Why don't I find a site on Internet that explains what items are for?

[Angelhearth]

I think you're going about things the wrong way here.

You're starting from the assumption that "chests" must exist, therefore you go looking for information about chests and assume that an item called a chest must be the inventory solution you are searching for. If you can't find any information about chests (or skinning monsters), it must be that nobody is explaining how to use them.

That's not actually how it works.

We don't have storage chests, therefore there is no reason for anyone to explain how to use them. And people aren't going to provide detailed information about what features are not in a game, or not by a particular term, because that list could be infinite. No wiki or item database is going to explain where you can get something that isn't there.

If you've bought a "stack of three chests" then you must have Splintered Chests. It's a crafting ingredient for a housing item.

Inventory is, basically, a notorious mess here. They made deeply-embedded poor decisions when setting up their database that have become a problem as the game increased. They can't expand the main inventory so keep working around it with segmented things.

Your main inventory, retainers and saddlebag are the entirety of standard item storage available to you. You also have the glamour dresser at the inn for storing gear you only want to keep for its appearance, and if you have a house or apartment then there is a furniture storeroom but it can't be used for other types of items. If you're in an FC there is a shared company chest.

(And no, if you ever see it and get excited, the "storage bench" furniture item is not actually storage. That's just flavour text.)

I get it that I don't get it, but you don't get it either. I don't know of any game, and I've played a few, that has chests that don't have storage space in them. It's just so far out there that I couldn't imagine it being possible. Same with skinning. In most games I know of there's a skinning profession, so I couldn't imagine it not being a thing in this game, although when you see how all mobs you slay are auto-looted and they disappear afterwards, that would explain why it isn't possible. Also, when it comes to skinning, I get why the cost is high for hides. It took me (with a lvl 44 Pal) a very good half an hour to collect 100 hides from lvl 20-21 mobs, even though I ran around in a circle and basically slayed 1 or 2 every 30 seconds (or less). With a miner about the same level it took me 10-15 minutes to collect 100 alumen for my leather-worker to make leather with.

[Krotoan]

I get it that I don't get it, but you don't get it either. I don't know of any game, and I've played a few, that has chests that don't have storage space in them. It's just so far out there that I couldn't imagine it being possible. Same with skinning. In most games I know of there's a skinning profession, so I couldn't imagine it not being a thing in this game, although when you see how all mobs you slay are auto-looted and they disappear afterwards, that would explain why it isn't possible. Also, when it comes to skinning, I get why the cost is high for hides. It took me (with a lvl 44 Pal) a very good half an hour to collect 100 hides from lvl 20-21 mobs, even though I ran around in a circle and basically slayed 1 or 2 every 30 seconds (or less). With a miner about the same level it took me 10-15 minutes to collect 100 alumen for my leather-worker to make leather with.

So when skinning wasn't a part of the 3 known gathering classes, what did you think was happening? there was a hidden skinning mechanic nobody was mentioning? The main thing I can think of telling you is that if it isn't listed or mentioned, it's likely not a thing in FFXIV.

Your best bet for farming MOB drops is having a retainer of adequate job level on one of the WAR/MAGIC jobs. They can do ventures for nearly any crafting mat an overworld monster drops.

[Angelhearth]

So when skinning wasn't a part of the 3 known gathering classes, what did you think was happening? there was a hidden skinning mechanic nobody was mentioning? The main thing I can think of telling you is that if it isn't listed or mentioned, it's likely not a thing in FFXIV.

Your best bet for farming MOB drops is having a retainer of adequate job level on one of the WAR/MAGIC jobs. They can do ventures for nearly any crafting mat an overworld monster drops.

I didn't know what to think, so I searched and searched. I got the thing with the retainers doing the shitty jobs, but the 2 I had was busy selling stuff on the market. I got 1 new one and now have one selling stuff and 2 mining. I'll probably get 2 more to do skinning.

[Krotoan]

I didn't know what to think, so I searched and searched. I got the thing with the retainers doing the shitty jobs, but the 2 I had was busy selling stuff on the market. I got 1 new one and now have one selling stuff and 2 mining. I'll probably get 2 more to do skinning.

Selling stuff doesn't supercede going on ventures. Both can be done at the same time. Even if they're on a venture, their listings on the market still are there and accessible. I would suggest if you're going to be into crafting to have at least one botanist, one miner, and one hunter retainer. Fishing retainers are kinda useless except for random items on the waterside explorations.

[Iscah]

I get it that I don't get it, but you don't get it either. I don't know of any game, and I've played a few, that has chests that don't have storage space in them.

New game, new mechanisms. I wouldn't go into any game assuming that design elements from another game must apply to this one - you can use past experience as a guide to what's probably available, but not a guarantee. Read the help text as it pops up. If it hasn't told you about a thing then it probably either doesn't exist or isn't available to you yet.

In any case I'm struggling to think of any game I've played (RPGs mostly) that even has chests as an inventory item.

Don't retainers look like they must be this game's answer to remote storage chests anyway? No other game I've played has anything like them either.

[Limecat]

The materials that come from monsters have always been in a weird place. The drop rates for all of them are really bad, and the retainer ventures to get them only give you 10, yet the recipes requiring them want just as many of them as equivalent crafts with mining and botany materials. To compound this, monsters in the overworld give almost no exp and aren't really worth fighting, so there isn't much of a cushion of these items available on the market from people out grinding exp like you would see in other games.