Useful Final Fantasy XIV Macros

Hey all, I wanted to post some of my macros I use for gameplay for my jobs in Final Fantasy XIV. I think macros are a great way to make some shortcuts and make the gameplay experience a bit easier for all. I'll write down the macro, the instructions, and an explanation of what each one does.

Some commonly used terms:
 
/ac - Stands for "action".   
/macroicon "Name of Ability" or /micon "Name of ability" - Replaces the icon of the macro with the icon and cooldown of the name of the ability it's tied to.   
<t> - The current target. "<t>" is replaced for the current target of the player.   
<tt> - The current target of the target. "<tt>" is replaced with the target of your target.
<me> - Your character. "<me>" is replaced with yourself.
/wait # - The amount of seconds (denoted by #) one will wait before executing another line in the macro. Note if you hit another macro, the current macro is ignored in favor of the new one. So hitting different macros in succession for a lot of different wait timers will overwrite one another.
/echo "Insert text here" - Speaks to yourself and alerts you about anything you want.

Example: /ac "Cure" <me> would begin to cast the spell "Cure" on myself.

So let's get started! If you're on PC, you can copy/paste these right into your macro pages and they should work. Drag them onto your hotbar and you're good to go! If you're on PS3/PS4, print this page out or write these down and input them in manually. Good luck! (Just copy and paste the bolded parts.)

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Paladin/Gladiator/Warrior/Tank Macros:








Provoke Macro - Every tank should have this, especially for fights that require hate swapping in order to succeed. This macro effectively uses the provoke action and sends a ding on party chat to alert the party and/or the other tank that you just got the monster's attention.

/macroicon "Provoke"
/ac "Provoke" <t>
/wait 1
/p <<- Provoke @ <t> <se.10>

I play very nervously which causes me to spam the macro repeatedly. The /wait 1 before the final line ensures that the line at the end will only play once since hitting it repeatedly would cause the macros to override one another.

This macro effectively replaces my Provoke button on my hotbar and I've removed the original Provoke button from my ability list.

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Spirits Within  (Paladin Only) - Not exactly necessary, and may be borderline annoying. Considering taking this out depending on the viability of silencing monsters in the future. But this is mainly used as a heads up to other people on a Silence rotation that you're using your ability. 

/macroicon "Spirits Within"
/ac "Spirits Within" <t>
/wait 1
/p Spirits Within ---> <t> 
/wait 45
/echo Spirits Within is now up. <se.10>

This macro effectively replaces my "Spirits Within" button on my hotbar and I've removed the original "Spirits Within" button from my ability list.

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White Mage Macros:

Benediction Macro - I made this one as a safety catch. In normal gameplay, if you hit Benediction, it will automatically heal yourself and waste a cooldown on an important ability. For this reason, I wrote a macro that would force you to have someone targeted to use the ability so it wouldn't go to waste if you accidentally hit the wrong key.

/macroicon "Benediction"
/ac "Benediction" <t>
/p Benediction used on <t> --
 




This macro effectively replaces my Benediction button on my hotbar and I've removed the original Benediction button from my ability list.

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Eye for an Eye/Virus Macro - This can be used with Scholars as well. Casts "Eye for an Eye" on the target so they take reduced damage and then applies Virus to their target so they do less damage to it. Great for preparing for a strong attack on the tank like Titan's "Mountain Buster" which can do 1500-2000 damage+ if hitting an unmitigated tank.

/macroicon "Eye for an Eye"
/ac "Eye for an Eye" <t>
/wait 2
/ac "Virus" <tt>
/p Using Eye for an Eye on <t> and Virus on <tt>

This macro effectively replaces my "Eye for an Eye" and "Virus" buttons on my hotbar and I've removed the original "Eye for an Eye" and "Virus" buttons from my ability list.

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Divine Seal/Surecast Combination Ability - These two abilities are used together on my set. Surecast being used by itself is likely a waste of space, but feel free to correct me if you use White Mage and the ability often. I play White Mage very casually.

/macroicon "Divine Seal"
/ac "Divine Seal" <me>
/wait 1
/ac "Surecast" <me>



This macro effectively replaces my "Divine Seal" and "Surecast" buttons on my hotbar and I've removed the original "Divine Seal" and "Surecast" buttons from my ability list.

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Stoneskin Macro - Stoneskins the whole party automatically. This one is admittedly a bit broken if you have less than a full party. I would recommend keeping Stoneskin by itself as well on the hotbar so you can apply during the fight as needed.

/ac "Stoneskin" <1>
/wait 4
/ac "Stoneskin" <2>
/wait 4
/ac "Stoneskin" <3>
/wait 4
/ac "Stoneskin" <4>
/wait 4
/ac "Stoneskin" <5>
/wait 4
/ac "Stoneskin" <6>
/wait 4
/ac "Stoneskin" <7>
/wait 4
/ac "Stoneskin" <8>

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Aero/Aero II/Stone/Stone II Macros - The nuking spells for White Mage have to be cast on enemies. I've re-written these to work so that hitting these buttons will cast these spells when you have a party member targeted. Of course, the party member has to be attacking the boss. I usually do this with the tank targeted if everyone's good on HP in order to dish out a little DPS on my healer class. These macros make use of the "target of target" <tt> function I was talking about earlier.

Aero -



/macroicon "Aero"
/ac "Aero" <tt>

Aero II -

/macroicon "Aero II"
/ac "Aero II" <tt>

Stone -

/macroicon "Stone"
/ac "Stone" <tt>

Stone II -



/macroicon "Stone II"
/ac "Stone II" <tt>

The problem with these macros is that they're no good if you're soloing. If you want to solo, you could likely add the a third line below it that will cast it on <t> instead of <tt>.

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Black Mage Macros:

Manawall/Manaward Combo Macro - I find having Manawall and Manaward as separate abilities a waste of an ability space. If I am going to be hit by one devastating ability, I would rather have all my resistances go up at one time, so keeping them separate does me no good. I may get rid of this macro if fights in the future require these to be used separately, so this isn't an end all solution.

/macroicon "Manawall"
/ac "Manawall" <me>
/wait 2
/ac "Manaward" <me>

This macro effectively replaces my Manawall and Manaward buttons on my hotbar and I've removed the original Manawall and Manaward buttons from my ability list.

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Bard/Archer Macros:

Blunt Arrow Macro - Alerts the party and other silencers when you're silencing a monster if you need a silence rotation.



/macroicon "Blunt Arrow"
/ac "Blunt Arrow" <t>
/p << Silencing <t> with Blunt Arrow <se.11>
/wait 30
/echo Blunt Arrow is now up

Whim Independent Studios - Development Log #27

Hey all, back with the 27th development log!

Selatria:

The Selatria Kickstarter is expected to go live this month, and we're working with testers and getting feedback to get a fair analysis of the game before we put it live to the public.

The storyline for the final chapter is almost done, the team and I are talking over some details on the plot and getting that straightened out. After that, we will send to the voice actors to record and finish up, and then cast the missing voiced roles.

The semi-final version of the new title screen, with a new horizontal section menu that was developed by Matt a few weeks ago. We're trying to figure out a good place to put the logo without ruining the essence of the art. Any suggestions?

Here's also some footage from Chapter 3-3 of Selatria in development!



Christopher Nuño is in the process of developing new music for the project. We tentatively meet every Thursday ish to hash out new music for the game project. We are keeping some themes under wraps to make a debut with the Kickstarter pitch, but take a preview of what we have in store to show the public when we go live in a few weeks!

The first is a preview of the new title theme as it was being composed in real time! I requested that the new title theme is more consistent with the rest of the music in the project in order to give the game some cohesion in terms of musical style. Pieces of Selatria's overarching main theme are present in the new title theme and the ship theme. Take a look and a listen if you please!

That's about it! It's a very short development log, because I want to save a lot of surprises for later this month. Please look forward to our Kickstarter later this month and thanks for your support of our project!



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E3 2014 Pictures+Videos+Commentary

(Note: This was originally written on June 21, 2014. I just published it due to uploading issues.)


So last week was my first time at E3 2014, as usual I do my yearly Facebook spam with lots of ranting on what I like and don't like to do. This year was different, I got to play the games they talked about in person.

My favorite games I'm looking forward to:

Super Smash Bros. for Wii U (Wii U) - A given. The game plays almost identical to 2008 Super Smash Bros. Brawl with some modifications, so if you were looking for a change of gameplay like there was between Melee and Brawl, you're unfortunately in for a wake-up call. The game looks promising, but I could see some influences from the Project M mod, notably the complete redesign of the character "Pit" in terms of gameplay. I did get to play as Wii Fit Trainer and absolutely loved it. There will be an adapter for GameCube controllers to play on the WiiU as well, and they showed it off extensively. That's all we could play with in the demo. I would list Smash Bros for 3DS as well, but the controls are awkward and unintuitive in my opinion. I think the game needs to be pushed back or the 3DS launches with a periphreal to allow for easier inputs and movements. That's just my opinion. Other than the poor controls, the game plays very solid.

Yoshi's Woolly World (Wii U) - I got to play through the first couple of levels of this game, and the gameplay footage didn't do it justice. It plays a lot like Yoshi's Story and Yoshi's Island games of old, but done in a complete Yarn setting and includes New Super Mario Bros. like co-operative gameplay. The yarn graphics are completely detailed, and you can lick and "unravel" hidden points in the game and it's done in a very aesthetically pleasing manner. I'm looking forward to this game in 2015!

Splatoon (Wii U) - A first-person shooter I really enjoy playing! (For a change). The object of the game was to splatter as much of the battlefield as you can with paint. The Splatoon Booth was designed to be a 4 on 4 player game, with each person on each console controlling the Wii U touch controller. My strategy was to sneak past the other players and douse their home area in paint, hehehe. I wear Splatoon squids on my glasses from now on in real life in support of this game. It was honestly my first enjoyable shooter since Goldeneye for the 64.

Mario Maker (Wii U) - A really fun one. You can make Mario levels and play through them in both the 1985 graphics or the New Super Mario Bros. style graphics. The use of the engine was pretty limited though. They only had Overworld levels available, I can't wait to see if there will be underwater and Bowser castle levels.

Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker (Wii U) - I played this at E3 and it was the first time I heard of the game. It's a platformer that puts more emphasis on problem solving and camera turning than platform hopping. Definitely a game I'll look into getting.

Mortal Kombat X (Various) - I like the old-school direction the series has taken in regards of the last title, and Mortal Kombat X seems to be going in the same direction.

Starwhal: Just the Tip (PS3/PS4): A fun simple multiplayer game where you control sharks and have to stab them in the chest with the shark tip. It's hilariously fun to play.

Pictures and Commentary:

The look of the badge, I didn't picture the barcode for obvious reasons.

This was in the main entrance hall. Square-Enix got center stage! A nice look of Shiva on the center of FFXIV with Kingdom Hearts 2.5 and Theatrhythm taking the sides of the panels.

 Evolve was a big attraction and won a lot of "Best of E3" awards.

 Lots of interesting stuff to see all around.

I got to play Sonic Boom, both the 3DS version and WiiU version. The controls don't feel very natural and the game doesn't give a lot of direction on where to go and what to do. I had to ask the attendant for help on where to go and how to advance at times. Hopefully they fix it before release.

The Square-Enix bag from E3. It's huge. After the show ended, I turned it into a poster!

I was coaching our artist for Selatria and ANTics on how to fight Leviathan! She was Black Mage. Unfortunately, she didn't win that one...

But then we got the whole studio in and kicked its ass. T-Shirts for everyone!

Did I also mention I got to meet some friends from Viva and we beat Leviathan there too!?

 

 

Letter from the Producer LIVE... live! And I got to meet Naoki Yoshida FFXIV Producer/Director shortly after! One of my game design inspirations!

Square-Enix plushies and figurines!

Hatsume Miku from the Sega booth!

Sega statues at the booth. Wow, I look awkward!

Splatoon, a really fun game. Read my thoughts on it at the top of the post if you haven't! 

The Nintendo booth! Where I spent most of my time.

Ryan Homme (Selatria writer) posing for the camera!

Capcom figurines!

Atlus booth!

I didn't know they were coming up with a new Gauntlet game! I loved Gauntlet Legends and Gauntlet: Dark Legacy as a kid. The co-op for those games were awesome. It might be a little harder to compete in this day in age with online cooperation.

Figurines from Destiny, an upcoming game by Bungie (creators of Halo series)

Videos:

For the Smash Bros. video, a Nintendo representative interrupted me several times saying I had to show the people playing the game, so I had to make sure I switched between the people playing and the footage.
 

   

Game Design Philosophy: Looping World Maps

So, we're currently developing Chapter 3 of our role-playing game Selatria, and after some story events happen, the player gets access to the ship and is able to sail the open seas. However, we soon found out that the space between our easternmost continent and westernmost continent is very small due to the horizontal loop from the eastern edge and westernedge respectively.

Southern Half of World Map (In Development). The red is where the map originally would loop, and it would give the illusion that the Selatria world was really small. I'm hoping this new feature would alleviate this. Forgive my terrible red art!

The world for our game then seems really small, so I wanted to turn this into something a little fun and dynamic. The main Overworld will now run a parallel process event that tracks the X and Y coordinates of the player on the map. If the event notices that they're reaching the edge of the map at any given time, they will be transferred to a new map called "Overworld - Uncharted Waters".

In the Uncharted Waters, there will be stronger enemies than usual where the player can grind if they're underleveled (I'm going to make it dynamic based on the section of the game the player is on.) They can also collect little trinkets and other items that are "lost at sea". The items and enemies are randomly placed and will always reload whenever they enter the map.

I spent most of this morning planning it out and getting things up and running so far, and I think this will give the illusion to the players that Selatria's world isn't finite in terms of the story we're trying to tell.

 Uncharted Waters is going to have a different fog and color tone to emphasize mystery and exploration.

Whim Independent Studios @ E3

L to R
Matt (Programmer/Designer of Selatria/ANTics)
Ryan (Selatria Writer)
Vee (Voice of Melanie - Selatria)
Paul V. (Business Admin/HR)
Me (Producer/Director of Selatria, Producer of ANTics)
Jen (Main Artist for Selatria, UI for ANTics)
Gerren (Lead Programmer ANTIcs)
Jon (Programmer/Designer of Selatria, Concept of ANTics)
Geno (Studio Logo)
Paul D. (ANTics Model/Art Design)

Python Programming Language

I'm growing fond of Python (the language, not the real-world snake)

I'm currently writing a small simple dungeon crawler to stick in my resume. The eventual goal will be to have a different game that one could play written in a different language when they click the link under relevant skills.

Make a professional activity a little more fun, anyway. (Also keeps me from being rusty!)

 

Whim Independent Studios - Development Log #26

Hey all, back with the 26th development log!

I've started committing to posting these development logs on the last Saturday of every month, to have a reasonable timeframe on releasing these and keeping people updated with what we're doing -

Studio and Twitter: 

I've revitalized not only my own Twitter page but we created one for the studio. Using some suggestions from the Indie Game Developers Facebook community, I've been #GameDev, #IndieDev, and #screenshotsaturday hashtags for posting about our progress. While I will be posting long development logs once a month about our development, if you would like to casually follow progress on our games, check out our Twitter pages to stay up-to-date on what we're doing. Please follow us!

My Twitter: https://twitter.com/groverwhim
Company Twitter Page: https://twitter.com/whimindie

Selatria:

We are about halfway done preparing for the Kickstarter launch of Selatria. We have special things planned for the reward tiers (which are retroactive with the Indiegogo backers from last year). I will not spoil the surprises, but one new aspect for our new version of the game we will be presenting is a redesigned game logo!

The new logo was drawn by our game's main artist, Jennifer Gilliland. The new logo uses a more mystical look that, in my opinion, better fits the story and look of the game and the meaning of the word "Selatria".

As for the development of the game, we just finished Chapter 3-3, which involves going through the dungeon called the "Smuggler's Passage". Those who like a mix of going through dark dungeons with a torch and maneuvering on water passageways will like the design of the dungeon.

I did some of the initial mapping and the cut-scenes of the area, Chris composed the theme, Matt developed the fight and battle encounter mechanics as well as adjusting the maps, and Jon did the balancing and fine-tuning to make sure the pacing fit the other areas of the game. Take a look at some of the screenshots and listen to the theme!

ANTics Post-Mortem:

I wanted to write a post-mortem, or things we learned, about ANTics development alongside this post. I wanted to post about my experiences as a Producer working together with the programmer of the project and coordinating with the artist and composer to come up with the full realization of the game. However, I think this would be better if this post were to be pushed off until after we complete the other versions of the game. I have a lot I want to write about regarding our development team's dealings with Apple.


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My next development log in June will talk about our experience as a studio first time going to E3! Hopefully we'll see you there!

Until next time!


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