Evidence that Macros Do NOT Cause GCD Delay or Lost Casts

[Collin_Sky]

I watched the video again, and I'm guessing what you're seeing is simply the difference in the timing of the button presses for macros and non-macros.

No. There is literally a delay in the GCD. I can tell the difference between a button press and the GCD not rolling correctly. I've been playing consistently since 1.0, I know the difference. Don't patronise me.

we should easily be able to see it with the naked eye in the video.

Stop trying to eyeball things, lmao. This is not how you prove your theory correctly.

You're really grasping at straws to defend yourself. As others have suggested (but you've ignored when it's mentioned) uploading to the website people use to get empirical data on things such as this would solve literally all debate and give you the ultimate proof of whether you're right or wrong. Instead, you not only avoid doing this but have also hidden your character from appearing.

[Mikoko_Miko]

I found this: [en]Macrology(the Third Edition).

This is awesome. I learned about macros with scattered information here and there, but this is summed up and systematic. It also deals with my current matter of interest. Thank you for sharing.

Local Processing

Macro and text command instead player's operation. All these will change to a same form in system. All player's operation is local, so macro and text command are also local. They will be executed at once no matter how poor your network connection is.

You may feel disagree with this, for when network connection is poor, macro works not well. This is actually because macro is running as before, but connection with server is not as before. When you use a crafting macro, some actions missing if network connection is poor, this not because macro are influenced by network connection, but macro execute its commands as usual while character cannot receive commands due to poor network connection.

[Mikoko_Miko]

Everything below here is the article, the original text can be found at: https://jp.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodes.../blog/4722988/.

Other than that, the 14-line consecutive tapping pseudo-pre-input macro has the advantage that you can pre-input from outside the attack range. Since you can't pre-input from outside the range of a normal skill, it's difficult to "attack the moment you come within range" manually. However, the 14-line consecutive tapping macro makes this possible, so for example, you can "run up and hit Onslaught the moment you come within Onslaught's range"

After rereading this article, a Gedankenexperiment occurred to me.

Scenario
Some battles have a gimmick that a target disappear and reappear after an interval. You cannot attack before retarget. A macro user replaces only the first action of a GCD chain with the following macro and continues with normal actions.

/targetenemy
/action [GCD action name]
/targetenemy
/action [GCD action name]
/targetenemy
/action [GCD action name]
/targetenemy
/action [GCD action name]
/targetenemy
/action [GCD action name]
/targetenemy
/action [GCD action name]
/targetenemy
/action [GCD action name]
/macroicon [GCD action name] action

As in the article this macro is expected to be pseudo-queued even before reappearance and fire action immediately after retarget. It has a roughly fifty-fifty chance of 1 frame clipping. Because normal actions cannot be queued before retarget, it is very likely that the clipping of normal actions exceeds 1 frame. Therefore macros don't innately cause GCD delay.

[Collin_Sky]

After rereading this article, a Gedankenexperiment occurred to me.

Scenario
Some battles have a gimmick that a target disappear and reappear after an interval. You cannot attack before retarget. A macro user replaces only the first action of a GCD chain with the following macro and continues with normal actions.

/targetenemy
/action [GCD action name]
/targetenemy
/action [GCD action name]
/targetenemy
/action [GCD action name]
/targetenemy
/action [GCD action name]
/targetenemy
/action [GCD action name]
/targetenemy
/action [GCD action name]
/targetenemy
/action [GCD action name]
/macroicon [GCD action name] action

As in the article this macro is expected to be pseudo-queued even before reappearance and fire action immediately after retarget. It has a roughly fifty-fifty chance of 1 frame clipping. Because normal actions cannot be queued before retarget, it is very likely that the clipping of normal actions exceeds 1 frame. Therefore macros don't innately cause GCD delay.

Or just use the function built into the game instead of harming your gameplay with macros

[Mikoko_Miko]

Or just use the function built into the game instead of harming your gameplay with macros

It is new to me since it is disabled by default and my main role is a healer. I found it very convenient. Many thanks for useful information.

The point of my thought experiment is whether it is (pseudo-)queued if you execute before reappearance or not, so I update my macro.

/action [GCD action name] × 14 lines
/macroicon [GCD action name] action

[LilimoLimomo]

No. There is literally a delay in the GCD. I can tell the difference between a button press and the GCD not rolling correctly.

Clearly you can't, otherwise the in-game timers would support your claim. The actual timer in the game is more reliable than your eyeballs. Speaking of which...

Stop trying to eyeball things, lmao.

Are you sure you didn't intend to send this message to yourself? Because it's your own advice, and yet you don't seem interested in taking it, even when your human eyeballs think they see something that is contradicted by the software timer.

You're really grasping at straws to defend yourself.

Collin, again you are projecting. I performed a test where the in-game timer shows that the timing difference you're worried about doesn't exist, and I've made the video showing the experiments and its results publicly available. If you would prefer to ignore that data, that's your call. Regardless, the data is here for anyone who is interested in the scientific method and is genuinely interested in learning the unbiased truth.

uploading to the website people use to get empirical data on things such as this

Can you be more specific about which website you'd like me to use, and how I would go about uploading data to it?

[LilimoLimomo]

This stuff is even worse than what OP is suggesting. Please do not do this.

That's an interesting way you chose to crop this image so that it cuts off the description.

And it's interesting how you've isolated this specific example from its context in a way that implies that the author is suggesting something they very much aren't.

For those who are interested in understanding what Collin has — either through carelessness or malice — misrepresented, I encourage you to skim the actual source material they cherry-picked that image from and read about what the author actually has to say about using the /ac command in macros: https://github.com/FFXIVMacrology/Ma...%20Edition).md

[LilimoLimomo]

I found this: [en]Macrology(the Third Edition)

It seems outdated by now, but very comprehensive! The translation is rough in some areas since it appears to be translated from Chinese originally, but I was able to follow it well enough. It includes the method posted earlier of swapping hotbars to an identical one with a queue-able action which then resets on a timer. This seems to be the most clever "compromise", but has very little room for mechanical imprecision (not masher friendly!).

Gosh, this is such an interesting read! I'm taking my time with this so I'm not finished yet, just savoring a bit here and there in moments where I have some time and want to put a smile on my face. I really love the way the author explains many of the concepts, some of which I've used myself but would probably have struggled to succinctly describe!

But mainly, thanks for this source of education and joy! ^^

[weebtext]

I'm starting to think this thread is just OP and his alt coping about macros.

[Ramiee]

One things for sure.
Macro VPR will still outdamage BiS MCH