Update Recommendation: Skillchains

I love the skillchains addon. and I was thinking how the game should have had such functionality built in.

which made me think a cool way to update it was a graphical indicator....

I imagine something like the enemy glowing/blinking with the colors of the skillchain property is resonating with...

so blinking with a semi-transparaent red aura for liquefaction, dual color red and white for fusion, quad color for rank 3 skillchains... etc

and the blinking would be and indicator of how much time is left in the skillchain/burst windows with it solid while resonating but the window is not open yet (first 3 seconds) and then the blinking gets faster until the resonants ends.

I don't know how to build it, but I wanted to throw the idea out there in case anyone likes it and can think of how to do it. Its how I think SE should visually build it into the game.

I dont' have a good idea on how to visually recommend skillchain options to the player though.

Try this version out, doesn't have the blinking but has the colors.

https://github.com/Nsane-FFXI/Skillchains

How to collapse the WS list? Asking for a friend...

Hi Xilk, thanks for the idea. I made a small Windower 4 addon along these lines: ChainGuide. It only displays information; you still choose and press the weapon skill yourself.

- A colored bar shows the chain property (it cycles through the colors of multi-element chains). It stays solid until the window opens, then blinks faster as the window closes.
- The HUD shows the chain, its level, and the time left.
- It lists which of your own weapon skills would continue the chain, and what chain each one would make.

It cannot make the enemy glow, since Windower cannot draw on the 3D model, so the bar is the closest I could get. https://github.com/hikaruoshino/ChainGuide

I have only tried it briefly. If you use it and there is something you would like improved, please tell me and I will fix what I can.

There is a lot of tech now to make visual effects

target ring
target lines
geo hud
EDIT: World Draw - such a cool one sorry I forgot

its possible to make the ring change colors from either of these addons but it gets complicated with hook chaining as each one competes

I made a dressup/dat injector off xipivot that I cant really release because it relies on either having the dll for xipivot or using a custom one that could clash with all the others people could have

I really need to find someone who is an expert in such things to learn from.

Shameless plug since I wrote this library and released it so you can do just that with windower: https://github.com/genoxd/ffxi_world_draw


Original post: https://www.ffxiah.com/forum/topic/59127/ffxi-world-draw-library#3798388

Thanks for the pointer, Genoxd. I tried ffxi_world_draw, and ChainGuide v0.2.0 now has optional rings on the ground around the enemy, which is closer to Xilk's idea.

- One ring per element of the chain, in the element's color (Fusion = red and white, Light = four rings). They are dim until the window opens, then fade out until it closes, and the chain's name (Fusion, Liquefaction, Impaction ...) is written beside them.
- The look can be set in game: a ring that stays (//cgd ringtest on), mouse wheel for the size, and commands for the name's position and size.
- It is optional. The three files are in an optional-ring folder and nothing happens until you move them into libs/. I built them from Genoxd's source (0BSD); the Releases page has the source and the build steps.
- Because it hooks the game's graphics, the README lists the risks (Terms of Service, other overlays, antivirus warnings). I have only tried it on the Japanese client, in a limited number of fights.

https://github.com/hikaruoshino/ChainGuide

Tell me what could be better and I will see what I can do.