Third party tools are a game design failing in a multi-platform game

[Johners]

I'll drop the hot take at the start but third party tools are a failing in a multi-platform game and lack of any proper anti-cheat mechanisms on PC lets the entire player base down, especially PlayStation users.

This parts seems to be forgotten or just willingly ignored in the entire third party tools discussion. Square Enix are developing and publishing a multi-platform game that's also cross-platform and they're failing an entire group of them by not properly enforcing the existing terms of service.

Before people do the "console OMEGALUL" thing that I've seen a lot around the plug-in discussion, they're a massive part of the player base and in Japan there simply isn't the PC gaming that's in Western markets. There's a duty on Square Enix to design a game that's fair and equal for the entire player base regardless of how they choose to play. This extends to the toolset available to players via the default UI and ensuring both input methods (controller and KB+M) are both balanced.

I appreciate some of quality of life user interface mods but at the same time, some of these are a product of people playing other MMOs and wanting that same experience in FFXIV. A notable example with streamers was Limit Max getting an exact replica of his WoW UI in this game but that also extends to plugins to replicate mouseover macro functionality that WoW has which I personally know many people that use.

Square Enix seemingly don't like to truly confront the player base in a way they'd take negatively and up until now, every discussion on third party tools has mostly been rewording the terms of service and asking people not to use it. Unfortunately the game is too popular for the "don't do it stance" statement to actually work anymore and the solution is proper moderation from SE, not self-moderation from the community.

At least they finally addressed the implications of console support in the most recent letter regarding third party tools but until they're actually willing to implement the client-side anti-cheat they'd need to enforce this, absolutely nothing changes. They're between a rock and a hard place. On one side it's ever improving plugins with more visibility than ever. On the other side it's implementing an anti-cheat for the PC users so they can actually solve the problem.

[Miracle_Diva]

They should've worked on improving things like UI since long time ago. Then people wouldn't have to use plugins to get QoL changes.

[Johners]

They should've worked on improving things like UI since long time ago. Then people wouldn't have to use plugins to get QoL changes.

I'm aware that some quality of life changes are needed and Yoshi-P has said this himself. That said, what exactly should they do? You might be using 5 QoL UI plugins but someone else is using 10 and another is using 7. Even when they make the necessary changes, they're not going to please everybody and the cycle will continue unless they also introduce mechanisms to stop these tools from working. There is still an underlying problem is some users not wanting due to ToS risks or simply not being able to use these tools and that's a game design problem in a cross-platform title.

[Miracle_Diva]

I'm aware that some quality of life changes are needed and Yoshi-P has said this himself. That said, what exactly should they do? You might be using 5 QoL UI plugins but someone else is using 10 and another is using 7. Even when they make the necessary changes, they're not going to please everybody and the cycle will continue unless they also introduce mechanisms to stop these tools from working. There is still an underlying problem is some users not wanting due to ToS risks or simply not being able to use these tools and that's a game design problem in a cross-platform title.

That is SE's problem to solve. They are so slow on implementing things people need in the game. It took them up to 6.1 to finally add [Obtained\Unobtained] status on items. I think it's pretty ridiculous.

Ui is a huge improvement on that ageing dionsaur they use in WOW

A parser isnt QOL at all..its a tool misused and abused to berate, harass and discriminate against players. Personally Id like to see parsers under a blanket ban. You dont need them to run content and people clear content w/out them easily.

No one is talking about parsers. Who hurt you?

[VelKallor]

They should've worked on improving things like UI since long time ago.

Ui is a huge improvement on that ageing dinosaur they use in WOW

A parser isnt QOL at all..its a tool misused and abused to berate, harass and discriminate against players. Personally Id like to see parsers under a blanket ban. You dont need them to run content and people clear content w/out them easily.

[DezereDawn]

Ui is a huge improvement on that ageing dionsaur they use in WOW

Good thing that's getting a top to bottom rework in the next expansion eh?
also, while parsers aren't *TECHNICALLY* QOL, that's ignoring the other 90% of mods people use that are, basic shit like seeing what song is playing, actually usable weaving while not playing on extremely low latency, seeing debuff and buff timers etc are all shit the base game should be doing

this game's ui is disfunctional, slow, and overstylized just like WoW's, the only saving grace is that the hud can be customized, but that doesn't save the 80% of the ui that can't, and will remain inefficient until square decides to do something about it

[Curisu]

Good thing that's getting a top to bottom rework in the next expansion eh?
also, while parsers aren't *TECHNICALLY* QOL, that's ignoring the other 90% of mods people use that are, basic shit like seeing what song is playing, actually usable weaving while not playing on extremely low latency, seeing debuff and buff timers etc are all shit the base game should be doing

this game's ui is disfunctional, slow, and overstylized just like WoW's, the only saving grace is that the hud can be customized, but that doesn't save the 80% of the ui that can't, and will remain inefficient until square decides to do something about it

Millions of player's have no problem to play the game with the normal UI.
It works as intended and it includes all information's that you need to clear the hardest content.

You don't need to see your teammates cooldowns.
There is no need to see the dmg that anyone does.
And you don't need to see the name of the currently playing song.

Everything you need to see can be found in the UI.
Does it need improvements? Maybe, but that gives no one the right to complain about SE banning people for using any ingame 3rd tool.

[SwingLifeAway]

Everything you need to see can be found in the UI.
Does it need improvements? Maybe, but that gives no one the right to complain about SE banning people for using any ingame 3rd tool.

You mean, banning people for using features that they will implement later?

[Larirawiel]

You don't need to see your teammates cooldowns.
There is no need to see the dmg that anyone does.
And you don't need to see the name of the currently playing song.

Mhhhh, what someone needs or not it is very individual. I can imagine, that the very tiny cooldown numbers under the ability icons are too small for many people.


Cheers

[Miracle_Diva]

Just because something works fine, doesn't mean it can't be improved.

Millions of player's have no problem to play the game with the normal UI.

Please show your statistics and where you took it from.

Everything you need to see can be found in the UI.

Then people wouldn't be using plugins if it would be true

Does it need improvements? Maybe, but that gives no one the right to complain about SE banning people for using any ingame 3rd tool.

No one is complaining about bans over 3rd party tool. People dislike the fact that SE is inconsistent with it and that their ToS is too vague and there's no clear state or enforcement.