Addon support?

I have recently started playing this game, I used to play world of warcraft and rift, and not having things like dps meters or custom ui is a huge disappointment for me.

I did some google searching and apparently square enix is working on addon support, have they given an estimate as to when that will be added?

The complete lack of addons and massive rmt spam (I realize that is already talked about a lot on these forums, but it really is a huge annoyance for me) are my two biggest problems so far with this game, everything else (except for not having a dps class that can use a sword... swords arnt just tanking weapons you know! but I can deal with that for a while, and not as much of an issue for me) is fantastic.

at launch it was aimed to be what, half a year after launch but then its been thrown back a few times. the current estimation i think is between patches 3.0 - 3.1.
there seem to be a few "illegal" addons around (illegal as in, the use is against the Terms but stuff like dps meters aren't being witchhunted down unless you use it to harass people).

define custom

No ETA yet. But we do know for sure it won't be before 3.0. In fact, it won't even be AT 3.0 launch.
Talks of addon has been around for years now.. I wouldn't get my hopes up. Either wait until addons are added to the game, or you'll just have to deal with it.

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Originally Posted by rina_inverse

define custom

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Visual things like better UI (buff/debuff more visible and/or pop-up in the middle of the screen as an alert), raid alerts, faster ban & report with filter for RMT bitches, RP addons (character sheet), PvP stats, % for stats like hit, cri, ect

I should start jotting down all the ideas I have for addons when things annoy me in the game in the event that they'll be possible with whatever API SE makes available to us.

Aetherytes always take top priority on the map and their icon + selectable/tooltip area are always placed above any other type of icon.
Mini-aetherytes in towns/housing are labeled with their aethernet names instead of "lol magical rock".
Currently revealed unspoiled nodes and in-range standard nodes appear on map.
Gathering nodes given 2nd highest priority next to aetherytes.
Distance from current target.
Party TP
Prevent using Virus if Virus or Antibody are present on target.
Prevent using Eye for an Eye on target if already present.
Double-clicking a mat in a recipe will jump to that mat's recipe, if it's a crafted item. (forward and back buttons as well if possible)
Remove auto-addition of recipes to Favorites.
Clicking a quest/leve in your tracker that requires crafting opens the crafting window at the recipe of the item you're supposed to make instead of the map.
A notification window that reminds you when a given unspoiled node has just become active.
Some sort of automatic FC message equivalent of the same, so that when a node goes active it tells everyone to go grab a Grade 3 Thanalan dirt or whatever else the FC needs to be stockpiling.
Try-on and Search for Item via right-click in the lotting window.

wont that count as "game adjustment" than add on?
add on sounds like it optional

As far as custom ui goes, I would mostly want timers for buffs, debuffs, and cooldowns (yes they are already displayed but I dont like looking up at the top of the screen to see how much longer Heavy Thrust will be up, for example), boss abilities (deadly boss mods for wow, look it up, its awesome, and nearly every (if not every) raider in wow uses it) and a dps meter (I realize that will give ammunition for arseholes to trash players, but arseholes will be arseholes regardless of what ammunition they have, and having a solid tool to see how much you have improved via gear/leveling/rotation is a very neat thing to have, and it lets you see if someone is seriously underperforming in a raid (I don't mean doing less damage than the rest of the dps, I mean doing half as much or less, a player like that is going to be a huge detriment to any kind of end game raiding)

The other things Limecat mentioned would be nice as well, though I probably would not go much beyond cooldown displays and dps meter

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Originally Posted by rina_inverse

wont that count as "game adjustment" than add on?
add on sounds like it optional

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add-on IS optional
But sometimes, they make so much sense, it gets included into the actual game as an official UI.

WoW has a lot of elements in its UI that first originated from addons.

I don't know if it's wise to block spells from being cast on conditionals, I don't think addons would go that far.. But all the other UI adjustments, well, that's pretty standard for what addons are capable of.

I personally can't wait until they implement addon support, but I don't know if I'll ever get to see it in the time I play this game.

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Originally Posted by reptiliane

Visual things like better UI (buff/debuff more visible and/or pop-up in the middle of the screen as an alert), raid alerts, faster ban & report with filter for RMT bitches, RP addons (character sheet), PvP stats, % for stats like hit, cri, ect

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You forgot better party frames =P

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Originally Posted by Itseotle

You forgot better party frames =P

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Oh yes indeed, I'm not sure if I would like healing with the current party frames, would much prefer to have larger hp bars with a percentage marker in them.

Personally I'd like the ability to change the long row of HP/MP/TP into a column, and make the EXP bar a lot smaller. And be able to tag the quests I want to see and ONLY show the quests I want in the quest window, not just the ability to sort it and not able to remove the other quests.

And hide low level quest markers on the map, I realize I can just complete them and they won't return, but I want to save them for when I start a new class at level 1, and seeing them everywhere gets kind of annoying.

and separate the quest log with the FATE screen.. so I can just hide the quest screen without losing access to the Level Sync button.. Seriously, who designed these default UI..

What I expect is that any "add-on" support will be limited to only information that is available on-screen already. To do otherwise would give PC players an extremely unfair advantage over console users. I'd expect that no addon's would be allowed that would let you fire skills faster or more accurately than the existing macros, nor would any addon's allow "choreography" in absolute positions. Maybe relative positions (eg "strafe 10 steps left, walk 4 steps forward, wave, smile") in the same way cutscenes work would be something cool to do and let RP'ers do more than just talk.

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Originally Posted by KisaiTenshi

What I expect is that any "add-on" support will be limited to only information that is available on-screen already. To do otherwise would give PC players an extremely unfair advantage over console users.

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But PC players already have an advantage over the console users by means of hardware..
If you even have just a $30 macro mouse from Logi... You can make a 1 button combo macro with custom delay times in between. I have a 9 button mouse that can do exactly that, I might use it too if I played class that relied on it.


More extravagant hardware will allow for even more craziness.

Honestly I find it a little strange to be playing an mmo that runs on ps4, having to ask someone if they are on console or pc just to know if I can send them a youtube link or whatever, since console users wouldn't be able to alt tab for that.

As for only displaying available information, most of what a lot of the other people here have wanted is already available on screen, but in less than helpful positions (having to look to the top of the screen to check for buff timers, then down to the bottom of the screen for cool down timers, ugh)

Edit: as to what gen said, I would agree 100%, simply can't imagine playing an mmo without my Logitech G600, and I highly doubt the programmable buttons on that would work on a console.

As repetitive as this might sound, as long as we have PS3 support, there will be little to no add ons added. PS3 simply can't handle them. I even doubt that a PS4 could handle loads of add ons.

For the near future it would be nice to have at least more UI options, QoL adjustmenst regarding the UI and some form of a parser.

I hope we'll get word from SE with a legit timeline.

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Originally Posted by Itseotle

You forgot better party frames =P

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Nope, it was in the "ect" :P

By the way, there is a reason why MMOs aren't usually developped on console. They slow down MMOs because of their so many limitation. Addons are just one of this limitation. You should take your console version like if it was the PS vita of our PC version. It's obvious it won't be optimal.

The ui could use a few good add ons imo

SE, plz do allow them in the near future orrrrr take the many many ui QoL suggestions ppl have made over the past year and develop a much more configureable ui at the very least.

I use add ons in wow, but just a couple, its impressive what these players can create ^^

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Originally Posted by abzoluut

As repetitive as this might sound, as long as we have PS3 support, there will be little to no add ons added. PS3 simply can't handle them. I even doubt that a PS4 could handle loads of add ons.

For the near future it would be nice to have at least more UI options, QoL adjustmenst regarding the UI and some form of a parser.

I hope we'll get word from SE with a legit timeline.

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Chances are, most of the addons will be PC exclusive anyway. I figure PS4 and PC will have different structures for building addons also, so PS4 will require a lot more niche community of developers for the addon.. PC, plenty of people with experience ready to jump in.. I don't think SE would release addons for both platforms simultaneously anyhow.

I can live without most of the stuff I used to use in WOW, but there are some definite UI and general quality of life improvements that are desperately needed. Don't need addons for that, just fix the base game.

Mostly looking forward to someone making a chat filter add on so no more rmt tells lol

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Originally Posted by Zumi

Mostly looking forward to someone making a chat filter add on so no more rmt tells lol

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it's already been done sure the TOS does not allow to use them but people still do.

Also i don't see addon being release anytime soon it seem like they don't care to release it at this pint.

DPS meter, but not to harass ppl, to know how I'm doing with my job...

I am a PC player but I hope they will never add addons support. I believe it would discriminate PS3 and PS4 players and I can already see statics not taking people without some addons etc.
If they added ingame parser and solved a few problems (especially the reports) people are asking for, we wouldn't need addons.

Probably nothing official until they can make it available on all systems the game runs on.

SE pls.

Most of what I want could be attained if the current UI was just divided up further. Why do my buffs and debuffs have to be attached to each other?! ARRGH!

I'm all for add-ons though. I miss vuhdo, because SE's party frames are bad. I also miss DBM. I prefer to know how long I have, in seconds, before something hits as opposed to using arbitrary things like "eh, about every third attack" or "yeah this feels like it's been 5 seconds."

Alternatively, SE could separate the duty timer from the objectives so I could put it in a more reasonable place and use it as my timer for things (we used to do this in T4), but that goes back to my original point: SPLIT UP THE UI, EVERY ELEMENT IN IT DOES NOT NEED A BUDDY ELEMENT!

Also, we had the option to hide quests in beta. SE then decided it was bad somehow and took it away (wat).

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Originally Posted by zandervont

at launch it was aimed to be what, half a year after launch but then its been thrown back a few times. the current estimation i think is between patches 3.0 - 3.1.
there seem to be a few "illegal" addons around (illegal as in, the use is against the Terms but stuff like dps meters aren't being witchhunted down unless you use it to harass people).

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^ this. There was an official statement early on that said add ons were planned to be added about 6 months after the release of ARR. That obviously never happened. Now we are closing in on the 2 year anniversary without hearing much about them. Though the pc players already have unofficial add ons anyways with parsers, boss skill call outs, and hunt radar maps.

http://sd.keepcalm-o-matic.co.uk/i/n...pe-noooope.png

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Originally Posted by GenJoe

I don't know if it's wise to block spells from being cast on conditionals, I don't think addons would go that far.. But all the other UI adjustments, well, that's pretty standard for what addons are capable of.

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I think being able to customize your hotbars is a pretty standard feature for MMO addon support. Having skills only appear on your hotbars when they're applicable is one of the common ways that's put to use.

For example, in LOTRO, there are a variety of different debuff types that can be cured by different potions, but in the standard UI it requires identifying the type of debuff from its icon in order to choose the right potion type to match it. That can be a bit difficult and error-prone during a fight, so add-ons were created that add the appropriate item-use skills to your hotbar only when you have the matching debuff. That way you know the one that pops up on your screen is the one you need to use. You wouldn't accidentally use one that's not needed because there's no button on your screen for it when it's not needed. (As an additional bonus, that helps clear excess screen clutter while still keeping everything available at need.)

If similar capabilities were offered in FFXIV addons, they'd be able to do things like Limecat suggested, in only offering the Virus skill on your hotbar when neither it nor Antibody are on your target, or only offering Eye for Eye on your hotbar when your target doesn't have that one.

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Originally Posted by Limecat

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Sounds like you want addons to babysit you.

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Originally Posted by Niwashi

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I know what addons are "capable" of.. Back before WoW overhauled their addons(around WotLK iirc), I was using flexbar with all the custom scripts to pop up insignia on my mouseover in 500% scale under different conditionals.. But they got rid of it as a design decision and decided not to allow addons to alter gameplay mechanics like that

I'm sure it can be possible within the scope of things depending on how SE goes with this "addon" thing... If we ever get to see it I mean.. I just want addons as for QoL, not to play the game for me.

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Originally Posted by Niwashi

Having skills only appear on your hotbars when they're applicable is one of the common ways that's put to use.

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Visible queues are fine, but outright barring the usage of a skill because it's not optimal, thus actually altering the player's input, I see too much room for exploitation. Also, hotbar swapping depending on the enemy condition? i.e. Enemy has no debuffs, cast Bio, Enemy has Bio, cast Miasma. etc. That's treading very closely to what a bot would do..
for example, if the above was implemented, with an elaborate enough addon/script you could pretty much make a 1 button combo for all classes.. 1 button for dps, 1 button for heal.. Hell, you could even make an addon for 1 button crafting that way.

SE is very gun shy about add-ons. The fact that many current "illegal" add-ons do things they really don't want to condone (the hunt trackers and bot programs, for example) is just a nail in the coffin.
This is bolstered by the fact that certain add-ons were a real problem in FFXI, so the "scars" are still there.
In addition, they've also stated that they don't want PC players to have an unnecessary advantage over PS3/4 players in terms of gameplay.

It's fine and dandy to explore what you want to do, but you have to understand that there ARE negatives to allowing add-ons. Plus, as mentioned in other threads, the lead developers have kind of a love-hate relationship with even DPS meters, which smells to me of personal history given we know Yoshi-P HAS played WoW and there are some disturbingly elitist attitudes towards add-ons in that game ("Oh, you don't have Omen? You can't raid with us then!")