Feedback from a new(ish) player

[SenorPatty]

I started playing last summer. Since then I’ve managed to finish the MSQ, unlocked flying, done a few savage fights, toyed with PVP, and unlocked and completed all the old raids and dungeons.

It’s been an absolute blast. I love the game and I believe I’ll continue playing it for a long time to come (with breaks here and there, obviously). The only thing that stands out as bad is your inventory system. It really needs redone from the ground up. The fact that people can pay real money to bypass one of its short comings is even worse.

But I digress, keep up the good work, and thanks to the community for being so welcoming.

First of all, glad you're having a blast. Fresh blood is always good for the game and if you're enjoying yourself, even better.

Second, I'm guessing from the bolded part that one of its shortcomings is space? I agree...strictly by comparison. Other games for real money allow you to expand permanently your inventory space. This monthly thing is just a way for SE to capitalize on people who are willing to shell out extra money every month rather than it being a necessity. Things have improved though, if you look further back. We didn't have glamour space (which will double with patch 6.15) and you can get free additional space with Chocobo Saddlebag by registering with the companion app (you don't actually have to use it or even sign up for premium)

Other issues I have with bag is how certain items that will inevitably keep reappearing in large quantities (materia) or need to make use of for certain tasks (like fishing bait) don't have their own separate bags. The bags don't have additional filters, you customize pages (like renaming tabs), etc, all these qol things that would go a long way.

[TaleraRistain]

Glad you're enjoying yourself! I think there are a lot of us that find the inventory system lacking, but what about it causes issues for you?

[Ozzmal]

Sorry for the delay, I posted that before work and didnt expect many replies as it was primarily meant as customer feedback.

My main gripes with the inventory system can be summed up in three main points I think.

-Its disorganized, with several different storage options, with varying degrees of how convenient they are to access. When I sell or exchange something at my GC its a pita, sometimes stuff is in my armoir (I think thats how its spelled). Sometimes its in my inventory. If something is on one of my retainers then heaven help me find it. And I'm not even really into crafting yet, this is just poetic gear ive collected for alt jobs. Ive tried to organize it but honestly, its rough.

-Its clunky. Everytime I turn in a quest item I have to right click the item icon, click the item, then click hand over. If its multiple items I have to do this multiple times. Its.... odd if your used to any other MMORPG. Visiting my retainer is several clicks, and they quit selling my stuff while im checking my inventory (why? lol). The glamour dresser and plate system are pretty cool, but extremely unintuitive and overwhelming for a new player (atleast in my experience). I still struggle with it from time to time. Also is there any logical reason you cant send something to your glamour dresser from anywhere?

- It personally killed my desire to collect glamour. Once I realized space was limited I immediately lost any desire to collect all the coolest fashion in Eorzea. I just delete gear that im not using now, I keep 1-2 plates that I like at any given time and thats about it. This system feels so out of place to me because the whole game encourages collecting cool things (cards, music, mounts, minions, sightseeing, achievements), but if I wanna collect all the glamour then I have to rent space from SE. It makes me sad, and strikes me as a huge missed opportunity.

But I don't want this post to be super negative. I love the game, the community, and 99% of what it offers. I can live with one thing I don't like =)

[RobynDaBank]

Hey, regarding glam, you can store 400 (soon to be 800) in the Glamour Dresser, accessible through Inn Rooms. There's also an Armoire where you can put in Artifact Gear at level 45 for your Job, event glamours, and achievement glamours (like outfits you get from Veteran Rewards).

I use my Chocobo Saddlebag for Dyes and armour currencies. One retainer I use keeps spare armour for Jobs that I'll level, and the other keeps crafting materials I might retrieve if I ever do crafting.

[Larirawiel]

I started playing last summer. Since then I’ve managed to finish the MSQ, unlocked flying, done a few savage fights, toyed with PVP, and unlocked and completed all the old raids and dungeons.

It’s been an absolute blast. I love the game and I believe I’ll continue playing it for a long time to come (with breaks here and there, obviously). The only thing that stands out as bad is your inventory system. It really needs redone from the ground up. The fact that people can pay real money to bypass one of its short comings is even worse.

But I digress, keep up the good work, and thanks to the community for being so welcoming.

I am glad, that you like the game.


Cheers

[Jeeqbit]

-Its disorganized, with several different storage options, with varying degrees of how convenient they are to access. When I sell or exchange something at my GC its a pita, sometimes stuff is in my armoir (I think thats how its spelled). Sometimes its in my inventory. If something is on one of my retainers then heaven help me find it. And I'm not even really into crafting yet, this is just poetic gear ive collected for alt jobs. Ive tried to organize it but honestly, its rough.

Most RPG games have an inventory, a lot of them have an armory chest and every MMO I can remember has had an extra storage bank like a retainer.

Where it gets confusing is the armoire, because this is specifically for the type of items you get from seasonal events or ARR artifact armor. Unique quest or achievement rewards are sold by a calamity salvager for 1000 gil, so instead of putting them into the armoire you delete them. Crafted gear, food or dye awarded from quests can be obtained through crafting or from the market board, so these can also be deleted. Knowing which of these three things applies to a quest reward can be very confusing for a new player.

The chocobo saddlebag was added to the game in Stormblood as additional inventory space because they wanted to increase inventory space without it being carried with you into dungeon servers. This is where it becomes more complicated than other MMOs, because they would normally just have the inventory and the retainer. I find it useful as a quicker version of the retainer, so it could be used instead of a retainer unless you accumulate too many items.

-Its clunky. Everytime I turn in a quest item I have to right click the item icon, click the item, then click hand over. If its multiple items I have to do this multiple times. Its.... odd if your used to any other MMORPG. Visiting my retainer is several clicks, and they quit selling my stuff while im checking my inventory (why? lol). The glamour dresser and plate system are pretty cool, but extremely unintuitive and overwhelming for a new player (atleast in my experience). I still struggle with it from time to time.

I found the quest item system strange as well, but you get used to it. Retainers are slow because they are part of a cutscene and my assumption is it stops selling for lore reasons because your retainer can't go and sell items while talking to you. It's annoying but you get used to it.

I agree that the glamour system is overly complicated by only being available at an inn, requiring glamour prisms and for items to be fully repaired. Not being able to drag an item from the inventory into the dresser and having to find it in a list is inconvenient. If you tolerate all of these inconveniences to create a glamour plate, the system is really good because you can attach costumes to your jobs, but it takes effort to explain it to a new player. It works this way as a consequence of the game's design where they want to limit your database interaction or something like that, otherwise it would be available from anywhere.

- It personally killed my desire to collect glamour. Once I realized space was limited I immediately lost any desire to collect all the coolest fashion in Eorzea.

The game has never supported that, except what you get from quests, achievements and seasonal events because these get stored in the calamity salvager or the armoire. I don't think a lot of other MMOs I've played have supported it either because they have limited inventory space as well.

But I don't want this post to be super negative. I love the game, the community, and 99% of what it offers. I can live with one thing I don't like =)

Exactly. Nothing is ever going to be perfect in any game. You can focus the positives or you can focus on the negatives. Guess who has more fun?