Any word on pet control improvements? (and other concerns)

[TheKojukinator]

Hi all,

I started raising an Arcanist after getting my main, Bard, to 50. Kind of stoked about the Scholar/Summoner good times. However, pet control is atrocious. Has there been any confirmed information about improvements in this regard coming, hopefully in 2.1? One of my biggest pet peeves (hah) is the inability to macro pet commands. But let me rant some more...

Full disclosure, I play with the controller, so I really like to optimize my crossbar with efficiently placed skills and/or cleverly consolidated macros. On my bard things work awesome and I've got all my functions down like butter, even during movement on Titan. However, it's been a different story with Arcanist.

I'm already getting frustrated from the dot and pet management (however I love this style of gameplay, so don't just say it's not for me... there are kinks that need to be worked out clearly), but I've also been reading some great guides for SMN/SCH and planning ahead, and it doesn't look like it will get any easier. Here's my list of grievances that I would like feedback regarding:

1. When utilizing the Pet Hotbar while using the Crossbar, and if a pet is summoned, then pressing the right bumper (R1?) results in switching between the pet bar and whatever crossbar you were on, instead of the normal cycling through all valid crossbar sets.
   • For example, hitting the bumper should switch between crossbar1 and crossbar2 (say one for combat and one for healing/summons/ets...). However, if carbuncle is out, and crossbar1 is visible, then the bumper switches between pet hotbar and crossbar1. Now, in order to get to crossbar2 I have to hold down the bumper and press a corresponding face button, similar to switch back to crossbar1.
   • This juggling really messes with my muscle memory and leads to much more player error in my experience. Sure one could get used to it in some masochistic fashion, but it would just make more sense if with summon out hitting the bumper would cycle through all crossbars + pet hotbar... ex crossbar1, crossbar2, pet hotbar, crossbar1, etc...
2. When utilizing the Pet Hotbar one cannot rearrange and/or add/remove items to the pet hotbar.
   • This is a great disappointment as I would love to customize it myself, finding the current static layout not ergonomically efficient for frequent use.
   • I realize that the Pet Hotbar changes the mapped skills based on what summon is out, and if that function cannot be retained with customizability then I'm not sure what I would prefer.
   • I also realize I could disable the Pet Hotbar and use my own crossbars to distribute all the pet skills, but the beauty of the pet hotbar is that it seems to have skills on it respective to the current summon, and that it's gone when there is no summon... thus cleaning up the bumper cycling.
3. Putting pet on Steady, and then ordering them to attack, does not put them back on Steady after the engagement.
   • This is not always desirable, in fact I would argue that it should almost always go back on Steady if initially on Steady. Further, it would be great to have an option somewhere to set pet "return behavior" somehow.
   • In fact, and this is a pipe dream probably, it would be great to set up logic trees for pet behavior based on triggers, similar to FF12... but I'm not even holding my breath for that.
4. If pet is on guard it appears to have Sic behavior.
   • It would be great if default behavior could be changed to Obey somehow. Accomplishing this may alleviate frustrations caused by the lack of "return to steady" function.
5. Pet commands are not available for macros.
   • This is a tremendous oversight. I can think of at least a handful of macros in to which it would be awesome to weave in pet commands, like to initiate combat with a combo, to combo heal, to do fun dot stuff, to assist party members during dps, and etc....
6. Pet Place command utilizes the ground cursor, which is kind of infuriating to control via a controller (also a problem for one of Bard aoe).
   • Essentially, the ground cursor is always fixed slightly above center of the screen and in order to move it one must move the camera. This means to place the cursor anywhere near the player one must look straight down... however, it is not quite possible to look straight down so one actually can't place the cursor closer than 2-3 yalms or so. It is possible to switch to cursor mode (L1 + R3) and use the right stick like a mouse and then leave cursor mode after target placement... but try doing that during titan.
   • It would make much more sense to have any "ground target reticule" abilities to automatically be moveable with the right stick while temporarily locking the camera to current orientation, things going back to normal after confirming or cancelling the ability.
   • Better yet would be the above suggestion, but if the cursor were moved to edges of the screen then the camera would be pushed that way... for those moments when the player didn't orient the camera perfectly before activating the ability and getting the cursor.
   • And to top off the above, it would be great if the game had an option to control the speed of the cursor in cursor mode and/or during the proposed temporary cursor mode while activating an ability... as currently, cursor movement is extremely sluggish when moving around the ground targeting reticule.

That's all I can think of for now. Let's have a civil discussion, and I'd love to know of any dev feedback on any of this... whether there is some already, or spurred by this post.

Thanks.

EDIT: I found this, so it's a good start I suppose.

[Billie21]

You make good points. I can't help you with most of your problems since they are related to gamepad UI. Hopefully this will still help you a bit:

[*]When utilizing the Pet Hotbar one cannot rearrange and/or add/remove items to the pet hotbar.

• This is a great disappointment as I would love to customize it myself, finding the current static layout not ergonomically efficient for frequent use.
• I realize that the Pet Hotbar changes the mapped skills based on what summon is out, and if that function cannot be retained with customizability then I'm not sure what I would prefer.
• I also realize I could disable the Pet Hotbar and use my own crossbars to distribute all the pet skills, but the beauty of the pet hotbar is that it seems to have skills on it respective to the current summon, and that it's gone when there is no summon... thus cleaning up the bumper cycling.

You can add your pet hotbar's actions to your regular hotbars.
I know that pet hotbar might be interesting since it changes depending on what pet is out. There is a workaround to that if you have unused hotbars. descibed in this thread: http://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/commen...l_macros_here/
(basically, you set the hotbar you want for pet X on an unused and hidden hotbar, then you make a macro with your "Summon X" spell, in which you add the "copy hotbar to current" function).
That's what I do for my fairies, but since I play with a mouse and keyboard, I don't really know how helpfull it will be to a gamepad user (let us know!). Also, as a SCH you only have two pets (two hotbars dedicated to this), but as a SMN it might be a problem.

[*]If pet is on guard it appears to have Sic behavior.

• It would be great if default behavior could be changed to Obey somehow. Accomplishing this may alleviate frustrations caused by the lack of "return to steady" function.

If you target a mob, activate "Obey", the pet will stay on "Obay" behaviour (it will go back to "Guard", but will attack next in an "Obey" pattern rather than "Sic").
I haven't played as ACN for a while, so my memory might be wrong. But that's the way it is for SCH's fairies.

[*]Pet commands are not available for macros.

• This is a tremendous oversight. I can think of at least a handful of macros in to which it would be awesome to weave in pet commands, like to initiate combat with a combo, to combo heal, to do fun dot stuff, to assist party members during dps, and etc....

As you've found out by yourself, SE has planned to add macros for pet commands in 2.1.