I'm randomly complaining

[Zumi]

If they weren't stored locally, the game would have to regularly check with the server to make sure your hotbars were current, which would drastically increase the server load. They're already concerned regarding the amount of character data that needs to be verified (which is the current thing delaying the solution for inventory problems), and this would only increase the amount.

I do wish they had the option to save the data server-side like FFXI had, so you could back them up before reinstalls and the like. (You can sort of do this if you're on PC by making a copy of your character data, but it's not exactly user friendly).

You can make a copy of your ffxiv setting folder that is in my documents and my games and copy it over to your new install without needing to use their back up tool at all.

[Alahra]

You can make a copy of your ffxiv setting folder that is in my documents and my games and copy it over to your new install without needing to use their back up tool at all.

That's actually what I was referring to, yes. You can settings over that way. But to do that with your hotbars and gearsets isn't very user friendly because the game doesn't do anything to identify which character file is which—they're identified by a string of numbers, and if you have multiple characters, it can take a bit of sleuthing to figure out which is which.

Perhaps not the perfect response to the context your response was in, but it was a suggestion of a compromise of the two.

Compromise is fine. It was their flippant tone ("What am I reading?") that I took issue with. There was no need for that.

[Noxifer]

That's actually what I was referring to, yes. You can settings over that way. But to do that with your hotbars and gearsets isn't very user friendly because the game doesn't do anything to identify which character file is which—they're identified by a string of numbers, and if you have multiple characters, it can take a bit of sleuthing to figure out which is which.

Yeah >.< That was a pain. I started out by adding a txt file in each folder, the first time after going through the log files until I found someone talking to me (player or NPC) and mentioning my name, subsequent times after I created the character (or logged in on a new/wiped system), named "! CharacterName.txt" (the exclamation mark to ensure the file is at the top of the file list).

Later, I started using shortcuts. Not the usual ones, but the special ones you need a command prompt to create (found the instructions on reddit somewhere, should be possible to google it up). Have a subfolder in my FF settings named "characters", and folders in there named what the character is called. The advantage is that it's easier to see at a glance which folder you need to copy stuff from (if you're an altoholic like me, it's the easiest way to keep the same HUD settings -- just copy everything apart from gearset.dat). The downside is that you need to re-do those shortcuts whenever you reinstall or start on a new system.

I'd use dropbox (or similar) to sync my two gaming computers, if it wasn't due to the two having different keyboards ^^; On my desktop, I have a keyboard with macro buttons that I use (especially the thumb buttons below the space bar), but I don't have those on my laptop, so sadly I can't just copy stuff over entirely when moving between the two. I also can't do more advanced things when I play on my laptop, due to having one less hotbar due to those missing thumb buttons.