Retainers and FC's Not Useful?

[Wobble]

Would love a DEV response on this as I'm sure others would also.

[SarcasmMisser]

Why put it on the FC lawn? Put it on the lawn of your personal house and play dress up with your house guards. Good way to show off your retainer to others. What a mess this would be if everyone could put it on the fc lawn, its clearly made for personal houses.

[314159265358979323846264338327]

You get to put your retainer on display for the world to see. It's essentially market wards V2. You know, because we wanted that.

No but really, it's probably their answer to the whole "market wards are so dead and empty" complaints going around.

[Teppie]

I look forward to challenging my retainers to Triple Triad.

[DefendPopPunk]

I think this might have come about from players asking for the ability to put retainers in their house, but it was always my understanding that they wanted them >>inside<< the house, not on the lawn.

[Wobble]

I would rather be able to dress the merchant NPC's we have.

[Grekumah]

As long as you have access to some form of housing, whether it be Free Company or personal, you will be able to place retainers on the property. In terms of adding a special retainer specific to Free Companies, the development team determined that the resources required to create such a feature would be too high and as such have no plans to create a special FC retainer in the future.

[CrystalRainbow]

Replace the safe and just have the retainer walk around.

[Shadex]

As long as you have access to some form of housing, whether it be Free Company or personal, you will be able to place retainers on the property. In terms of adding a special retainer specific to Free Companies, the development team determined that the resources required to create such a feature would be too high and as such have no plans to create a special FC retainer in the future.

So what exactly... is the point of this feature? Cluttering the lawn with NPCs that serve no purpose other than... keeping you from walking the 30 feet to the closest market board? I mean development time was spent on this and I am just trying to understand why someone greenlit this.

[FoxyAreku]

So what exactly... is the point of this feature? Cluttering the lawn with NPCs that serve no purpose other than... keeping you from walking the 30 feet to the closest market board? I mean development time was spent on this and I am just trying to understand why someone greenlit this.

Retainers don't act as a market board, from my understanding. They just sell what they are currently selling.
I see it as a fun feature to have a shop of random goodies that is constantly changing on your lawn.