Dear SE, please address the exploitation of "face target" command in PVP

[Vandril]

Also, I still thinking, if someone gets the effort to spam that, why not? They should stop the third programs, but, using macros to spam the facetarget is totally legit.

The third party programs are the problem, not the macros themselves. I don't recall reading anyone saying that the macros should be broken, just the use of third-party programs to spam said macros.

That said, if the only way to stop third-party programs from spam-facing a target hundreds of times per second is to break those macros, than those macros should be broken in order to fix this exploit. The exploit completely breaks certain combat mechanics in the game. As much as I hate to say it, your inconvenience is a small price to pay for fixing an exploit like this. After all, ensuring the game actually works should take priority over convenience.

[ThirdSeason]

You don't need a 3rd party program to do this effectively. When Ifrit Extreme was a thing, I would have macros of all of my BRD abilites not only with Bloodletter macro'd in, but with /facetarget in any free space that the macro could hold. The result was me out DPSing everyone by miles because while I was spamming my abilities, I would always be facing Ifrit and would never have to worry about clipping Barrage when we had to run from eruptions. You lose the ability to queue up your attacks but that's a small price to pay.

/facetarget is the issue here. I really don't think this was to be the intended use of the command and while I really don't see it as much of a big deal in PvE, something needs to be done about it in PvP. I've never used it in PvP and will never do so, as it's not fair at all.

[Exira]

Bump due to recent posts :^ )

[Shurrikhan]

how is it different from locking on?

Lock on doesn't actually poll as quickly as, say, a .1 to .01 second hardware re-action. Try locking on to someone running through you while you cast. It will still interrupt. A "face target exploit" will not have that issue.

Heck, just spamming the Face Target key itself has better results than Lock-On. Just know that every other hit removes the face target, so if you want 3 checks per second, that's 5 hits. Unless macros can coincidentally avoid that cancellation step, an XIV macro won't actually be able to do that, however, given the minimum interval between macro steps, not to mention being cancelled by any other macro's use.

I'd personally rather just spin my camera around by mouse unless chasing in melee, for which lock-on is fine until I need to get ahead of the enemy for a side positional. If my mouse had programmable macros and Auto-attacks were still capable of interrupts, though... I'll admit I'd be tempted for as long as the exploit goes without any punitive action (which seems unlikely to occur).

You don't need a 3rd party program to do this effectively. When Ifrit Extreme was a thing, I would have macros of all of my BRD abilites not only with Bloodletter macro'd in, but with /facetarget in any free space that the macro could hold. The result was me out DPSing everyone by miles because while I was spamming my abilities, I would always be facing Ifrit and would never have to worry about clipping Barrage when we had to run from eruptions. You lose the ability to queue up your attacks but that's a small price to pay.

/facetarget is the issue here. I really don't think this was to be the intended use of the command and while I really don't see it as much of a big deal in PvE, something needs to be done about it in PvP. I've never used it in PvP and will never do so, as it's not fair at all.

Alternatively, you can just leave Auto-face target on and jump for each shot while directing your camera. Use face-target itself with a jump and character-camera-turn like any other ability as auto-attack comes back up to maintain perfect uptime on that as well. No lost movement, no macros necessary.

I don't personally see how /facetarget is an issue in itself, even if its removal in PvP may be the only way to truly deal with the very few who use the face-target exploit to be positional-proof, etc, while further maintaining perfect uptime with zero effort. In itself, face target, due to the game's poling speed, is rather shitty. It provides nothing more than situational convenience.

[Exira]

If you don't see how this is an issue you should probably read the original/1st post. Its laid out in a very straightforward way

[NessaWyvern]

O_o under character config there's an option to enable facing a target when using an action. I often spam an instant cast ability when running so I can run and DPS. I hadn't known about this backpedaling thing before now and assumed they were just spamming it or had a different camera setting o_o (don't worry, I am not about to start doing it too XD)

I tend to play astro anyway, in which I turn the auto-face target off, so I don't jerk around the place.

[Culfinrandir]

O_o under character config there's an option to enable facing a target when using an action. I often spam an instant cast ability when running so I can run and DPS. I hadn't known about this backpedaling thing before now and assumed they were just spamming it or had a different camera setting o_o (don't worry, I am not about to start doing it too XD)

I tend to play astro anyway, in which I turn the auto-face target off, so I don't jerk around the place.

It's not the use of the ability that's the problem really, it's people using third party programs to cheat by having a hardware macro spam face target every few milliseconds (far faster than can be done by hand or by the in-game system) so they never face away, even when running at full speed. It's scummy. ={

[NoelNoel]

It's not the use of the ability that's the problem really, it's people using third party programs to cheat by having a hardware macro spam face target every few milliseconds (far faster than can be done by hand or by the in-game system) so they never face away, even when running at full speed. It's scummy. ={

Thanks for the clarification, couldn't precisely understand what OP was talking about. I don't really see any solution to this issue other than putting a cooldown to the /facetarget command. But would that fix anything...? When I use it as caster I do have to stand absolutely still to not break it, but if the melee is my target, they have no chance of hitting their positionnals unless they stun me. I'm much more concerned about speed hacks.

[Culfinrandir]

Thanks for the clarification, couldn't precisely understand what OP was talking about. I don't really see any solution to this issue other than putting a cooldown to the /facetarget command. But would that fix anything...? When I use it as caster I do have to stand absolutely still to not break it, but if the melee is my target, they have no chance of hitting their positionnals unless they stun me. I'm much more concerned about speed hacks.

People who use hacking software will find ways around any cooldown. There is evidence of BLMs using a hack that actually reduces their cooldown enough to do things that are just impossible in a normal game (like casting too many spells per given amount of time). If it can be exploited, someone always will. =(

[Geologo]

Atually I'm using the
/facetarget right before Wither, I'm really crappy with it (lag doens't help) and I noticed that with that I was able to actually hit the target I would,
is this considered cheating? :/