Yoshi-P "definitive" answer on third party tools from today's 14 hour stream

[Lustre]

Who cares, just install whatever you want or dont want, dont be an idiot and shout about it and nothing will happen. Why everyone needs such approval I have no idea. And if people have a problem, take it up with the console players holding the game back

[Gemina]

This isn't meant to throw shade on the free translators doing god's work, I'm just rambling sorry.

It doesn't work as well if you apologize for getting someone's carpet dirty in the middle of taking a dump on it. If you're worried about Yoshi's immensely powerful words getting lost in translation, then perhaps you should take it upon yourself to learn Japanese. And if you want to call anything that could be lost in translation into question, then you would be doing that for just about any and all text currently in existence. How much of it do you believe is verbatim?

What's important is the message gets across, and even for someone like me who does not speak Japanese, is super casual, and has very little stock in hardcore raiding, the message is crystal clear: SE does not support 3rd party tools/addons. These tools and exhibition of their use is prohibited, and a non-compliance can result if temporary suspension of services rendered to the subscriber.

That is all that myself, as a subscriber needs to know. If the feature in not in the game, then it is not officially supported by SE. If someone can't understand this, then even the most accurate translator isn't going to change that.

[Johners]

Who cares, just install whatever you want or dont want, dont be an idiot and shout about it and nothing will happen. Why everyone needs such approval I have no idea. And if people have a problem, take it up with the console players holding the game back

I don't really like the idea that the console players are at fault for something Square Enix is responsible for. They're the ones that haven't actually done a good enough with many technical areas of this game which accounts for a lot of the QoL plugins that people use. To say that PlayStation users are at fault is really counterintuative to getting SE to actually take modernising XIV more seriously. Likewise, especially in Japan which is an audience SE focus on more than the Western crowd, console users are a massive portion of the player base. Classic GCBTW in fighting though which is nothing new.

Besides, people get way too focused on horse cock mods or FFLogs in the third party tools discussion but never actually address legitimate cheating the completely hands off moderation process allows. We've seen glimpses of it with the PvP cheat that existed literally a week after Crystalline Conflict released or that one guy streaming DSR with a radar telling him where to go. It's the tip of an iceberg that goes much deeper and is becoming ever easier to access.

[Saraide]

So I don't think I'll be able to step into this issue anymore and I think we had enough debates about this already

I felt that sentence in my soul.

[Jojoya]

Client to client tomfoolery is possible as long as there's a mod on the targeted client and the attacker has a program that can interact with that mod. The mod don't necessarily have to be specifically for FFXIV.

That's why SE warns players that use of mods is at your own risk. They are not responsible if you suffer any loss due to use of mods, whether in game or in real life.

Back to the general topic, it comes down to common sense. They're against ToS partly to protect SE in situations like above and partly to give them a tool to use against those using mods to gain an unfair game advantage.

If you're using a mod for accessibility reasons (like vision impairment), they're not going to come after you. If you're using a mod to change how the UI displays (as long as that change does not include information that doesn't appear as part of the default UI), they're not likely to come after you. If you using a mod to alter display colors or glamours, they're not going to come after you (as long is it's not altering to display pornographic or other questionable images/sounds).

They're interested in focusing the time of their support staff that investigates violations on more important things such as account hacks and mods that give legitimate unfair game advantage. They don't want to be wasting time on petty revenge reports or self-appointed ToS police officers.

Use common sense. Mods can enhance the game experience but the game doesn't need mods for it be playable. Otherwise there would be no console support. Ask yourself if you really need to have that mod - then accept the consequences for choosing to use it.

When it comes to use of mods to harass players, we've already got policies regarding player harassment. Such harassment alone is enough for SE to decide to ban a player. Mods being involved doesn't change much of anything.

[Gemina]

I don't really like the idea that the console players are at fault for something Square Enix is responsible for. They're the ones that haven't actually done a good enough with many technical areas of this game which accounts for a lot of the QoL plugins that people use. To say that PlayStation users are at fault is really counterintuitive to getting SE to actually take modernising XIV more seriously. Likewise, especially in Japan which is an audience SE focus on more than the Western crowd, console users are a massive portion of the player base. Classic GCBTW in fighting though which is nothing new.

The comment you quoted is at best, counterintuitive. It is far more credit than I would give anyone who scapegoats a set of players already at a disadvantage despite having to pay the same subscription fee as anyone else. Especially when we have seen the blatant cheating that takes place in the highest level of content the game provides. Throwing rocks at squirrels is the nicest way I can put it.

[VelKallor]

then perhaps you should take it upon yourself to learn Japanese

Gemina

I speak three languages, and to look at your comment above, to ADEQUATELY speak conversational Japanese, be able to read and write in katakana, hirigana and kanji, will take close to a YEAR or more.

Kanji alone is 3000 separate characters.

AND cost a significant amount for classes and material

Asking someone to learn a full language to the level of a fluent Japanese speaker just to read whats on a game broadcast is utterly ludicrous.

[Floortank]

That's one thing I'll never understand. Like, how are you gonna have a bunch of difficult content with hard enrages, but not let anyone know exactly how much damage they're dealing without resorting to either 3rd party addons or shudders digging through the battle log? Not even getting into the fact that said addon also identifies issues such as figuring out who's healing effectively or throwing Medica 2's into the wind, or whether or not people are actively using their mitigation skills.

Like man, even a grading system like in Devil May Cry would serve as better feedback than the Stone Sea Sky trials which can be either overtuned or undertuned depending on your job.

Actual smart reply.

As a person who has worked extensively in number crunching QA environments, there is no way SE itself is not using tools to parse the battles they're designing. They are likely parsing them as they build them and as they test them, which is how we get the exact balance changes we get patch to patch.

If they need a parser to gauge whether a fight needs to be tuned up or down, they can't actually expect players to be able to play the game without one. They themselves cannot accurately balance the content to an acceptable finish without knowing precisely what individual Job damage numbers are. Players who clear the raids are just unpacking the development process one mechanic at a time and benchmarking progress by parsing DPS numbers, which I promise you is the development process in reverse, but still the same process.

[Gemina]

Gemina

I speak three languages, and to look at your comment above, to ADEQUATELY speak conversational Japanese, be able to read and write in katakana, hirigana and kanji, will take close to a YEAR or more.

Kanji alone is 3000 separate characters.

AND cost a significant amount for classes and material

Asking someone to learn a full language to the level of a fluent Japanese speaker just to read whats on a game broadcast is utterly ludicrous.

... *sigh*

[Axious]

Would removing the PC/Mac usability and forcing the game to be 100% console (Ps4, Ps5 and possibly xbox)
remove 3rd party add ons or are they inevitable?