Thread: 2.2 Retainers via Microtransactions

MMO'S have always had some form of micro transaction in a sub based game lol. take wow for example. £20 for a mount and about £10 for a pet £40 for an instant level 90 character.

So let's go over a few things:



Cost:
Retainer Ventures consume various amounts of a Token type item. The level range shown in the image is lv41-45, has a Retainer iL req of 30, and a single Venture costs 1 token and takes 1 hour to complete netting 7 Apkallu Eggs and experience. Considering the iL and level requirements and the EXP and time taken to gain that EXP - essentially makes Retainers another gathering class. Very similar to leveling a mule - but now it's mostly automated.

By having Extra Retainers you would have in theory the capacity (more inventory & more mules) to gather more in a short period of time (due to it taking an hour) but you are limited on your "max cap" by the Venture Tokens.

Basically -> EXAMPLE:
If Joe has 2 retainers and 10 tokens it would take 5 hours to use up all his tokens and let's say they'd both level 5 levels.
Jim has (via Mogstation) bought 8 extra retainers - he has 10 and he could use up all his tokens in an hour and his 10 retainers would level 1 level.

Questions you should ask:

How do I get Venture Tokens?

How often do I get Venture Tokens?

How long will leveling a single Retainer take?

How long does gearing a single Retainer take?

Jim might beat out Joe in the long run months down the road - but by having more Retainers he's got more time/gear he needs to invest in them. As it is all Jim really has over Joe is that he can blowout his tokens faster and will have more inventory space floating around.

How this system makes the game better:

Able to gather while doing actual combat content.

This really is almost exactly the same as having and leveling Mule character - except it's mostly automated and tied to your main character and doesn't come with the inhibiting factors like:

A over-camped mob; Apkallu, Sheep, Etc.

Having to memorize Unspoiled Node times and hop through your mules to manually gather.

Having to use a friend or your Free Company chest to move items/gil around.

How this system makes the game worse:

Increased devaluation of materials. Supply - no demand (currently).

Devalues the open world slightly for people that kill monsters to farm items.




Buying more retainers is far from P2W - no different than paying for additional characters as you did in previous games AKA -> Mules. Gil thus far is mostly useless - Housing being the only thing most players are willing to spend their money on.




I think this thread is ridiculous.

Paranoid lunatics everywhere! Hilarious.

And apparently the Fantasia Potion being an optional service is totally okay? Guess what, that's a microtransaction.

There's a little thing called VETERAN REWARDS. Use your brains, people. Where the hell are you getting this asinine assumption that they'd start selling mounts/minions as microtransactions, when they're *rewards* given per certain amount of subscribed days.
Not every *needs* several retainers. These things are going to cost extra. It's also kind of necessary considering RMT (real money traders) could *easily* monopolise on it and freely buy up multiple retainers, crippling the server economy, as if they aren't doing that already.

Seriously, people. Grow up..

EDIT: The key word here is you can send your retainers to go and gather items for you. None of you bitter folk bothered to consider that RMTers could very easily abuse that system and completely destroy the Market Board economy? No. No you didn't. There's a REASON extra retainers cost extra. The system would get abused hard if they were all simply free.