Macro gearswap limit

[Tomatoes]

How are you guys handling the macro gearswap limits? I'm finding that I often have more than 5 pieces of gears I'd like to swap in for a given spell, but those 5 macro lines are usually taken up by earring x2, ring x2, ele.staff. So far, I've been doing it in sequence. My rest macro swaps in +HMP gears. My getting up macro swaps in mostly +INT stuff, which I follow up with INT based enfeebles. Then I Para with partial swap, and then Slow swaps in the rest of the MND stuff.

I'm considering reworking the whole scheme and just dedicating 3 macros simply to armor-type swaps, INT, MND, resting (maybe a nuking set for #4?) and typing /heal manually when I want to sit/rise. And then for the actual spell macros, keep them all strictly ring/ring/earring/earring/staff/spell. I guess this will give me more flexibility at the cost of hitting 2 macros per spell sometimes. It just seems terribly inefficient.

With 4 dedicated armor-swap macros, that would leave me 16 slots left for Regen, Cure II, Cure III, Cure IV, Drain/Barxxx,Erase (in one more level), Aspir/adjustable -na spell, Convert (w/ HP/MP swaps), Slow, Paralyze, Dia/Bio, adjustable nuke, Haste, Refresh, /target bt + /recasts, Sleep, Silence, Gravity, Blind, Poison... I think that's more than 16.

I have the magic menu arranged alphabetically and I'm pretty decent about getting a non-macro'd spell out in a timely fashion, but man I hate scrambling like that. Maybe I should spread some of the less time-crucial macros over to an adjacent pallette? Ugh....

(haven't even begun to think about an efficient solo pallette yet either... blargh)

[Feba]

Re: Macro gearswap limit

Most people use a thirdparty macro system...which I can't lead you to here.


Anyway, if you had to work with the ingame macros, i'd reccomend just going for balance.

[Neomage]

Re: Macro gearswap limit

As feba said it. You could probably IM him for it, it lets you have infinite lines... I have the programs to make infinite line macros but I don't know how >.>

[Icemage]

Re: Macro gearswap limit

I don't see much need for any tools beyond what the game provides if you're smart about your macro organization and gear choice.

Even on RDM (my most intense gear-swapping job to be certain), I do OK with just 1 swap into MP gear (for Convert, 6 pieces, plus 2 more in the Convert macro itself for a total of 8), and an Enfeebling swap for 6 pieces. The rest of the gear I "could" macro in ends up not affecting my performance enough to worry about.

Generally speaking, at level 51+ you'll be swapping in at least two pieces of gear on each spell or ability macro anyway (elemental staves for spells, +STR gear for WS, +enmity gear for Provoke, etc.), so you can leave those out of your swaps. At worst you'll probably have 4 additional macro slots to switch 12 of the remaining 14 slots in your equip window, and most people get by with just two extra macros.


Icemage

[Jei]

Re: Macro gearswap limit

i use only ingame macro too. when I play Rdm I use 3 macro pages, with 1 page dedicated to gear swap. I have my BLM gear swap macro in that pages too, don't really need all that much.

For refresh, I macro on only 2 gears for fast cast. AF1 hat AF2 body.
Then I macro back on my auto refresh gear. It only has /equip Body vermy cloak. no other pieces really needed to be in the macro here.

Same thing for every enfeebles too. I have macro for elemental staffs, enfeeble torque, AF1 body and hopefully AF2 hat. So they are all manageable within 5 lines.
Again once done I macro my auto refresh back on.

For stoneskin I added 3-4 MND and enhancing pieces.

Well anyway, I don't have any macro that equip more than 4 pieces. I have a seperate macros for full AF1 and AF2 sets but those are more for fun when I wanna run around in them.

[Aeni]

Re: Macro gearswap limit

I have Windower, but I stick to the ingame function only, since I only wanted the Alt-Tab-ability in Windower. I go for balance and use common sense. Look at my racial strength and weakness and build upon them. Example, if I was a tarutaru mage, I wouldn't have to focus on +mp whoring. I'd look into other areas to improve in.

I see mages whine on the Windower forums about how they couldn't get access to their infinite line macro (When ToAU was released) I think they're mostly {Too weak} players who buy their gils and consequently use methods to exploit the game to their hearts content. Not saying that's true of all 3rd party infinite line macro users, but it certainly seems that way to me when I read their whiny baby posts on that forum.

[Feba]

Re: Macro gearswap limit

I see mages whine on the Windower forums about how they couldn't get access to their infinite line macro (When ToAU was released) I think they're mostly {Too weak} players who buy their gils and consequently use methods to exploit the game to their hearts content. Not saying that's true of all 3rd party infinite line macro users, but it certainly seems that way to me when I read their whiny baby posts on that forum.

Your car breaks down. You complain, even though you could ride your bike, or even walk.


I think you do drugs.

[Bishop]

Re: Macro gearswap limit

Why are you getting all defensive feba? Did you fall into the category he just mentioned? Aeni clearly stated that its not true for all 3rd party macro users. In addition, he even mentioned that it was his OPINION and that it only seems that way to him. At least he has basis for his judgement. People who find ways to exploit the game (in this case, the infiminite macro program) would logically continue finding different exploits. But what the hell does drugs have to do with my car breaking down?

[Dryhus]

Re: Macro gearswap limit

Feba was trying to point out that it isn't fair to make a broad conclusion that has nothing to do with the complaint.

I "grew up" on RDM, and I became accustomed to macro-whoring. If something was affected by a stat, you'd better believe I had a gear swap for it. I found Windower, which expanded those capabilties and did things that FFXI macros SHOULD do. If I run Macro2, it will interrupt Macro1's /wait line? That's pointless. I was upset when I couldn't use these macros after the ToAU update. Maybe he was referring to me as a gilbuyer, maybe he was referring to someone else. The point is, how he drew the conclusion that ANYONE who was upset at a broken Windower is a gilbuyer, I have no idea.

[Patchinko]

Re: Macro gearswap limit

Can't we use the /console exec command in conjunction with a file we make externally to change as much equipment as we'd like?

E.g. Make a file named "mnd_gear.ffxi" that contains a list of /equip commands to equip all of your mnd+ gear and then put /console exec "mnd_gear.ffxi" in a normal macro to execute it?

I haven't had need to try it myself yet.

[Dryhus]

Re: Macro gearswap limit

Can't we use the /console exec command in conjunction with a file we make externally to change as much equipment as we'd like?

E.g. Make a file named "mnd_gear.ffxi" that contains a list of /equip commands to equip all of your mnd+ gear and then put /console exec "mnd_gear.ffxi" in a normal macro to execute it?

I haven't had need to try it myself yet.

This is EXACTLY what I do with RDM macros, though using /con in favor of /console. I use Windower and FFXI macros in conjunction with each other.

[Bishop]

Re: Macro gearswap limit

The point is, how he drew the conclusion that ANYONE who was upset at a broken Windower is a gilbuyer, I have no idea.

I see what you're trying to say and I understand. I don't fully agree with aeni as well. But since it was his observations, and not mine, I can't really disagree with it. In addition, he didn't say ALL players that were upset about these programs buy gil or whatever. He just says that "most" seemed that way to him. I just saw some correlation to what aeni was saying, but none at all in feba's comment, which prompted me to write that post.

[Patchinko]

Re: Macro gearswap limit

This is EXACTLY what I do with RDM macros, though using /con in favor of /console. I use Windower and FFXI macros in conjunction with each other.

Does it still work? I might try it if it does, because it seems that in the coming levels there is an abundance of good gear replacements coming.

[Dryhus]

Re: Macro gearswap limit

Does it still work? I might try it if it does, because it seems that in the coming levels there is an abundance of good gear replacements coming.

It does still work. My Slow macro looks like this:

/recast Slow
/ma Slow <stnpc>
/equip main "Earth Staff"
/con exec mind.txt

[Jei]

Re: Macro gearswap limit

I don't know if this matters much but I feel a lot safer to have /equip above the actual spell casting. For instant abilities I even put /wait 1 after gear swapping.