Sorry, a bit late on joining this thread ...

I just started playing FF14 couple of months ago. Having played a few player driven economy MMOs in the past few years, the two major ones are EVE Online and Entropia, I like to share my two gils on this matter ...

Running the risk of repeating what have already been stated, but to help understand, allow me to list some of the issues I have with FF14's market:

- Lacks system resources caused the market to be not fully functional (visual retainers)
- Lacks market data
- Lacks buying/selling functions
- Lacks storage in relation to the massive item inventory

First of all, while the Retainer idea is very noble and entertaining, IMHO it is the major cause of all the issues mentioned above. A lot of the changes can still be done in a form of a "Retainer", but with its functions changed/enhanced.

I suggest SE replace the Retainer, or redo its functionality, and make it a world inventory storage with a pre-defined items space (IE: 250). Additional items space can be purchased via monthly fee, (IE: 1USD = +250). We can access the storage in different terminals (NPC) in the major cities. This reduces the need of players having multiple retainers, as well as the need for players to do the inventory shuffle. (DB overload due to excessive unnecessary data calls.)

Replace the associated market function with retainers altogether and replace it with a world-wide Trade House (TH) AND an Auction House (AH). Both the TH/AH can be accessed via different locations in major cities, and maybe as well as major camps.

The TH needs two major operations, to list sell orders and buy orders. For selling, a player should be able to list items for sale, in whatever quality they like, and at the price they selling it at.

The buy orders will work in reverse. Buyer lists buy order at a set price, and seller sells their inventory to fill the buy order.

The player should be given the ability to set how long their list will stay on the market, eg: 1d, 1w, 30d, limited ability to update item price with time constraints such as once every 30 mins.

The AH will work like eBay, items are listed with a set end date, with or without a buy-out price. SE may or may not limited the AH to unique items.

Both the TH/AH should have low listing fees, and final fee based on transaction value.

With this new world-market, SE now can also gather market data and can make different market trend reports available in game and offer better UI with search ability.

The current visual retainer implementation just does not work, aside from being resource intensive due to all the animation, it is also location restrictive.

IMHO the world storage will help resolve the limitations set by the current retainer system. Being only level 50 with my THM/BLM, I have just and started to level up my DoH this past week, and I am running out of inventory space with two retainers, and I have not even begin serious crafting yet. Yet, none of this is my doing, but necessary caused by game design. The fact that one needs to be a Goldsmith, Blacksmith, Armorer, and Carpenter to craft a level 14 Brass Head Knife, a lot of inventory slots is required for just for one finished product.

In the end, as always, there is more then one way to skin a cat, this is just one additional one.

jc