22 Macro Books, Please?

[Concerned4FFxi]

Hint: You can put more than one job on one macro book. I have a macro book labelled "Other" that contains macros for 10 different jobs.

Ok, those jobs must be poorly geared and not used at all.

What do you think the guy returning to play has to say, after he played five years straight, got maats cap the hard way? I'm sure he has plenty of gear and macros. But we don't want old returning players, right? I mean, we are good with the current population, yes?

This is not a question of wants, clearly there are enough players that NEED more macros books and inventory. Kudos to those who do not.

The money train is from dedicated players, over the course of years, if SE ignores this type of player they will quit like they have in the past. Those players are the ones with the inventory/macros issues, only a lazy fool would not add a few more books.

After all, the six line macros BS, is BS enough already the PC users have a major advantage. I'm not looking for an excuse from SE, I want results. Players that allow SE to be lazy, are just as guilty.

[RAIST]

If this is indeed how SE feels about taking suggestions from the fan base (read: the people that PAY for the service), I may look into running some of those third party apps out there that will allow me to have 2,000 macros. Not to mention, customize them any way I see fit, without ANY restrictions at all.

Seriously though, how can SE be satisfied with this answer?
We feel that 200 macros are sufficient and for that reason we do not plan on adding more books at this time.

Really? You are going to tell us what is acceptable and what isn't? Aren't WE the ones that keep telling YOU what should be included in the next updates? YOU give US what WE want. That's how this works. WE pay YOU for stuff that WE want. If WE don't get what WE want, WE don't pay YOU. It's very simple logic, I assure you.

Ever wonder why the FFXI fan base keeps shrinking? It's because SE keeps trying to tell us what we want. 200 macros is enough. I say it isn't.

Furthermore, why is adding more macro books for every new job a bad thing? SE makes it sound like this would really be that hard to do. I thought it should have been a given. Whether it was a coincidence or not. I don't believe that, I think someone, somewhere at SE, thought about the idea of 20 jobs / 20 macro books, it just makes sense (there's no way everyone at SE is that stupid that no one thought of this before).

Guess I'll have to play Devil's Advocate for a minute:

Have to remember how cramped things are on the PS2's memory space now (and how that impacts the other clients still to this day)---they would likely have to remove something else from the stream to add the new books into the interface.

Yes... that's right... this may very well have some ties to the dreaded old PS2 restrictions. It's not as easy to add things in these clients as many people think because of SE's insistence on maintaining compatability---until this lowest level tech is removed from the equation, have to get out of that PC environment mode of thinking.

[Wolfe]

Guess I'll have to play Devil's Advocate for a minute:

Have to remember how cramped things are on the PS2's memory space now (and how that impacts the other clients still to this day)---they would likely have to remove something else from the stream to add the new books into the interface.

Yes... that's right... this may very well have some ties to the dreaded old PS2 restrictions. It's not as easy to add things in these clients as many people think because of SE's insistence on maintaining compatability---until this lowest level tech is removed from the equation, have to get out of that PC environment mode of thinking.

But you have to remember, they are killing PS2 support. This can be seen by the new expansion NOT coming out for the PS2. They also took a survey to find out how many people were playing on each system/platform. When I filled it out, I still have FFXI for my PS2 (as well as installed on my PS3), but I never checked that box. Because it's not worth playing it on a system that no longer helps the game. It's not hard to get this on a system that can run it. Steam sells it for $10 (with every expansion). I hate to sound rude, but if you can't afford a newer system to keep playing the game, you need to just quit. The PS2 is the cancer to the game and needs to be killed off so the game can grow and potentially attract new players.

But, in order for that to happen, SE needs to get off their lazy asses and advertise. WoW did it, a lot, and is still doing it. You can see WoW advertisements on the 360 and you can't even play it on there! Why not advertise that FFXI is still around? Spend $1m on advertising, I guarantee that money will come back at the very least double. Especially when you take notice that WoW has all of, what, 4 expansions?

The Burning Crusade
Wrath of the Lich King
Cataclysm
Mists of Pandaria

FFXI has how many expansions?

Rise of the Zilart
Chains of Promathia
Treasures of Aht Urhgan
Wings of the Goddess
Seekers of Adoulin

Plus 3 add-on scenarios

A Crystalline Prophecy: Ode of Life Bestowing
A Moogle Kupo d'Etat: Evil in Small Doses
A Shantotto Ascension: The Legend Torn, Her Empire Born

And 3 add-on battlefields

Vision of Abyssea
Scars of Abyssea
Heroes of Abyssea

There's plenty to advertise here, why haven't they (SE) stepped up their game and give WoW a real challenge? Every WoW expansion that comes out steps up the graphics a little bit more. FFXI, nothing. Until recently, we get slightly sharper text, a few small graphical enhancements to tiny icons (and I can barely make out what any of that small crap is).

The PS2 is getting left behind already. So, why is this an issue at all? Drop PS2 support altogether. It's already happening with the working GUI overhaul. How is adding more macros to 360 and PC supposed to hurt the PS2?

[Demon6324236]

But you have to remember, they are killing PS2 support.

Not in Japan...

[Ziyyigo-Tipyigo]

Come March 26 they'll be supporting the PS2 more than they will be Windows XP.

[RAIST]

They aren't killing PS2 support....they just aren't selling one expansion to the non-JP regions on the PS2.

PS2 is still in production by Sony until 2015 (I think it was, forget the exact details of how long they vaguely commited to it). SE will likely still provide some level (although maybe half-baked) for the PS2 until Sony announces they will in fact stop production by a certain date. Likely much like they did with Microsoft announcing XP support going by the wayside in April of 2014--we eventually got an official announcent that SE will stop actively supporting XP by a set date.

Until then, the impact on the PS2 client WILL be considered with future changes to functionality in the game. UI changes can be more easily tweaked in the newer platforms, because the overlay is already now managed a bit differently than on the PS2--but when it comes to core functions/features of the game that have to remain consistent across all platforms in SE's eyes.....you will periodically run up against the timeless "PS2 Limitations" scenario. This may be coming into play a bit here with the difficulty in making such a change.

Besides, as already stated....it can already be remedied with the current system. You can either combine some books that dont' require all 10 palletes to be populated with macros and thus free some books, or load different profiles at the character selection screen (this allows you to actually have access to 80 books already, 20 x 4 save slots).

[Wolfe]

They aren't killing PS2 support....they just aren't selling one expansion to the non-JP regions on the PS2.

PS2 is still in production by Sony until 2015 (I think it was, forget the exact details of how long they vaguely commited to it).

Great, it's still in production. They stopped producing the fat systems a few years ago. They are only selling the slim models. Last I checked, FFXI required a HDD in order to play it. Which means, PS2 support is DEAD. You can no longer buy a new PS2 system to run FFXI if yours fails. Which means that you will be FORCED to buy a new system (360/PC), not a PS2.

You know what works a LOT better than waiting for SE to kill PS2 support and let the game expand quicker? Using Windower or other third party apps that allow you to customize the game to its fullest potential. For example, removing the fog from the game and increasing the draw distance so that you can see more of the game.

If SE wants to keep PS2 support, fine. Let the JP users keep going with it. Just make them understand that they are playing on an outdated system and if they want more, they need to can it. Let PC and 360 users have full access to the game. Remove the 30 FPS cap, enhance the draw distance, explode the auto-translate dictionary, let this game become the best out there. The potential is already there, SE just wants to baby their PS2 fan base and keep letting them think that they are more important than the rest.

I guarantee that if they kill PS2 support, more than half of the PS2 users would buy a new system to play on. They are borderline/lazy and if they get this kick in the pants, they would just do it already. Once you upgrade from PS2, you will always wonder why you stuck with it for so long to begin with and never ever look back. JP players can love their PS2 all they want, but they need to pull their heads out of their ass and wake up. PS2 is a dead system, want proof? The PS4 is already in development and looking at a release date that is within the next 2 years (at the latest).

[RAIST]

adding to Zarchery's examples:

I too have similar macros like he is describing on MNK (I do the exact same thing with a Chi-Blast prep for boosting, the blast macro itself, then seperate macros for swapping in evasion, fighting, etc. to swap back into the mode I need to run in. Do the same thing on BLM...have a bank for when I need to be in support rolees, one for light nuking/DoT, one for heavy nuking, one for farting around in Campaign....hell, I even have one for WHM mode and even have some macroes tossed in for /NIN (I like to play battle mage mode for sh!ts and giggles and have banks for club, staff, dagger, and scythe melee) and I still haven't maxed that book out yet. I have a full set of SMN ToM staves, as well as a Pet MAB one, the cure potency one---and banks of macros for using them all for different situations, and SMN STILL is not completely filled up.

The list can go on and on, but hopefully that helps solidify Zarchery's point more about needing to be better organized?

Also, let's not forget that one can actually split things into seperate "profiles" if you wanted too. One save slot could be strictly for melee jobs, one for mage/support jobs, one for pet jobs....however you want to do it. You have 4 local save slots and one on the server, netting you a total of 100 potential books at your disposal already.

Think Zarchery really hit the nail on the head....it seems more like a problem with organization.

[Wolfe]

I too have similar macros like he is describing on MNK (I do the exact same thing with a Chi-Blast prep for boosting, the blast macro itself, then seperate macros for swapping in evasion, fighting, etc. to swap back into the mode I need to run in. Do the same thing on BLM...have a bank for when I need to be in support rolees, one for light nuking/DoT, one for heavy nuking, one for farting around in Campaign....hell, I even have one for WHM mode and even have some macroes tossed in for /NIN (I like to play battle mage mode for sh!ts and giggles and have banks for club, staff, dagger, and scythe melee) and I still haven't maxed that book out yet. I have a full set of SMN ToM staves, as well as a Pet MAB one, the cure potency one---and banks of macros for using them all for different situations, and SMN STILL is not completely filled up.

Okay, so if you play BLM the way you are claiming to, you really should have about one book filled up just for the job.

For BLM on my first set, I have a few buffs and debuffs with tier 5 spells.
I have tier 3 and tier 4 spells on one set.
'ga 3 and ancient magic on another.
DoT and AM 2.
Helix and ja.
And storm spells macro'd in with Klimaform.
And all of these have every spell lined up based on the reading that I get for what element it is. I love using storm spells with helix and ja chasers. And every now and then, I like to try to magic burst. I suck at it, but it gives me a little bit of fun to try my timing with AM 2.

Those are the 6 sets that I have for my everyday use on BLM. I still have one set for equip macros, trade macros (for faster popping), a key macro for Aby, item macros (for different items and zones), and a few other commonly used macros.

That's 7 on my BLM and I still need to go through and reorganize it. Leaving me 3 more sets to play with (I had them set for different things, but gave up on it). I don't want to be forced to always have to choose what to delete if I want to play around with a new set of macros for a job.

Back when there was only the one set of macros to choose from, I pretty much assumed I would never level anything else, or I'd have to make a whole new character if I wanted different macros. BUT, it also used to be a LOT harder to level up a job to 75. It was harder to store your gear, and there was pretty much only one way to gear a job when it came to endgame (I have WHM in mind since it was my first job to 75). But a lot changed with the addition of macro books and even more changed when they raised the level cap and introduced Abyssea.

When you play SMN, you are not going to fill up a separate list of macros for every weapon you have. Don't be stupid. You macro that in before using the Blood Pact. So, unless you are deliberately trying to be ignorant, shut up and make a valid point. I have a macro set for each pet and a universal one that will summon a pet and shortcut me to the appropriate macro set for that pet. With elementals sharing the same set as each respective avatar.

Why is it so hard for people to understand having one macro book for each job?

"That's not how I play the game, so you are playing it wrong!" <engagerageattackmode>

LOLNOOBYOUSUCK!

The list can go on and on, but hopefully that helps solidify Zarchery's point more about needing to be better organized?

Also, let's not forget that one can actually split things into seperate "profiles" if you wanted too. One save slot could be strictly for melee jobs, one for mage/support jobs, one for pet jobs....however you want to do it. You have 4 local save slots and one on the server, netting you a total of 100 potential books at your disposal already.

Think Zarchery really hit the nail on the head....it seems more like a problem with organization.

Better organized? I think it's because I am trying to organize this too much already. THAT'S why I wanted 2 more books! Then I can dedicate those to the two new jobs. My problem is that I want to have it completely organized! You just said exactly what I've BEEN saying! The only thing you helped to "solidify" is what I keep saying and no one seems to understand.

WTF??!!!

Do you seriously not understand Summoner? Every pet has their own list of Rage and Ward Blood Pacts. If you want to use them quickly per pet, you have a macro list set up for them. Just because you don't like a certain summon, doesn't mean no one else should have a list of macros for that summon. Can you use the Nightmare BP macro when you have Carbuncle out? Does the Predator Claws macro work with Leviathan? I like to have a macro set for every pet, if you don't, fine. Play the way you want. This is how I play as well as many other Summoner that I have talked to. I know some people out there who haven't even unlocked the job because it doesn't interest them. That's how they choose to play. I want to be able to do everything in this game and that includes having every job leveled and playing each one differently with a full book of macros.

If you are going to just reply "TLR you're an idiot," then you have no place commenting. I'm taking the time to explain myself, why don't you put forth a little effort and make your own reply worth reading?

[RAIST]

Okay, so if you play BLM the way you are claiming to, you really should have about one book filled up just for the job.

For BLM on my first set, I have a few buffs and debuffs with tier 5 spells.
I have tier 3 and tier 4 spells on one set.
'ga 3 and ancient magic on another.
DoT and AM 2.
Helix and ja.
And storm spells macro'd in with Klimaform.
And all of these have every spell lined up based on the reading that I get for what element it is. I love using storm spells with helix and ja chasers. And every now and then, I like to try to magic burst. I suck at it, but it gives me a little bit of fun to try my timing with AM 2.

Those are the 6 sets that I have for my everyday use on BLM. I still have one set for equip macros, trade macros (for faster popping), a key macro for Aby, item macros (for different items and zones), and a few other commonly used macros.

That's 7 on my BLM and I still need to go through and reorganize it. Leaving me 3 more sets to play with (I had them set for different things, but gave up on it). I don't want to be forced to always have to choose what to delete if I want to play around with a new set of macros for a job.

Back when there was only the one set of macros to choose from, I pretty much assumed I would never level anything else, or I'd have to make a whole new character if I wanted different macros. BUT, it also used to be a LOT harder to level up a job to 75. It was harder to store your gear, and there was pretty much only one way to gear a job when it came to endgame (I have WHM in mind since it was my first job to 75). But a lot changed with the addition of macro books and even more changed when they raised the level cap and introduced Abyssea.

When you play SMN, you are not going to fill up a separate list of macros for every weapon you have. Don't be stupid. You macro that in before using the Blood Pact. So, unless you are deliberately trying to be ignorant, shut up and make a valid point. I have a macro set for each pet and a universal one that will summon a pet and shortcut me to the appropriate macro set for that pet. With elementals sharing the same set as each respective avatar.

Why is it so hard for people to understand having one macro book for each job?

"That's not how I play the game, so you are playing it wrong!" <engagerageattackmode>

LOLNOOBYOUSUCK!



Better organized? I think it's because I am trying to organize this too much already. THAT'S why I wanted 2 more books! Then I can dedicate those to the two new jobs. My problem is that I want to have it completely organized! You just said exactly what I've BEEN saying! The only thing you helped to "solidify" is what I keep saying and no one seems to understand.



Do you seriously not understand Summoner? Every pet has their own list of Rage and Ward Blood Pacts. If you want to use them quickly per pet, you have a macro list set up for them. Just because you don't like a certain summon, doesn't mean no one else should have a list of macros for that summon. Can you use the Nightmare BP macro when you have Carbuncle out? Does the Predator Claws macro work with Leviathan? I like to have a macro set for every pet, if you don't, fine. Play the way you want. This is how I play as well as many other Summoner that I have talked to. I know some people out there who haven't even unlocked the job because it doesn't interest them. That's how they choose to play. I want to be able to do everything in this game and that includes having every job leveled and playing each one differently with a full book of macros.

If you are going to just reply "TLR you're an idiot," then you have no place commenting. I'm taking the time to explain myself, why don't you put forth a little effort and make your own reply worth reading?

gotta love what happens when you assUme things....

Not sure you realize how much you seem to be hurting your cause. In case you missed the subtle references....yeah, I do know something about SMN. Go back and reread the posts to see if you catch the references now.

The fact that you are burning up 10 books for your avatars is a good illustration of what is wrong---overkill on the automation. Helpful hint: you have 6 lines in a macro. If you still don't get it, you have 6 Merit BP's for 6 avatars. Still not ringing a bell? Look at how the BP's are mapped out for those same 6 avatars. If you still don't see it.....all the BP's can be grouped together in macros according to where they fall in their progression through the levels. Just like your offensive magic is tiered, so are your physicals. Condensing just these offensive BP's alone will net you a bonus of at LEAST 4 free banks, depending on how you manage your light/dark avatars, buff/debuff/healing BP's, and how aggressive/passive you are with your weapon/bp's (ie: chaining with avatars and what not). And before you go crying foul on that concept because you need to be able to identify each BP...if you truly are more versed in SMN than I am, then you too should instinctively know which one contains Claw, Axe Kick, etc. and which one has Double Slap, Double Punch, etc. Or maybe that's just because I've been playing the job so long, it comes naturally now?

The bulk of what I do on SMN takes place in 5 banks---and that includes some crazy melee macros for self-chaining as well as individual buff/healing macros specific to each avatar. I have one extra bank for pure WHM mode, so in total, I use 6 macro banks for SMN---and I use 9 magian staves and a handful of other pieces for augmenting avatars in different situations.

As for BLM, that's mainly 3 banks with one for WHM support (and yes, this includes macros for farting around with melee as well.)

WHM, pretty much the same as BLM----3+1 for melee.

All of that is built off of what existed back in the 75 cap days....when I had to fit all 3 of my main jobs in ONE book's worth of macros (add them up, 6+3+3=12, eleminating duplications, it could be done in 10 banks).

As mentioned earlier, I loaded a different save profile based on whether I expected to be on mage or melee jobs for the night. Granted, most my subs at the time were pre 60 (only MNK, SAM, DRG were leveled up), but I used 13 other jobs before level crap broke 75---and only used THREE BOOKS worth of macros to support all SIXTEEN JOBS. I had BRD in the mix so I had a Battle BRD set up as well, so there was one oddball set for experimenting.

Of course, we've got more goodies to play with now at 99, but it hasn't gotten THAT complicated. For instance, my WAR takes up only 6 banks. That is only 6 banks and covers every weapon I use on WAR. MNK is 3, plus one for some farting around with staff/club. SAM, 3 primary (have some self chain macro's just for the helluvit), and a couple secondary (sword/dagger). You can easily combine jobs that have crossovers. Look at SAM and DRG---I mean, really...10 banks for EACH those jobs? How about DNC and THF? Can you not find a way to somehow combine two jobs into one book somewhere? All you would need to do is reduce 4 jobs into 2 books, and then you have two full books for the new jobs. And who is to say that they may not be combinable into books with other jobs?

In summation, there was a time when 3 mage jobs could easily be maintained in one book (well, 4 actually...I never leveld RDM past subjob use), and as many as probably 10 melee's could be covered under just 20 banks of macros (some jobs like BLU, NIN, DRK, etc have some extra stuff that could prevent doubling up as readily as other jobs). Why is it now taking 5x (up to 10x) the number of macros, when (for the most part) the same principles for condensing macro usage can be applied?