mailing alts

[kamenkuro]

Because then folks would just grind to make alts with retainers and they make money off people that don't to jump through hoops to move items around

[Lokier]

Because then folks would just grind to make alts with retainers and they make money off people that don't to jump through hoops to move items around

They'd probably have to address that by making it alts can't use the MB to sell things if your main is at its limit.

E.G if you have 2 retainers on your main, with 20/20 on both currently selling then your alt automatically cannot put anything up until something sells. Dunno how that would work via coding though...

[whiskeybravo]

It would create a pretty massive balancing issue for people who don't really use alts, since you'd have a ton more extra storage and MB slots to sell stuff. Yea you can "work-around" it now, but if it were easier it would be abused as everything tends to be. Consider payment practices too. They'd likely lose some money from people who have a lot of retainers as they wouldn't be as required, you can have up to 8 characters on a server or something right? That's a lot cheaper per month than hiring 7 additional retainers or whatever.

Also not sure, are additional retainers account-wide or per character? (I don't know)

[Skivvy]

It would create a pretty massive balancing issue for people who don't really use alts, since you'd have a ton more extra storage and MB slots to sell stuff. Yea you can "work-around" it now, but if it were easier it would be abused as everything tends to be.

Then...make alts and enjoy the same storage? :X

(of course this is excluding us Balmungers. locked server foreveeer, lul)

[Lokier]

Also not sure, are additional retainers account-wide or per character? (I don't know)

Yes, you get all retainers you pay for account-wide.

[Alisi]

It would create a pretty massive balancing issue for people who don't really use alts, since you'd have a ton more extra storage and MB slots to sell stuff. Yea you can "work-around" it now, but if it were easier it would be abused as everything tends to be. Consider payment practices too. They'd likely lose some money from people who have a lot of retainers as they wouldn't be as required, you can have up to 8 characters on a server or something right? That's a lot cheaper per month than hiring 7 additional retainers or whatever.

They do this already though. The work arounds aren't hard. They're simply annoying. People with alts and extra retainers are already here and they haven't destroyed the game. Most people deal with this by creating a personal FC or using friends. You can send money to alts very easily by having your alt put something very expensive up on the MB and then you buying it on your main. You simply lose 3% in taxes.

I also think you're very unfamiliar with endgame crafting/gathering. There's only so many hours in a day and crafting endgame stuff takes a lot of time. I have 8 retainers in total and I spend a huge amount of time crafting, and I only fill one or two, four retainers at the max, with stuff to sell. I can't see that increasing because having the ability to mail my alts isn't going to magically give me 5 more hrs each day to craft. I mean, there's a reason why endgame gear is expensive and it's not because crafters are greedy. There are two endgame crafters on my server who craft the 320 stuff. Me and another. The other sells way more but that's only because he literally (and I kid you not) has underling crafters and gatherers that work for him to get him what he needs. And even he only has three or so retainers selling stuff at any given time.

We live in a game where this is the reality already. Giving us the ability to mail stuff to alts isn't going to magically destroy things. And, yes, if you buy extra retainers, you get them on all your characters.

[LandricFrey]

If we could easily mail to our alts, then why would we pay for retainer services?

[Callinon]

If we could easily mail to our alts, then why would we pay for retainer services?

Ding ding ding!

That's it right there.

There was some nonsense when the game launched about this being an RMT-prevention measure.................. lol. Worked well hasn't it?

No, a far better explanation is that if you could pay the sub fee for 8 characters on a server, there'd be absolutely no reason for you to pay extra sub fees for extra retainers. I did the math on this a while back and I'll dig it up if anyone is interested but suffice it to say the data involved in 8 full blown characters on a server is far in excess of the data extra retainers on a single character creates. So it's not a data issue... it just isn't. AND we've already been told that full character and retainer data is sent to the server and saved every 15 seconds whether it needs it or not, so the bandwidth use with a bunch of extra retainers is also far greater than it would be if you had 2 retainers each on 8 characters. Nope. It's all about the extra retainer fees. They found a way to make us subscribe to bank space and they've decided to milk that.

[Alisi]

Nope. It's all about the extra retainer fees. They found a way to make us subscribe to bank space and they've decided to milk that.

The value of a retainer goes way beyond the storage. I find the notion that one gets extra retainers only for their extra space to be silly. I'm not giving up my retainers if they allow us to mail stuff to alts. I don't even have them for their extra storage or MB slots. Those two things are the things people focus on but, imo, they're the most minor things about retainers. They're an army of people to send off and get you what you need. I don't think most people utilize retainers to their full potential.

[Callinon]

The value of a retainer goes way beyond the storage. I find the notion that one gets extra retainers only for their extra space to be silly. I'm not giving up my retainers if they allow us to mail stuff to alts. I don't even have them for their extra storage or MB slots. Those two things are the things people focus on but, imo, they're the most minor things about retainers. They're an army of people to send off and get you what you need. I don't think most people utilize retainers to their full potential.

The tangible benefits of extra retainers:
- Storage
- 20 extra market board slots
- Ventures

Those are the things retainers do. But when I'm talking about alts instead of retainers, we're really still talking about the same thing because each alt would have 2 of its own retainers which would still be doing all of those things. Admittedly farming ventures for alts might suck but if you're reaping a good benefit from ventures, then you'd just do it.