Fostering Skillful Play

[Godofgods]

I would actually have to agree with the majority on this one. The macro system is messed up. Personally i never liked the idea of gear swapping in the middle of battle anyway, but SE has decided to move in that direction by creating tons of equipment with stats that serve for just that purpose.

But moving in that direction and then limiting macro's are counter productive of each other. If your playing legitimately, and you have a full gear swap, your looking at around 3 macros. Then a WS macro. Then 3 more macros to get back to what you had. Thats insain. It takes almost an entire book of macros to do a single action.

The botting argument for not wanting to increase macro space never made much sense to me either. (Unless you increased it to like 2000 lines lol) The macros are very simplistic. Its not like you can use an IF - THEN inside one. And if it were increased to 15-20 lines, its still not like u could press a macro and come back in 6 hours and see your character still at it. Alls that does is decrease the amount of times i have to press the key on my keyboard while I'm sitting here forever.

Last point is that the majority of the player base already uses some form of increased macros or spell casts. People that don't use them (like me) are very hard to find. Which means the only ppl really hurting from this are those that are 'playing by the rules'. And thats a pretty bad way to act towards those players that are paying for this.

[Rustic]

It would be wonderful if SE would take these things on board and integrate them, certainly. I would take issue with the idea that they are simply a quality of life addition, though - as you've said, they have a direct impact on a player's capabilities and so represent something quite different to something like the official windowing program or something like dat modding a piece of gear that you find repulsive.

That's basically what I'm saying. Third party programs are a slippery slope. Some are simply cosmetic changes, others give a discernable advantage only at high levels of play, still others are outright cheatware (such as noclip capacity letting you bypass doors and such).

The first is a gold mine of pointers to upgrades to FFXI proper, the second mark things that need to be said "This is OK, this is banworthy" and the former seriously considered for work., and the third need to be examined in detail for how they break the game, the exploits destroyed with prejudice, and the players using them chewing on a big ol' LM-17 or worse.

Heck, I've been wondering for years when they'd add optional .DAT file DL's as a way of giving specific clients graphics upgrades without leaving PS2 users in the lurch. Doesn't hurt the gameplay, makes the PC/XBox interface a prettier thing to look at.

[Mirage]

And that's why obvious gameplay enhancements should be part of the official client, so that people didn't get into a situation where "gameplay enhancement" is literally a key press away from "see through walls"

[Prrsha]

I agree with all 3 of you. Another angle to look at this too is that console users have no access to 3rd party utilities. Should PC users have an advantage over other players in the same MMO? SE doesn't think so I'd assume, with the recent changes to the fishing system.

But yeah. It has been a pain in the tush playing legit on a PC over all of these years.

[detlef]

Should PC users have an advantage over other players in the same MMO? SE doesn't think so I'd assume, with the recent changes to the fishing system.

Funny thing is SE was addressing an advantage that console users had over PC users.

[Caliana]

I would fully support an upgraded dat pack for pc/whatever. Even if I had to pay for it.

[Prrsha]

Funny thing is SE was addressing an advantage that console users had over PC users.

Yep, they are trying to fix the problem and even the playing field. Their motto has always been that the gameplay advantages should be the same on all systems. I don't see that changing unless someday they just drop support for x-box and PS2.

It would explain why they really didn't care much about the windower, but they did to plugins that the windower had (even the ability to see other player's TP).

[Prrsha]

I would fully support an upgraded dat pack for pc/whatever. Even if I had to pay for it.

I'd like upgraded graphics, but to pay for it, no. I worry it would quickly turn into Sims3 where people buy optional content that makes things look pretty every month or so as more mobs/data is added.

[Phogg]

I'd like upgraded graphics, but to pay for it, no. I worry it would quickly turn into Sims3 where people buy optional content that makes things look pretty every month or so as more mobs/data is added.

I wouldn't pay for it by itself, but if it were part of a legit expansion similar to how WoW was upgraded I would be on board.

[Prrsha]

I wouldn't pay for it by itself, but if it were part of a legit expansion similar to how WoW was upgraded I would be on board.

I agree. One nice expansion that changes all of the existing skins for the PC would be great. I can imagine it being something like the Blue Shift expansion that was available for Half-Life 1.