Log Windows -- Why the Step Backward?

First, I apologize if this has already been discussed to death, but one of the things that annoys me most about FFXIV are the chat logs. FFXI had an elegantly simple system... everything was blasted onto one log...when information stopped flowing, the text gradually disappeared until your chat log was gone. Missed something? No problem, hit + (I think it was +) and it will reappear. LS message lost amongst battle text? No problem, you could full screen the chat window and filter out the unwanted text with a couple of keystrokes.

Contrast this with FFXIV. I get a battle log, where I get to stare at useless information like how a nutbiter marmot did 17 damage to me 3 hours ago. The box never auto-hides or auto-collapses like FFXI. At no point does the window think "Hmm... I'm probably not relevant anymore... I might need to go away for a while." I could be crafting for hours in Gridania and I still get to be constantly reminded that the nutbiter marmot did 17 damage to me... :confused:

Now I also have a SECOND log that takes up about a third of my screen real estate. This one is only dialogue and such. That's fine, except whenever I talk to someone... I GET A BIG IMMOVABLE THIRD DIALOGUE BOX WITH THE SAME TEXT. :confused: What is the point of this? Why is this third box not movable like nearly every other component of the UI? :confused: I fail to see why I need the same paragraph of apostrophed pirate-speak in two separate areas of the screen. One will suffice.

I truly hope version 2.0 addresses this, or at least adds the auto-collapse/auto-hide functionality of FFXI's 10 year old log window.

Go to Configuration > Log Settings and adjust to your liking. Enjoy.

FFXIs log was the shit though, and w/ hold for some of your chat messages, ls and party, you rarely even had to pop open the full log to see anything. I do certainly miss that, and in every other MMO I've played it's one thing I wish had been copied, I'd rather have 1 large log, and perhaps a second conditional one, both auto-hiding/fading out. The only really crappy thing in this is that you can't get the dialog widget out of the way so no matter how you set your logs you can't stick em in the bottom-center of the screen w/o them either being covered by, or covering dialogs.

There is actually an auto-hide function for the FFXIV log, but I can't remember what it is :(

That auto hide doesn't work the same as it did in XI...and hiding stuff you don't want to see might mean you may miss something that may just be what you need...
XI system was actaully good...would be nice if we did have something like it in XIV

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Originally Posted by Kitfox

Go to Configuration > Log Settings and adjust to your liking. Enjoy.

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This was helpful. I was able to eventually figure out how to get rid of the useless battle log and pour everything into the general log... unfortunately, it still lacks the auto-collapse or auto-hide feature of its 10 year old sibling. Still, much appreciated.

I actually didn't like Final Fantasy XI's chat window, because of the fact everything was in one window. I rather like multiple tabs, but I do believe Final Fantasy XIV tabs are-- a bit.. half-hazard?
One there is no good way to swap through tabs unless you click on it; so It needs a keyboard command that way you don't have to reach up there with your mouse and go: "I want this tab up."

Secondly I know a very, very old game that pre-dates World of Warcraft that also uses the Tab system (has been since its creation) and it actually does a better job because it allows you to decide one thing i wish Final Fantasy XIV would allow you to do.

How many tabs do you want on any given window and what do you want those tabs to do?

In this particular game (Istaria - formally known as Horizons: Empire of Istaria), it starts you with 2 windows. One for all the chat, one for all the combat. By the time I get a hold of it. It has one window, with maybe up to 4-6 tabs to break stuff down so I can quickly glide over different things. It also pops up a new tab when I get a whisper (or window, if I tell it to do that).
When a tab gets a message, it sits there and flashes at me saying: "Hey look at me."

Another game that has a rather intelligent tab function is also CoX(City of Heroes/City of Villains) as a more modern day example. Though it takes a bit to hassle with it.

So there is nothing wrong with them using game tabs in my personal opinion, but they do need to make the chatbox a bit smarter and a little more customizable friendly. That way perhaps by the end of the day, everyone wins.

FFXI chat had tabs, general/chat/party/linkshell/combat, and mostly good filtering. You just had to open the log to flip through tabs. That only took hitting [+key] > [enter]. I'm not saying being able to have multiple logs visible at once isn't nice at times, it can be convenient, but only if there's an effective way to make them not be there when they aren't serving a purpose, not by opening up chat config and turning it off then doing it again to turn them back on.