Going on 2 hours of radio silence after logging in to find my character in GM jail

[Skivvy]

You're ignoring the pick-and-choose mentality SE is using to enforce a (completely stupid and pointless) rule.

Imagine you're driving and the speed limit is 65mph. You do 70 because everyone is doing 70, not doing 70 would literally be impeding the flow of traffic. You're harming no one, in the middle of a big pack of cars all going the same speed with no issue... and you get pulled over. Just you

Does that seem unfair? If you've got any common sense at all the answer is yes.

Punishing people for things that just plain aren't enforceable is dumb. Punishing people for things that don't impact the game or other players of enjoyment of the game is dumb. Punishing people for picking up the slack and implementing a system to cover an obvious gap left by SE themselves is monumentally stupid.

Long ago I was driving down a residential street. I was last in line of about 3 cars making their way down, and we were all going about 40 MPH in a 35 zone. Guess what happened? Motorcycle cop was behind a bend, and he pulled me over as the 3 of us drove by.

I told him that I had just been going with the flow, but I still got the ticket anyway. Was I annoyed? Yes. Do I still remember it 15+ years later? Yes. lol. We were all breaking the speed limit, so it was well within the cop's position to give me a ticket.

There are rules stated that we all signed off on to play XIV. SE isn't going to be able to catch every last person who uses a parser, and perhaps they don't care to, but if you bring attention to yourself and end up getting a report? Well, that's on you. Just have to suck up whatever punishment you get. Doesn't matter if everyone else is doing it without getting caught. It's still a third-party tool, and still against the ToS.

[Liam_Harper]

Constant practice and due diligence. a parser is just going to give you data but it's not going to improve your ability.

This is false.

As an example, a couple of times people have asked me for help. I checked fflogs (no I don't upload anything there, that'd be naughty) and someone else had posted a few logs including them. With that data I could pick out every single flaw in their rotation and give them a fully detailed explanation of how to improve. In some cases they'd been playing like that for months, read guides, beaten SSS and would never had been given any indication they were doing it wrong or why.

This actually applies to me too. I used to think I was a good Samurai, read the guides, beat SSS, practised a ton. Then one day I got curious to see if anyone ever logged me, looked at fflogs and learned I was grey parsing Seiryu. I was shocked, but it gave me a real push to analyse indepth, neglect important details far less, push more uptime and eventually I pushed my performance by a good 20-30%.

In WoW where parsing is legal, Skada was by far my most valuable tool for raid leading because it let me see everything. I could see who was missing what mechanic, what needed focus, where mistakes were happening, adapt new strategies and guide my group towards beating the encounter. It was amazing. I truly miss that.

[Reynhart]

For a job like BRD or MCH that are reliant on other job(s) for a portion of their damage, this is an inaccurate representation of what you’re capable of/the damage you’d actually be doing in a Savage fight.

On the other hand, the SSS Dummy also have specific hit points to take into account that you're alone. The "actual damage" shouldn't matter as long as you're doing "enough" damage. The problem is the mentality that pushes acceptable damage far above what the game actually requires.

[KageTokage]

I really wish SE could be more progressive about third party programs/add-ons and permit ones that are not actually providing an unfair advantage to players.

I don't think they have the staff to be monitoring said programs to make sure people aren't pushing things too far, though, considering that they can't even keep the programs that are blatantly cheating under control.

[Skivvy]

I really wish SE could be more progressive about third party programs/add-ons and permit ones that are not actually providing an unfair advantage to players.

I don't think they have the staff to be monitoring said programs to make sure people aren't pushing things too far, though, considering that they can't even keep the programs that are blatantly cheating under control.

From some of the comments in this thread, I'd beg to differ on the "not providing an unfair advantage". Being able to show moves before they happen is quite the advantage. Do I personally care? No. But evidently it's not quite as innocent as people are saying.

[Hash_Browns]

Wait it tells you what mechanics are coming up before they happen? Like I get joining voice chat where a player helps with callouts but having software that does it seems to start to boarder on cheating since it gives an advantage over people who don't use third party software or people on PS4.

ACT does, though. That's why world firsters use it. It tells you well in advance of mechanics. Sure, you still have to remember what to do for each mechanic, but it "takes the edge off" in terms of needing to remember timing. So it very much does give an advantage and will improve someone's play.

I was unaware that ACT could even do that.
I don't believe parsers are cheating, as long as it's just showing you the numbers.
However, I would consider that cheating.

[Vahlnir]

I was unaware that ACT could even do that.
I don't believe parsers are cheating, as long as it's just showing you the numbers.
However, I would consider that cheating.

It's basically the DBM of FF XIV. DBM does the same thing in WoW but they allow addons by default and even design a lot of boss fights around it (DBM). But they are not allowed here according the ToS so...while I wouldn't consider it cheating, I would definitely consider it as a breach of the ToS.

[Hash_Browns]

It's basically the DBM of FF XIV. DBM does the same thing in WoW but they allow addons by default and even design a lot of boss fights around it (DBM). But they are not allowed here according the ToS so...while I wouldn't consider it cheating, I would definitely consider it as a breach of the ToS.

Personally speaking, my belief is that if something gives you an unfair advantage - it becomes cheating.
Parsers gives you raw data of your numbers, and you can use that to better yourself - but you would be the one bettering yourself. Call outs give you a an advantage in the sense that you will never have to truly react to anything, or learn the mechanics. However, to be fair at the end of the day I'm not going to get bent out of shape about it because FFXIV (outside of the PvP) is a co-op game, and it doesn't exactly effect me. I can understand where people are coming from when they say they don't consider it cheating.

[KageTokage]

From some of the comments in this thread, I'd beg to differ on the "not providing an unfair advantage". Being able to show moves before they happen is quite the advantage. Do I personally care? No. But evidently it's not quite as innocent as people are saying.

Is it really doing that, though?

There are a lot of abilities that while lacking cast bars will still notify of when their invisible cast time begins in the combat log, which I assume is what ACT is looking at.

Ozma's form shifts are probably the best example of this as you get a message of it starting a shift a few seconds before it visibly triggers.


What's not okay are things like the hunt sniffers that are digging data out of the client that gives you a direct advantage over other players on top of not being visible through any in-game methods.

[Physic]

Is it really doing that, though?

There are a lot of abilities that while lacking cast bars will still notify of when their invisible cast time begins in the combat log, which I assume is what ACT is looking at.

Ozma's form shifts are probably the best example of this as you get a message of it starting a shift a few seconds before it visibly triggers.


What's not okay are things like the hunt sniffers that are digging data out of the client that gives you a direct advantage over other players on top of not being visible through any in-game methods.

act puts it out before in shows up in chat log i hear.