Can we get auto-stacking?

[KingOfZeal]

One thing that has always bothered me, and I'm sure others, is that some times things that you obtain will automatically be put onto an existing stack of the items, while other times they are left in a single item stack regardless if you have another of those items or not.

One of the biggest examples of this, and most familiar to most people, involves Chocobo Raising. When your chocobo finds an item and you collect it, if them item stacks and you already have a partial stack of that item, the one you collect will be added to the existing partial stack. This also occurs when you get items from event moogles (such as chocobo tickets) or certain quest-related items.

Meanwhile, other items like drops from monsters (regardless if you are in a party or not), treasure and coffer chests that are opened, and BCNM drops, do not automatically add to an existing partial stack if you have it.

At the very base of this request, could we standardize how items are added to your inventory? If items could be added the same way in any circumstance, I personally would be happy. At least I would know if I had to check my inventory after item I get or not. However, to go further with the request, since the ability to have items automatically get added to an existing stack exists, can we get every item to follow this rule?

I don't know if it would be necessary to extend this to items you request being added to your inventory, such as transferring items from your Safe/storage to inventory and vice versa. However, I (and I'm sure many others) would love to have items (particularly mob drops) automatically stack as it is done elsewhere.

[Feba]

basically, these things that do that are TAU (except I think Choco digging), and also pretty much not something RMT bots can exploit.

SE was asked this before, and they said the reason items don't autostack/sort is because they don't want to make the game too easy.

[Xhaztol]

But see, the thing with auto stacking is that it's not a difficult thing to do. It's not a skill that's hard to do and gets easier over time. They wouldn't be making the game easier, they'd be removing another roadblock/annoyance to a game that's already slow enough.

[Pteryx]

I have to agree with Feba here; auto-stacking would make it that much easier to make farming bots, and we do not want farming bots... -- Pteryx

[Murphie]

But see, the thing with auto stacking is that it's not a difficult thing to do. It's not a skill that's hard to do and gets easier over time. They wouldn't be making the game easier, they'd be removing another roadblock/annoyance to a game that's already slow enough.This conversation pretty much ended in july. So obviously, it's not a hot issue. Please look at the last posted date of threads before replying.

[Feba]

thanks for the necro, and there are plenty of benefits to the system we have now. It's fine.

[Taskmage]

I have to agree with Feba here; auto-stacking would make it that much easier to make farming bots, and we do not want farming bots... -- PteryxMaybe, but there's already a widely distributed windower plugin that does auto-stacking. So the concern about enabling cheaters is rather moot since the cheaters are already doing it. For non-botting players I'm having a hard time seeing a negative impact on the game from having a feature like this.

[KingOfZeal]

Yeah, the topic was over some time ago, but at the same time, the point of the topic was missed:

Not necessarily to always have stacking, but to normalize everything: some things have auto-stacking (like items obtained during CS's) where other things don't (like items obtained via drops). What I was asking all that time ago was to have it one way or the other.

[Jei]

bots can already stack items easily tho.

[Balfree]

No matter what problems it would bring, auto-stacking would ultimatly be really nice. But I'd actually vote faster for a method to automatically discard items you dont want. Or a method that would not throw items right into your inventory, i wouldnt mind to "lot" on my own items when i solo. Send loot to the vault until i decided to obtain it, this way i wont fill up with junk.

[Lunaryn]

The system for obtaining drops doesn't make a whole lot of sense anyway. Actually having the pool there in solo if your inventory is full yet always flushing it immediately when there is room strikes me as a decision made more on the merits of how easy it was to tie together existing code than on how solo drops should work...

Only one previous FF I can think of required manual stacking to this degree: Final Fantasy IV (or did FFV do this too? I seem to recall full autostacking there but I could be wrong), which also shared the same inconsistency based on how the item was obtained; ironically, it autostacked more often than not, with the major exception being shops, and thus came off as more inconsistent coding than intentional impediments to gameplay (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/FakeDifficulty) as is being claimed in this case.

Autostacking is not, I think, a significant botting concern because, as noted, if you're violating ToS anyway, w6r is now bundled with a plugin to do exactly this (as well as allow scripted lot/pass when partied).

What I really think was done without much thought though was Quartermaster mode. Quartermaster mode essentially means one party member gets stuff as if they were soloing. The implication of the documented use of this mode is that this person is supposed to decide who gets what. Yet key drops cannot be traded, and actually handing out items in mid-party can be extremely cumbersome. As such, everyone ALWAYS uses lottery mode in almost every situation imaginable, relying solely on rules of etiquette to allow desired distribution; the only situation I can see QM mode ever being useful in is the "Your orb, your drop" rules BCNM pickup parties tend to employ (as opposed to split proceeds as permanent groups tend to use). Regardless of how you feel about FFXI requiring a significant amount of community-enforced etiquette, it can hardly be suggested that QM mode serves the purpose for which it was ostensibly implemented.

I think QM mode, and perhaps the party item pool in general, should be reimplemented. In QM mode, items should still go into the treasure pool, but party members cannot cast lots on them; instead, the quartermaster can select an item and receive the options Select Recipient, Open for Lots, Issue Randomly, or Discard. These are fairly self-explanatory. Another useful option would be to allow selecting a default action if none is selected for that item, though it's not as necessary since a single 'fair' default of Issue Randomly would suffice, simply lacking in convenience. (Then again, Issue Randomly as default could cause a lot of parties to switch to leader being QM just to stop lotting altogether, which could be more annoying than the problem it solves...)

As for solo, this is up for interpretation but I personally think that anything that goes into the party pool ought to be given a chance to be dealt with there. Perhaps auto-issuing to inventory immediately vs. requiring Accept/Discard in the pool could be a mode switch similar to Lottery/QM.

[favian]

Auto stacking would be nice, or some kind of macro i could create...