What ever happened to the increase in inventory slots

[MiraKershaw]

It's related because the reason why we can get inventory increase is because "server stability" how does paying 5 dollars for an app magically buff servers to surpass or overcome this stability issue

[Squintina]

It's related because the reason why we can get inventory increase is because "server stability" how does paying 5 dollars for an app magically buff servers to surpass or overcome this stability issue

I get all that but you are strawmaning.

You asked about the second inventory addition.
We got the second inventory addition.

Whether or not they wanted to give a different version of the addition, or whether they should provide a 3rd sub-included addition, but somehow aren't getting them because they're going to put that behind an app - while certainly an interesting subject - is not what you originally asked nor is it particularly relevant. It is tangentially relevant, not directly.

And while I don't like the app sub either, I can actually think of a reason why it would be possible to give more space via a paywall than via the included sub because I try to think about all sides and not just live in a bubble of negative melodrama.

And that simply the majority of players, which they can see on their stats, do not make use of extra retainers at all as it is. Thus the majority of players will not be using the extra 5$ sub for more saddlebag and the ability to purchase one more retainers. Thus they can plan for space that would only for X% of players based on statistical data. If they included it in the sub, that would need 100% player coverage (regardless of whether the user uses it or not, it would need to be allocated).

Would I prefer if they upgraded their system to cover the 100% playerbase for a 3rd expansion? ABSOLUTELY
Do I think any chocobo saddlebag expansion should be accessible to players even if extra retainers remained paid? OH HELL YES
Do I think the paid retainers were BS to begin with? YOU BETCHA

But is that relevant to the chocobo saddlebag being the answer to your original question? not one bit

You also make the error of assuming that all inventory would have equal effects to server stability.

Perhaps they did want to do 2 Player Inventory expansions, but technical issues (from their obviously atrocious spaghetti code) made it impossible to stabilize. The chocobo saddlebag, being separate and having different requirements is most likely using a different form of storage that has its own code that hopefully uses a better transfer netcode to stabilize and could have been the only way to provide the promised expansion without destroying server stability.

Likewise retainers, as they've stated or hinted in the past, are stored on their own servers and that is why they have to be summoned rather than accessed at any time. Once again pointing that this is different from player storage which has to be passed at all times. Thus the server communication impact of something like a retainer would be far less than that of expanding player inventory.

So you can't point at saddlebags and retainers as them lying about stability issues regarding the normal player inventory. They are separate systems, sent separately, with different requirements and restrictions.

[Callinon]

So you can't point at saddlebags and retainers as them lying about stability issues regarding the normal player inventory. They are separate systems, sent separately, with different requirements and restrictions.

Not lying per se. I believe them when they say their servers are run by hamsters running on little wheels. But putting inventory expansions behind paywalls lets them do two things:
1: Continue to cheap out on their server infrastructure
2: Get more money from those players who will just buy anything because they have too much money and a non-functioning gag reflex

It's the best of both worlds from their perspective and the rest of us just get to live with it.

[Nezerius]

how does paying 5 dollars for an app magically buff servers to surpass or overcome this stability issue

Because if they doubled the chocobo saddlebags for free, the server would have to deal with an extra 70 slots for every player.

Let's assume a server has 10,000 characters. A free saddlebag increase means the server has an increased load of 700,000 slots. Now, if only 1,000 of those characters would be going for the premium app, that'd lower the amount of saddlebag slots to 70,000. Keep in mind, these are randomly picked numbers.

As much as I dislike the premium app, there's still a clear reason why inventory slots often end up behind an additional fee.

[polyphonica]

It's related because the reason why we can get inventory increase is because "server stability" how does paying 5 dollars for an app magically buff servers to surpass or overcome this stability issue

The UI Designer actually made a post that explained all this, although in the context of another question here:

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...95#post4565795

Once 4.0 went live, we calculated that the server couldn't handle the amount of communication stress that the additional increased inventory slots and character item data brought with it.

Therefore, we switched our direction to adding other methods to increase the inventory, or by converting items to a different format to store them, and stopped adding spaces to inventory and the Armoury Chest with the 4.0 expansion.
* Methods such as the chocobo saddlebag and glamour dressers.

Basically, the saddlebag works around the limitation they have with regular inventory.

Of course, whether it relates to server limiations or not, the fact that people are clamoring for inventory and they are selling part of the solution for that has a bad look. No argument about that.

[Iscah]

The UI Designer actually made a post that explained all this, although in the context of another question here:

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...95#post4565795

Thanks for that link, I was just thinking "I remember seeing an official explanation a while ago but don't know where to find it..."

Also I asked in another topic but didn't get a reply there - is it possible that in giving more inventory space via the app, they are using that interface to store that data somewhere other than on their servers? (Whether it's going onto your phone or into iCloud or something. I don't know how app data works exactly.)

If they were doing something like this, is it possible the extra saddlebag slots can only be managed through the app and are not even visible in-game?

[polyphonica]

Also I asked in another topic but didn't get a reply there - is it possible that in giving more inventory space via the app, they are using that interface to store that data somewhere other than on their servers? (Whether it's going onto your phone or into iCloud or something. I don't know how app data works exactly.)

If they were doing something like this, is it possible the extra saddlebag slots can only be managed through the app and are not even visible in-game?

I don't think that's the case for the saddlebag. I suspect that the saddlebag is a sort of retainer that just doesn't need to be summoned with a bell, and has 140 slots of inventory (like every retainer, and the player inventory itself). I honestly wonder if at some point they might have planned it as a feature entirely exclusive to the app, but then realized that people were still complaining a lot about inventory, so decided to go 50/50.

(Yoshi-P commented in the past that, despite the server issues with active inventory, it'd be possible to expand the number of retainers people could have, and I suspect that (and the fact that they were already using retainers as a premium tier) is basically what led them down this path. Incidentally, it's worth noting that the amount of glamour plates you can have also works out to... 140 inventory slots. Even though it's special purpose inventory, I suspect it's still basically like another retainer-equivalent too, from a technical point of view.)

Edit: Forgot that the retainer has 175, as corrected below. Also, I was assuming they left slots in the DB for the belt + soulstone for the plates, but I suppose there's not necessarily any reason to do that since they're not shown at the moment.)

[Airget]

It's related because the reason why we can get inventory increase is because "server stability" how does paying 5 dollars for an app magically buff servers to surpass or overcome this stability issue

Because while the server may have let's say 500k playing as a whole, if only 25k people buy the premium then they only need to worry about +70 choco saddle for 25k people.

Now if they just outright added +70 for 500k there would be a higher risk for instability since more characters have access to that extra data for storage.

However, let's just say everyone paid into it 500k X 5 2.5mil, in theory they would have the funds to further increase the stability of servers and over inventory because of said extra funds going into the game now