Feeling punished for having alts...

[Halivel]

Well, the main reason is that you technically don't need alts in this game, I suppose, since you can level and have everything just on one. Wishing to have different looking characters is not the same as having twinks because you need them to level another jobs. So it's not a punishment, really.

No easy way to skip the main story.

There is. It's for real money, but it is an easy way to skip MSQ. Speaking about "skipping MSQ option for alts specifically" - I can't really imagine how they would implement it. Much harder to do than it sounds.

Store items are for one character only

Depends on item btw. Some of them (mainly expensive mounts) are account-wide. But clothes are all for one character if I remember correct, that's true.

Shared bank will not solve "inventory for multiply jobs" issue sadly, though having such function would be cool anyway, because it will solve broblems with sending items to alts.

Shared housing seems to be a problem now because we can't add our alts to Friend List, but maybe they could adress it in future somehow, making it unnedable to buy a house on every character. Maybe it also will solve the problem with plots on overpopulated servers... probably not, though.

As for events and seasonal items - as much as I personally would wish to have them as account-wide thing, they are locked behind quests, so I assume it's going to happen... never.

[Penthea]

No easy way to skip the main story.

I feel like if you want to skip this then why not just play a different class on your main? Also you can buy the skip potion. That is pretty easy.

No shared bank.

This wouldn't really be a problem if we could mail our alts.

No shared achievements.

I guess SE could introduce this but not sure if it's worth their time given the demand for it appears to be very low.

No shared seasonal and event items.

I personally wouldn't expect this given the character I'm on didn't complete it.

No shared housing.

This needs to be done. A lot of players have multiple houses for this reason, which makes the current housing situation worse than it needs to be.

Store items are for one character only

Not always the case. Some are account wide. Furthermore if you pay for extra retainers all your characters get them, not just your main.

And cant even send gil or materials between characters on the same server without friends or a contrived transfer on the market board.

I use the fc chest to trade things between my characters. I realise that I'm fortunate to be in the position of fc master so if I wanted to trade gil this way I don't have to ask anyone. The fc chest isn't a solution but it's something at least.

Basic functionalities in other MMO's completely absent from this one... And we are hitting the 3rd expansion now.

You seem to be forgetting that unlike most mmos, this game is designed so that you can play every scrap of content on only one character to the point that it offers a subscription fee that covers only one character per server. While it is very annoying that the features are not alt-friendly a lot of the time, the game will never require you to make an alt. In most mmos you must make an alt to do basic content like try a new class, faction, explore certain zones, etc.

Sorry i guess for wanting to play different looking characters without leaving my main behind or having to do most events multiple times, or to not having to think about inventory always filling up because i decided to play more than one job...

I'm confused about the last bit. You have inventory issues due to playing multiple classes?

[Jaywalker]

This mindset is honestly kind of weird to me, as someone who has a freakish number of alts and has had a freakish number of alts across games including single-player ones.

It's nice to have access to all the gear you want. It's nice not to need to grind through the ridiculously lengthy bits of ARR. But for me at least, I think there's a massive question of why you want alts.

If you want to change aesthetic, you can fantasia with various designs saved to switch between at will. That way you keep all your gear and don't have to replay. You can go back anytime too, just need to return to the save file for the previous design.

If you're like me and are basically someone who likes developing independent stories/personalities/designs for alts and basically want all of them kept on hand, part of the fun can come from going back through different jobs + MSQ and figuring out what angle makes sense for that specific WoL. There's an opportunity to look at things from new perspectives.

If you feel particularly impatient, ARR skip into Heavensward is an option too. You can revisit old cutscenes with the book at the inn, if not everything in-between. And with New Game + that'll make less pressure as well, so don't need to feel intense regret about the investment. Costs money but that's the price of not working through the whole thing.

And depending on how invested you are in an alt will effect that alt's progress of course. If you've only got one alt, you're more likely to get it pretty far whereas if you have like twelve, odds are most will be pretty low-level barring purchased advances.

There are ways to deal basically. You get what you give for each character. Figure this is part of why people commit to mains in-general tbh, alts take effort and it's easier to get attached the first go-around.

[Tlachtga]

If you want to change aesthetic, you can fantasia with various designs saved to switch between at will.

I think the whole point is they don't want to have to drop £5.75 to change up every time. An alt character is a time-consuming but otherwise free alternative to that.

I agree that there should be a shared bank between characters. Especially ones on the same World. But I can't see it being a priority. The game is designed to discourage alts.

[Mistyregions]

I think the whole point is they don't want to have to drop £5.75 to change up every time. An alt character is a time-consuming but otherwise free alternative to that.

I agree that there should be a shared bank between characters. Especially ones on the same World. But I can't see it being a priority. The game is designed to discourage alts.

Time vs money

You can achieve all this by spending money, or you spend time and get less. Also this game is mechanically built for multi jobs on one character its a design choice and a game engine choice. If this is the only game without alts, well apparently you have choices other than this one.

[Mezzoforte]

I think the whole point is they don't want to have to drop £5.75 to change up every time. An alt character is a time-consuming but otherwise free alternative to that.

I agree that there should be a shared bank between characters. Especially ones on the same World. But I can't see it being a priority. The game is designed to discourage alts.

So what you are saying is they want easy ways to bypass the way Square is making some extra money? Such as fantasia, story skips, etc? If those were easily skippable then what is the point of Square selling them? I think they are intentionally made annoying to encourage the purchase of said things. I don't think this is something players are going to win with as it takes money out of their bank. Even the holiday/event stuff not being shared is a way to get $ out of you by putting them in the shop later so you buy them for alts.

[Lersayil]

It's not that you are punished for having an alt. It's that you're rewarded for not having one. *shrug*

[seraseth]

I have no interest in skipping msq on an alt, because for me that's one of the main reasons to play an alt, to see the story through their perspective.

But the rest of the list I very much agree on.

Not being able to trade items to an alt without either conscripting a 3rd party, or having safe access to an fc chest that you can deposit/take from, is a real pain. I personally don't care about housing, but I definitely think it should be shared across alts to ease some of the housing congestion.

Doing a seasonal event is fun, but doing it on all your alts makes it a boring, annoying grind, depending on the event. If achievements could be account wide, once your main does it, your alts could just go buy the items from the calamity salvager or something.

As for the mogstation items, since they've said there's a limit to how much account wide things they can fit in their current system, they need to come up with a new way of handling account wide items(ie not stored in a database and mailed to all alts on creation) sooner rather than later so that all the cash shop items (other than furniture/consumables) can be account wide.

[GrizzlyTank]

As for the mogstation items, since they've said there's a limit to how much account wide things they can fit in their current system, they need to come up with a new way of handling account wide items(ie not stored in a database and mailed to all alts on creation) sooner rather than later so that all the cash shop items (other than furniture/consumables) can be account wide.

This argument by the devs is always fun... The additional storage they have given us with saddlebags, inventory, armory chest, wardrobe, and additional retainer absolutely dwarfs the storage they would have needed for proper account bound systems. They have said one thing and then contradicted it... With an asinine implementation.

[Saefinn]

As an RPer, I'd definitely like to see more stuff that shares between your characters and we tend to be more inclined to have alts, because we might write multiple characters. Whilst I get people's arguments that the beauty of FFXIV is that you can level everything on a single character, which is definitely great and this is something it has over the majority of other MMO's.

I think it only needs to be simple things for a little extra QoL for those with altitis. Like how they've put the Amaro mount behind levelling every single job to 80. I have my jobs spread out across 3 characters, if I wanted to achieve that I'd be levelling more than 1 job twice. So I've decided to not bother trying to get it.

Not that I'm saying I should be entitled because I've chosen to level multiple characters, but I see argument for doing it, because I don't see harm in it and it'd put a bit more of a level playing field between those who stick to one character and those who level alts.

At least I'd be more inclined to support:
- Shared achievements.
- Shared commendations (as arguably they're for the player, not the character, the distinction makes more sense given mentorship is tied behind it)
- Shared accommodation
- The ability to mail yourself or some kind of shared storage that doesn't involve an FC chest (I'm an FC leader, I can get away with it, at least)
- The ability to share spiritbound gear.