Let's Talk About Macros!

[GraumSenpai]

What I would like is a command that removes that annoying red text when your using a skill on a target that it can't be used on... on my healer classes I have the following basic macro (slightly expanded on ingame) for all my DPS skills

/ac [NAME] <t>
/ac [NAME] <tt>

This first checks to attack my target, and if it cant do that it moves to the next line and then attacks my targets target (I like to stay ontop of my tank). I can't attack a party member, so a red messege onscreen (it also does it in the chat log but that has a command to remove it (/merror off)) telling me it is an invalid target... and because I spam the skill to make sure its queue'd up, that red text is on my screen 100% of the fight... while DPSing at least. Wish /merror off removed the onscreen warnings too.

Other than that I got nothing... macros are for displaying skill cooldowns, repeating quotes, removing your AST buffs midcast without right clicking them, and silly stuff as far as I am concerned.

[Niwashi]

- The ability to specify a decimal instead of a whole number in <wait.#>

Unlikely, considering that this is how the wait command used to work and they decided to change it in order to force extra time on macros. (SE doesn't want macros to be as efficient as selecting the actions directly. The extra time necessary in wait commands is there to keep people from just macroing their main combat rotations.)

- A macro command to toggle HUD layouts.

http://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodest...43b40551d1e3e8:

/hudlayout "1 – 4"
The existing HUD layout can be switched to another designated by numbers 1 – 4.

Wish /merror off removed the onscreen warnings too.

Agreed. It's been asked for often enough, and they already have that command for it. Just make it work on both copies of the error message. It seems a bit odd that that isn't how "/merror off" worked in the first place.

[Rongway]

What I would like is a command that removes that annoying red text when your using a skill on a target that it can't be used on...

It's been asked for often enough, and they already have that command for it. Just make it work on both copies of the error message. It seems a bit odd that that isn't how "/merror off" worked in the first place.

/merror does exactly what the help text says it does. "Display or hide text command errors"

/merror hides messages for things like

/ac asldkf <mo>
→ "asldkf" is not a valid action name.

//ac Synastry <mo>
→ The command //ac Synastry <mo> does not exist.

Firing an <mo> macro when your mouse isn't over something (processes the command with a literal "<mo>")
→ "<mo>" is not a valid target name.


These are different from the errors that appear in the center of the screen over everything.

The lines that trigger errors on screen even when /merror off are all valid text commands. That the target is out of range, or of the wrong alignment, or not in line of sight, is not a problem with the text command or the macro, but an incident of the user attempting to use a valid command during an invalid state of the world.

This is a noteworthy distinction because these midscreen errors are the same errors that appear when you attempt an action without a macro, so of course it makes sense that /merror should have no effect on them. The /merror command therefore should not be adjusted to suppress these messages, but a general interface setting should allow their suppression independent of the method of their generation.

[Niwashi]

The /merror command therefore should not be adjusted to suppress these messages, but a general interface setting should allow their suppression independent of the method of their generation.

But it shouldn't be independent of the method of generation, because in one method those represent failures, whereas in another they're intended.

If you use a skill directly (or rather try to) and the situation doesn't allow for it, you'd generally still want to be warned about that. Where people don't want to be warned is specifically when it comes from a macro that's designed to have these actions fail (like the <t> or <tt> pattern, where you hope one of the two commands succeeds, but the other will always fail). People want to be able to tell the system not to use those warnings for these particular commands, but still warn on the same errors in direct commands.

[CarrotParfait]

OP: What are the problems with macros as they work in FFXIV?

The biggest problem with macros is that they are
A. client-side only and
B. can't queue actions

Unlike skills and abilities, the client won't let you execute a macro before you are off the global cooldown. The client has to believe that no other action is executing before it will let you execute a macro, which introduces lag to and from the server on any ability executed from a macro. It also means that you have to repeatedly click on a macro to make sure that it actually executes ASAP, which can be annoying if you tied party chat to your macro.

The biggest improvement would be to allow the client to accept the button press for a macro while other skills are being activated, and queue up the execution of that macro.