Mog Mail

[Aeni]

Will SE allow you to send items from one character to another on the same world and on the same account? I have a boat load of holiday related items (and other things) on my two other characters (4 retainers) along with gil, crystals, etc. If I can't, no big deal, but I don't understand why we shouldn't be allowed considering that practically every other MMO (and even FFXI) allows you to ...

[Malacite]

Re: Mog Mail

Yes & Yes.

[Etra]

Re: Mog Mail

Only restriction is that you have to be friends with the person to send mail. This helps to curb RMT spam.

[Aeni]

Re: Mog Mail

Yes & Yes.

Only restriction is that you have to be friends with the person to send mail. This helps to curb RMT spam.

I'm seeing two conflicting answers.

Currently, in beta, you are not allowed to put characters you own on the friend list. This makes sense. Why do you need to friend yourself? So, with the restriction that Etra is talking about, this means you can never send mail to characters on your account that is on the same world.

However, Mal said that you can, and unless there's some other mechanic in place, then I just cannot see how these two can serve to exist (if nothing else changes) at release. I'm hoping this gets resolved during Phase 4, because it means that there is zero benefits to having multiple characters (considering the time investment required and the fact that you can have access to ALL content on just one character, unlike in other games like WoW)

[Etra]

Re: Mog Mail

I was under the impression characters of the same world shared retainers.

[Aeni]

Re: Mog Mail

I was under the impression characters of the same world shared retainers.

If that's the case then we can just leave this discussion to the dust bin of history. Right now, with what I have, I'm kind of afraid as to how that system will be implemented. There is an 8 character limit per world and so I'm going to be majorly screwed unless SE allows me to somehow "edit" my data so that anything on the 9th character slot (and I'm hoping it's a retainer) gets dumped into the NPC where you can retrieve overflow items from.

3 characters + 2 retainers per = 9 total slots.

[Etra]

Re: Mog Mail

What.

Retainers have nothing to do with character slots anymore.

[Aeni]

Re: Mog Mail

What.

Retainers have nothing to do with character slots anymore.

I cannot imagine how they will implement a shared retainer system and allow more than two retainers. I was under the impression that retainers were sitting in character slots to get around storage limitations and to be able to allow retainers to do more than store items (ability to level up, for example, or go out and gather items for you independently)

[Hayde]

Re: Mog Mail

@Aeni

Interesting idea, but I have not once heard of their plans to turn retainers into anything more than additional storage; was this stated somewhere--perhaps a letter from the producer, interview, or something else? The idea you're thinking derives from SWTOR's companion system which worked well for that game, but I can't imagine it would work here since leveling botany and mining is a class of its own, unlike WoW, Rift, and SWTOR where they were there to merely augment your current job/class. I understand the same principle can apply--where you decide to level mining > armorsmith to gear up your paladin for example, but players have the free option (post level 10) to spend the next 5 years or whatever working the market by focusing on crafting and gathering only as a free company's personal crafter or something.

[Malacite]

Re: Mog Mail

Weird, I could sworn Yoshida said ages ago we'd be able to deliver items to other characters on the same account, provided you're on the same world.

[Etra]

Re: Mog Mail

I cannot imagine how they will implement a shared retainer system and allow more than two retainers. I was under the impression that retainers were sitting in character slots to get around storage limitations and to be able to allow retainers to do more than store items (ability to level up, for example, or go out and gather items for you independently)

That was planned for 1.0. All that has been shelved / deleted.

- - - Updated - - -

That's what I thought about retainers. Here's a post in regards to what the point of alts are in ARR:

"Storage. 100 more inventory slots per character. 8 characters on same server - 1 main + 7 mules = 700 extra slots. All share the same 2 retainers making transfer of items easy."

[Aeni]

Re: Mog Mail

@Aeni

Interesting idea, but I have not once heard of their plans to turn retainers into anything more than additional storage; was this stated somewhere--perhaps a letter from the producer, interview, or something else? The idea you're thinking derives from SWTOR's companion system which worked well for that game, but I can't imagine it would work here since leveling botany and mining is a class of its own, unlike WoW, Rift, and SWTOR where they were there to merely augment your current job/class. I understand the same principle can apply--where you decide to level mining > armorsmith to gear up your paladin for example, but players have the free option (post level 10) to spend the next 5 years or whatever working the market by focusing on crafting and gathering only as a free company's personal crafter or something.

I think it's still in the Alpha archives because I gleaned it from another post from a player's rebuttal to someone else when I was trying to scour the beta forums for an answer to this question. The quote was taken from one of the GMs posting in the Alpha forums and the time stamp was in January (2013, so it has nothing to do with 1.0) The gist of it was that SE wasn't going to do any reveals of these things until either towards the end of Phase 4 or maybe delaying it for their first expansion. This was also true of the UI itself as apparently we're playing with what seems to be an incomplete system (they are definitely holding back a good deal more than what we've been lead on to believe) In either case, the first expansion will look to be a big deal, and the patches in between are also going to be "game changers" as ARR is likely to undergo massive changes over the next year or two before it finally "settles down".

I'm still not yet convinced that they're doing away with the character slot limitations and tying it down to retainers. That's because there is almost zero incentives to actually roll another character and even if you took into account being able to experience the different main story lines, that's at most, 3, just like back in 1.0 There's a definite possibility that by the 2nd or 3rd expansion, to keep the game fresh and rejuvenated with new subscribers, they'll add a 4th starting city, add in a new race or two, in addition to new classes and jobs. But right now, since that future is not yet guaranteed, the only real need for character slots (and giving Legacy members a total of 8 per world) has something to do with item storage and accessibility, and possibly retainers doing a lot more than storage.

[Etra]

Re: Mog Mail

Aeni, unless you have developer commentary, there's no reason to go and think retainers are going to take up character slots. That's why they went away with that model -- it's outdated and stupid. They said they were getting rid of that model ages ago.

[Aeni]

Re: Mog Mail

Aeni, unless you have developer commentary, there's no reason to go and think retainers are going to take up character slots. That's why they went away with that model -- it's outdated and stupid. They said they were getting rid of that model ages ago.

I was looking for where they made that official announcement because I didn't see any or in patch notes confirming that they did. They only spoke of changing the dynamics of billing but never got in-depth of what or how those character slots were used for. I still don't see the need for anyone who isn't Legacy to have to pay for more than 1 character slot per world. There must be a reason and I have to say, after playing other games, including FFXI and WoW, there was always a purely legitimate reason for having additional characters outside of "enjoying a different perspective". This is all assuming that we have no way to send items back and forth between additional characters created. If we're allowed to create additional characters on the same world, then there must be a way to transfer the items between them.

The retainer system has already changed from Alpha and is different from Phase 2 (the UI and menus are slightly different as well) and yet the core concept for what it is for has not changed. I really do not see how retainers can be shared because as of right now, after further interactions with the retainers I've hired, I cannot understand how you could be able to access 6 or more retainers (Let's say you create 8 characters, for whatever reasons, and have 2 retainers for each. That means after logging into one character, I can have as many as 16 retainers to access for a total of 320 auction listings - 16 x 20 - as well as all of that space) I for one do not even think that is remotely possible given the limitations with server, network and memory architecture that we've already discussed at great lengths in other threads. Don't get me wrong, the current system is running smoothly, if not for a few bugs that I've noticed (and others have as well and reported) But I do not think it can handle that kind of capacity and that kind of storage which will make the stuff in WoW and other games seem like child's play.

Edit: Just ran some numbers and came to 2800 total retainer storage slots (16) per world with an additional 320 auction house listing, and accompanying storage for each of the additional 7 characters. And that's assuming that they are still going to keep the 2 retainers per character limit. If they really are going to have a shared retainer system, then there's going to be a limit to how many retainers any one player can have per account, per world, which will also be another confusing mess to navigate. And if that retainer limit is lower than the current number of retainers a player owns in his 1.0 data, then there's going to be a HUGE problem with items missing and support nightmare for many weeks, if not months, to come after release.

[Etra]

Re: Mog Mail

I just told you... It's two retainers per world, per account. All characters from the same account and same server share the two retainers. Stop over thinking things. lol