The In-Duty Portrait Display of 6.3

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Originally Posted by Gemina

This thread is covering in-duty portrait display, which was not implemented until this patch. There are plenty of other threads already where players have congregated to gripe about the inefficacy of the portrait system.

The 'in-duty' portrait system is a pretty cool feature. If you don't like it, you don't have to use it at all, and we were informed prior to release that you can just turn it off if you don't like it, or don't want anything to do with it. You can simply use that option and be done with it. This thread should really focus on how to make it better for those of us who do enjoy it.

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I would like to not use it at all; unfortunately I'm now being forced to interact with it and figure it out in order for it to stop displaying an error every time I enter a duty (something which I still don't know how to fix, because the game never really explains the error or how to fix it)

That's at most 8 character outfits worth of data being saved; doesn't sound like a lot to me.
Loading the models for 8 player + 8 portraits in trials is always going to make less data than loading the 24 players of a full on raid. And that is probably less models being loaded than just teleporting to Limsa Lominsa.

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Originally Posted by Fynlar

I would like to not use it at all; unfortunately I'm now being forced to interact with it and figure it out in order for it to stop displaying an error every time I enter a duty (something which I still don't know how to fix, because the game never really explains the error or how to fix it)

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This message does not force you to interact with the system. Just ignore it.

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Originally Posted by Fynlar

I would like to not use it at all; unfortunately I'm now being forced to interact with it and figure it out in order for it to stop displaying an error every time I enter a duty (something which I still don't know how to fix, because the game never really explains the error or how to fix it)

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You should be able to disable every piece of this. Turn off instant portrait for each job and turn off the display in duties.

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Originally Posted by Estecka

That's at most 8 character outfits worth of data being saved; doesn't sound like a lot to me.
Loading the models for 8 player + 8 portraits in trials is always going to make less data than loading the 24 players of a full on raid. And that is probably less models being loaded than just teleporting to Limsa Lominsa.

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You're not understanding. It's taking the character data that's already being loaded into the instance and posing said character in the settings provided.

I tried that, but the message still displays.

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This message does not force you to interact with the system. Just ignore it.

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I'm very irrationally bothered by error messages that pop up constantly. Ignoring it isn't an option for me.

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Originally Posted by GeorgieGorge

This would make sense, as they are now I just don't get it. Why do I need a window in the middle of my screen to show me my party when I can just....look at my party? I just don't get the point of this feature at all.

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because people like to be creative with their characters? Sorry I guess?

That being said, the current implementation of it needs more polish and rework

The beta system was so much better. Simple, fun and easy to use and not locked to a single job for each optional portrait, nor requiring constant manuel updates when making a slight change to your character's gear.. :(

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Originally Posted by Soge01

The beta system was so much better. Simple, fun and easy to use and not locked to a single job for each optional portrait, nor requiring constant manuel updates when making a slight change to your character's gear.. :(

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IIRC it did require constant manual updates, but... well, I've already forgotten exactly how it behaved, but either it told you immediately or it just quietly failed and you'd realise it by seeing your portrait had reset once you were in the duty.

The current error message is useless, because by the time it tells you, you can't do anything about it. I would rather it just say nothing.

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Originally Posted by Iscah

It seems like it would make more sense to display the portraits while you're loading. Either before you enter, as each person confirms participation, or over the black screen as you load in. But it's too distracting having them show up where they do, while you're already travelling through the dungeon.

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I strongly suspect the portrait data is part of the same state that gets loaded into the instance; this would mean that the portrait isn't available until everyone has loaded in.

The reason I suspect this -- aside from the general technical "it is wildly easier to do this if the instance server knows the portrait information, rather than you having to query every person's home server directly" -- is that they only show the portraits after the wall drops at duty start. Which is the most surefire way I can think of to hook existing code in order to gate something on "this happens after everyone has successfully loaded in".

From a player standpoint, though, I agree with you; it would be a lot nicer to see it while loading in -- or while waiting for people to finish cutscenes, or whatever else -- rather than having it appear briefly and very distractingly at the moment the gate drops.

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Originally Posted by Iscah

IIRC it did require constant manual updates, but... well, I've already forgotten exactly how it behaved, but either it told you immediately or it just quietly failed and you'd realise it by seeing your portrait had reset once you were in the duty.

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The beta system was not tied to gearset. It compared the portrait's gear directly to your equipped gear, so it'd tell you immediately if a portrait wasn't usable as Instant Portrait; you didn't have to go through the trouble of opening the character menu, gearset menu, and portrait menu at the same time, and make sure they all connected together properly.

There even was a nice button labelled "Reflect Current gear", though I don't remember whether it was available at all time, or if it was greyed out when no mismatch was detected.