Addon support?

[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.

[Lexia]

snip

Sounds like you want addons to babysit you.

[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.

[kyuven]

SE is very gun shy about add-ons. The fact that many current "illegal" add-ons do things they really don't want to condone (the hunt trackers and bot programs, for example) is just a nail in the coffin.
This is bolstered by the fact that certain add-ons were a real problem in FFXI, so the "scars" are still there.
In addition, they've also stated that they don't want PC players to have an unnecessary advantage over PS3/4 players in terms of gameplay.

It's fine and dandy to explore what you want to do, but you have to understand that there ARE negatives to allowing add-ons. Plus, as mentioned in other threads, the lead developers have kind of a love-hate relationship with even DPS meters, which smells to me of personal history given we know Yoshi-P HAS played WoW and there are some disturbingly elitist attitudes towards add-ons in that game ("Oh, you don't have Omen? You can't raid with us then!")