Concerning recent developments of third party addons, and SE's DADT stance

[ForteNightshade]

30-40% is a bit high...since it can only be used on a PC, let's say the PC playerbase is 50-60% of the total installed playerbase. If about 25% of THAT 50% of PC users actively raid, and we assume all raiders use a parser, then the 25% of the PC installed base of 50% would need to account for 30/40% of the entire subbed population, which I am really fairly sure isn't the case. I don't believe the amount of people raiding in the game on PC is equal to 30-40% going by clears alone (from census data and other sites).

Plus, I'm not even sure if they could identify who uses the parser in the first place, and if they did, I very much believe they would issue a mere blanket warning about using it. While they may not be able to tell who uses it, they probably can very well disable the ability for it to work. Still, saying that banning those who use a parser would make SE lose 30-40% of ffxiv's subscribers is quite a long reach ^^

It's a high estimate, yes. But even if it's below that. The number wouldn't be insignificant considering how ubiquitous parsing has become nowadays. Where that percentage starts climb is when you consider what else would get caught up in a ban wave. How many people how mods now? They'd fall under the same "breaking ToS" category.

Regardless, it won't ever happen. SE is well enough how big an impact ACT and FFlogs have. They aren't going to rock that boat now.

[MirielleLavandre]

Yep - in my opinion, anything that isn't cheating is fine, and the 'don't ask, don't tell' mindset SE has about certain things are good, as all it is, is data that could otherwise be gleaned, marks that could otherwise be put down, or settings that could otherwise be applied to screenshots. However, THIS mod is something I object to because it does something no one could actually do manually, in game. If there was a way to break this type of mod/plug-in and any other obvious cheating mod without breaking everything else I'd be super happy ^^

[SweetestLily]

So glad Cactuar is not on my data center. Have a good one.

Wow. You are WAY more toxic than the people using these damage meters you hate so much

[Kidria]

though I have a sneaking suspicion that the ultimate reason we don't have them is because they wouldn't be available across all platforms and therefore would cause PC players to be at an advantage over PS4 players.

I'm surprised no one else brought that up but this is also a huge thing too--this will stop us from ever having add on supports unless they are OFFICIAL add ons by SE and released like "DLC" for the PS4 versions.

[JunseiKei]

Why is it so hard to admit that certain programs equal to cheating?

Is auto waymark placement much different from aimbots in shooter games?

Is it even fine to predict incoming mechanics several seconds before they actually happen in the game? Yeah, human raid leaders can also do these, I'm sure. Heh.

When SE does not provide an opinion on this matter, it just escalates until it cannot be left alone, as SE has been doing until now.

Auto skill rotation performing and auto movement incoming, fellas. This won't be a simple joke at this rate.

The thing is, SE has provided an opinion on them. It's in the ToS - third party programs are a reportable offense that can lead to the termination of your account. However, they also turn a blind eye to users because it's a don't ask, don't tell policy. Basically, don't lead on to the fact that you are using a parser and you'll never have to worry about being reported (or don't be an absolute moron and demean someone on stream, especially if you have a large following).

I don't like these third party applications. It removes a huge element from the game that is known as human error. It's just always come across to me as taking a test with a sheet of answers next to you; all that you need to do is place your name and make sure you're providing the correct answer to the correct question and showing work where needed. For things like the placing marker addons, it can be done mid-fight, too. Someone with a dive-bomb marker, or can mark a single safe spot on the fly, also removes a huge part of difficulty and human error. This includes this newer add-on, as well as things like a bot in Discord can tell you, say, where Titan is going to slam his fist down well before his animation starts. I am being all inclusive here.

The actual parsing part? I don't see a need for it either. Most people seem to use it for seeing how much damage they, or other people do or don't do. People that go to the lengths to find the program and improve are already better players than those that simply don't care at all and just hit buttons. They've probably read their skilltips, researched rotations, etc. People that don't do that? A parser isn't going to make them better. The other benefit of the add-on and site, being able to analyze what went wrong, is hardly ever talked about with those that say why they use it. Those that want to quickly analyze something often just pull up a clip of a pull and quickly look through it. The triggers being another huge reason as to why they use it. XIV isn't exactly a hard MMO to begin with, so I really have a hard time being persuaded by the crowds that continually say these tools are needed.

[Alleo]

I do believe that anything other than seeing your numbers should be punished and that imo includes call outs too. It should be enough to see how much your party does anything else is just helping you and making it easier which gives you an advantage over all of those that cant use such a tool. Honestly I find it kinda funny how the post on reddit was done by a person who themselves post about doing triggers and having call outs..

In the end SE should introduce a simple "parser" into savage content so that everyone (including PS4 players) can see the numbers and anyone that is using something outside the game should then be punished. Because even if you have to create the triggers yourself first, they are still an advantage because a machine wont make mistakes..a real person can fail. So imo this is already making the fight easier..funny when those very same people want to have a challenge.

So showing numbers is fine (people need to know where they lack) but anything more is imo already going into the cheating category for me.

[Kuroka]

I definitely think SE needs to reign in on the recent addons that have come out. Excluding basic parsing and also auto marker(don't really have an issue with this one since its just placing markers),

The issiue isnt the 5-10 sec you save at a start of a run, but placing em during it to make stuff easier.

[Vivi_Bushido]

I'm a bit surprised nobody has even mentioned the PS4 community. I think this is a solid place to start where it's cheating.

You see... parses aren't so bad even for PS4 players because someone else in your static can tell you how you did/doing. Plugins like auto telegraph though is a huge slap in the face for PS4 players who outright cannot use them. There is no equality here. If this feature isn't taken care of, it's going to enforce raid leaders to push people to get the plug-in and reject people who don't want it/can't get it.

The plug-in will be the first must have plug-in statics are going to hard enforce since the QoL is so huge.

[Lastelli]

You see... parses aren't so bad even for PS4 players because someone else in your static can tell you how you did/doing. Plugins like auto telegraph though is a huge slap in the face for PS4 players who outright cannot use them. There is no equality here. If this feature isn't taken care of, it's going to enforce raid leaders to push people to get the plug-in and reject people who don't want it/can't get it.

This won't happen because they won't know whether you're using the plugin unless you tell them. As long as the player is good, nobody cares about what plugins they are using.

It is true however that ps players don't have access to a tool that potentially makes the game easier by calling mechanics. Personally, I really dislike act triggers and I don't use them, but if I had to chose between having act (triggers included) and not having it at all, I prefer the former option. Being able to compete against other players and see how you're doing (i.e. having a leaderboard like pretty much any other online game out there) is just fun and gives a lot of replayability to content that would otherwise die in a month.

Ideally, I'd love to see an official parser and an official leaderboard with a lot of analysis tools like fflogs, but since this won't happen because of lack of resources, we're stuck with the current system.

[JunseiKei]

Ideally, I'd love to see an official parser and an official leaderboard with a lot of analysis tools like fflogs, but since this won't happen because of lack of resources, we're stuck with the current system.

It's not a lack of resources. Yoshida has flat out stated that he does not want them, going so far as to say even if he implemented personal parsers, he knows the community will hack it to read others as well. For as much as people gripe about things he's said and not done, he's not blind to the what the players are capable of.

As for official leaderboards, I have a feeling it has to be along the same lines as why he doesn't want to make speedrunning boards either. He knows people hack and cheat and would undermine the legitimacy of the rankings.