Some ideas to consolidate buttons/reduce button bloat

[Rongway]

button bloat? There's a lot of free space in my cross hotbars

In general there isn't a critical space issue. But from the perspective of UI/UX design, there are some actions that should share buttons because the second action absolutely, under no circumstances, can be used until you press the other button first, and once you press the first button, it absolutely cannot be activated again at any time that the second button is usable.

Exhaustive list of this specific class of action pairs:

• PLD: Requiescat + Confiteor
• GNB: Gnashing Fang + Savage Claw + Wicked Talon (this is different from a standard melee combo because there is no way to do the actions out of order no matter how much you want to be bad and do it)
• DRG: (Jump | High Jump) + Mirage Dive
• NIN: Dream Within a Dream + Assassinate
• SAM: Iaijutsu + Tsubame-gaeshi
• BRD: The Wanderer's Minuet + Pitch Perfect
• MCH: Hypercharge + Heat Blast (* see below)
• BLM: Ley Lines + Between the Lines
• SMN: Dreadwyrm Trance + Deathflare (*)
• SMN: Summon Bahamut + Enkindle Bahamut (*)
• SMN: Firebird Trance + Enkindle Phoenix (*)

Again, that list is specifically the action pairs (A,B) such that A absolutely must precede B, and A is absolutely unusable once you've used it to enable B.

Re: the specific case of MCH marked above, even though the job doesn't need any further mechanical simplification, Hypercharge renders Split Shot and Spread Shot moot. Rather than requiring two extra buttons for Heat Blast and Auto Crossbow, it would be reasonable to give Hypercharge the effect "Upgrades (Split Shot | Heated Split Shot) to Heat Blast and Spread Shot to Auto Crossbow, respectively," since Heat Blast and Auto Crossbow are just Heated Split Shot and Spread Shot with a 1.5s recast and 0 heat gain.

Re: SMN actions marked above, I'm personally of the opinion that the buttons for the three powerup stances and powerup finishers are redundant and they could be reduced to two buttons since their activation conditions are mutually exclusive: (Dreadwyrm Trance + Summon Bahamut + Firebird Trance) and (Deathflare + Enkindle Bahamut + Enkindle Phoenix). Another reasonable consolidatin would be one that combines Enkindle Bahamut and Enkindle Phoenix with the plain Enkindle action. At any rate, there's already a partial consolidation in game, but it could be taken a step further.


Yet another set of noteworthy actions are Afflatus Solace and Afflatus Rapture. Afflatus Solace is literally just Cure II with an instant cast, and Afflatus Rapture is Medica with an instant cast and +5y radius. Rather than being two separate buttons, they could easily autoupgrade when you have a Lily: "While your Healing Gauge contains at least one Lily, Cure II is upgraded to Afflatus Solace," and "While your Healing Gauge contains at least one Lily, Medica is upgraded to Afflatus Rapture." We know from actions that are already in game (see: Enchanted Redoublement Combo) that this is possible.



There is another smaller class of action pairs (A,B) where the availability of B does not render A unusable, but there's no compelling reason for them to be two different buttons.

• SAM: Third Eye + Merciful Eyes
• BLM: Enochian + Blizzard IV or Enochian + Umbral Soul

Consolidating these would be nice as well.

tl;dr: list of actions that can be consolidated without changing the possibility or impossibility of incorrect action order, and a few actions that can be consolidated removing possibility of incorrect action order but without changing gameplay expectations. Purposely excluding PvP style autocombo buttons.