Let's Talk About Macros!

[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.