QoL and reducing number of the buttons suggestion

[Gordita]

Controllers haven't had issues with hotbar space for years now. Between cross hotbars, W cross hotbars, and RB/R1 switching, you have more slots than most PC setups need.

Til 6/8 are shared hotbars and people can't use double tap for combat because it causes pain after doing it for some time. Changing to any hotbar that isn't linked to expandedcontrols causes more room for error, more wipes, etc. It's critical in high end content to not be accidentally provoking or wasting a swift cast when you meant to hit something else. Or switch to a bar and push a button then switch bar again only to realize the game decided to not execute the action that was input by the player. So now rotation is messed up, possibly multiple times per encounter lowering dmg output and leaving the door wide open for raid wiping mistakes

[Gemina]

You can also use the regular LR hotbars KBM people use to act as timers for actions that are on hotbars that aren’t visible at the current time

Not only can, should. The crossbar is an unreliable means to keep track of CD timers. Players can set up their crossbars anyway that makes sense to them, but there actually are ideal placements to make skills flow more optimally and that should be the focus when setting them up. If the default crossbar is used to monitor CDs, skills you use much more such as GCD skills will be placed on the expanded L/R inputs. This might not be a problem for some players, but I personally find it cumbersome. Because nearly all jobs have abilities to monitor along with skills that become available after certain conditions are met, hotbar placement is a must for controller users.

Odd as this may sound, I set my crossbar to invisible to avoid cluttering my HUD. For a long time I had both the crossbar and hotbars on my HUD, and it drove me nuts. One of them had to go. Granted, crossbars are never truly invisible as they will still show up anytime L/R is used and will remain on the screen so long as they are held down.

The cross hotbar system is actually incredible if you know how to use it, it’s not remotely a limitation (controllers only real limitation is excessive soft targeting like on AST), you just have to know how to use it

There is one limitation, and that are the inputs you assign to the Dpad. In order to use these skills, you have to take your left thumb off the left analog stick. This compromises your ability to use any skills you assign to these inputs while moving. Some skills such as those that require cast times are negligible, other skills though such as DNC dance steps could be crippling. You can still use autorun for these situations, but you will beeline in one direction.

[Merrigan]

Final fantasy was a console game first, so PC integration is becoming a problem with all the people on PC acting like they matter more as they all use bots to destroy markets and game balance etc.

The problem is not at all to define who is more important, console or PC gamers. In the same way, the fact that FF is a console game is irrelevant here - it's the MMORPG aspect that takes precedence.

The integration of consoles, or to be more exact, the desire to open up a game to various ports is problematic, yes. It forces you to take into account gameplay, gcd and sociability management that can't be the same - and potentially not to exploit a platform.
I'm a PC and console gamer, by the way. So it's got nothing to do with the old "pc master race" cliché that you seem so quick to pin on me.

[AsiTsurugi]

I can't believe I feel compelled to sit down and actually type this out because of how many reactions to the combo button consolidation seem to be either complete kneejerk reactions or misinformed.


Because not every single key is a combo action, they ask specifically for combo action consolidation. Not your whole rotation.

So using the key multiple times actually nets you a bigger benefit and doesn't generate resources for tapping once. Combos wouldn't go away, just the way you initiate them changes.

1.) Positionals would not go away, neither would the associated actions. You'd simply trigger them using the same button multiple times in a row.
2.) Monk is literally not affected by this because it doesn't use the combo system but rather a form system.

Three separate combo keys for the Samurai combos were already a thing in PvP, namely Gekko combo, Kasha combo and Yukikaze combo. They don't ask you to 111/111/11/Midare here.

I am very sorry @everyone and @OP especially but I am typing this out in hopes that people might react less harsh about this suggestion.

Combos are actually a series of Actions with "Combo Action" in the tooltip.

Consolidating what we refer to as 1-2-3 combos does not infer to any actions that are in fact not combo actions. Actions that depend on a buff are not combo actions. This includes and isn't limited to, just to name a few:

• Every single Monk weaponskill
• Dragoon's Fang & Claw + Wheeling Thrust
• Bard's Refulgent Arrow/Straight Shot

So how many actions could actually be consolidated by this?


NOTE - actually WAR consolidates 4 buttons, not 3, I miscounted there.

Neither is the list negligible in terms of actual button space management nor does it actually impair any of the gameplay if this was, at very least, a choice we could have.

This list does not consider actions that logically should simply be on the same hotkey (for example "Ikishoten" automatically becoming "Ogi Namikiri" and then "Kaeshi: Namikiri") or should be an upgrade rather than a side grade (Shoha vs Shoha II). Those are all valid issues on their own, but all I wanted to highlight is how much impact such a combo consolidation would have.

Specifically for SAM, this type of counting for consolidation does not work because of the existence of Meikyo and necessity of random-sized fillers (in at least some fights, and definitely during prog). At best, this would deduct 3 buttons for single target, which would, admittedly, still be a better solution than removing Kaiten because some clowns who barely play the class "don't like it".

[CidHeiral]

Going from pressing 1 2 3 to pressing 1 1 1 isn't really dumbing the game down much... And if they do it, they can bring in more skills to the freed up action bar slots that make it more complex.

[SailorCeti]

Alright, thx for the answer. Then, no excuse for the "reduce number of buttons" position.

Sure there is. Physical disability. I've had two strokes and hav a limited range of motion. I play on a keyboard and once my left hand is in position over the 1-5/f1-f5 keys, it doesn't move. I have to click the rest with the mouse, which is ridiculous on most jobs.

[strawberrycake]

No, stop reducing anything in this game, stop suggestiing that button bloat is an issue, stop acting like pressing 1 2 3 is hard. It's bad enough I have to wonder if half the people who play this are capable of dressing themselves with how they act when they have to learn content.

[strawberrycake]

Sure there is. Physical disability. I've had two strokes and hav a limited range of motion. I play on a keyboard and once my left hand is in position over the 1-5/f1-f5 keys, it doesn't move. I have to click the rest with the mouse, which is ridiculous on most jobs.

I click on Ninja, it's pretty easy, and instead of reducing buttons, make it an accessibility feature for disabled peoples, that way the rest of us dont have to deal with button layouts that arent intuitve. Addiotion is better then reduction.

[Heroman3003]

No, stop reducing anything in this game, stop suggestiing that button bloat is an issue, stop acting like pressing 1 2 3 is hard. It's bad enough I have to wonder if half the people who play this are capable of dressing themselves with how they act when they have to learn content.

Pressing 123 is not hard. What's hard is that you have one combo at 123, another at 145, two extra skills that you do post combo at 67, then aoe combo at 8910 and those are all just buttons you use all the time, and then there's like 12 more for the 30s, 60s and 120s bursts, buffs and then like 8 more for the mobility or utility actions. You don't consolidate combos because 123 is hard, you do it because reaching for Ctrl+9 and alt+5 during burst is super annoying because you have no easily assignable space left after occupying all actually main and easy to reach buttons with basically 9 copies of same 3 buttons that do same thing with higher numbers and no reason to ever not just press next button in the order.

[SailorCeti]

Addiotion is better then reduction.

This is where you're logic fails, as with many others. Additional abilities does not equate to better gameplay. If the abilities in question actually offer substantial benefit within the game, sure. But, if they do not, or too closely resemble something else already given to a job, they are a detriment and just take up space.