Solution to "blinking"

[Cream_Soda]

20 macro books with 10 pallets per book.

You're right. There is no need to rewrite macros.

[Windblade]

I haven't partied much since <stpt> came out. I wasn't even aware of it until I read this thread, so I'll give it a try. I just hope I can still use <stpt> with the F1-F6 keys. I've been using F1-F6 and <t> macros.

And if you want a solution to blinking, how about this: Set up all gear changes so there's a 30-second wait before the gear change actually takes effect. That's the solution. Just put a stop to gear swaps. Gear-swapping is silly, anyway, from a game-world realism point of view. I know that infuriates those of you who perhaps cannot accomplish anything without six changes of clothes in your inventory, but it's incredibly unrealistic in battle: "Oh, wait I have to change my shirt and boots before I use this special ability." Do you think that in a real-life battle against a monster, the monster would wait for you to change clothes before using weapon skills or abilities? While you're standing in front of a vanity mirror admiring your change of rings, earrings and gloves, the monster would have his mouth around your head, ready to take a chomp.

So yeah. I like the idea of a 30-second wait for gear changes to take effect. If I have to wait 30 seconds to use a water tank or a warp cudgel, why not implement the same wait for STR+5 and DEX+7? Seems like basic stat boosts are more important than when you can use a water tank.

[Sarick]

So yeah. I like the idea of a 30-second wait for gear changes to take effect. If I have to wait 30 seconds to use a water tank or a warp cudgel, why not implement the same wait for STR+5 and DEX+7? Seems like basic stat boosts are more important than when you can use a water tank.

Elemental stave's beg to differ. Why would you want to punish players who utilize the benefits of multiple pieces of gear. I play RDM, swapping a staff is not only logical its critical to the jobs effectiveness most of the time. I see that when I cure a 15-40% cure light affinity bonus really is useful. It can also be just as harmful if I need to cast sleep or another darkness based ability.

As I stated before the blinking is caused by visible armor swapping. It has nothing to do with the stats being altered. If the visible swaps can be set to filtered on the client then problem is SOLVED. I cannot stress this enough, if the gear swaps visible updating can be filtered the issue is fixed.

I think that the the development team is over thinking the issue. They think we want visible gear swapping and no blinking. If the client is forced to update the visible gear appearance the game engine can't fix the blinking because the core process unloads and reloads the visible data. This is what the developers say can't be fixed. They might change their point of view if someone actually tells them "What if you allow the players to disable the visible gear updating while in combat or in general on the client end" they might see a solution does really exist. It's unfortunate that this concept is beyond translation or downright ignored.

It's sad, People don't think outside the box where creative geniuses excel. It's like the issue where the zones are limited in the core engine. Has anyone thought of splitting the world up into multiple clients that use the same engine? It's not that hard to unload the client and load another one for another part of the world and expand it. Things aren't as impossible if you have creative minds finding solutions.

Stop assuming in all these limitations are legitimate, Storage etc have all been proven to have work a around if solutions are found outside the box. The 30 second limitation you proposed will hurt the game design and punish players when less destructive solutions are available.

[Laciante]

like Glamdring said, most equip swapping isn't necessary, and the blinking was originally implemented for the purpose of punishing gear swapping. It's understandable to forget this when we are expected to gear swap, and have macros that subvert it, but I think it's still relevant: If you want to play at the peak of perfection, use everything at your disposal (gear swaps and macro'd spellcasts)

[Rya]

Note: This is probably the first time I've posted without reading the whole thread... but my vision is blurring. Sowwies

I saw a lot of: "I can't target to cast on people."

But what about: "I can't target to locate people." ?

Someone did mention distance for AoE SCH buffs, but there are a number of things that require you to be aware of distance from targets, and especially with 18+ people, you might not know exactly where PT#2's BRD is or whatever. Perhaps the quickest way to size up someone's distance is to target them (such as via PT list) and lock-on.

Yes, you can "target" him with <stpt>/<stal>, or by typing:
/ma Paralyna Bardvark" (awesome name btw)
...but you still don't know if he's in range.
-- Or what direction to run in, if you get SE's patented Red Text of Almost!

So, now if you can't tab/arrow/xyz through the list (esp. due to blinking), then you would need to type:
/ta Bardvark
...but that seems time-consuming doesn't it?


Still, <stpt> & <stal> were the best thing ever when they came out, and I pretty much barfed my delicious tasty beverage all over my computer screen when I read the update notes, due to excitement. Needless to say, I use them both religiously, all day every day, on every job, for every ability, constantly, forever. They're the bestest! Thanks SE!

Sidenote: If you try to lock-on right when someone blinks your cursor away, you ANNOYINGLY heal! (takes forever)

[Windblade]

Elemental stave's beg to differ. Why would you want to punish players who utilize the benefits of multiple pieces of gear.

It's not punishing them. It's fixing something that never should have been there. Why not replace blinking with an animation of that character changing clothes? That's what they're doing: changing clothes right in the middle of a battle. And if one MUST carry five body armors, sixteen rings, five pairs of boots, etc... just to have success in a fight, then the monster is overpowered. Selecting armor and weapons should be about finding a good balance. Get more attack or less defense. Get less defense or more attack...but taking a bunch of gear so you can change it all out for every move you command....well, I understand that's what some people want to do. I actually do it, myself, sometimes with rings, belts, and neck pieces. But it wouldn't bother me to sacrifice it if it means characters stop blinking. And again, I also wouldn't mind if gear swapping remained as long as the player's character actually has to be animated physically changing his gear, during which time he would NOT be hitting the mob....but changing clothes.

[Camate]

We brought this matter up with the development team and we were informed that unfortunately it’s not possible to change. As many of you have stated previously (in other threads as well) it is possible to prevent targeting problems through the use of certain macros ( stpc, etc.). We encourage and recommend that you utilize these as a way to avoid targeting issues with frequent blinkers.

[Valient]

... certain macros ( stpc, etc.)...

<stpc> is great start but I would like to see the F# keys work when in that mode then it would be 100% indistinguishable between the 2.

[Sarick]

We brought this matter up with the development team and we were informed that unfortunately it’s not possible to change. As many of you have stated previously (in other threads as well) it is possible to prevent targeting problems through the use of certain macros ( stpc, etc.). We encourage and recommend that you utilize these as a way to avoid targeting issues with frequent blinkers.

Did they give details as to why It can't work. Just making a statement like this after me explaining how it could be fixed on the client end seems oblivious to what's really stopping the solution.

If you can change a belt without blinking because it doesn't affect the character display then the gear swap updates could be filtered on the client end. There where cases also in extremely laggy situations where gear swap updates where completely ignored/filtered without critical side effects to the clients. In fact this could benefit players who aren't effected by the swaps as well because the Updates do consume extra data transfers and CPU to swap.

To me the lack of a descriptive explanation just sounds like a cop out to avoid a basic engine change because it circumvents the core gear-update. It's just like the excuse that the title menu volume issue couldn't be fixed where simply reducing the music file volume or disabling it completely was a viable solution. As a programmer sometimes the ability to think outside the box can allow amazing features to be implemented without sacrificing stability or function.

As I stated before having the ability to shut off the gear swapping updates by filtering them is a a viable fix for many issues. If the outside client can turn on a filter to not update visible gear then no blinking should happen. The gear blinking is because aesthetic changes. It has no effect on the status of a third a party other then the targets visible appearance.

[BorkBorkBork]

We brought this matter up with the development team and we were informed that unfortunately it’s not possible to change. As many of you have stated previously (in other threads as well) it is possible to prevent targeting problems through the use of certain macros ( stpc, etc.). We encourage and recommend that you utilize these as a way to avoid targeting issues with frequent blinkers.

Even SE is telling bad mages to stop crying and fix their macros. Honestly if people can't figure out how to target a party member that "blinks" you should either
A: Never play any kind of job again that requires targeting other player.
B: Quit and go play WoW or something that has a 3rd party tool that will auto target and cure people so you truly never have to do anything.

All this crying on these forums about not being able to target people can be chalked up to people being lazy or horrible at their job.