Allowing Gear Change in Active Mode

[AlexNiculaie]

[Thanks for the offer, but I will have to pass]

[Onidemon]

As the title implies, I'm curious to see everyone's opinion of the introduction of this. Gear Swapping macros were common in XI, and with the recent implementation of JSE in XIV, I think its only appropriate that something similar is allowed to be done.

imo Active/Passive Mode is a vestige of Tanaka's FFXIV, and should probably be done away with, but that's besides the point.

Some of these AF pieces are... lacking. However, they have some unique perks that are only needed from time to time (ie, Choral Shirt's enhanced ballads). Nothing is stopping us from putting our weapon away, and then switching, and then switching back, but it's just annoying to have to deal with that.


Thoughts?

a simple search in the forums and you would have found threads asking for gear swap in mid-battle and you would have seen that 90% are against it.

[Phobos]

Please, don't even consider this. I hate macros here right now, they feel sluggish compared to how they were in FFXI.

There just seems to be an extra delay to the macro button..

Plus, most people have gear for all classes with them often. Nobody wants to have to have MORE sets just because we can swap gear.

Also, it's just plain illogical.


In FFXI I was a main BLM, and often carried around near max inventory in gear at all times. As inventory space went up I just found new things to fill it with. I don't want this again, it's an inventory nightmare.

[Genz]

"inventory full of stuff", "blinking", "have to write/use 432890 macros" -> not because of the possibility to change gear, but because of how the game is programmed
"realism" -> lol
"elitism" -> since the general and RPG-defining rule (with or without the possibility to switch gear) is still "your character get better with better gear", I dont see how it is any different

But it allowed (it was one of many possibilities to do it) to keep old gear useful. Again, if you feel it was bad in FFXI, it was because of FFXI (having to do old and boring dynamis to get this awesome Rdm hat when you could do the awesome and newer salvage/nyzul/whateverelse... but they didnt give any hat with refresh). If you're in a game with an awesome 5-years old raid, maybe you'd like to do it and get something useful at the end.
It also allowed to have a long progression (which is all RPG is about : XP, gils, stuff, pokemons captured, etc. It's all progression)
And allowed (again, one of many possibilities) to quickly modify your strategy (getting in defense gear when you're attacked, by example). There are "slow" strategy choices (choosing your job, your food), and "fast" strategy choices (ability like bard songs, hasso/seigan, switch gear, calling another pokemon, etc.). Again, that's an important element in RPG.

The only pertinent reason why the developers don't have to allow gear swap is... because they don't have to. Everything explained above can be reached by many other systems.

[AdvancedWind]

Skill: Choose the one equipment set you believe is adequated for the following battle and be punished in case your choice sucked; carry around multiple sets if you want to switch between fights

Lazyness: Carry a shitload of gear and just fire up a macro before anything.

[Molly_Millions]

To quote Darth Vader:

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOoooooooooooooooooo!

[CrystalWeapon]

Surprised no one quoted this yet, but they did answer this question nearly a year ago.

Spoke with Battle Master Matsui to get the lowdown on the whole gear swapping question that's got you all buzzin'. In regards to swapping gear while in battle, since changing certain gear while in battle will change your class in FFXIV, we're not planning to make it possible to swap gear in battle. This direction will not change in the future.

We are focusing instead on making adjustments with the battle-related fixes to ensure that you can battle to your utmost ability without having to rely on changing gear multiple times mid-fight.

Here's the link to the quote.

^ I think that's a pretty definite no.

[syntaxlies]

this mechanic may be a nice way to make ff11's slow paced battles more interesting but i dont want in ff14. If you want this then just play a mage as you'll be in inactive mode anyway.

[Molly_Millions]

this mechanic may be a nice way to make ff11's slow paced battles more interesting but i dont want in ff14. If you want this then just play a mage as you'll be in inactive mode anyway.

Unless you actually hit the mob, then you have to wait for it to die or for you to lose hate. But it was a stupid mechanic in XI that should not make it's way into XIV, ever.

[Noata]

-Edited, I was trying to post a macro to change gear, but alas class swaping as aposed to gear swapping seems to be the topic

Originally I had the Macro

/bm off
/eq item1
/eq item2
/bm on