Square Enix Account Transfer

[Murphie]

Re: Square Enix Account Transfer

I gear swapped like crazy on my RDM. Hell, I gear swap like crazy on my BLU. It's not EASY, but I just don't care to learn how to use spellcast enough to bother changing my ways.

[cidbahamut]

Re: Square Enix Account Transfer

Spellcast isn't really that difficult unless you start trying to make it do crazy things. If you ever want to give it a try let me know and I'll see about whipping up a template for you.

[Firewind]

Re: Square Enix Account Transfer

Spellcast means you actually have enough macro slots for spells though. Before I started using it I literally had an two thirds of my Alt macro row dedicated to gear swapping which in turn meant that I was extremely slow casting because I had very few macro slots left over for actual spells.

It also gets rid of the need for multi-stage macros for when you swap in a macro piece then back mid-cast and it lets you do that with multiple items. It makes a MASSIVE DIFFERENCE with Cures and Barspells due to how quickly they are cast (Cures are near instant with Light Arts, Incantor's Stone, Cure Clogs and Capped Cure Speed Merits). Even the slightest delay in switching into Cure Potency gear can cost a life when fighting Abyssea NMs. Also getting in fast cast gear for stuff like Raises and Stoneskin can and will make the difference between a wipe and win.

If the vanilla client got at least four times the number of macro lines per macro slot and at least one extra macro row, then I would consider dropping spellcast, and even then I would still be using Spellcast for Barspells and Cures just so my gear swaps happen before the spell goes off.

---------- Post added at 07:28 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:19 PM ----------

Spellcast templates aren't hard to write at all. It's basic XML and it's only complicated when you try to be stupid and make it automate things so stuff happens without your input. That is not recommended since not only does it lag spellcast considerably but it is actually botting since automated scripts don't require any sort on input from the player.

[Murphie]

Re: Square Enix Account Transfer

I can definitely see where spellcast has had an effect on your ability as a WHM.^^

[Yellow Mage]

Re: Square Enix Account Transfer

So you play a Red Mage who never gear swaps? Remind me to never party with you.

Ok, my mistake then! Apparently it's either you use Windower, or you don't gear-swap at all!

[Etra]

Re: Square Enix Account Transfer

I'm more worried about what new problems are going to arise from the new payment procedures. I can already hear the QQs about Verified by Visa and the shady third party vendors SE will be using instead of something sensible like just accepting PayPal.

They already accept PayPal for buying Crysta, which is what will be used to pay for FFXI after this change on top of debit and credit cards.

"* Payment Methods
Square Enix Crysta, debit cards, and credit cards will be viable payment methods after ID transfer. Debit and credit cards must support personal authentication services (such as 3D Secure) in order to be used."

This change may actually up the population, albeit by just a smidgen. My reasoning is solely based on the fact that SE lost a crap ton of people because they didn't have Verified by Visa and what not with their credit cards. Some people may give the game another go now.

[Firewind]

Re: Square Enix Account Transfer

Ok, my mistake then! Apparently it's either you use Windower, or you don't gear-swap at all!

Aaaah so you just swap in elemental staves then, got it.

So what do you do for barspells? How do you get in your Barspell gear before the spell goes off?

How do you get all your Cure Potency gear before the Cure goes off? 5/5 Cure Cast Merits, Light Arts/Fast Cast, Incantor's Stone and Cure Clogs make cures ludicrously fast without adding in Fast Cast macros.

What do you do for Stoneskin outside of Abyssea (since the MND bonus in Abyssea alone is enough to cap Stoneskin)?

How do you go from Haste/TP to a full WS set before the WS goes off? Don't say switch before you hit it because the extra hit that will go off in that time will add more TP that will be wasted in the WS.

How about going from a full nuking set to a full enfeebling set to sleepga the mobs trying to chew the back line's faces off?

Having the extra macro lines will not make a player suddenly perform better, what it does is makes you more efficient since all if your macro boxes are freed up for actual spells/weaponskills/job abilities.

If I had the choice between someone using SpellCast and someone who has most of their macro boxes taken up by gear swap macros, I'd go for the spellcast user every time purely because there will be no "Sorry you died but my gear macro didn't go off" when fighting some horrible NM.

Take FFXIV, even if there was a need for gear swapping in that game, nobody has any reason to use anything like spellcast there. Why? because there are at least four times as many macro lines per box and there's a huge macro palette. You also don't need to put them on the action bar too since they are counted as separate from the action bar.

[Squiggs]

Re: Square Enix Account Transfer

You must have been really bad at setting up your macros...

Sure, Spellcast is more efficient (I'm assuming). But, there are ways to get around if you choose not to use it.

[Firewind]

Re: Square Enix Account Transfer

One of the main problems is this: How do you get into Idle, Precast and Midcast gear without taking up too much macro space? The second problem: How do you keep latancy from being an issue when hitting multiple macros while casting a spell with a very short casting time?

Usually I go something like this when casting a spell: Start casting with Haste/Fast Cast Gear macro'd with SpellCast > Switch to macro Gear MidCast > Switch back to Idle/PDT gear

Now that requires at least three (maybe four, or even five depending on how much gear you need to switch) macro boxes for a single spell. One to get into haste gear, one to start the spell then get into macro gear (which may take up more than one macro box) and then finally a macro to put me back into my Idle/PDT gear (which may well take up to macro boxes depending on how much gear I had to swap out)

Then of course I might Idle in MaxMP gear if there's no risk of me taking damage which means I could be taking up 1-2 more macros boxes to get back into that gear depending on how much I have to switch.

With Spellcast I can basically have every spell I need there for me. My Abyssea Macro Bars with it look something like this:

CTRL (Left Thumbstick)
1- Haste
2-4 - Cure IV - VI
5 - Accession + Stoneskin
6 - Aquaveil
7 - Auspice/Relevant Barspell (Really it's not hard to type /ma "[spell]" <me> for the one I don't have macro'd)
8 - Protectra + Shellra
9 - Refresh/Sublimation
0 - Esuna

CTRL (Left Thumbstick)
1- Repose
2 - Flash
3-9 - -na Spells
0 - Erase

Without it, pretty much the entire Ctrl line is taken up with gear swap macros.

[Neverslip]

Re: Square Enix Account Transfer

So I wonder how this will change for console players like myself...

I'd love to figure out how to get a 360 controller working on my PC for FFxi but every readthru I use leaves me in FFxi and nothing is working... then I could use Spellcast so I wouldn't have 3 macros to cycle through just to completely switch to WS gear vs TP gear vs Evasion gear vs etc.etc.etc. Also, after watching Youtube vids and such it would seem to me that my character plays much like a character in full Dusk gear w/ minor gravitation and slow cast upon them. Every time I zone, my character pauses for a good 3-5sec (populace depending) about 10 seconds after zoning. Everyone I'm with appears about 50-100 'yalms' ahead of me... real pain in the ass sometimes.

(Yes, I've tried to follow the instructions from the forum post but it just don't work for me for some reason... I must be missing a crucial element. Printed it off today so I can monkey w/ it some more when I have the time)

[Firewind]

Re: Square Enix Account Transfer

If you're on Windows 7 then you need to put it into test mode so you can force it to use unsigned drivers. Then install XBCD like you would have with XP.

[Squiggs]

Re: Square Enix Account Transfer

I'm not saying it doesn't take up a lot of room. It does. But to assume someone only switches out his elemental staves, or doesn't swap at all because he doesn't use Windower and Spellcast, is a bit...exaggerated.

[Neverslip]

Re: Square Enix Account Transfer

If you're on Windows 7 then you need to put it into test mode so you can force it to use unsigned drivers. Then install XBCD like you would have with XP.

* writes this down...

[Firewind]

Re: Square Enix Account Transfer

I'm fairly sure that some place like BG or Windower.net has a guide to do that somewhere that goes into better detail. I can't quite remember the exact process myself.

[Neverslip]

Re: Square Enix Account Transfer

Ha... I never even thought of BG for that.

/facepalm