Implement support for player-created Addons immediatelyFollow

The UI fixes FF14 needs are tied with server requests so it is a little more complicated. Should they implement your idea, they have to be careful not to release too much information on how server transactions work or botters will have a field day.

In any case, I think it's perfectly ok if the GUI addons you had in mind merely replaced or re-ordered widgets displays on the screens. But unfortunately, that doesn't IMHO solve the GUI problems 100%.

In baseball if one team allows their runner to take the bat with him to help deal with the basemen it might be more exciting to watch but that team would be cheating. The reason SE will never allow this is the same as the reason the MLB would not allow one team to run bases with a bat.

Edited, Dec 13th 2010 5:36am by Nicholiathan

It's not cheating. Addons are not the same as botting. There is a very substantial difference. SE even said way back in June of this year that they wanted to implement support for addons eventually.

http://www.zam.com/video.html?video=389

Just skip ahead to 3:18 in that video.




Implementing support for addons would make SE look bad? Are you serious? Addons are one of the most popular aspects of WoW, so it's pretty stupid to say that people would look down upon SE for implementing them in FFXIV. And the boss wouldn't laugh at something that's a feature that's already commonplace among most other MMORPGs, which addons are. Also, developers don't get fired just for suggesting ideas. Hell, apparently developers don't even get fired for releasing half-finished games that get crap reviews (they just get reassigned to different positions on the staff).

Besides, the developers have already discussed this idea amongst themselves, anyway. I'm just saying they should implement it ASAP.

Edited, Dec 14th 2010 12:44am by Rhianu

Oh, probably the part where Tanaka says "in the future we are looking into allowing users to have addons to the UI."

And there's no reason for SE to make addons themselves, because if they want to make a change to the interface they can just patch the game and implement that change directly. It's pointless for any company to make addons for their own game, so clearly any mention of addons assumes player-created works. Really now, that should go without saying.

Edited, Dec 14th 2010 7:23pm by Rhianu

It's a very fine line between them.

for example take xis windower. had an plugin called light luggage. harmless but all it did was sort the inventory every time something dropped or everyfew seconds. not sure of the specific mechanics. but it is essence a bot.

by definition even a macro is a bot.

the question is one of moderation. if se let the communty design and creates addons. at what point would they draw the line and how? player a may create a simple addon that was a simple script to sort his inventory. player b may make a similar script where he can target any nearby mob approach and kill them repeatedly.

while i would like to see some of the things i liked about windower for xi appear in xiv. things like distance and status timers. i think some pretty heavy moderation would be required.

going back to the xi windower addon. it allowed extended macros. and i know a lot of people who made macros to cap magic skills. simply by making 20-30 lines of spells and resting for mp then adding a line making it run the same macro again and again. and to some degree you could kill anything that popped close to you with the same kind of thing.

People seem to be talking about different things in this topic, but let me stress that the addons we're talking about are not bots. Bots automate tasks. They make it so you don't have to push keys (thereby using your head to decide which key to push) in order to do something.

That's not what we're talking about.

The addons we're talking about (simplified explanation, of course) are pretty much cosmetic in nature - a way to show information (from both in-game sources and player-created databases) in an easy-to-access way. This is not automation. For example, it's the difference between having a bot that casts and catches fish for you versus an addon that prints in the corner of the screen how many crayfish you've caught.

If SE releases a set of API functions, they can pick and choose what modders have access to. It wouldn't be an open invitation to bot, just an open invitation for those of us who mod to help the community out with improvements while FFXIV gets back on its feet. If SE doesn't like what people are doing with a particular function, they can just remove access to that function. It's that simple. So in the end, SE would have the ability to choose which directions they want people to mod.

And everyone else would have the choice whether or not they want to use certain addons.

Rhianu, this is a great idea. I'm pretty sure that SE designed the UI around the idea of eventual addons, but I'd really love to see them release access to at least a couple functions soon. Right now, I think us modders could really do some good for the community.

Um... actually, yes it does. In fact, that's the whole meaning of the word addon. If it's created internally by the same people who made the game, then it's called a patch or an update, not an addon. I believe I already pointed this out...

@elevens: Hey, guess what? Addons are always optional, meaning you never have to use an addon if you don't want to. Don't like what a certain addon does, or find the game more enjoyable without that addon? Fine. Don't use it. There's no one telling you that you have to use all the addons a game has available just because they're there.

That's the beauty of addons: they allow you to customize your interface so it's exactly how you like it to be.

Edited, Dec 16th 2010 3:58pm by Rhianu

no it's not. addons and patches are very different.

So what? Why do you care if someone else depends on a particular addon or not? It doesn't affect you at all. Just because YOU don't want to use a particular addon, that doesn't mean no one else does. If you don't want to use a particular addon, then don't. But don't go saying no one else should be allowed to use that addon either, because that's just selfish and immature.


Yes, I know. I never said they weren't.


Actually, sometimes you can choose whether or not to use things that are added via official updates. It's called configuration options. For example, the controller specific keyboard layout and the auto-sort function which were both added in the November update can both be toggled on and off. Also, SE has even said that once they implement the new mouse-based UI, there's going to be an option to switch between it and the current interface. So yes, sometimes you do have the option to use official functions or not.


Except there has only ever been one deffinition of the word as it applies to MMORPGs. It has never meant anything else, no one has ever used it for anything else, and so it's safe to assume that it DOESN'T mean anything else, especially since they used the word "addon" in direct response to a question about allowing players to customize the UI.


Auction House example? What are you talking about? What was wrong with the AH in FFXI?

Edited, Dec 16th 2010 10:28pm by Rhianu

No, actually it really isn't. Blizzard draws a very clear and hard line for addons in WoW, which is that you can't do anything that allows for or enables automated gameplay. In other words, you're not allowed to make any addons that take control of the game and play it for you (though the API for WoW is structured in such a way that you couldn't make such an addon anyway, even if you wanted to). Really, when you get right down to it, the line is pretty clear, and not thin at all.

And there aren't any plain WoW addons that allow a "bot" to craft for you, so I don't know where you're getting that idea.

Edited, Dec 16th 2010 10:39pm by Rhianu

Yes, but the question that was asked was specifically about player-created addons. The interviewer made that very clear, and so if Tanaka was talking about something else, he would have said so.


The same way you get them onto a PC: by transfering them from a USB drive or by downloading them using the web browser. Or perhaps both. I thought that would be kind of obvious. >_>


Just because some people dislike the way FFXI's AH functions, that doesn't mean it's going against what an AH is generally supposed to be. Besides, FFXI is two years older than WoW, so WoW's style hadn't yet been established when FFXI first launched.

Edited, Dec 16th 2010 11:02pm by Rhianu

I was under the impression that in Wow, you can set your character with x amount of mats, a command to do a craft x times, go for shopping and come back, all done. To me that's automated game play. not sure it is legit in Blizz view though but I heard about that quite a bit.
To be really honest, I would like to see a vetting system by SE (a bit like the vetting by Apple for its app-store) before a 3rd party add-on were to be released on FF14. I'm really not against users idea, on the contrary, but I'm pretty much against unintended consequences related to that. FF14 doesn't "need" that (that would be a nice to have, which is different). I wouldn't risk the game balance and disctinct atmosphere/community over that kind of thing but that's just me.

Edited, Dec 17th 2010 1:44am by Anurid

um.... the lack of an auction maybe?
It was after all an Auction House. thus alot of people expected an auction process of sorts.

Edited, Dec 17th 2010 12:37pm by Dzian