More Storage Space, are your retainers and your bag full??

[wolfwing]

I think I'll inject a few numbers in, so that people can see the scope of the problem.

A quick perusal of YG's item database showed that there are approximately 3500 distinct items in the game. This does not include those items that are quest-related such as "High-quality Mythril Ore". The majority of these items are "armor" (including jewelry) at ~1500, and "crafting" (anything not equippable or usable, but theoretically able to be made into gear) also at ~1500.

Considering that there are NQ, +1, +2, and +3 versions of each of those items, the total number quickly balloons to 14,000.

I hate to point out the obvious, but 14,000 is far greater than 300.

As to being a packrat, the crafting system practically forces one to be a pack-rat. If I want to craft a leather skirt (a rank 37 tanning recipe), I must have mole-brown hempen cloth. While the cross-linking of items in recipes does promote more crafter-to-crafter interaction, the current hit-or-miss economy promotes hording of materials.

As to those the dispute the power of dyes to ruin your inventory:

Sand-beige Hemp Dye
Lead-grey Hemp Dye
Mole-brown Hemp Dye
Maize-yellow Cotton Dye
Olive-green Cotton Dye
Celeste-blue Cotton Dye
Mesa-red Cotton Dye
Sunset-auburn Canvas Dye
Rose-pink Canvas Dye
Woad-blue Canvas Dye
Orchard-brown Canvas Dye
Raven-black Velveteen Dye
Hunter-green Velveteen Dye
Wine-red Velveteen Dye
Cream-yellow Velveteen Dye
Saffron-yellow Linen Dye
Shale-brown Linen Dye
Deepsea-blue Linen Dye
Floral-pink Linen Dye

Slate-grey Sheep Leather Dye
Taupe Sheep Leather Dye
Midnight-black Dodo Leather Dye
Oxblood-red Buffalo Leather Dye
Red-ochre Buffalo Leather Dye
Moss-green Buffalo Leather Dye
Soot-black Buffalo Leather Dye
Desert-yellow Buffalo Leather Dye
Russet-brown Buffalo Leather Dye
Marsh-green Nakki Leather Dye
Dark-brown Toad Leather Dye
Loam-brown Boar Leather Dye
Light-beige Boar Leather Dye
Rust-red Boar Leather Dye
Storm-blue Boar Leather Dye

For those averse to counting, that's 33 inventory slots, or 1/3 of a retainer. Just for dyes. Heaven help you if you keep anything beyond just NQ dyes.

well just to clarify I also count, laquers, enamels as dyes, I'm refering specificly to the colour items, as they all sorta fall under the same catagory and they are tons all together.

It really also depends on what your making. Iron arrows wich I've been selling right now, use iron nuggets, hempen yarn, ceder branches, fish glue, wich is also hypogrpyh and aldgoat horns, wild fowl feathers.

Anyone thats crafted armor can know the sheer number of items you can need, my armor that I make as armorer if I make it myself, wich I often have too, requires many weaving items, many leather, then add in gold smithing and blacksmithing things, I usually end up with like 20 items half of wich I sell afterwards because no use, but i still need the bases for later crafting.

Logging, I have like 10 different types of logs, and thats just for what I'm making down the road, as a carpenter, many with more then one quality because I've collected enough it's a waste to toss.

Fishing I have the fish I'm currently cooking + the fish that I will be using shortly when I'm high enough level, Plus qualities.

Maybe alot of you who arn't having problems are lazy and just buy everything rather then work to get it yourself, or you sell anything that you arn't needing right that moment and happy to toss out mythril or and higher grade logs even though you will need them later.

And this isn't getting into goldsmithing or dyeing where there are tons of periodots, amber, malachite and such wich have pretty hit and miss drops but are useful and needed for goldsmithing of specific items, wich is stupid to just sell them when you don't need them, because when you do your going to spend 3 days if you have bad luck trying to find enough for what you need.

[Fleur]

Thevedis, I think we all could learn a thing or two from you. xD You must have a ton of gear though, goodness!

I guess I am a bit of a packrat. I am actually doing just fine with my inventory now, but I was thinking of taking up weaving and botany and cringed when I realized that weaver alone would mean adding yarn, cloth, canvas fent, cotton fent, and a full new set of gear to my inventory. I already have gear sets for THM, CON, GLA, MIN and GLD -- and yes, they can share a few pieces, but mostly not due to rank differences and such. Also, I keep some of the THM gear that I have "outgrown" to use later on my CON. Of course I could sell it and buy it back again later . . . but it can be a pain to find what I want again as certain items just don't show up that often in the markets (you know how long it took me to find my favorite hat? lol).

Again, I am fine with all the stuff for these classes and am not lacking space, but . . . the thought of taking up weaving and botany is more daunting due to the matter of inventory space.

[Neptune]

need more right now, simply because pop is so low that economy has slown to a crawl and can't move valuable items

[TheVedis]

Thevedis, I think we all could learn a thing or two from you. xD You must have a ton of gear though, goodness!

I guess I am a bit of a packrat. I am actually doing just fine with my inventory now, but I was thinking of taking up weaving and botany and cringed when I realized that weaver alone would mean adding yarn, cloth, canvas fent, cotton fent, and a full new set of gear to my inventory. I already have gear sets for THM, CON, GLA, MIN and GLD -- and yes, they can share a few pieces, but mostly not due to rank differences and such. Also, I keep some of the THM gear that I have "outgrown" to use later on my CON. Of course I could sell it and buy it back again later . . . but it can be a pain to find what I want again as certain items just don't show up that often in the markets (you know how long it took me to find my favorite hat? lol).

Again, I am fine with all the stuff for these classes and am not lacking space, but . . . the thought of taking up weaving and botany is more daunting due to the matter of inventory space.

actualy, i only have 3 sets of gear(combat, crafting, gathering)
some of that gear overlaps(i dont use mage gear cuz lets be honest, why bother, i fight in my crafting gear as a mage)
so that right there takes up 20/330 slots(yes we have 330 slots people, count your bazaar spaces)

I then have 18 tools, and 4 secondary tools(weaving and all 3 gathering) for 22 more slots
total of 38 now

For weaving, i usualy have 3-4 stacks of flax, and a stack of cotton bolls in cold storage, along with anywhere from 1-10 stacks of yarn to use. So lets call that 15 more slots, total of 43
Leatherworking I usualy only carry 1 stack of leather/1 more stack of hides at a time. I also have 2 other kinds of hides im not using yet but will when i reach that range, so 4 slots for LW. total of 47
5 stacks of silver ore, 1 stack of gold, 1 stack of mythril, and about 3 stacks of various iron nugget making ores.
and maybe 10 stacks of various nuggets at any given time, total now at 67
3-4 stacks of various squares for armoror, total now at 71
Carpentry, i currently have 5 stacks of walnut logs, and 10 stacks of walnut lumber in storage, and about 5 stacks of various other logs/lumbers put aside for making gear to sell. Also have 3 different chips i keep on hand. total slots used now at 89.
Cooking, cooking sucks, this is where some people who do multiple classes i bet packrat alot, me i only store my next recipe.
So i got 3 stacks of cloves, some black pepper, and nothing else at the moment. total slots now at 93
Alchemy, i DO NOT keep ANY dye, period, i do however store scale bugs that im using to level and dart frogs, which take up 3-4 slots total at any given time. add in up to 10 slots for morraines in between using them, and im at 107 slots used.
I keep a colletion of feathers on hand for arrow making later, and corals, taking up around 15 slots total, 122 slots used.


all in all, this is only what i "need" to keep on me to do my jobs. that leaves me 180 spaces to play with, currently which i have a bunch of random repair crap(i carry around 30 slots of different repair materials on me cuz i repair for my shell) and a ton of other stuff that goes up and down(30 slots used to actualy sell crap right now, made a ton of bows which are selling nicely)
so i still end up with 40 slots on my person and around 40-80 slots free on retainers. and i have no space actualy wasted

[darkstarpoet1]

just be glad you didn't mention fishing as that in itself is a ton of bait for a productive grind. for the fastest sp grind you need farmed bait and in one day you can run through 8 stacks of that in itself. that dun mention freshwater/saltwater baits and the lures which are good for different kinds of fish. i know most of us have at least 5 full sets of gear. i know me i collect enough to have enough mats only for my next grind, but due to being able to fatigue a class in a few hours i have to collect for more than one class at a time.

just today i hit fatigue on wvr/gld/thm. i'm not saying it is necessary to always be out of room, as i do every class besides cul and usually keep 50-70 spots open on my char, but i would love it when we can buy extra retainers so i can start keeping items for future synths. of course we all know the more room we have the more room we will take.

[Amineri]

In response to Thevedis's well-thought out and written response, I will partially retract my assertion about there being a "problem" with too little inventory space. It certainly is possible to follow Thevedis's suggestions and not always be butting up against the inventory boundary.

However, I respectfully submit that Thevedis and I are playing two different games here. I personally enjoy

a) Having a variety of outfits to wear, both just to dress in something different, as well as for various RP reasons.

To follow Thevedis's suggestion, you must trim down your wearable gear to the absolute minimum.

actualy, i only have 3 sets of gear(combat, crafting, gathering)
some of that gear overlaps(i dont use mage gear cuz lets be honest, why bother, i fight in my crafting gear as a mage)

If you enjoy wearing a wider variety of gear your inventory will become more cramped. I'm not saying that either way of playing is intrinsically better than the other, but the current inventory space situation comes down heavily on those that like to have a variety of outfits.

b) Crafting a variety of items to help friends, linkshell-mates and to perform random acts of kindness.

If a person's goal in playing FF XIV is to "power-level" up to max rank, and then make only the "best" and "most popular" items, then again, there is little problem with inventory space.

Cooking, cooking sucks, this is where some people who do multiple classes i bet packrat alot, me i only store my next recipe.

Unlike Thevedis, I don't have a "next recipe". It is literally impossible to craft all types of tools/weapon/armor to have an hand for friends (on the order of 2000 items). It is also impossible to keep all of the materials needed to craft an item that a friend may want, even within a fairly restricted subset. I do try my best to keep as many as the needed materials around in order to try and play a crafter in a way that I enjoy, and that leads to severe inventory problems.

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Let me make clear that I am NOT trying to judge Thevedis negatively, or his style of play. Further, if I've misrepresented you, Thevedis, I most sincerely apologize.

What I AM trying to assert is that there are other, equally valid reasons for playing the game, and the current inventory restrictions make playing in this way extremely frustrating. Denigrating people by labeling them "packrats" is hardly a constructive criticism, I'm sorry to say.

I think I have some insights into how we've gotten to this point, and "what SE was thinking".

Having fewer inventory slots than items in game forces difficult choices, and prevents people from simply hording every single type of item in game. This sort of hording can be death for the economy, since no one is forced to sell, and no one needs to buy.

To a certain degree I can envision the design team adding this mechanism as a way to drive the economy. If I cannot afford to store all 33 types of cloth/leather dye, this helps create demand for these dyes, thus helping drive the economy. In general, I am fully in favor of this type of solution, as I would much rather head down to the market wards and pick up a needed pot of dye then try and dig through my retainer for whatever I happen to need for my latest creation.

Unfortunately, the current economy has supply/demand imbalances. What is in demand is not well understood. There are also shortages in a fair number of basic trade goods. I liken this to a situation where, when 90% of the time you go to the grocery store, they are out of milk or bread, or, even worse, flour.

I can't pretend to understand all of the factors leading to this situation, nor do I personally believe that a traditional Auction House (whatever that may be) would be a panacea to cure all of these ills, and it certainly would have additional (and very likely negative) impacts on the game.

In part, having only 10 item slots in a bazaar is, I believe, part of the culprit. This leads people to only sell the most profitable items, or what are viewed to be the most profitable items. This leads to many items being underrepresented or even absent from the market.

Also, the current mechanism for retainers purchasing items is extremely weak. I won't rehash it all here, but the following topic thread goes into more detail. Suffice it to say that seeking items COULD be a powerful driver for defining item demand, but in its current form is essentially unusable.

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I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest that (except as a temporary measure), supplying more inventory slots on a character or retainer is not actually necessary. To be honest, scrolling through 100 items of inventory is already somewhat tedious.

In the long term, I believe that two measure will satisfy the inventory crunch:

a) Housing of some sort with the ability to store extra gear not currently in use.

b) Stabilization of the economy, where crafting necessities are stably stocked and available.

[TheVedis]

Amineri, you in no way said anything bad.
we all have our different playstyles.

I also make stuff for my guild, but again, With the 100+ slots extra i keep open, it gives me room to prep those in advance too.
the gear is also a point of interest, some people may have more sets, another reason why my 100 extra slots comes in handy.

Also the mention of fishing

fishing takes up 2 slots of bait for me too(2 stacks of 99 lures for ocean and freshwater). Archer takes up a few slots of arrows.

[Galamantyl]

Wow. Makes me miss the early days of FFXI when people started with only 30 inventory slots and 50 mog house slots.

That made inventory management important. You couldn't just horde stuff.

[darkstarpoet1]

Amineri, you in no way said anything bad.
we all have our different playstyles.

I also make stuff for my guild, but again, With the 100+ slots extra i keep open, it gives me room to prep those in advance too.
the gear is also a point of interest, some people may have more sets, another reason why my 100 extra slots comes in handy.

Also the mention of fishing

fishing takes up 2 slots of bait for me too(2 stacks of 99 lures for ocean and freshwater). Archer takes up a few slots of arrows.

oh i wasn't disagreeing with you i was just saying if someone specializes on different things the range of amount of gear differs, but even though i keep for example prolly 12-20 fishing slots open for bait inventory is still managable.

one thing people can do to get rid of alot of inventory space really quickly is go through and if you can do synths on items get rid of whatever stacks have the least. i know people want the hq items for attempts at hq synths, but it gets bad when you run into 20 stacks of hq items and they are 1 here 2 there. i usually try to sit down at least once a week and get rid of as many mats as i can by synthing them up and can almost always do that and npc items and easily clear 40 slots of inventory a week.

[AuctionGirl]

yeah XI was wonderful with crafting, when you only needed 1 crystal and only took 20-30 synths per level. XIV is different, some ranks take up 600 synths. I rarely had issues with XI because of the mail system, I had 5 mules and each kept a certain crafts items. It makes no sense to go grind somewhere collect materials for now and future synths and not be able to keep them.

Simple fix here, add in mailing system and this fixes everything. More mules would sell the smaller/common items, more storage for mules and everyone is happy.