Macros/Gear-Sets/Maps - Inquiry

[Sirmarki]

If you have nothing constructive to add don't post.

I added a solution.

Don't post? HAHA!

[Sp1cyryan]

If you have nothing constructive to add don't post.

Try taking a permanent break from posting.

[Alhanelem]

This game has been out for far too long for "no one to know anything" so I won't back down.

I think you overestimate the desire of anyone to actually go and dissect all these files and have discussions about it everywhere.

I have an inkling where you might be able to find some information on this, but posting about it here might have negative consequences (But hopefully, by this fact you might know what I'm referring to.)

SE needs to give us a straight forward way to share this between chars/accounts/friends/manual backups to SD cards.

Maybe straightforward is being a little generous, but we already have the means to do this. As I said, the server backup does work, but you can only store the user data for one character. There are four more client-side back-up slots on that menu, so that counts for something.

There's also one other option. There is a backup feature in the new FFXI config tool, which I didn't even know about til i thought to look at it after this thread:


This appears to back up the user data associated with all of your characters. You can just save it to your SD card or whatever, and restore it later. This backup file appears to be compressed, as it is smaller than the sum of the files in the folder.

but this is a subject that people are treating like "nuclear launch codes" an their really not

I'm really not sure anyone is trying to keep a secret for you, just because you couldn't find info doesn't mean that people conspired to keep it under wraps. In order for stuff like this to get studied/analyzed/tools made/whatever, someone with the skills and know how needs to be a player of the game, realize there's a problem, and create a solution.

That said: I opened one of those MRK files in notepad. Here's the contents of one

KMIX”& u marker 
      


m n marker
  
       


menu r  0 ``p``p` 

menu but o 
 
 H ÜÿF. Station
  F. Bivouac #1

ûÿáÿF. Bivouac #2
§ÿ/ F. Bivouac #3

CK Coalition OU Coalition  NV Coalition UM Coalition        


menu a

There is some binary data which you can't see because it doesn't render on this forum, but there's also some other text there, which corresponds with map markers on a specific area map. So these MRK files store the map markers both you and the game placed on maps.

Based on this, the files like "mcr.dat, mcr1.dat" appear to be macro data.

Edit: I opened these in notepad as well and found my macro text amongst various binary data. So yes, the mcr#.dat files are your macro books. mcr.dat is the first book, mcr1 is the second, and so on.

So hopefully that helps demystify those "nuclear launch codes." I would not reccomend editing these files though, there is binary data in there, so changing the text from there is probably not a good idea and could break things- especially given each file has a fixed size (which makes sense as each macro line can only be a fixed length).

[Auriga]

Alhanelem - I hear all that, as for negative consequences.. I think some people are "assuming too much" about what I'm trying to do here -.-

I wrote a bigger block of text.. but I won't be stressed further about this a certain way.

The above does not address giving the macros/equip-sets/map markers to say friend B.
Provide steps that reliably do so, or this continues.

Thanks =)

[Alhanelem]

The above does not address giving the macros/equip-sets/map markers to say friend B.

If you were a little less cryptic from the beginning I would have figured out that this is what you wanted to do. Thanks for clarifying that.

Unfortunately from the digging I did above along with how the data is stored in the folders, it does appear these files are keyed to the character and can't be easily transferred the way you want to (As evidenced by the backup files not being able to be used this way)

There honestly should be an easier way to do it, I 100% agree, but I don't see one. I can certainly try to ask around to see if I can find any evidence to the contrary though. I can't imagine, however, that nobody's ever tried to do this, so hopefully the reason there's no info isn't because it simply isn't possible.

(Proceeds to ask on the discord for you-know-what-software)

Edit: I can't post it here, but if you can provide some way for me to reach you outside of this forum I found some information that will be useful to you. NUCLEAR LAUNCH CODES
(In other words, there do exist... things... that will allow you to export/import client side character data such as macros)

[Auriga]

If you were a little less cryptic from the beginning I would have figured out that this is what you wanted to do. Thanks for clarifying that.

Lets see now..

It'd also be nice to be able to share the macros/equip-sets/map markers with friends.

Nope.. nope.. don't see anything cryptic here.

As for discord.. I'm fairly easy to find in the right places. However I cannot speak on the subject of.. stuff you mentioned.
It does appear that despite our differences.. we can at least agree this should be easier. Always nice to see common ground.

I do see your last active time stamp was Dec. 24, 2022 in game.

[Alhanelem]

Lets see now..



Nope.. nope.. don't see anything cryptic here.

As for discord.. I'm fairly easy to find in the right places. However I cannot speak on the subject of.. stuff you mentioned.
It does appear that despite our differences.. we can at least agree this should be easier. Always nice to see common ground.

I do see your last active time stamp was Dec. 24, 2022 in game.

Well I guess I missed something reading it the first time

TLDR of all of this though, is there is a thing that exists that will let you do what you want to do, but since it falls under "third party tools," can't really talk about it on this forum. Conclusively, there is no "official" way to do it.

I would suggest adding a post about this in the QOL thread in general discussion.

And yeah, it's been a little while, I've been subbed the entire time but I keep getting distracted with other non-MMO games lol

[Zenion]

So, just for fun, I tried copying over the all the mcr files from one user to another. mcr.dat, mcr.sys, mcr.ttl, mcr_2.ttl replaced, mcr1.dat to mcr49.dat added new. Completely copied over the macro palettes from my geo/whm/sch/drk character to my war01 never been outside the city storage mule. No errors, no loss or corruption that I can see. It just worked.

Mind you, I was trying to copy over macros from my smn/blm/drg/brd/cor character, so this is still kind of guesswork and trial and error, but it's doable as long as you keep backups.

es0.dat through es9.dat did the equipsets, again, no trouble, just have to worry about doing it blind.

I would advise doing this while the character you're copying data to is not logged in, but I suspect the worst that will happen is that you could accidentally overwrite the copied equipsets with blank ones.

[Auriga]

So, just for fun, I tried copying over the all the mcr files from one user to another. mcr.dat, mcr.sys, mcr.ttl, mcr_2.ttl replaced, mcr1.dat to mcr49.dat added new. Completely copied over the macro palettes from my geo/whm/sch/drk character to my war01 never been outside the city storage mule. No errors, no loss or corruption that I can see. It just worked.

Mind you, I was trying to copy over macros from my smn/blm/drg/brd/cor character, so this is still kind of guesswork and trial and error, but it's doable as long as you keep backups.

es0.dat through es9.dat did the equipsets, again, no trouble, just have to worry about doing it blind.

I would advise doing this while the character you're copying data to is not logged in, but I suspect the worst that will happen is that you could accidentally overwrite the copied equipsets with blank ones.

Thanks for looking into it further =)

(Updated list moved to my first post and in my latest post)

[Alhanelem]

copying equip sets isnt going to be much use unless the other character has all the same gear. but good to know that they can just be copied.