Addon support?

[Lexia]

snip

Sounds like you want addons to babysit you.

[rina_inverse]

wont that count as "game adjustment" than add on?
add on sounds like it optional

[GenJoe]

wont that count as "game adjustment" than add on?
add on sounds like it optional

add-on IS optional
But sometimes, they make so much sense, it gets included into the actual game as an official UI.

WoW has a lot of elements in its UI that first originated from addons.

I don't know if it's wise to block spells from being cast on conditionals, I don't think addons would go that far.. But all the other UI adjustments, well, that's pretty standard for what addons are capable of.

I personally can't wait until they implement addon support, but I don't know if I'll ever get to see it in the time I play this game.

[Niwashi]

I don't know if it's wise to block spells from being cast on conditionals, I don't think addons would go that far.. But all the other UI adjustments, well, that's pretty standard for what addons are capable of.

I think being able to customize your hotbars is a pretty standard feature for MMO addon support. Having skills only appear on your hotbars when they're applicable is one of the common ways that's put to use.

For example, in LOTRO, there are a variety of different debuff types that can be cured by different potions, but in the standard UI it requires identifying the type of debuff from its icon in order to choose the right potion type to match it. That can be a bit difficult and error-prone during a fight, so add-ons were created that add the appropriate item-use skills to your hotbar only when you have the matching debuff. That way you know the one that pops up on your screen is the one you need to use. You wouldn't accidentally use one that's not needed because there's no button on your screen for it when it's not needed. (As an additional bonus, that helps clear excess screen clutter while still keeping everything available at need.)

If similar capabilities were offered in FFXIV addons, they'd be able to do things like Limecat suggested, in only offering the Virus skill on your hotbar when neither it nor Antibody are on your target, or only offering Eye for Eye on your hotbar when your target doesn't have that one.

[GenJoe]

snip

I know what addons are "capable" of.. Back before WoW overhauled their addons(around WotLK iirc), I was using flexbar with all the custom scripts to pop up insignia on my mouseover in 500% scale under different conditionals.. But they got rid of it as a design decision and decided not to allow addons to alter gameplay mechanics like that

I'm sure it can be possible within the scope of things depending on how SE goes with this "addon" thing... If we ever get to see it I mean.. I just want addons as for QoL, not to play the game for me.

Having skills only appear on your hotbars when they're applicable is one of the common ways that's put to use.

Visible queues are fine, but outright barring the usage of a skill because it's not optimal, thus actually altering the player's input, I see too much room for exploitation. Also, hotbar swapping depending on the enemy condition? i.e. Enemy has no debuffs, cast Bio, Enemy has Bio, cast Miasma. etc. That's treading very closely to what a bot would do..
for example, if the above was implemented, with an elaborate enough addon/script you could pretty much make a 1 button combo for all classes.. 1 button for dps, 1 button for heal.. Hell, you could even make an addon for 1 button crafting that way.

[Silamon]

As far as custom ui goes, I would mostly want timers for buffs, debuffs, and cooldowns (yes they are already displayed but I dont like looking up at the top of the screen to see how much longer Heavy Thrust will be up, for example), boss abilities (deadly boss mods for wow, look it up, its awesome, and nearly every (if not every) raider in wow uses it) and a dps meter (I realize that will give ammunition for arseholes to trash players, but arseholes will be arseholes regardless of what ammunition they have, and having a solid tool to see how much you have improved via gear/leveling/rotation is a very neat thing to have, and it lets you see if someone is seriously underperforming in a raid (I don't mean doing less damage than the rest of the dps, I mean doing half as much or less, a player like that is going to be a huge detriment to any kind of end game raiding)

The other things Limecat mentioned would be nice as well, though I probably would not go much beyond cooldown displays and dps meter

[MaethusXion]

Personally I'd like the ability to change the long row of HP/MP/TP into a column, and make the EXP bar a lot smaller. And be able to tag the quests I want to see and ONLY show the quests I want in the quest window, not just the ability to sort it and not able to remove the other quests.

[Silamon]

And hide low level quest markers on the map, I realize I can just complete them and they won't return, but I want to save them for when I start a new class at level 1, and seeing them everywhere gets kind of annoying.

[GenJoe]

and separate the quest log with the FATE screen.. so I can just hide the quest screen without losing access to the Level Sync button.. Seriously, who designed these default UI..

[KisaiTenshi]

What I expect is that any "add-on" support will be limited to only information that is available on-screen already. To do otherwise would give PC players an extremely unfair advantage over console users. I'd expect that no addon's would be allowed that would let you fire skills faster or more accurately than the existing macros, nor would any addon's allow "choreography" in absolute positions. Maybe relative positions (eg "strafe 10 steps left, walk 4 steps forward, wave, smile") in the same way cutscenes work would be something cool to do and let RP'ers do more than just talk.