Should HUD Add-Ons Be Allowed By Square Enix?

[Kacho_Nacho]

my experience in other MMOs is ... addon make the teamplay worse, really worse, they start as something "optional" and become "You must use those addon to play with us" ... so no. love have the actual system without those

That's been my experience in WoW with add-ons like DBM. But, I'm talking about add-ons which are quality of life improvements.

Whenever I feel like I want an add-on, it's really just because the built-in UI has something very lacking.

For example, I have a 3440x1440 yet I'm forced to use the same small area to display inventory in tabs as everyone else. I'm sure my CPU can handle something a lot more complex. Sometimes I also wish I had access to a list-form inventory. These can all be done easily via add-ons without impacting the baseline gameplay, as the official UI is always limited by the lowest spec the game is targeted to serve.

Other things like a list of daily/weekly to-do that is customizable. For example I do the weekly custom deliveries, but I don't bother myself with the beast tribe dailies nor the GC turn-ins. Or another player may only have GSM leveled and only care about the daily GC turn-in for GSM. A customizable to-do list will be able to display this information concisely, and maybe even create interactions that streamline the to-do process, such as clicking on the "Today's GSM turn-in is such-and-such item" to open up the crafting log at that specific item, ready to craft.

A lot of these small QoL improvements are being considered too insignificant and thus ignored by the developer. This is where the add-on community comes in.

So if I have to take a side, I'm on the side of allowing add-ons for these kind of features unrelated to combat. Either that, or expand the macro system a lot more to make such QoL improvements possible.

Exactly. I feel the community can really help the developers in this regard. Macros are an interesting idea.

[galbsadi]

That's been my experience in WoW with add-ons like DBM.

In all fairness, I don't see that as so different from groups here with "must have seen to X" or "must have cleared" or "must watch video x/y"

In both cases, those 'requirements' exist largely because those running the group find it easier to manage when people do those things. Also, in both cases, if you don't like it, you're not required to join those groups, and can even make your own without said requirements.

I've led groups in WoW, and while I've never made it a requirement for people to have certain addons (outside of one that made managing loot easier for a regular raid team in WoW)...I've also found that 99.999% of people who have a problem with said addons tend to drag the whole group down. Exceptions exist, of course, but they are just that: exceptions.

I've also helped lead groups in this game, and repeatedly seen players who didn't have a clear yet cause problems (again, not always), and sometimes that's not what a group is going for.

Further, this may be selection bias to a degree, but I've noticed far more people interested in and doing high-end content since these addons have become mainstream in WoW, and have found it significantly faster to find people interested in high-end content there as well (still find people here, just takes a bit longer). It's arguable that this might be due to said addons making the content easier (or at least appear such) to unlock the idea of such to a wider base of people.

[RoyalBeef]

In both cases, those 'requirements' exist largely because those running the group find it easier to manage when people do those things. Also, in both cases, if you don't like it, you're not required to join those groups, and can even make your own without said requirements.

That's the main point I don't get. People whine because they got kicked from groups, or are not allowed to join. So why don't they just make their own party, without any "elitist jerks" and their requirements? Simple answer: They know that they need these elitist jerks to get a clear clear, bc in a party full of people who perform like they do,l they'll never clear. So around three corners all the complain threads are basically just subpar players trying to enforce rules that force better players to carry them by a) either hiding their bad performance or b) making it so that calling them out or removing them is a bannable offense, so you'd rather keep your mouth shut and drag their dead weight to a clear.