20 sets of gear is not enough

[Afania]

I hate to be that guy, but I seriously don't know how you guys don't find swapping gear for every little thing a total chore. I just came back to the game (now that I finally have time to get something done) and the thought of needing to deal with this later on is a huge deterrent. I know you don't technically have to do it, but I wouldn't want to be dead weight in groups so I'd end up doing it in the end. If nothing else, isn't it annoying seeing your character phase in and phase out repeatedly while fighting? I'm not sure I could ever get used to that.

This game kinda need gear swapping to have substance though.

As "annoying seeing your character phase in and out repeatly" issue.....honestly the only thing I ever stare at on DD jobs are my HP/TP and chat log. If I play mages I only stare at PT HP/MP bar and chat log as well. Tbh I rarely look at my character in events :X Any sec I spend on looking at my character on DD jobs I'd lose DPS due to over TP, any sec I spend on looking at my char instead of PT HP my pt would start dying. So no, I don't really feel annoyed with my character blinking. If I want to look at my character I do that in town/MH.

[Finuve]

I hate to be that guy, but I seriously don't know how you guys don't find swapping gear for every little thing a total chore. I just came back to the game (now that I finally have time to get something done) and the thought of needing to deal with this later on is a huge deterrent. I know you don't technically have to do it, but I wouldn't want to be dead weight in groups so I'd end up doing it in the end. If nothing else, isn't it annoying seeing your character phase in and phase out repeatedly while fighting? I'm not sure I could ever get used to that.

multiple reasons, one it adds an extra layer to combat. Two it makes gearing your job properly more difficult and thus more engaging. Three it allows for preparation for battle to be as important as the battle itself. Four, it makes it so you are constantly needing gear for your job without destroying things you have already worked for, and I love this since I absolutely hate the gear treadmill style of most MMOs. I'm pretty sure many people agree with that considering how poorly seekers was received when it released.

Also, since you are just coming back you might have missed /lockstyle on, it will stop you from blinking unless you are on a job that has to swap weapons, and can let you toss on whatever looking gear you want (I always run around in charis on DNC now). I never minded the blinking so much, I always likened it to FFX-2 job changes mid battle, without the flashy animation.

[Vivivivi]

Hello, everyone.

I’m bumping this thread to give you a heads up on what’s planned for the equipment set feature with a full explanation from Yoji Fujito.

Thanks for the detailed explanation about this feature.

Is it safe to assume if you assign your gearsets for a single job in one 'page' of sets, the loading delay won't be an issue?
For example if all my equipment sets for Warrior are assigned within slots 1-20, and I macro them in, there shouldn't be a problem, but if I split my warrior sets between 1-40, I would potentially experience lag?

[Olor]

I usually hover around 3 palettes, I put JA that doesn't use often enough far away. Sometimes I manually change sets before/mid event so I use less palette to avoid getting lost.

Thanks for the tips. This has always kept me from maximizing my macros... its just too easy to get lost

[Olor]

it makes it so you are constantly needing gear for your job without destroying things you have already worked for, and I love this since I absolutely hate the gear treadmill style of most MMOs. I'm pretty sure many people agree with that considering how poorly seekers was received when it released.

this so much. This is what made XI so awesome for so long. It's a shame the devs felt like they needed to obsolete this approach.

[Blah]

Ah, wouldn't it also be better for it to have its own macro palette for it? Like maybe hit the macro button and then hit the arrow key or something like that?

[Seillan]

This game kinda need gear swapping to have substance though.

As "annoying seeing your character phase in and out repeatly" issue.....honestly the only thing I ever stare at on DD jobs are my HP/TP and chat log. If I play mages I only stare at PT HP/MP bar and chat log as well. Tbh I rarely look at my character in events :X Any sec I spend on looking at my character on DD jobs I'd lose DPS due to over TP, any sec I spend on looking at my char instead of PT HP my pt would start dying. So no, I don't really feel annoyed with my character blinking. If I want to look at my character I do that in town/MH.

I kind of feel that if those are the only things important to you in a game like this, why not just play MUDs? To me, the graphical element is just is important as what's going on under the hood, hence why the blinking would probably bother me after awhile. Also, is the combat system really fast paced enough later on to where it would really screw things up to look up once in awhile? I was under the impression that FFXI's combat system wasn't quite as unforgiving/hectic as some, in regards to speed of execution.

multiple reasons, one it adds an extra layer to combat. Two it makes gearing your job properly more difficult and thus more engaging. Three it allows for preparation for battle to be as important as the battle itself. Four, it makes it so you are constantly needing gear for your job without destroying things you have already worked for, and I love this since I absolutely hate the gear treadmill style of most MMOs. I'm pretty sure many people agree with that considering how poorly seekers was received when it released.

Also, since you are just coming back you might have missed /lockstyle on, it will stop you from blinking unless you are on a job that has to swap weapons, and can let you toss on whatever looking gear you want (I always run around in charis on DNC now). I never minded the blinking so much, I always likened it to FFX-2 job changes mid battle, without the flashy animation.

Yeah, I'll definitely be using /lockstyle if I end up sticking it out -- at least for jobs that don't do a lot of weapon switching. And thanks for the run down -- I'm starting to see why the gear swapping thing is considered more of a feature than a burden. It does seem a little excessive in some cases though.

[Afania]

I kind of feel that if those are the only things important to you in a game like this, why not just play MUDs? To me, the graphical element is just is important as what's going on under the hood, hence why the blinking would probably bother me after awhile. Also, is the combat system really fast paced enough later on to where it would really screw things up to look up once in awhile? I was under the impression that FFXI's combat system wasn't quite as unforgiving/hectic as some, in regards to speed of execution.

You don't get to see your character in town/MH in MUD though. Also, it's not that I can choose, the game forces player to stare at chat log/HP bar/TP bar....unless you enjoy bad performance, you just kinda have to. I just play the game as intended.

FFXI's combat is actually quit fast in endgame under super buffed situation, it's very, very easy to over TP especially for certain setup....mainly mythic AM3 DD with Samurai's roll on. I play 1h DD as well, which has lower delay and much easier to over TP.

[geekgirl101]

Gearswap will be far more favourable by elitists who want the best of the best out of every situation. The thing is Gearswap is part of an external program used to interact with FFXI, and according to POL/FFXI rules you are not supposed to run such programs and by using them you are at risk of having your account suspended indefinitely.

Equipsets and the current macro system are still limiting despite their attempts at being improved to encourage people into using them instead of seeking external programs. Since there's no all-in-one gear item for a specific action you'll find yourself swapping up to 4 different sets just for 1 action to maximise everything from action cast speed, action damage, action accuracy, action recast reduction, and then your normal gear. That's 5 equipsets already taken up just for 1 action, and with some actions a single item change may affect it more beneficially which means you have to find a way to swap it in without wasting another equipset just for that 1 item. However the number of macro lines per macro is limited to 6 for the sake of PS2 users, so you couldn't even create a macro such as:

/equipset Haste
/cast "Mage's Ballad III" <me>
/equipset SongBuff
/equip legs "Aodios' Rhingrave +2"
/wait 4
/equipset Recast
/equipset IdlePDT

That's 7 lines, and some other spells may have 2 or 3 item changes to them that creating a whole new equipset for those 2 or 3 different items is just not economical but the game design has left us very little choice in the matter. And as for augmented gear I've no idea if the equipset system knows to only equip the ring you put in it with the -5 PDT or if it goes bonkers after you put 2 rings of the same name in your bag and instead equips the one you put in your bags first with the -6 MDT.

[Malithar]

/equipset Haste
/cast "Mage's Ballad III" <me>
/equipset SongBuff
/equip legs "Aodios' Rhingrave +2"
/wait 4
/equipset Recast
/equipset IdlePDT

/equipset Haste
/ma "Mage's Ballad III" <stpc>
/equipset SongBuff /wait 1
/equip legs "Aodios' Rhingrave +2" /wait 2
/equipset Recast /wait 1
/equipset IdlePDT

Not saying this absolutely will work, but it may. /waits were changed a long time ago to work within macro lines so they didn't need their own individual line. The /wait 1s at the end of each is to prevent multiple sets outgoing packet from going off at once, causing you to equip pieces from multiple different ones. Other than the timing on those (4 sec long enough from start to finish of cast?) and if multiple waits within a single macro actually works or not, the above should work.

As far as if sets can identify different pieces of the same named gear, they can, as long as you don't move them from the bag that the set was assigned in. IE, if you create the set and a Dark Ring is in your sack, and a second in your Satchel, as long as they remain there, it'll know which is which. If you move them from their designated bags though, it loses that info and just does a general quarry to equip it, which may not equip the specific piece you actually want.

Edit: To be clear, since you've got Haste, Songbuff, and Recast, this won't work as expected. Haste would be your precast set, your Fast Cast, -casting time, etc pieces. Songbuff would need to contain +skills, +song, etc gear. The Recast set specifically won't do what you may think, as the Songbuff set would need to remain equipped until the song has finished casting to have the desired effect. However, when the song finishes is also when recast time (haste and fast cast effects) is determined; you can't double dip and get the best of both worlds. That would need to be done within the set itself, giving you a single potency/recast set.