So about that Glamour Log...

[Wasselin]

Why are people so worried about the server space? Are we trying to anticipate the devs response ahead of time? I think it makes more sense to talk about how a glamour log would effect you and your gameplay rather than worrying about things we really don't have any idea about.

I think a glamour log would be fun for a lot of reasons but the biggest one that would affect gameplay is if it included gear you hadn't got yet. So if we could preview models it could act as a guide for the glamor-inclined player to seek out and play content they might not have otherwise went after in order to obtain those glamors. They add a lot of gear that is clearly intended solely for glamor but unless you read articles and previews outside of the game you might not even know it exists.

[TheRogueX]

A) You don't know what's going on behind the scenes. You don't know if it's a fail or even why. All you know is that they character data is large and they don't want to increase it right now.
B) Sometimes limits are set for very realistic reasons. As you don't know any of those it's best if you don't make assumptions.
C) Server storage and redundancies are quite expensive. Do try to remember that. This isn't a trivial detail so don't trivialize it with easily spoken words that show no actual knowledge of the situation. (aka talking out of your you know what)

A) Characters are stored on a database, with relevant fields to hold all of the most important information regarding the character. Inventory is teeeeeeeny-tiny, because the only thing needed per slot is an item number and some metadata (Color? NQ/HQ?). Each item is probably only a few bytes of character data, at maximum. Each character is probably no more than a few megabytes.
B) I'm guessing that the limits are purely related to the Playstation 3's memory limitations. No other reasons are applicable.
C) No, actually, server storage and 'redundancies' are extremely cheap in the modern day, and storage costs drop on a daily basis. A company like SE also is guaranteed to have a partnership or special purchase arrangements with major hardware vendors, giving them even cheaper prices than we could find.

Now, will a Glamour Log increase character size limits? Yes. Not drastically, as again it would be similar to another inventory with a list of acquired items, but that's it.

Yes, but that linearly increases character save data for each and every new piece of gear in the game. It must be stored, for every single character, the obtained or not obtained status. This data has to exist somewhere. So for every single character in the game, even inactive ones, the save data increases with every new piece of gear. Meaning Square will begin weighing more carefully whether to add new gear or not to because it's 1 new piece x the number of players x data backup space = increased character data usage.

No, again, it wouldn't exist as an entry in the character's Glamour Log inventory until it was obtained. Characters without that item recorded in their logs would have a smaller log. Characters who have nothing in their Glamour Log would have one of the absolute minimum (empty) size. You are right, though: The data does exist somewhere. It exists in the master item table, not on individual characters.

I think initially they didn't give much money to space because that much investment into the infrastructure is expensive.

Again, storage infrastructure is not expensive. The server infrastructure is, but the storage itself is not.

same goes for lotro wardrobe

Thanks for showing this. I didn't want to have to log back into my old LotRO account to produce a screenshot lol.

Anyway, a couple of people have pointed out how the 'character data' argument isn't readily understandable at this moment without additional information that SE doesn't seem to want or isn't at liberty to share. That's just a fact of life. I think most of us just want to understand better what the primary issue is, and that's where we lack information.

[GenJoe]

Why are people so worried about the server space? Are we trying to anticipate the devs response ahead of time? I think it makes more sense to talk about how a glamour log would effect you and your gameplay rather than worrying about things we really don't have any idea about.

SE has made it quite clear over the years and we pretty much know what to expect.. We're just sharing the information we have on it with you guys, the more optimistic people. Do you think there's a single person who's against this idea? No, we would all love it, but we just know it's not likely to happen anytime soon, maybe not ever. So we just give alternative advice as to what else you can do to alleviate your inventory.

[DarkDedede]

I don't think it's wrong or even "optimistic" to expect a more streamlined interface experience. I would think they provided this forum so that we can communicate our expectations. They have shown, time and time again, they they actually do listen to feedback, and of course they can't add everything that everyone wants. Resources are obviously finite. However, it's really in their best interest to improve both the game, and the interface though which we play the game. Parading around concept art can only take a game so far. Also, it's in the players' best interest to voice where they find potential issue. If there is an area of the game that causes frustration (the wrong kind of frustration), I would think it would be a good idea to remedy the situation. For all we know a solution is already in the works.

[GenJoe]

I certainly hope so.. I just wish SE would drop the PS3-PS4-PC ubiquity idea and just develop UI separately with separate expectations of each platform.. As of yet, it looks like they still don't want to do that, but I do sincerely hope I'm wrong and put my foot in my mouth..

[DarkDedede]

On a side note, since I'm curious. Does the development team for FFXIV have an actual name? Referring to the team as "SE" seems a bit inaccurate (for me, anyways). I would think that the FFXIV team is a much smaller subset of the entire company, and I assume one grand omnipotent being isn't making all of the decisions for all SE games (as most would imply).

[Catwho]

On a side note, since I'm curious. Does the development team for FFXIV have an actual name? Referring to the team as "SE" seems a bit inaccurate (for me, anyways). I would think that the FFXIV team is a much smaller subset of the entire company, and I assume one grand omnipotent being isn't making all of the decisions for all SE games (as most would imply).

Individual teams within the XIV Dev team do, but they're descriptive and not very exciting - the "lore team" the "battle team" the "design team" etc.

If there are more fun names, they are private and haven't been shared with the players, as far as I can remember.

[Niwashi]

Ok, admittedly I skimmed part of this thread, so sorry if I missed it, but the discussions of keeping down the size of character data seem to be ignoring the different types of character data. The part that SE needs to keep down is the portion of character data that needs to be kept continually active on the servers (which includes inventory). Letting that part grow too large adds significant lag to the whole system.

It would not, however, have to include a glamour log if they set it up so that you have to go into town and interact with a new wardrobe feature in order to add items or use those saved appearances to glamour something. In that case, it would only load that data for the brief period while you're there interacting with it. (This is the same reason why retainer inventory is far easier to add than character inventory. It's active only for brief periods, and not in places where a little lag is a serious problem.)

This version would mean that it's not automatic as soon as you obtain an item, but I for one am fine with that part. I've obtained quite a few items that I don't particularly want to preserve the appearance of. Give us a glamour log that we can add 250 favorite gear items to, and an interface that lets us add and remove them manually, but where the adding step requires us to have the gear and will bind it to us if not already bound.


Also:

If they add a log where you simply have to pick the item up and you instantly have it's 'model' for example, then all of the effort behind glamor is just gone.

Most people consider the effort of earning the item in the first place, and not the effort of storing it, to be the relevant "effort" involved, or at least the part of the effort that's supposed to be involved. If trying to store it becomes work, that's an unfortunate side effect of system limitations, some of which can be solved with a more efficient design.

[DarkDedede]

Even if a complete glamour catalog, although ideal, isn't currently feasible, having the option to save gear sets as "glamour sets" might be another potential solution (for now).

The player could either set each gear and glamour sets separately, or possibly have the option to link which gear set go with which glamour set. I currently have about 15 gear set slots. I would imagine "space" would not be as much of an issue, even if they chose to give the player more gear slots for glamours. The solution would be repurposing a feature that already exists in the game. Still work, obviously, but not as heavy on the character data (I think).

[Nadirah]

I certainly hope so.. I just wish SE would drop the PS3-PS4-PC ubiquity idea and just develop UI separately with separate expectations of each platform.. As of yet, it looks like they still don't want to do that, but I do sincerely hope I'm wrong and put my foot in my mouth..

No game does this I'm afraid. Modders fix the UI issue *cough* elder scrolls