helped my SO with sorting inventory today. FFIV needs better inventory management

[Vhailor]

Now first off I do agree my SO needs better inventory management on their end. However I found out by experience SE needs to do more work on their end as well.

I agree, but I think FFXIV is closer than your post made out. The two key changes I'd like to see are:

(1) An addition to the item tool-tip indicating where the item comes from (for example, Gathering - Miner - Timed Node; Gathering - Botanist - Regular Node; Vendor - Cost; etc.);
(2) A true, proper Glamour Log.

The remaining issues are, in my estimation, largely due to human error. I'd argue, for example, that items like Rock Salt aren't an issue in and of themselves - they only become an issue when people hang on to such items. I've seen this arise frequently with my SO, who also struggles with inventory maintenance. Whenever I delve into her account to assist with organization, I immediately discard dozens of items that are either outdated (upgrade items for ARR gear, for example), easily reacquired (anything that can be purchased for relatively trivial amounts of currency; gathered items; etc), or weren't worth keeping for some other random reason. Invariably, this resolves 80% of her inventory bloat.

I've seen similar stories here on the forums, crafters who had multiple Retainers devoted to ingredients that they could go out and re-gather easily, for example. Having taken all DoH jobs to level 70, concurrently, with no inventory issues, I can't help but shake my head at the chaos this sort of hoarding inflicts.

Now, that said, I do recognize that people who very much enjoy Glamouring need more space. The two Glamour systems currently available are too cumbersome and restrictive, and it guarantees inventory struggles regardless of how careful a player is. I also realize that not everyone has a two-monitor setup with Garland Tools available on the second screen for reference. Hence, the item tool-tip addition, which would at least offer some at-a-glance information. Beyond that, though, I really don't think SE should devote resources toward solving the self-inflicted inventory woes of disorganized players with hoarding tendencies.

[Vstarstruck]

I agree, but I think FFXIV is closer than your post made out. The two key changes I'd like to see are:

(1) An addition to the item tool-tip indicating where the item comes from (for example, Gathering - Miner - Timed Node; Gathering - Botanist - Regular Node; Vendor - Cost; etc.);
(2) A true, proper Glamour Log.

The remaining issues are, in my estimation, largely due to human error. I'd argue, for example, that items like Rock Salt aren't an issue in and of themselves - they only become an issue when people hang on to such items. I've seen this arise frequently with my SO, who also struggles with inventory maintenance. Whenever I delve into her account to assist with organization, I immediately discard dozens of items that are either outdated (upgrade items for ARR gear, for example), easily reacquired (anything that can be purchased for relatively trivial amounts of currency; gathered items; etc), or weren't worth keeping for some other random reason. Invariably, this resolves 80% of her inventory bloat.

I've seen similar stories here on the forums, crafters who had multiple Retainers devoted to ingredients that they could go out and re-gather easily, for example. Having taken all DoH jobs to level 70, concurrently, with no inventory issues, I can't help but shake my head at the chaos this sort of hoarding inflicts.

Now, that said, I do recognize that people who very much enjoy Glamouring need more space. The two Glamour systems currently available are too cumbersome and restrictive, and it guarantees inventory struggles regardless of how careful a player is. I also realize that not everyone has a two-monitor setup with Garland Tools available on the second screen for reference. Hence, the item tool-tip addition, which would at least offer some at-a-glance information. Beyond that, though, I really don't think SE should devote resources toward solving the self-inflicted inventory woes of disorganized players with hoarding tendencies.

I realize this, again my point is level 70 gear, heck, 51 +? HW+ crafts, should not be using anything that streams down to a 5 gil NPC material. This is the reason people have these problems, because of the over unnecessary items crafts do take.

The second big issue that I was trying to point out is item management of the retainers. It is super slow going from retainer to retainer, taking such a long time just to pull all the currency type items and put them in one spot, so my SO stops putting the same thing in 3-5 different places.

Why is moving items from retainer to retainer so hard?
For your 1,i'd take anything to be able see at a quick glance what the item is, and not thinking it is 5 different split stacks of something. The copy and paste of icon pictures is overwhelming in this game.

[Vhailor]

I realize this, again my point is level 70 gear, heck, 51 +? HW+ crafts, should not be using anything that streams down to a 5 gil NPC material. This is the reason people have these problems, because of the over unnecessary items crafts do take.

The second big issue that I was trying to point out is item management of the retainers. It is super slow going from retainer to retainer, taking such a long time just to pull all the currency type items and put them in one spot, so my SO stops putting the same thing in 3-5 different places.

Why is moving items from retainer to retainer so hard?

In response to the 5-gil NPC materials, it's done for realism. Generally you don't see it outside of Culinarian and, occasionally, Alchemist. To the extent it's present in both of these, it's a trade-off between using a 5-gil item like Table Salt, or duplicating said item a few times so that you have higher tiers of 'salt' for recipes that would absolutely call for salt.

In regards to retainer management, I suspect the lack of a better system is precisely because there isn't a fixed number of Retainers. Any system SE implemented for multi-Retainer management would need to (a) be able to scale from one Retainer up to eight, and (b) be able to function on all systems, including the relatively low-resolution interfaces on consoles. That's a tough pair of constraints. It also presents difficulties for implementing Retainer information on a tooltip display; items can be in at least ten places at once, if you've got eight Retainers (inventory, Chocobo Saddle, and each Retainer). That's a lot of space on a tooltip.

At the end of the day though, I feel Retainer inventory management is very doable if you've got the stock number of two. If you've gone and purchased more, well... at a certain point, I have a hard time not advising a look in the mirror when assigning blame for organizational difficulties. I mean, where do things stop? Some players have multiple characters with several Retainers each; I see them complaining about organizing certain items across characters, too. Should SE build an all-inclusive system that can also handle multiple characters within a single server? Within a single Data Center? I feel like their design objectives, for this reason, should be based on a "stock" subscription: one character, two Retainers. In this scenario, I think what we've got is perfectly fine.