The Retainer System

[rogersj9878]

I'm sorry, but despite it being VASTLY improved from the original, it's still a massive hassle to use, and it mostly ties into the market system.

Yeah, I remember the original system when FFXIV launched in 2010. I don't know who thought it was a good idea to say, "We'll let players conduct business in a cramped hallway flooded with retainers with zero search functionality. They'll click every individual retainer (assuming you even could) and see if they had what they needed. BRILLIANT! HOW COULD THIS GO WRONG?!" or whether it was the more likely case, "Hey Brad, we were supposed to make a market system for players, but lunch in is 10 minutes."

It was beyond awful.

For whatever reason they decided that they would fix this by adding a search, and then telling you the floor the retainer was on and the name, and at some point added an icon, making it now only a giant inconvenience, but slightly less so. Whatever. My point is I realize it has slowly improved...

But here's the thing:

It's still bad. No, it's not God-awful by any stretch of the imagination, but it's really sort of a blatant inconvenience for the sake of dragging time out and being an inconvenience, and it really is pretty obvious that it was designed to be that way.

Someone needs to really say it, and I didn't want to be that guy, but there's no reason I need to sit around with Post-It notes, maintaining an order of my inventory I'm interested in selling, taking note of current prices, and then running to a summon bell to place my items up there, rather than the massive billboard I was just standing at. Why must there be this many steps to do a simple task? It really makes me just want to vendor everything I don't intend to use at that moment, which was likely another tool in the other obvious gilsink aspect of the game, but it really kills my mood.

Is it a BIG deal? Well, yes and no. I realize the boards are usually within spitting distance of the bell, but do you really think I need to sift through two different screens with pen in hand to conduct simple transactions? Why can't I find it on the board, locate a price, and sell from my own inventory there? Would it be that hard to designate which retainer to pay?

Yes, I get that you've sunk a lot of eggs in the whole "retainer" basket, and want to make sure that's the way it is, but it's largely useless. If it weren't for the fact that they're basically just NPC storage, I wouldn't bother with it, and when housing comes (and we're hoping that's soon) we could really do away with the idea entirely in favor of... I don't know... a box?

"Innovation isn't always great" said the man driving the first prototype square-wheeled car. Just do an auction house, please.

[Zozorozo]

but there's no reason I need to sit around with Post-It notes, maintaining an order of my inventory I'm interested in selling, taking note of current prices, and then running to a summon bell to place my items up there, rather than the massive billboard I was just standing at. Why must there be this many steps to do a simple task?

You realize there is an icon on your retainer that lets you see the prices on the market board?

[rogersj9878]

You realize there is an icon on your retainer that lets you see the prices on the market board?

NO! No I didn't realize that! None of this was even explained! "Here's a retainer! They hold your stuff, and you can sell from them!" was about all I could gather from the in-game help!

[Ephany]

You realize there is an icon on your retainer that lets you see the prices on the market board?

Of course not.
It's easier to QQ on a forum than to learn the game

[Alhanelem]

NO! No I didn't realize that! None of this was even explained! "Here's a retainer! They hold your stuff, and you can sell from them!" was about all I could gather from the in-game help!

When you go to list an item for sale, you can check both all the current prices people are listing for (the same list as when you go to buy an item), as well as the price history. Two small icons in the upper right corner of the window where you go to set the price for an item.

[Zozorozo]

But...but...there was a button..... an icon which was a button

did you not feel the urge to push the button just to see what it did

[DukeGr]

The only thing i could see improved with retainers would be a sort button and to add more of them on non major cities to save tp costs

[Arriko]

Someone needs to really say it, and I didn't want to be that guy, but there's no reason I need to sit around with Post-It notes, maintaining an order of my inventory I'm interested in selling, taking note of current prices, and then running to a summon bell to place my items up there, rather than the massive billboard I was just standing at

Sadly I know this feeling. I did the same exact thing until I realized what that icon does

[Theref]

But...but...there was a button..... an icon which was a button

did you not feel the urge to push the button just to see what it did

I did .

[KaylessUK]

NO! No I didn't realize that! None of this was even explained...

It is explained if you read the info when hiring the retainer for the first time