Glamour dresser red flag

[xLucia]

Edit: Woops, posted this in the wrong thread :3 /ignore me

[Fawkes]

Except, if the dresser actually stores anything then it's already inefficient...

Armoire works most likely through "link". As in, there is a database from gear stored on the servers. That's what says what the gear in its base looks like, what stats it have, what drops it and all the other technical stuff. Now, the bad way of doing inventory is to copy all (most) of that data for every copy of that item that any player owns. This IS probably how normal inventories work, for whatever reason. Hence why there is a big-ass resource hog to the inventories. This is most likely NOT how armoire works, hence why it can technically have virtually unlimited space, because every item is just a few bytes or so for every character...which on an MMO's scale is nothing. When you take something out of the armoire, it merely references the item database for a specific item. For example, it would look something like "Put item no. 12611 in players inventory.". That's all.

That's probably how the armoire should work, but I doubt it actually works that way. If it had technically unlimited space they wouldn't be so stingy about letting us put more items in it. They are only just now adding reward items from the 2014 Fan Fest to the armoire. And there would be no good reason to continue to exclude glamour items purchased on the mog station from being stored. If it weren't an extremely limited space then SE are complete jerks or totally incompetent for keeping items like that out.

[Snat]

That's probably how the armoire should work, but I doubt it actually works that way. If it had technically unlimited space they wouldn't be so stingy about letting us put more items in it. They are only just now adding reward items from the 2014 Fan Fest to the armoire. And there would be no good reason to continue to exclude glamour items purchased on the mog station from being stored. If it weren't an extremely limited space then SE are complete jerks or totally incompetent for keeping items like that out.

From a programmer PoV that is pretty much how it is done at least if you are doing it effectively and even the new glamour storage should work the same way. It would not surprise me at this point that they simply do not add new stuff to the armoire so people pay for more retainers. I still can not think of a single reason why the AF2 & AF3 gear can't even go in there.

[Callinon]

In reality, data-management is a lot less problematic than some seem to think. It's supposed to work off of a database and cross-references. That means that every item should have exactly ONE copy of data on the entire data center (or a physical server at most), and every character and their mother would only reference that one copy of data. The drawback?! If they wouldn't do backups, any error in the database would affect everyone as well and could be unrepairable. The positives?! Everything else. Immense amounts of data storage being saved, among others, and that means removal of technical issues born from data mismanagement, which in turn would allow to make simple, efficient systems. And yes, adding a dyes metadata is just a little bit of data more, and still could be done extremely easily even with database reference. That's how inventory could very well work as well.

Absolutely agreed. The more I see SE doing things like this the more and more I despair for the future because it reveals enormous flaws in their design.

You only store data on a character's item if it's different from the prototype item. In the case of the glamour dresser it'd be the item's ID number and the ID number of the dye used on it when it was put in the dresser. That's it. There's no reason to store anything else because the rest of it is just the prototype item. The entire item entry in a character's data set should be.. what? Like 8 bytes max?

[Airmid_Caduceus]

You have to start to wonder though, where does the money we pay with our subs, mog station, etc go to? If from what I hear is true and it goes towards other games rather then this one, we'll never amount to what MMO's are today.
If you add up the active amount of subs and mog station money over the years, you'd think that our "limited resource" problem would at least start to be worked on, but it not and what more upsetting is, as the years go on, we as paying player base are being punished for SE mistake in these broken systems. Like for example, the whole housing situation, Auto-demo timer, gil/housing items being held timer, all because of limited resource and not being able to supply all players. When you start looking outside of XIV you start asking yourself, "What other game punishes their player base like this?" 2.0 rushed or not, I feel like after all these years passed the problem of limited resources should've been addressed by now and these systems improved.
I don't foresee XIV lasting for as many years as XI did at the rate it going now. They keep releasing these broken systems, they keep putting band aid after band aid over it, never fixing the actual problem.
I agree, I'd love to hear from someone in SE about these systems and why their not up to par with the rest of the MMO world. It doesn't have to be WoW, but it we sure isn't even near WoW or any other MMO, even the F2P one's.

I can't find the source anymore, but last year someone on Reddit posted pictures taken at SE's annual stockholder meeting, where there was a pie graph of their revenue. MMORPG's (FFXI and FFXIV) only made up around 14% of their income and their mobile gaming division made up around 40% of the total revenue. Any guesses where SE is pushing their money? /sarcasm

As for where the money from FFXIV goes, IIRC, the money from subscriptions goes directly to SE's main division, it doesn't get sent to the FFXIV team. Only MogStation purchases get earmarked specifically for the FFXIV devs. So, money from MogStation purchases go towards the dev team here, and the rest of their budget is a stipend from the main headquarters.

[kikix12]

That's probably how the armoire should work, but I doubt it actually works that way. If it had technically unlimited space they wouldn't be so stingy about letting us put more items in it.

They're not stingy. They are either ignorant, do it for the sake of pushing for retainer purchases as Snat said, or are just doing it this way to make the impression there are technical limitations in case something bigger came up and they needed a good excuse.

How to reference database is taught in the first few classes for programming ANYTHING in ANY language. It is the most basic of basic ways to program anything. I cannot imagine the incompetence one would need to show to NOT be able to imagine that solution. Why?! Because it helps literally everything. Money, time, nerves. It reduces the risk of bugs and simplifies the process of updates. In cases like MMO's it even makes the program less susceptible to unauthorized use, even if ever so slightly, because trying to change an items effect for example (to give oneself better stats) would instantly affect everyone else on the server. As far as noticing a group of players having higher stats is difficult, noticing the entire server running around in stuff that is grossly overpowered is easy as a pie.

At this point, I am going to say that the developers do NOT want to solve the issue, rather, that they create it on purpose...or at least misinform players about there being an actual issue in the first place. Majority of the playerbase will just take them at face value without questioning it, and even those, like me, that will not believe them when they say they couldn't do it like this or like that due to some limitations, will probably still continue paying the subscription simply because in general the game is still fun overall.

[Fawkes]

In cases like MMO's it even makes the program less susceptible to unauthorized use, even if ever so slightly, because trying to change an items effect for example (to give oneself better stats) would instantly affect everyone else on the server.

Well, when we were upgrading our anima weapons they were all the same item with different stats. Aetherial gear has different stats too.

And items converted into glamours in the glamour dresser appear to have most of their item data stripped from the tooltip.



There's no reason to not just show the normal tooltip unless either item data actually matters or they are trying to trick us into thinking it does.

And if they're just trying to trick us to make us rent more retainers, why give us more inventory at all? Why not have items stored in retainer inventories work with the glamour dresser? Why not make us buy the chocobo backpack instead of giving it away?

[Dustytome]

Why not make us buy the chocobo backpack instead of giving it away?

I have no doubt marketing has the ad print for premium/additional packs ready for the mogstation after people get used to using it.

[Alleo]

Took wow 10 years + to come out with it. IN S/E defense.

If something becomes the new standard then we should not be fine if SE cant live up to that. They like to go around and say how many people played the game and how successfull it is. If you want to be on the top you have to put money in it. I mean we will probably not accept a game that is released in ten years but that is outdated from the start.

I am not even blaming the normal employees. Who knows how hard they fight to get more budget..I am blaming SE as a whole company that seems to take the money and mostly finance other stuff with it..which would be fine as long as FF14 itself gets more than enough to stay on the top. I mean even Yoshida himself stated that he would like more ressources but does not get them..

And the only way to get a chance is enough people complaining about it and not being fine with a band aid.

[Nezerius]

I still can not think of a single reason why the AF2 & AF3 gear can't even go in there.

Because both of those sets are easily re-obtainable. AF2 through Centurio seals, and AF3 from the Calamity Salvager, at 1k gil per piece. Especially the AF3 set, since 1k gil is pretty much nothing, nowadays.