Best part of a new patch? Third party tools not working.

[Kranel_San]

Some mods/plugins are extremely helpful on an individual level such as PvP combo system in PvE which should have been an official feature by now to help with accessibility but for some reasons SE don't want to do it.

[Shurrikhan]

Some mods/plugins are extremely helpful on an individual level such as PvP combo system in PvE which should have been an official feature by now to help with accessibility but for some reasons SE don't want to do it.

In Short:

Probably over potential controversy due to fears by those who prefer bloat GCD steps over bloat oGCD actions and/or don't want to lose the ability to hit 12345 instead of 11111 to make the same decision.


Slightly Longer:

Some who really like going 12345 to make a single inseparable decision also don't like managing as many oGCDs, especially if they're less satisfying to press than the typical quality of skill up to that point, and (rightly enough) fear that the devs would feel compelled to replace any buttons made optional by that feature... with further bloat actions. That in turn would make consolidating 12345 into 11111 non-optional.

I don't think that's likely; I think the devs would be plenty willing to leave those then-optional buttons unfilled and would more likely just literally lock out combo steps you haven't yet reached as to level the playing field between those using and not using consolidated combos (with the only difference then being whether one sacrifices handy tactile cues to concentrate their bindings down to a more comfortable space). But, if I had to guess, that'd be the main reason for hesitation.

[Packetdancer]

I don't think that's likely; I think the devs would be plenty willing to leave those then-optional buttons unfilled and would more likely just literally lock out combo steps you haven't yet reached as to level the playing field between those using and not using consolidated combos (with the only difference then being whether one sacrifices handy tactile cues to concentrate their bindings down to a more comfortable space). But, if I had to guess, that'd be the main reason for hesitation.

I don't think the game's well-architected to support having both the combo'd actions and individual ones. You can kind of get around it by just binding the combo on multiple buttons, but it's not quite the same (especially since you then just have multiple buttons you can mash).

And all sarcasm aside, I did genuinely find the old Gunbreaker burst combo more enjoyable; I had Gnashing Fang on 7, Savage Claw on 8, and Wicked Talon on 9, and Continuation on Shift-4. Now, I'll note that I do 7+ on my MMO mouse side buttons, and 1-5 on keyboard (and generally try to avoid using 6 for anything common, because it's an uncomfortable reach), so it was <mouse button A> + Shift-4, <mouse button B> + Shift-4, <mouse button C> + Shift 4 -- and I found that a deeply satisfying sequence every time I got to do it.

Now it's just <mouse button A> + shift-4, repeated three times, and I couldn't tell you why that's slightly less satisfying on a pure dopamine level... but it is. Dumb as that feels to say.

(Well, okay, I mean, that's not the case in the opener, where you mix in stuff slightly in a different order, but you get my meaning nonetheless.)

But I do agree that if the combo tree does not branch, there's really no reason to put them all on separate buttons. I just wish more of the combo chains did branch, so it was like... 1 followed by 2 (and then 3) or 4 (and then 5, and then 6), etc. Like with SAM and such.

[Shurrikhan]

I don't think the game's well-architected to support having both the combo'd actions and individual ones.

It's essentially just a matter of adding an extra button per combo that one could then place at will.

That would also solve issues surrounding existing and former consolidations. If one wanted Mirage Dive together, they could just use the Jump+MD key. If they wanted them separate, they could just use the Jump and MD keys, separately. If they just wanted to be able to button-mash Jump without fear of MD going off afterwards but still didn't see any reason to leave MD separate, they could put down Jump and Jump+MD. Win-win.

I just wish more of the combo chains did branch, so it was like... 1 followed by 2 (and then 3) or 4 (and then 5, and then 6), etc. Like with SAM and such.

Personally, I wish they all branched at every step (including the first), for a kind of geometric configuration (3 by 3 choices, though some of those may cap out and lead back to the base sooner), or at least had some interface for skipping ahead at cost. I like having more GCD buttons. I just wish they weren't a matter of, say, spending up to 10 buttons on what are presently just 3 actions (spread over 3 to 5 steps).

[Packetdancer]

It's essentially just a matter of adding an extra button per combo that one could then place at will.

Mm... yes and no. The issue is that given how the hotbars work, it would likely have to be a second copy of the entire combo... or you would need a sort of hotbar action abstraction system (which I suspect is how the mod that consolidates combos in PvE likely works).

The latter would be the better approach, honestly. Especially because you could then functionally make it a 'build your own combo' system; instead of "here is a pre-made button that is your entire chain", you would just have a little hotbar-like list you could drag actions onto, then you'd drag the icon for that list onto a hotbar. Each time you pressed the button, it would send the current action, and advance one step.

For those who just want their 1-2-3 on a single button, that handles it easily. From an accessibility standpoint, it wins for flexibility because someone could put a mix of GCD and oGCD into a single button. For instance, someone could make a combo button that was (to use SGE as an example) "Eukrasia" followed by "Prognosis", and then they could just hit that button twice quickly to do Eukrasian Prognosis.

I've mentioned this in other threads touching on accessibility, but back in the WildStar closed beta I had a dear friend who had severe nerve damage to his hands from his time in the military. He could barely type coherently when his hands seized up, and hitting any sort of precision button combo was... let's just go with "a non-starter" at those times. The solution I came up with for him was something sort of like what I describe above: I wrote a tool that let him create those sort of combos, and then bind it to like... 6-9 different keys. So, for instance, he might have an attack rotation in a combo cycle that was bound to `, 1, 2, 3, and q. Then as long as he hit that general area of the keyboard -- which was doable even when his hands were seizing up -- he'd do the action he meant to. And there was a keybinding to toggle that mode on and off, so he could also (try) to type normal text in the chatbox.

Unfortunately, he passed away due to pneumonia before I finished the project, and I lost heart and handed the code off to someone else. (Get your flu shots!)

But if we want to approach the PvP-style combos in PvE as an accessibility thing, I think I'd rather do it more like that -- a more open-ended system, that can address more use cases -- than simply consolidating the 'stock combos' each into a single cycling key. Especially since that solution would allow people both to do the consolidated combos or to leave the actions split across multiple separate keys, as best suited their taste.

(Sorry, accessibility is a thing I have come to take very, very seriously in game design.)

[CelestiCer]

How many Mods/Plugins/Tools were made for Raiding vs anything Non-Raiding? Isn't like 95% of the game like not Raiding content?

• Body/Hair/Tattoo-mods
• NSFW anything
• Glamour-mods
• Gpose
• Housing furniture placement and identification
• UI & Hud customizations and coloring
• Crafting and Gathering anything
• Chat and Emotes anything
• Weather control
• Daily schedule routine reminders
• Deep Dungeon anything
• Orchestrion player anywhere
• PvP QOL plugins

Knowing or not knowing usage of 3rd party tools isn't going to affect you in-game. How come people default to condemning Raiders though? Even the once that "don't use any". Think we failed as a community here... cause we're progressive and inclusive... we should be condemning everything!

• Voicechat is a 3rd party tool
• Your Mouse/Keyboard/Phone are 3rd party tools
• Your second Monitor is a 3rd party tool
• Your monitors having higher refresh rate is a 3rd party tool
• Your better internet connection is a 3rd party tool
• Your roof keeping you dry during rain when playing is a 3rd party tool

Heck that coffee-maker that makes coffee that increases your DPS output by 1 OGCD is a 3rd party tool =u=;; ( this is not a scientific proven fact don't quote me on this last one )

Yoshi-P made his stance clear as is the ToS.
Square knows however the potential loss of players if Plugins are completely denied by making something that detects Plugins. It's best for Square to update and improve the game that makes a lot of the plugins unnecessary by default.

[Shurrikhan]

How many Mods/Plugins/Tools were made for Raiding vs anything Non-Raiding? Isn't like 95% of the game like not Raiding content?

• Body/Hair/Tattoo-mods
• NSFW anything

Nah, pretty sure mods for going futa is solely a raid buff and would only ever be used by raiders.

...raiders of what, you may ask?

[CelestiCer]

Nah, pretty sure mods for going futa is solely a raid buff and would only ever be used by raiders.

...raiders of what, you may ask?

Twitch is a 3rd party tool uh-huh. Lets condemn Streamers as well for ... Streaming!! obviously

[Vahlnir]

Twitch is a 3rd party tool uh-huh. Lets condemn Streamers as well for ... Streaming!! obviously

(I kid. Streamers are fine.)

[Packetdancer]

Square knows however the potential loss of players if Plugins are completely denied by making something that detects Plugins. It's best for Square to update and improve the game that makes a lot of the plugins unnecessary by default.

I don't write mods for FFXIV for a variety of reasons (save general-purpose game-agnostic shaders that have been folded into GShade)... but for games where I have been a mod author, I have usually said that my "victory condition" for a given mod is "the devs realize this is useful enough / improves things enough that they fold the feature into the game and I no longer have to maintain it."

I would not be shocked if many of the FFXIV mod authors had that same mindset.