[Devs] 3x Skill bars in 2.0

[Rowyne]

3. On the concept screenshot of the UI, the party unit frames and general UI seem vastly improved. However there are two glaring features that seem to be missing. One, the multiple action bars on screen at all times seems to have been forgotten, and two, the party unit frames have very abstract buff/debuffs. Timers on the unit frames are a welcome sight, but aside from protect and shell, I cannot differentiate anything about the buffs/debuffs. Will they be hoverable with tooltip information? What happened with showing multiple action bars on the screen at one time? Toggling the action bar is incredibly inefficient for PC users.

Our recently released UI screenshot is simply a representation of the default settings. It would have been possible to display multiple action bars, but we felt that doing so would take up too much screen space and hide parts of the characters. As such, we only displayed one action bar. Also, a help pop up will be displayed when you mouseover the icons. This function has been implemented in the current client and is pending text entry. Thus, you will not have to wait until 2.0, as we are planning a patch 1.20 or 1.20a release. Buffs/debuffs will also be easier to understand.

Thanks for posting this, Betel! I've been concerned about this, as well. I'm thrilled that we'll be able to see all three action bars as early as 1.20. Scrolling through action bars is extremely inefficient and makes for clunky, frustrating gameplay.

Frankly, what's the point?...it's not really a mouse-click game anyways.

It will be come 2.0. Thank the Twelve. I can't wait for this game to finally start feeling like a PC MMO.

[Agoven]

Final Fantasy was never about speed clicking...that's for mindless button mashing games like WoW.

2ndly...if you need to change battle modes constantly...you most certainly don't know how to play the game correctly.

3rdly...I don't see the difficulty of pressing an up and down arrow key. If you set your skills properly there is great strategy to pair your skills by a simple up and down action with your arrow or controller.

4thly...most Final Fantasy fans don't mind the whole menu system and wish it were more like most other Final Fantasies.

5thly...99% of the time you use only 10 to 15 skills repeatedly anyways.

6thly...learn to play the game...

7th...Don't call others trolls when in fact you yourself are the troll.

[Agoven]

IF you find the action bar so offensive. Learn to use macros!!! Most good Final Fantasy players past and present use purely macros to play with. We <3 our macros!!!

[Rowyne]

IF you find the action bar so offensive. Learn to use macros!!! Most good Final Fantasy players past and present use purely macros to play with. We <3 our macros!!!

I shouldn't have to create workarounds (ie macros) to fix a broken interface.

[Answa]

I shouldn't have to create workarounds (ie macros) to fix a broken interface.

Do you have any idea how completely out of the realm of reason that sounds?

[Agoven]

Macros are the essence of Final Fantasy XI and unrealized in Final Fantasy XIV. Macros are essential for unique characterization. Adding emotes and texts to make your actions more personable.

MACROS ARE NOT WORKAROUNDS!

Shudder to think someone would call them a workaround. Most people who ENJOY Final Fantasy play extensively with macros.

[Fensfield]

It would have been possible to display multiple action bars, but we felt that doing so would take up too much screen space and hide parts of the characters. As such, we only displayed one action bar.

Lor' I hope this means being able to disable any and all of the action bars we might want is a feature we'll all get to use, and not just something they did code-side for that prototype screenshot.

I'm sure a lot of you people are clamouring to have all three on screen at the same time and might well benefit from it, too, but not only do I not want that kind of UI clutter for my part, I have zero issue with the scrolling function as it is now (presumably since I use a gamepad) and would be sorely miffed if it were taken away from me.

Similarly I hope we get to keep the option of the action bar only appearing when we've a target selected as well as the option to keep it up at all times for those who want that. I'm very much a minimalist when it comes to the UI and I've long been really glad of how the game makes such an intrusive element sod off when I'm not using it. It was a bit unsettling, Yoshida talking about making it always on screen a while back.

[Ilean]

Macros are the essence of Final Fantasy XI

[Technolust]

Final Fantasy was never about speed clicking...that's for mindless button mashing games like WoW.

It is if you played with the wait command between menu actions (ATB) off.

2ndly...if you need to change battle modes constantly...you most certainly don't know how to play the game correctly.

As a tank class job you need to be able to target monsters first, over anything else. The only mode that allows you to do this is /tmode b with enemy targeting as the selected option. The Function key that was designed to target the mob closest to you does not work. /btmode on only works for enemies you actually have enmity from. Direct targeting, which is supposed to target the closest monster to you does not work either.

3rdly...I don't see the difficulty of pressing an up and down arrow key. If you set your skills properly there is great strategy to pair your skills by a simple up and down action with your arrow or controller.

As I mentioned above, and since you don't have a tanking class at level 50 to really see what I'm talking about it isn't as simple as you make it out, especially since most high level groupings now are multi-monster fights.

4thly...most Final Fantasy fans don't mind the whole menu system and wish it were more like most other Final Fantasies.

Since we both know you haven't spoken to most Final Fantasy fans, this statement is pure fallacy.

5thly...99% of the time you use only 10 to 15 skills repeatedly anyways.

Again I'll respond like I did previously, that this statement is a fallacy. On top of that as my MRD I have a total of 22 Abilities I use at all times. If you are only using 10 to 15 of your skills repeatedly then in my honest opinion you aren't playing to your full potential.

6thly...learn to play the game...

I have learned. Thanks for making another assumption.

7th...Don't call others trolls when in fact you yourself are the troll.

This made me laugh, it reminds me the way children retaliate when they know they made a mistake.

[Agoven]

There's already a command to keep the action bar up at all times /actionbar