Let us craft from Retainer Inventory

[jdnyc]

I would prefer having a 'work room' that you can build for housing. Store and keep all crafting supplies there.

[Flyojumper]

You do not introduce any new choice by introducing a captcha in the way you describe. We already have the choice between selling something quickly straight to the npc for low gil, and taking your time to sell it through market.

My analogy is sound. Choosing to craft an item for the sole purpose of making money already has a time management decision making built in. "Do I stop to buy/gather the items I need, then take the time to craft the item and put it on the market for a profit, or do I choose another money making strategy?".
Adding an unnecessary chore like tediously moving items in and out of your retainer does nothing to affect this decision making but simply increases the time needed to craft said item. In the same way than answering 13 CAPTCHAs to be able to sell an item on the market board would do nothing but add time to the decision making of selling something to a player rather than an NPC.

[Amiabelle]

Not only would I love to have what the OP suggested, I'd love to see the following implemented:

• Let me see the contents of my Retainers' inventories, not just my own, when I harvest -- hmmm do I need more cotton bolls -- how many do I have on hand?
  
• Let me spread all the inventory pages out simultaneously, rather than being able to look at just one page at a time -- would make manipulating inventory so much easier
  
• Give me a true sort function on inventory pages. And let me filter items by level and/or class (preferably both).
  
• Give me dedicated bags -- a fish bag, an ingredients bag, a reagents bag and so forth. I'd be willing to pay for them, so people don't whine about crafters getting something for nothing.
  
• Let me craft in the inn where there is no crowding and less lag.

There is a lot to like in XIV but inventory management is not one of those things. Inventory management is abysmal, to be honest.

[Kitya]

My analogy is sound. Choosing to craft an item for the sole purpose of making money already has a time management decision making built in. "Do I stop to buy/gather the items I need, then take the time to craft the item and put it on the market for a profit, or do I choose another money making strategy?".
Adding an unnecessary chore like tediously moving items in and out of your retainer does nothing to affect this decision making but simply increases the time needed to craft said item. In the same way than answering 13 CAPTCHAs to be able to sell an item on the market board would do nothing but add time to the decision making of selling something to a player rather than an NPC.

Yeah, but it's something that's already in game which clearly makes it "interesting" and not simply annoying, according to him. He probably gets a ridiculous amount of enjoyment over rush hour traffic, too. :P

[Earthen]

/agree

also y cant we craft in our in room, theres no lag and the retainer bell isnt swamped -_-

Because then you would have no reason to buy a house. Except you can't buy a house yet either.

[HurtigeKarl]

My analogy is sound. Choosing to craft an item for the sole purpose of making money already has a time management decision making built in. "Do I stop to buy/gather the items I need, then take the time to craft the item and put it on the market for a profit, or do I choose another money making strategy?".
Adding an unnecessary chore like tediously moving items in and out of your retainer does nothing to affect this decision making but simply increases the time needed to craft said item. In the same way than answering 13 CAPTCHAs to be able to sell an item on the market board would do nothing but add time to the decision making of selling something to a player rather than an NPC.

The difference is that simplistic captcha don't really give you ingame options to think about that can allow you to reduce the time spent on them, while the current retainer management allows you to think about how you are going to sort your items to reduce time spent looking for them.

If the captcha system itself contained analagous decisions, they would do the opposite of "dumbing down".

[Flyojumper]

/snip
If the captcha system itself contained analagous decisions, they would do the opposite of "dumbing down".

Alright, let me alter the CAPTCHAs' mechanic by introducing an extra layer of fun choices. You can either solve the CAPTCHAs normally or skip each one of the 13 CAPTCHAs by pressing the X button 47 times. Now I get to decide "Am I faster by solving one CAPTCHA manually or hammering my X button 47 times?" Thrilling, isn't it?
The fact remains that switching inventory in and out of the retainer is not anywhere near as strategic or fun as you make it sound and is actually hindering other aspects of crafting which are much more fun and strategic (the crafting system itself). It has nothing to do with instant gratification or dumbing down. If anything, you transfer time from doing a mundane task to doing more crafting, which is more strategic, so one could argue that you actually increase the stategic portion of time you spend while crafting.

[HurtigeKarl]

Alright, let me alter the CAPTCHAs' mechanic by introducing an extra layer of fun choices. You can either solve the CAPTCHAs normally or skip each one of the 13 CAPTCHAs by pressing the X button 47 times. Now I get to decide "Am I faster by solving one CAPTCHA manually or hammering my X button 47 times?" Thrilling, isn't it?
The fact remains that switching inventory in and out of the retainer is not anywhere near as strategic or fun as you make it sound and is actually hindering other aspects of crafting which are much more fun and strategic (the crafting system itself). It has nothing to do with instant gratification or dumbing down. If anything, you transfer time from doing a mundane task to doing more crafting, which is more strategic, so one could argue that you actually increase the stategic portion of time you spend while crafting.

The meat of your new suggestion is: introduce a time sink and give the players different options through which they can reduce the degree of the timesink. Of course, if the solution to the new "problem" is far from self-evident, then it makes the player have to think more than he would have otherwise done; i.e. opposite of dumbing down.

"Captcha" would though feel out of place inside a Final Fantasy game, but the meat can be introduced in more elegant ways.

For instance in crafting it has been introduced in a more elegant way: we are unable to remove animation time in options. We have though been given though options to decide the degree of the time sink per craft, like manipulating the amount of steps you choose to have in a craft session.

[Flyojumper]

/snip.
Of course, if the solution to the new "problem" is far from self-evident, then it makes the player have to think more than he would have otherwise done; i.e. opposite of dumbing down.

You are overemphasizing and overestimating the strategic elements added by micro managing item transfers between retainer and main inventory. It's really nowhere near as strategic as you make it sound. I'm curious, would you be a proponent of say reducing the main inventory space to 10 slots? After all, you could argue that it forces players to think more about what they are going to use those 10 slots for. There are ways of making a system more strategic/engaging without making it cumbersome and tedious to the player.
Also, you have not touched on the fact that removing a less strategic forced step would increase the overall time you spent on the strategic part of crafting.

[Xanatos]

I approve of OP's suggestion.