New Cross Hotbar Options

This option of sets will show an 8 skill hotbar. This doesn't function too differently from the current cross hotbar. It just provides a way to keep 8 skills on tap and provided a different way of cycling hotbars. You wouldn't see the traditional two sided cross hotbar showing all 16 skills at once.

http://i.imgur.com/Qo6KPYF.png


http://i.imgur.com/nn2BNTx.png


http://i.imgur.com/BUgCsJl.png

This option of sets will show a 4 skill hotbar. This functions quite differently from the current hotbar. It only shows skill designated to X,B,Y,A and the shoulders and bumpers alternate between sets. For this setup to work it will have to change some functions in the above picture so the player can use the face buttons only for skill rotations.

The purpose of this setup is to provide a musical term called Economy of Motion. It's a law that speed and fluidity is increased by requiring the main fingers to move as little as possible from an originating position. The current cross hotbar in XIV calls for the player to either remove their thumb from the left analog to press the d-pad or extend their right thumb from the face buttons to hit the d-pad.

This 4 button hotbar set achieves Economy of Motion with the slight negative of needing to press the should and bumper buttons more often.

The positive in this setup is that the player no longer has to remove their thumb from the left analog or extend their right hand thumb to reach the dpad. Playing with this setup will allow the user to more easily dodge damage ground indicators and make hotbar rotations more simple for certain players.

http://i.imgur.com/x9jJ9WG.png

http://i.imgur.com/gPgiwuC.png


In both iterations of these new cross hotbar setups. Holding a button will only be used when switching between:
1-8 sets to switch to 9-16 sets for the 8 hotbar setup.
1-8 sets to switch to 9-16 sets for the 4 hotbar setup.

This will drastically:

• Improve economy of Motion
• Decrease hand and finger exhaustion
• Could help a player manage rotations better only seeing 4-8 skills on screen at one time