Suggestion: Icon for free trial players

[jadeharley]

FFXI has an icon for trial players.

I think if XIV did have one it should be a variant of the New Adventurer (sprout) icon, but it would be nice to be able to distinguish them from other players, for the purposes of helping players as a Mentor

Some places this could be useful:

[NOVICE] Jade Harley[mentor]: Would anyone like some free minions
[NOVICE] Tataru Taru [sprout]: Me please!
[NOVICE] Estinien Varlineau [trial]: I would too!
[NOVICE] Jade Harley[mentor]: Tataru, meet me at the waking sands. Estinien, sorry, you cannot trade because you are a free trial maybe in the future!

[NOVICE] Tataru Taru [sprout]: What's a good way to make gil?
[NOVICE] Estinien Varlineau [trial]: I'm broke, please help
[NOVICE] Jade Harley[mentor]: Tataru, you should try using retainers! They're a great way to earn passive gil. Estinien, I think the best thing you can do is continue your {Main Scenario Quest}, but once you finish Stormblood, you can try to earn some gil with bunnies in Eureka!

[NOVICE] Estinien Varlineau [trial]: How do I join a free company
[NOVICE] Jade Harley[mentor]: That feature is not available on the free trial, but if you subscribe to the game, I would recommend using the {Community Finder}

[Rein_eon_Osborne]

A bit of tangent: IIRC Eureka isn't even accessible to free trial players. CMIIW though.

[jadeharley]

A bit of tangent: IIRC Eureka isn't even accessible to free trial players. CMIIW though.

I believe it is. The problem is free trial players can't shout or form parties by themselves, so Eureka is a much worse experience (can't shout for help to get a raise, much worse grouping for NM camps). While I think it's good to encourage people to buy the full game, I would like them to consider changing these restrictions for Eureka specifically.

[Evergrey]

We all know why these restrictions are in place to begin with, it's so RMT bots won't be able to use /shout or make trades.
Sadly to prevent activities like that free trial players will have to take the bullet as well.

Unless you're saying that you would be OK with bots using Free Trial accounts to do their business.

[jadeharley]

We all know why these restrictions are in place to begin with, it's so RMT bots won't be able to use /shout or make trades.
Sadly to prevent activities like that free trial players will have to take the bullet as well.

Unless you're saying that you would be OK with bots using Free Trial accounts to do their business.

If you read more carefully, I said "for eureka specifically". Obvious statements such as the reasoning behind trial restrictions go without saying.

[Evergrey]

If you read more carefully, I said "for eureka specifically". Obvious statements such as the reasoning behind trial restrictions go without saying.

I can promise you that if Free Trial accounts could do so in Eureka you would see bots there as well.
Because why wouldn't bot owners use the opportunity for free accounts to do even more business?

[jadeharley]

Anyway, I found an interesting older thread here that mentions gamerescape supposedly found an unused icon for trial accounts. I still think a modified version of the sprout would be cuter, but it's promising to know that CS3 considered this possibility at one point.

[jadeharley]

There's also an interesting psychological component. Frequently, I come across new adventurers who had stopped playing for a while, become returners, then feel shocked when they lose their "flower" after the 72-hour returner period.

While this is obviously born of incorrect understanding of ffxiv's novice system, the fact remains that many new players are fascinated by the idea of "upgrading" their sprout without losing new adventurer status entirely. Suppose purchasing the game and upgrading from a free trial caused your sprout to be slightly larger, or grow a new attachment. It's a really small thing, but stuff like this helps create the impression in players' minds that they have obtained a growth, or increase in status.

Of course, as a dedicated player, I'm excited about ideas that encourage more players to purchase FFXIV. More funds to CS3 mean more improvements to the game!

[MoofiaBossVal]

It is a tad frustrating to be AFKing at Gridania or Limsa's aetheryte, spot a green icon and someone in low level gear, run up to them, whisper "here, have a koala", target then and click trade, and then the trade window immediately disappears because they were a free trial, and now you have to awkwardly whisper "aw, can't trade " after having raised their expectations.

[Raraka]

Let me give items to free trials, just dont let them trade back

A solid compromise to avoid RMT sellers using free trial to sell gil ;^;