There needs to be an in-game Bestiary with drop lists

[Baklavah]

Gathering is MOSTLY well organized in-game. With one exception. Monster/Animal materials. Having to use google to find what you need is too necessary and tedious. Why isn't there a Bestiary with drop lists for each creature / location? Seems a bit silly to leave out something so integral to gathering/crafting.

[LibitIncarne]

Gathering is MOSTLY well organized in-game. With one exception. Monster/Animal materials. Having to use google to find what you need is too necessary and tedious. Why isn't there a Bestiary with drop lists for each creature / location? Seems a bit silly to leave out something so integral to gathering/crafting.

Because since ARR we've been using our retainers to get items and since Shadowbringers we've used Bicolor Gemstones instead of doing the hunting ourselves.

[Baklavah]

Bestiary could include bi-color gem traders in the list of locations to obtain skins/hides/etc.

Honestly, really struggling to understand why this doesn't exist. It's a design misstep, imo.

[LibitIncarne]

Bestiary could include bi-color gem traders in the list of locations to obtain skins/hides/etc.

Honestly, really struggling to understand why this doesn't exist. It's a design misstep, imo.

Alright give 5 examples of MMOs that have a bestiary like this. Bonus points if you have any examples that were first released before 2.0 did, double bonus points if it was before 1.0.

[NegativeS]

Alright give 5 examples of MMOs that have a bestiary like this. Bonus points if you have any examples that were first released before 2.0 did, double bonus points if it was before 1.0.

I don't think this 'gotcha' of yours reduces the validity of their request.

How about, give 5 examples of MMOs that have in-game gathering journals as complete as FFXIV's.

Having to dig through external sites for information has always been a shortcoming of MMOs. When I played WoW, I always despised whenever I needed to dig through WoWHead for information that is so readily accessible in FFXIV. And yet, so close to perfection in this manner, this game falls short by missing this key feature that has been an issue long before bicolors were a thing.

And also, not everyone has the money to pay for retainers to fit all of their needs, nor does everyone have the time or willingness to farm bicolors for materials considering all of the things there are to spend them on (which, by the way, also require one to search externally for said vendor's locations, as it's a bit absurd to assume that people know which vendors hold which items they need, if they do at all).

[LibitIncarne]

And also, not everyone has the money to pay for retainers to fit all of their needs, nor does everyone have the time or willingness to farm bicolors for materials considering all of the things there are to spend them on (which, by the way, also require one to search externally for said vendor's locations, as it's a bit absurd to assume that people know which vendors hold which items they need, if they do at all).

1: You're forgetting that the market board allows you to buy raw materials.
2: If you max the rank for each of the 6 zones of the expansion (As you'll probably do while farming bicolor gemstones) you'll unlock the ability to buy Every Monster Drop for that expansion in both the major and minor city's bicolor vendors. Remembering the expansion that an item is from is considerably easier than remembering 6 vendors' locations.
3: Doing FATEs is faster than farming monsters for ShB/EW/DT materials, and the price of SB raw materials is absurdly low due to uneven supply and demand as a result of people running Gazelleskin maps a lot more than any other Timeworn Map.

[NegativeS]

1: You're forgetting that the market board allows you to buy raw materials.
2: If you max the rank for each of the 6 zones of the expansion (As you'll probably do while farming bicolor gemstones) you'll unlock the ability to buy Every Monster Drop for that expansion in both the major and minor city's bicolor vendors. Remembering the expansion that an item is from is considerably easier than remembering 6 vendors' locations.
3: Doing FATEs is faster than farming monsters for ShB/EW/DT materials, and the price of SB raw materials is absurdly low due to uneven supply and demand as a result of people running Gazelleskin maps a lot more than any other Timeworn Map.

1. At a markup, of course. My sorry self on Dynamis would not dream of paying the high price of raw materials on the MB.

2. Max rank for all zones is a significant investment of time that not everyone would be willing to commit to compared to just going to a zone and killing 50 quickly-respawning mobs, especially if they have other things they'd rather do in the game with their time. Some people have jobs, yeah?

3. This does not account for materials in previous expansions (which still have their uses), and again, there are other things people may want to use their bicolors on. I have probably spent several thousands of bicolors on mats when leveling my DoH jobs.

If the only reason for a Bestiary not existing is "the inconvenience of not having one is based", then I fail to see this argument have much ground.

[PercibelTheren]

Alright give 5 examples of MMOs that have a bestiary like this. Bonus points if you have any examples that were first released before 2.0 did, double bonus points if it was before 1.0.

"Other games don't have this feature" isn't a good argument against adding it. It's my firm belief that every game should give you all the relevant information within the actual game. I'm sick of having to dig through wikis and Discord servers.

[Arohk]

It would be a nice to have feature indeed, but because the drop rate for these items is way too low, there is no reason to hunt the monsters when you can just send a retainer.
You can kill 10 monsters and not get a single drop.

[LibitIncarne]

1. At a markup, of course. My sorry self on Dynamis would not dream of paying the high price of raw materials on the MB.

2. Max rank for all zones is a significant investment of time that not everyone would be willing to commit to compared to just going to a zone and killing 50 quickly-respawning mobs, especially if they have other things they'd rather do in the game with their time. Some people have jobs, yeah?

3. This does not account for materials in previous expansions (which still have their uses), and again, there are other things people may want to use their bicolors on. I have probably spent several thousands of bicolors on mats when leveling my DoH jobs.

If the only reason for a Bestiary not existing is "the inconvenience of not having one is based", then I fail to see this argument have much ground.

1: You can World or even Data Center Travel to avoid paying the markup.
Example: Gargantua Hide is 1.5k Gil on Seraph. It is ~500 on Halicarnassus, and ~420 on most Primal/Aether servers.

2: This point is irrelevant considering that the monster drop materials are buyable on the same map as where they drop.

3: People don't just stop doing maps because they're from a past expansion. Achievement Hunters want all of the map clear titles, and FCs that do map nights want variety so they do maps of all expansions.
Bicolors farmed in Dawntrail Areas can be used on both Shadowbringers and Endwalker materials, and vice versa. Now you can farm materials from Shadowbringers while levelling in Yak T'el!

It would be a nice to have feature indeed, but because the drop rate for these items is way too low, there is no reason to hunt the monsters when you can just send a retainer.
You can kill 10 monsters and not get a single drop.

This isn't ARR where Ventures are actually worth something and you can get 7 fleece from a Karakul sometimes. The droprates are hilariously low, and it takes over 20 seconds to kill each monster. If you spend 5 minutes flying around the map and only manage to get 7 drops, it would have been better to invest your time in doing FATEs.
Each (Combat) Retainer you have, provided that they're levelled and geared, can bring back 15 of any item once an hour.