether our own or a retainer's) - it's extra data there, just the thing being stored; it gets the extra data of spiritbond progress; it gets the extra data of condition; it gets the extra data of color; it even gets the extra data of who made it, if it's a crafted item. All this has to be stored for each and every single item on each and every character (equipment stored on retainers included). And what happens is, you do run out of space, sooner or later, 2 retainers or 4. Opposing this, if we have a glamour book, that's one set of data containing, say, the hex code of each piece of equipment (already in game, like i said, as per the item being added), and one single yes/no flag for every player character, indicating whether or not they "unlocked" it. And if actually used in a glamour, I think at most 6 pieces in a set, may contain a color code in addition. That's it. Don't tell me that actually increases character data compared to how things are now...

Bad system is bad, and yes, SE fails at server storage / configuration / coding / whatever. Especially with this much amount of stuff added to the game this often, doing nothing to lighten the load - on their end or on ours. Never have I heard devs saying they have difficulties adding items to a single "permanent" storage (one that's as restricted as the Armoire here is, at that), but continue to flood the game with tons more of items every few weeks. We might not know what's going on in the background. Sure we can't possibly tell how things are actually set up over there. But we do live with the system, we do use it, we do experience the issues, we do hear and see the signs.

I wouldn't go so far to calling it a bad system. Sure, there's plenty of rooms for improvement, but I appreciate the efforts of the developers and I hope they can do something regarding this aspect when they get the time to do so. Coding and testing a system is actually really taxing on the mind, the least we can do is to provide them the moral support they required and gratitude for their effort. Sure, we are customers who paid for their service, but remember, developers, or rather, programmers in this case, are humans too (and a pretty sad bunch among mankind) and there's only so much workload and dissing they can handle.

[BreathlessTao]

I wouldn't go so far to calling it a bad system. Sure, there's plenty of rooms for improvement, but I appreciate the efforts of the developers and I hope they can do something regarding this aspect when they get the time to do so. Coding and testing a system is actually really taxing on the mind, the least we can do is to provide them the moral support they required and gratitude for their effort. Sure, we are customers who paid for their service, but remember, developers, or rather, programmers in this case, are humans too (and a pretty sad bunch among mankind) and there's only so much workload and dissing they can handle.

Ok, let's call it...obsolete then, instead of bad...? Direct storing of every single item on every single character. Pretty much been around for a while.

[Tiggy]

And we are trying to point out to you that we CAN save character data space if the solution is implemented correctly.

I completely agree.

You need to come up with a solution that realistically takes character server data into account

[SokiYagami]

I completely agree.

A Glamour Log would make each and every single characters data size increase linearly with each and every new piece of gear added to the game.

I'm sorry, you were saying? In case you didn't catch me the first time, a glamour log CAN reduce the character data size if implemented correctly.

[KaedrianLiang]

idealy a glamour log system would be a list of mere item ID numbers consisting of 1-5 numbers. Such a list would merely make calls to the item database and say "oh this player has this ItemID# they are authorized to glamour, /glamour." Such a call would be no more than 1 line of code, and less than 20 characters.

http://xivdb.com/?item/8652/Gae-Bolg-Nexus

The 8652 is the ID# for the item on the server and in the gamefiles itself located on your disk, so we know its really not a question of data size limit, because making a call to a 4 digit ID is only a few bytes of data, probably not even a kilobyte.

Most likely the "character data size restrictions" is an attempt to placate popular requests because quite simply its not a priority, while the dev team is severely limited on schedule and human resources.

SE has gone out of their way to make it sound like each item on a character takes up several megabytes of data on the server, which if true, is terrible system design on their part.