Enhanced Macro System

One of the other biggest annoyances in FFXI is that the macro system is entirely way too limited. 6 lines per macro? Seriously?

If the macro system is something that SE plans to keep and use in FFIV, allowing us either a lot more lines, or unlimited number of lines should come into play. Having to use 3-4 different macros to equip gear to do a single action is a bit overboard and a waste of space on the macro bar.

Along with that possibly add some scripting aspects into it. I'm not going to bother going into detail as my opinion vs. others will definitely clash here, but I would enjoy being able to do some more 'advanced' macros to help with situational occurrences with a bit more ease. After all, that is the point of a macro.

This is also another huge reason why third-party tools get used.

yeah I agree.

^This.

I'd love to see some sort of other space saving macro too, maybe basic programming ability.

if Ability("Sneak Attack").Ready [/p Sneak Attack: Ready!]

or maybe

if Ability("Sneak Attack").Ready & Ability("Trick Attack").Ready [/p Sneak Attack and Trick Attack: Ready!]

Would allow a more dynamic macro system, giving a lot more versatility to the current macros.

Existing macro system is outdated and needs a revamp, I'm just not sure how it would happen. I don't agree with the unlimited lines or basic scripting, I think that would hurt more than benefit the player base in the elitism it would generate. I really don't play a game to learn to code, I play a game to have fun and not have the game play itself for me as "advanced" macros would do. The unlimited lines thing would mean botting, plan and simple.

If anything the existing macros work perfectly fine but there's no "Gear set" macro options as opposed to single gear changes. If you could make it so you change your gear in 1 line as is currently the case with windower macros then there's no need for more than 6 lines unless you're trying to bot.

Another thing to remember is that FFXIV may change the way you consider gear swaps and using magic/abilites/ws/accouncements etc completely so the types of macros you may use now may be completely irrelevant in FFXIV.

I can't realistically see a way that gear would have little to no effect on how your character operates. Any RPG, be it MMO or otherwise, has a system where the gear the wear affects the actions you perform.

As for unlimited macro lines, I believe in and agree with, even if I do not like, the 6 line macros. This is a stop-gap for, as Karusan has said, the elitism that happens with unlimited macro lines. The ability to completely change out an entire gear setup with a single button in the span of a second or two creates a bridge between what a character was intended to be able to do to a certain mob and the challenge they present, and the current character is capable of exceeding. The example would be a single macro to launch a spell, toss on full HP>MP convert for Sorc ring Latent, then full Elemental, MAB, and INT gear to land a 2.5k AM2. I have different macro bars for different spell and gear requirements to perform the same function, but it requires timing and planning vs the game simply handing you that ability.

My opinion is mainly based on my experiences with other MMORPGs. I would have to say out of the 10-20 MMOs I've played, FFXi has probably the most limited macro system out of all of them.

Giving the ability to use unlimited lines doesn't create the ability for botting, it depends on what else is given inside the macros.

For example, with what we are given currently inside of FFXI, if we were given unlimited lines, it wouldn't change much other then being able to fully swap a whole gear set, use an ability, and switch back to another gear set. We are extremely limited to 6 lines with how the game is supposed to be played.

As for the scripted aspect, it's not for all users sure, some don't want to touch it, some wont, some will. But it would be nice for those who do want it, or will use it, to be able to have access to it. There are plenty of scripting languages that everyone can easily understand, and they can even develop their own.

Take WoW for example, their macro system allows for users to create more in-depth macros due to them allowing Lua scripting inside their macros. This helps players get much more out of a macro, which is what they are intended for.

Botting is not something you can really do with this unless given the exact ability to do so inside the macros. Which is not something I would think that they would add to the macros, such as character movement, NPC interaction (menus, moving selection arrows, etc.) and so on.

Regardless of how much they give us in the macro system, it can still be used to bot either way. Third-party applications are more of a threat then key-press combinations.

Being given unlimited lines vs having to use 3 macros to swap out a full set of gear is nothing different. It's less things a user has to hit, but it's still just as fast.

So instead of hitting ALT+1, I have to hit ALT+1, ALT+2, ALT+3 to swap out a full set. Whats that take? An extra second if that? Theres no advantage given with how the game implements gear changing. It simply reduces the amount of wasted macro space.

That's the good thing about opinions too, people are allowed to have different ones. I really do appreciate the existing macro system and what it was designed for. FFXI is a console based MMO and FFXIV will be too. It does everything I want it to -except- change gear sets but even the changing of gear sets is rather flawed. I mean, in a real battle, how many people would be able to change their complete gear in milliseconds, do something, then change back in the same amount of time, logically (yes i know it's a game) it doesn't make sense.

With advanced macros there will be elitism where if you don't have X Y Z macro that does A B C then you can't be part of the end-game community. I can see it now, "LOL NOOB U dont have a macro to engage attack weapon skill make a pie eat it dance the cha cha LOL U SO GIMP". Obviously not those things, although the pie part I do like, but I'm sure you know what I mean. A player should be able to come in day one and be able to play around with macros, not read a 3000 page manual to try learn every little thing about it.

often wondered how the game would be affected should SE make it so changing gear is not allowed during events like; while engaged; or limits your from casting magic for X amount of time afterwards or before.

I mean, it makes sense :\ Could you see this in the movie 300 -- "Hey, wait a second while I equip my other boots so I get better range accuracy."

Hay guyz, lemme put on my Sprinter's Shoes so I can gtfo!

AN EXTRA SECOND?!
By that time your entire party would have wiped while waiting for you to finish gear swapping to catch the closing of a Level 3 Skillchain which would have beaten the mob.
GOOD JOB.

OMGZ that's 0.01k exp/hr difference in what we would have had, I'm outta here.

19990/hr {No thanks.}

Firstly, I think everyone agrees that if they keep the existing macro system in any way shape or form, then there needs to be some changes, so please rate up the original post.

Scripting: In party events, I have one particular friend who, nine times out of ten, can silena me before I can even hit my echo drops macro (which nine times out of ten ends up with me wasting an echo drop :D). This is just one of many little things that defines a good rdm (or any support job) from a bad one, and I think scripting would close that gap too much. Being able to act quickly and efficiently to changing situations is where skill comes into it, give too much in the way of scripting and you take out the skill, which would kill a lot of the game. I don't know how it works in WoW, but if they included scripting in the same sense as FFXII macros, I think it would make the game less enjoyable. (It worked in FFXII though because you were controlling 3 or 4 characters instead of just 1)

Unlimited macro lines: I'd be more open to something like this, the current macro system needs a lot more lines in my opinion, however, as Karu suggested, 7 lines (is what we have now, not 6) would be plenty if we could change an entire equipment set in one line.

Equipment change penalties: Honestly, I think, and hope that this is more along the lines of how they get around the macro situation. You shouldn't be able to change every item of clothing, including rings and earrings in the blink of an eye, it just doesn't make sense, especially not in the middle of battle without even dropping your weapon. I think they should make a time penalty to gear changes, making you completely useless for 5 seconds. This alone would totally change the way we go about gearing ourselves, our gear sets would need to be more rounded. And instead of having (for me) a tp build, a ws build, a physical build, a macc build, a hmp build, a hp build and a couple extra pieces, I'd probably have something more along the lines of a melee build, a magical build, a hp build and a hmp build. Most jobs would have even less.

Unlimited macro lines would in fact, allow a player to "bot." It is limited to what jobs can do so, however (Mainly RNG and BLM)... Unless you want to make a tedious macro for a melee.
Allow me to demonstrate:

/ma "Thunder IV" <bt>
/equip main "Thunder Staff"
/wait 20
/ma "Blizzard IV" <bt>
/equip main "Ice Staff"
/wait 20
/ma "Thunder IV" <bt>
/equip main "Thunder Staff"
/wait 20
/ma "Blizzard IV" <bt>
/equip main "Ice Staff"
/wait 10
/rest
/wait 60
/wait 60
/rest
/wait 5
/start over again...

Basically, this shows how an ambitious person could paste and repaste macro lines over and over again to effectively make a botting BLM.