Improving gamepad controls.

[Vagrant-0]

The best solution I found for party targeting was to have a cross-bar setup with macros that would hit those party members. For example:

With Bar 1
I have all my standard abilities on the right side, with all most of my buffs on the left.

With Bar 2
On the left side I would have single target heals for party members 1-4 on the crosspad, with stoneskin 1-4 on the buttons.
On the right side I would have heal, medica, ensuna, and a water/sleep macro on the buttons, with protect, and some utility actions on the crosspad.

With Bar 3
I have a setup similar to Bar 2, but with healing to all 8 members macroed on the left side. On the right side I have most of the common party actions.

On bar 4
I have most of my macros and other large action abilities on the left side; 8 person stoneskin, knock away + sleep nearest target, ect. With everything else I might use on the right side.

On bar 5
I have those things that don't fit anywhere else... Like potions, misc skills you rarely use, limit break, ect.

On bar 6 (combined)
I have most of the marks setup, and some misc macros.

On bar 7 (combined)
Are all the common actions and travel stuff that are not on the normal menu bar.

On bar 8 (combined)
I have the standard menu with some of the overlap from 7 replaced with more useful things.


Using a controller isn't an excuse for being a scrub... You just need to learn hot to use it and customize it making use of macros to make your life easier. When combined with some established marking system within your party, macros can become incredibly powerful. Even a simple grouping of macros based around marking the main tank with O and the secondary tank with X can make the healing of the rest of the party easy to manage.

I'm usually a KB&mouse player, but the gamepad does end up allowing for some things being more intuitive and quicker to accomplish. Have run groups using both just for the sake of limiting the amount of wrist strain I have to deal with. All of it is just about learning and adapting. The old 1.0 system however was just plain clunky and by all accounts worse... Even if it might be familiar, the fact that you would have to scroll through not only targets but also abilities means that it is MUCH slower than any current interface (even clicking on hotbar with mouse).