Heads up on TP

[Sabaron]

I do not use Windower as a general rule, but I am aware of a particular feature that people do use quite frequently that, in my opinion, should probably be implemented in the game's interface.


These are Pet's TP and to a lesser extent, Party's TP. These are probably the two most commonly used features of the windower (besides the window feature).

Regarding a Pet's TP, a player is able to display in log his pet's TP at any time. It would be more useful to be able to see your pet's TP in a bar just under its HP Bar. This, IMO, has almost no impact on game mechanics. This goes for Adventuring Fellow TP as well.

Regarding Party and Alliance TP, a player can only know another player's TP when they state it; however, many players already state their TP levels in a large percentage of their macros so that it is commonly known to any SC participants any way. Therefore, while the impact on game mechanics is a fair measure greater than with Pet's TP (since a player cannot poll the TP of party members through the interface), I do not believe it is significant enough to warrant the encouragement of cheating (via Windower) by excluding it. Since the Player bars are already clogged with data, it may be better to simply "glow" the HP bars of players based on their TP. For instance, a player's HP bar with 100% gets a green aura, then a yellow aura for 200%, and a red aura for 300%.

[Icemage]

Re: Heads up on TP

I think this is an excellent idea. I second the suggestion.


Icemage

[Ziero]

Re: Heads up on TP

That works for me, I'd love to know when my NPC has TP for a WS. As healer she doesn't usually tell me and just fires it off at random. As for pt/ally tp, either way it doesn't bother me. I would rather be able to see my ally's MP rather then their TP to let me know how other pts in my Ally are fairing and if they need aid. It would certainly be an improvement over the current method, which requires numerous calls and requests while attempting to gain their attention long enough to answer the question.

[Celeal]

Re: Heads up on TP

To be honest, I am afraid that with the Party-TP-Bar, player will just SC by focus at the Party-TP-Bar, without actually looking at the current hate of the Tank, without waiting for the mages ready for MB, without looking looking at the HP of mob, etc.

When the player is focus on the Party-TP-Bar, he or she may not aware of what is happening in the chat log, like damage output, Mob's buff (requires Dispel) or timing of Tank's provoke, etc.

Just to imagine how hard a NIN to solo tank when the DD Skillchain using the TP-meter only, without posting their TP at the chat log. Not only the NIN has to watch the chat log for counting shadows, with the TP-meter the NIN has to focus on that TP-meter as well.

And try to imagine when your SA + TA timer still need 15 seconds to be ready, and your SC partner decide to open the Skillchain without waiting for your SA + TA timer, because your TP is over 100% from the Party-TP-Bar.

If the mob use self-buff (for example: Cocoon) when TP for both DD are ready, and your SC partner or RDM does not aware of the mob's buff, you may postpone the Skillchain and remind/wait for the RDM to Dispel. The communication is done via the chat log. The Party's TP feature may distract the player from looking at the log.

If DD is not posting his TP in the party, it is lack of communication and lack of teamwork. I think the Party's TP feature can make the matter worst.

[Sabaron]

Re: Heads up on TP

Very good points, Celeal. As a RDM, I have to watch both the chat log and the party box. It can be tricky, but the TP breakpoint auras should be easy to spot. I usually rely on the <call>'s for melee-related actions such as SC and Utsusemi Down. People already use the Party TP feature and it would be very useful for BLU who are using Burst Affinity as they have a longer setup time for bursting magic over traditional mages. It also let's resting mages know when they should be on their feet and ready to throw a burst or when they can set up for casting Ancient Magic. NIN Tanks can also use it to help time Elemental Ninjutsu for the Skillchain. People who spam TP will still spam TP--people who set up skill chains and time things appropriately will still time them appropriately. The feature is intended to give an additional avenue for seeing TP since it is an all-too-common occurance for the log to scroll up past the line you're looking for such as the "{Provoke} in 15 seconds" or the "{Ready to start skillchain!}". I know that even as a RDM main-healing with damage log off, I still miss things especially when an AoE buff or debuff goes off. I rarely get to catch the names flying by on a {Sticky Thread} and it's difficult sometimes when it's direction has recently changed since it's conal unlike Spider Web which one can assume just hit everyone. A Bard song on the melees runs up 4-7 lines of the chat log. It's very nice to be able to have a display of TP that doesn't disappear when it scrolls off the top of the chat log.

[tdh]

Re: Heads up on TP

I don't think the TP "plugin" would reduce communications that drastically. There would still be a need for "Ready to start Skillchain" macros due to abilities. But I've found myself nearly doubling a Skillchain partner's TP gain (Mainly due to Absorb-TP) and not knowing if I should just pop off a good Guillotine, or wait for them to catch up.

Unfortunately, there are some people who are not very helpful when it comes to displaying their TP. Next thing I know I have nearly 200% TP, and I still can't get them to show me their TP. I've made it a habit of showing my TP every time my Skillchain partner shows their, and I also show at 50%, 75% and as soon as I get into the 90's. That way my partner knows I'm just about ready. If we were all able to see how much TP everybody had, it would reduce some of the /party spam, and some jobs would know if they could freestyle a WS. Our quick TP Builders would love this. Especially the jobs that are stuck using their least favorite WS for Skillchains, while they're sitting on a big hitter. (DRKs @ Lv.60, WARs @ Lv.66, etc)

[Anaki]

Re: Heads up on TP

er <pettp> shows pets tp

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: Heads up on TP

The whole point of the chat log is to communicate. Throwing in a "Limit Break" meter or percentage for others to see could be potentially flawed and misleading due to things like lag and poor connections.

The main problem with the chat log system is people are just LAZY.

Regardless of the job, I make my macros as uniform as possible for each. For example my BRDs Elegy Macro is right where my Ranged attack macro is for RNG and COR and I put sleep bolt macro right where I'd put Lullaby for BRD or Sleep for RDM.

Same goes for TP, even as a mage when I rarely use it, I have the TP Report macro and my current best WS macroed on the row below it. The TP Report is a live and accurate report, whereas in some situations our own menu TP percentage can be misleading due to latency.

It would suck to miss a SC opportunity because the system itself didn't update TP quick enough, that's why its important to report it on your own. I got enough variables to deal with the the chat log, I'd rather the varibles stay there the move elsewhere.

I personally don't think SE should adjust things to accomodate the community's laziness, but then, they've proven me wrong before by stealing RNG's Rapid Shot and giving it to COR (for COR, Rapid Shot is a useless addtion if you sub RNG and another excuse for /NIN fans not to level RNG) and then the Tu'lia warp (end result of ToA's lazy hub design).

[Lmnop]

Re: Heads up on TP

Lazy is correct, and a good 85% of my SC partners throughout history have been exactly what Tdh described -- unhelpful. It sucks to have 160% tp and not know if your partner has 20 or 90. Every time I give in and solo WS, they hit their macro right after I go that says "89% tp!" -.-

I like the idea of tp auras. Though while you're at it, MP really would be nice for Ally members. It'd be nice if you could just hover your mouse over names and see their tp/mp... but I'd hate that because I hate touching the mouse. But something to that extent. like /getmp <a21> would return the mp of the 2nd person in the 1st allianced party. And /gettp Odude.