Inventory space in this game is UNNACEPTABLE for a subscription based game.

[Arrhin]

Don think it's worth quittin over (tiny violin), but inventory is shite in this game <.<

[Temjiu]

I agree that having to purchase the extra retainers is a greed move on the company side. What they should do is make the "rent" an actual "wage" you pay to the retainers. Cost is in Gil. That keeps up the concept, makes it a thing that you can do in game, and most players who are serious about keeping materials (a.k.a. crafters) should be able to support it via the crafts, since they are a great money maker. It also aligns with the lore and logic...your hiring people to do things for you, why not pay them?

Having the retainers in game is more then just storage btw. you probably already know that, but the advantage the give you in resource generation is huge, and would be a great loss if we just went to a "matierals bank". I'd prefer alternatives in game to keep retainers going rather then just getting rid of them. Not to mention selling things on the market (though I'd like to see this merged on the market boards, another personal gripe I have).

ADVICE: anything under the level of 20 or so can be made with materials from vendors. HQ items aren't necessary anymore for the most part (I keep them if I'm crafting with them right away, otherwise I junk them). lower tier animal parts are cheap on the market. Sell a stack of the highest materials you can farm from MIN or BOT and you'll be able to pay for most of what you need. And keep you 2 free retainers on hunts ALL THE TIME. plan in advance what mats you'll need them to gather (usually unspoiled mats or materials you need to bulk up on for you next tier of crafting. It can feel like a pain to go back every hour to re-send them, but they level faster that way then with expeditions, and my mats skyrocket.

Also, if your into custom looks, make extensive use of the glamour system. if you like the look of an item, don't drop it in storage. keep a stack of prisms on you, and drop it into your glamour chest right away. And, make sure your farmers are kept up with your main class. It's far easier to just farm 10 or 20 of x item for crafting collectibles then storing 100's of everything that you may or may not use. keep the mats you need at the moment, sell the rest so you'll have the money to buy the mats you don't have.

I pay for 6 retainers at the moment. I'm a hoarder, but I'm working stuff out of my inventory right now, and making decent money from it, and It looks like I'll be able to cancel 2 of them in the near future, unless I just want to keep them for mat gathering. Unfortunately, my crafters are spread out a bit...I have two in their 50's, two in their 60's and 3 in their 70's. I think cook is still in it's 30's, really need to work on that! so my mats are spread out. But I'm still finding plenty I can drop

[BluefaceBleed]

I used to have this problem until i stopped hoarding useless items

[gaymer77]

I'm leveling all the crafting jobs, I literally have NO space anymore, gonna use all the material items to keep leveling so I can't just trash stuff.
I am FORCED to pay for additional retainers if I want to keep leveling all the jobs.
I'm ok with this practice on a F2P or B2P game, but this is a P2P game. Limiting space like they do in this game just to force people to pay for additional retainers is a pure scam and greedy practice. They do that on purpose, there's more crafting materials than you can store.

A few examples on how to "fix" this.. Guildwars 2 has a materials specific bank, it works perfectly and literally no one complains.
Swtor You can have 2 banks, account bank and personal character bank. You can upgrade each bank from 100 to 500+items storage using in-game currency, it's cheap and it works.

Cash shop should be cosmetic only specially on a subscription based game, but selling in-game QoL is just to much.

Now I have two options: 1 - quit the game for refusing to feed their greedy mindset. 2 - keep feeding this hungry monster by buying additional retainers.

OK so I see you created this post on Aug 10th. I see that Arazehl pointed out that your crafting & gathering jobs are all at level ONE. I look at your character right now and see that mining is level 2 (almost level 2 because its at 532 / 600 exp) while everything else is sitting at exp 0 of level ONE (meaning you haven't even touched ANY of the crafting or other gathering jobs out there. I do not see how you could be this far out of inventory space already. I have leveled every single crafting job in the game to 42+ (weaver is at 52 right now). I have mats in all of my retainers, my chocobo saddle, and a few in the LS that my boyfriend & I run. Yes I pay for 2 additional retainers but not for the extra space but for the extra 40 selling slots. The space in just two of my isn't even full. In fact, my retainers hold extra leveling up gear for other jobs I plan on playing later on after I've completed the MSL. They still have extra room. I'm sorry but you are speaking from a stance of ignorance. You are ASSUMING there won't be enough space for you. You are dead wrong.

[RyuSaarva]

Two of them.. I suspect three grades of alkahests by the end of the expansion. Oh and you make them in 3s of course, so there's usually some left over.

because treasure maps drop those, I sold/discarded all materials needed for grade I and always sell any extra grade IIs.

[gaymer77]

Yeah no.
Some patterns are simply not craftable at level without HQ and 100% perfect RNG.
That only applies when you're maxed out with good gear. If you need a specific HQ craft for a quest at level, you need the HQ materials.

If you are just crafting items to level the profession up, you don't need HQ items at all. If he is trying to make gil from items he's crafted, he MIGHT need HQ material but it isn't a requirement. I've made HQ finished products all the time using NQ materials. Once you get 15-20 in professions and start gaining some of the lower tier cross-job skills it makes producing HQ products so much easier. Hell even if he starts with NQ raw materials that are used to make materials for crafting finished products, you can easily convert the raw raw materials into HQ profession material to be used to make the finished products. NQ ore made into HQ ingots is extremely easy. Then turn around and make those HQ ingots into HQ finished products. Not that hard at all. The only HQ things you need is for the profession based quests every 5 levels which aren't mandatory to level the profession itself. Even then you can BUY the HQ quest item from the market if you can't craft it yourself or don't have time to craft it or don't have the material to craft it. I've done that several times while doing those profession quests. The quest is simply to turn in a HQ item not to CRAFT the HQ item.

[gaymer77]

I would just like to point out that this guy #1 hasn't quit the game even though he felt the need to post this game breaking problem that is forcing him to either quit or fork out real money and that #2 none of his crafting or gathering jobs have been leveled up in the least bit (all still showing ZERO exp except for mining which is still at level 2) yet he's been online enough that the Lodestone has updated him from machinist to dancer recently LINK TO HIS CHARACTER

[Acesfool]

I think it's time to introduce heirloom gear. A single set of gear that can be used by all jobs from level 1 to ten levels below max level.

[Niwashi]

I would just like to point out that this guy #1 hasn't quit the game even though he felt the need to post this game breaking problem that is forcing him to either quit or fork out real money

So?

I hit that point years ago, and I haven't quit the game yet. I'm forking out extra money every month, the same as most crafters, and a great many non-crafters. Because that's what it takes to keep playing.

And yes, it's completely unacceptable that a subscription based game makes that effectively a requirement. The fact that some of us have continued in spite of it (and that those who didn't aren't here to talk about it) doesn't change that in the slightest. I continued because I finally decided not to punish myself along with SE for their bad practice.

and that #2 none of his crafting or gathering jobs have been leveled up in the least bit

So you know he has at least one character who doesn't craft. I have a few that don't, though I also have half a dozen who do. Do you think a concern has to be about the same character you use as your forum avatar in order to talk about it? Should I avoid posting about glamour I'd like for my female Elezen, or about how I don't like the way my Lalafell squeals every time she shoots an arrow, just because my avatar is a male Mi'qote?

And these repeated personal attacks on the OP not only make you sound petty and crass, they're also against the forum's rules.

[Lambdafish]

Op - are you utilizing the glamour dresser? I had forgotten about its existence until last week and moved 250 items off of my retainer into it. I had your exact complaint until I did that.