Let's say we'd get more skills - How would you handle them?

[Shurrikhan]

I mean yeah I could work with alt more but alt is kind of uncomfortable to hit because I'd have to hit it with my thumb which in my opinion isn't nearly as comfortable as ctrl or shift(I prefer letting my thumb rest on the spacebar). Edit: DUH! That's it! Get rid of jump and instead rebind spacebar as another modificator key. GENIUS. Problem solved lol.

Technically you can just use a button registry swapper to turn Caps into an Alt, so you have it right in line with the others. It just takes a little while to get used to having your pinky that high. Personally, I used alt just as a pinky trigger even before swapping Caps over to it; though the hand position demand you move only with your mouse for the split second, Alt-S, D, F, G, X, C, V, B, etc. are really quite comfortable. Now, with Caps replaced, I can even comfortably Alt (Caps)- F1, F2, F3, F4, and so forth. Adjusting the key in-game only, though, is unprecedented as far as I'm aware, and I don't expect SE would be the first to allow for something like that.

Especially for us 1.x veterans, hailing from a jump-less state of the game, Space has always seemed like a vast area of keyboard space to spend on such little value. At least, that was the case until we swapped to character-based camera and auto-face target, at which point jumping became immensely important for maintaining attackable facing on moving targets for melee, and maintaining direction of movement while using skills and maintaining auto-attack uptime on ranged. Even then, though, I'd hear comments like "couldn't we have just fixed auto-face targeting and made this a more impactful key, such as for a dynamic (cover, grouping, displacement, etc.) system?"

What I really wish they'd do is copy the lingering mod states for keys that have multiple mod or unmodded states, such as Q, Shift-Q, and Ctrl-Q. In most other MMOs, if you hit Q to strafe, hitting Shift wouldn't stop your strafe outright in order to perform the Shift-Q function; instead, you'd need to hit Q again. This allows you then, to strafe about using Q and E while hitting other Shift-modified keys. To put it another way, it doesn't append the mod state to keys already being pressed, or only works in the order mod->key, never key->mod. Paired with jumping to prevent stopping or change of direction, that simple difference can open up a variety of keys that would otherwise be too clunky to use (such as, again, by stopping strafing movement if you attempt to use any other mod form of your strafe keys). I would love for XIV to allow for either version, by player choice.

Another handy bit would be to simply allow for multiple non-simultaneous functions for the same key, and/or to allow a couple additional states / control schemes. For instance, if a specific function is only available when in full-screen menus (controller), or when mounted, why would it necessarily need to be a different key from what you use when in typical combat? For instance, let's say there's a raider who wants to make the most of his pre-modified keyboard space, and sees keyboard-turning as useless for combat so he removes those two keys. But, when he's just traveling about for hunts, or whatnot, he'd really like those keys back so he can fly lazily with just his right or left hand. This could be solved in either or both of two ways: you allow for a different control scheme for (flying/ground/all) mounts, and assign turning, rather than strafing, to Q and E or A and D, and/or you allow for another mod-state via tied camera and movement (e.g. by default, when LMB and RMB are both pressed, or MMB is held). Now you have the best of both worlds. Similarly, allow for multiple abilities to be assigned to the same slot if they cannot be simultaneously available. The one currently available will be shown. This could cover skills like Wide Volley vs. Quick Nock, Fell Cleave vs. Inner Beast, Decimate vs. Steel Cyclone, Fang and Claw vs. Wheeling Thrust, and even Defiance vs. Deliverance (simply toggling between the two). That small adjustment should save you a slot for Bard, Machinist, and Dragoon, and 3 for Warrior.

I don't play with a controller, save for maybe once a year just to review how it's supposed to feel, so I can't offer much in suggestions on that side. I just hope we'd be able to keep all combat keys within 2 hotbars (24 binds), including LB, Sprint, and core pet macros/abilities. All I can maybe hope for in terms of their UI or control schemes is that we might be able to reverse the way the mod and main keys work, e.g. entering a new set by hitting O, and then using its abilities via LB, LT, LS, RB, RT, RS, or to change over only half a set or so (just the right or left).

Finally, a couple general QoL changes for setup, to improve intuitiveness of making a UI, though not combating button-bloat exactly:

• An optional "Cooldown" bar, similar to a buff or debuff bar, that shows which skills are on cooldown, and for how long. This would largely forgo the need to create any additional bars on controller; if it's not on the cooldown bar, you're ready to go. Of course, additional sorting and ordering, or the use of a slider sort, would be helpful thereafter.
• Allow for keys to be more easily be bound directly to the slots shown on screen. For example, typing /keybind or hitting its shortcut would allow m&kb players to simply hover their mouse over whatever skill slot they wanted to adjust on screen and input the key they want assigned to it, while controller players would be directed to a sub-interface that would allow them to easily adjust their key positions and mod keys on screen, rather than solely through the keybind menu. Alternatively, either can bind skills directly from their Actions and Traits menu, such that if the skill shows up multiple times on your bars, so too does its bind.