The changes made to quick chat with patch 3.55a are not satisfactory -- suggestions.

[Volene]

Title says it all, really. Pages and pages of feedback were given since the implementation of quick chat, some of it in support of the feature, but most against it, and if both sides could agree on one thing, it's that the quick chat needed improvement from its current state to allow better communication. Buttons like "Hello." and "Nice job!" serve no purpose and are almost exclusively used counter-productively as mockery, and meanwhile, important commands like "I'm out of MP - please assist!" and "Requesting Purify!" are still ignored.

I don't understand how, after all this, no changes at all were brought to quick chat aside from the one new button to go with the new gameplay features introduced in the patch (meaning that our feedback was completely irrelevant to it). While I'm obviously not a dev, I feel like adding a few quick chat buttons would have been an extremely easy change to make, yet we get nothing. They didn't even add the one specific button they mentionned as an example in one of their scarce responses to our feedback, "Please recover MP". We were explicitly told that they were focused on improving quick chat, so why do we get literally no change that's not related to a completely new feature? I would like an explanation and I don't think I'm alone in that.

And that's mostly it for the rant part, now for the actual feedback and suggestions on improving quick chat:

1. Restore regular chat or re-think the quick chat function entirely.

This point has been debated a lot and not much remains to be said, so I won't dwell on this, but the quick chat system has no reason to be. Buttons-based chat simply cannot be exhaustive enough for all the possible situations encountered in the Feast, and even if it could, we would never have enough room to fit all the relevant buttons. Removing communication from everyone in a team-based game because of the actions of a minority is not a reasonable solution, and besides, people are using the quick chat to be toxic regardless (Nice job! Nice job! Nice job! Nice job!). The quick chat system harms the community and barely even serves its intended purpose to compensate. If you won't remove it outright, at least let us use auto-translate throughout the game, for whatever small good it'll do.

2. Important buttons still need to be added. Seriously.

This goes without saying. I'm not sure why none were added after the feedback that was given all over this very forum, but this needs to change before season 4. "Purify not ready!" is not an appropriate substitute for "Requesting Purify." when it is our only means of communications with pick-up teammates. The same can be said of "Adrenaline Rush ready!", which is still ambiguous with unknown party members. Some will use it when they're using the Limit Break, while others simply mean to say it's ready and they want to coordinate it with their team without actually using it after pressing the chat button. At any rate, it is no substitute for an actual "Using Limit Break in 5 seconds!" button. Besides, a lot of important buttons like the ever-mentionned "I'm out of MP, please assist!" or "I'm being focused, requesting assistance!" have no viable replacement and need to be added ASAP before season 4 begins. Please see to this.

3. Add some buttons with the <t> command.

This is more of a change for 8v8, since 4v4 only has one player of each role, but it must still be addressed. "Attacking ranged DPS!" Ok... which one? The BLM, the SMN, or one of the two BRD? Marks will always be unreliable when they can be changed around by anyone, and two people trying to mark different people at the same time will instantly remove one of the marks to switch it. Give us the option of "Attacking <t>, please assist!" buttons to use in their place in order to coordinate damage and burst.

4. Tie quick chat functions to abilities, or give us the option to add them to certain skills.

Before the chat changes, a lot of experienced PvP players relied on their own macros to inform their team of what they were doing, and that is now impossible. Things like "Using Sleep on <t>, don't break the CC!", "Using LB on <t>, please finish them off!", "Putting down {Sacred Prism}, stand in it!" or "Just used Attunement, I need help!" were extremely useful for communication in solo queue and need to be a thing again. If you won't allow us to use harmless macros or have specific instructions to go with some abilities, at least let us combine them with quick chat. Being able to combine the "Attacking melee DPS!" with the button for Barrage, or "Stopping healer!" with Shield Bash, wouldn't be great but at least it'd be an improvement over nothing, which is pretty much what we have right now. Please consider it.

5. Restore regular chat or re-think the quick chat function entirely.

Wait, wasn't that point #1?

In all seriousness though, quick chat will never, ever allow us to communicate specific strategies with our teammates like we should. No combination of buttons will ever allow us to say "PLD picked 5 stacks, farm healer cooldowns on him then hardswap to SMN". Not even auto-translate would be sufficient. Restricting chat was a mistake and needs to be overturned before season 4 starts.

[Bourne_Endeavor]

Hate to say it, however I suspect the only feedback they will respond to is an outright refusal to queue by enough people. If The Feast dies out despite their releasing a new map, that sends a clear message the PvP community won't back down from despising the chat lock and they either have to roll back this change or give up on The Feast entirely.

[ThirdChild_ZKI]

Hate to say it, however I suspect the only feedback they will respond to is an outright refusal to queue by enough people. If The Feast dies out despite their releasing a new map, that sends a clear message the PvP community won't back down from despising the chat lock and they either have to roll back this change or give up on The Feast entirely.

This is exactly what I will be doing now. I refuse to participate in the Feast preseason and Season 4. I may check out the new map via custom matches with friends, but I will not support content they continue to ignore the community's suggestions for and further ruin.

I've said it many times before, but let this be my official statement: In protest of the changes made to the Feast since Patch 3.5; changes I and many others were not in favor of and advised and suggested against, I will be boycotting the Feast Season 4. Should the community continue to go ignored, and further terrible changes be made to the Feast, I will happily refuse to participate in future seasons as well.

[Enlial]

I suggest adding a quick chat feature where we can compose simple or complex messages by combining individual letters on our keyboards.

Quick chat doesn't really deserve any serious suggestions beyond that. Adding new ones is like putting band-aids on cancer. The change was really just a single addition for the new map tho

[Llus]

I suggest adding a quick chat feature where we can compose simple or complex messages by combining individual letters on our keyboards

Maybe we could even add these custom messages to our macros and even include timers for a countdown, like a limit break countdown... I think i could really get behind a feature like that.

[yumeyume]

They should have implemented this chat in pre-season 4.0 instead of midseason 3.55. I believe SE made a big mistake on this. The chat is missing a lot. There is no way to talk about specific strategies. Most of the time is guessing and getting frustrating cause other people don't listen or misunderstand what you meant.
I think they need more and specific chat if they plan to go this way.
Limit Break Coming
Melee hits ...
Range hits ...
OUT OF RANGE (not hello)
LOW MP (not using two hello)
Ballad Needed

They just need some communication planning ahead of the time.

[BloodRubyXII]

Just give us a right click option to report abuse and ban toxic players, you'd be surprised at how quickly people love each other or learn to keep their nasty thoughts to themselves.

[Isala]

I was reminded, yet again, why this chat "feature" is garbage today. A PLD sitting in the enemy base, with over 300 medals... I was the only one that saw him walk away from the brawl in the center. Couldn't let anyone know where he went... So I desperately had to try to kill him myself.

[Llus]

SE will not do anything to legitimately improve the feast. They will continue to cater to the casual player base which inarguably brings them the most revenue. If anything, they'll likely make it even easier to rank in the top 100, extend seasonal rewards to a token system or Mog Station purchase and continue looking the other way when win traders, speed hackers and other cheaters continue to destroy the feast. Just boycott feast both ranked and unranked and let it die the casual death it deserves.

[BloodRubyXII]

I was reminded, yet again, why this chat "feature" is garbage today. A PLD sitting in the enemy base, with over 300 medals... I was the only one that saw him walk away from the brawl in the center. Couldn't let anyone know where he went... So I desperately had to try to kill him myself.

However - your team CAN see you, I'd just spam stopping melee or something in this scenario.