Chatlog OverloadFollow

Ok, so while I was playing the beta, I found one thing very, very irritating. The chatlog would fill up so fast, especially during battles, that I couldn't see what was going on. At first, it was of little importance and then when I got to Kazham, I started doing my first low level skillchains. The skillchains were quite easy and though they barely added any damage, it was cool just being able to land them. But, I still had the problem of not being able to see when a skillchain was being initiated because my chatlog was being spammed with info that I just didn’t need. This was especially bad in Kazham because so many of us Beta Testers were leveling at roughly the same rate. There were, at any given time, 30 or so parties leveling up outside of Kazham and my chatlog was registering all of their information as well as my own party’s.

So, after a little bit of digging, I discovered the chat filters. Boy, were these handy. I literally turned on every filter that didn’t involve myself or my party. At times I found that I was missing some critical information, so I played around with the chat filters until I was satisfied with the information I was receiving. Yet, even with the reduction in spam on my chatlog, battles could still be tough to track using the chatlog and there were times when I missed or came close to missing a skillchain because it barely registered in my chatlog window. The primary culprit was the damage on both the mob and on party members.

Well, I didn’t want to get rid of the damage info because I felt it was important to see how effective the party and I were and without the damage info, there was little way of knowing. As a Monk, I had the option of changing out my hand-to-hand weapons (Kingdom Cesti & Lynx Baghnakhs) and my neck equip (Spike Necklace & Tiger Stole). I found that by monitoring my damage output and swapping equipment, I could maximize my damage specific to the mob I was fighting.

So, then I discovered that you can change the damage display from the chatlog to on-screen and the damage would register above the creature or party member when hit. Now, I could see everything happening in my chatlog and I never missed skillchains, yet I could still view damage as it occurred. I know it seems rather trivial and I’m sure all the experienced players already solved this long ago, but many of my fellow Beta players never took advantage of this. Many didn’t even know you could do this. My gameplay improved immensely just by being able to see critical information as it was passed. All you Beta testers out there who haven’t gotten into partying yet, learn how to manipulate your chatlog because it will help you be better players in the long run.

Well, that’s my opinion anyway. Now I’d like to hear from some of the experienced players. What do you guys think? Was this a problem for you? If it was, how did you solve it? Thanks. -- Malidar

Config > Misc > Screen!

That's why you never see it when I /slap you. How sad :_(

No no that's okay, leave the filter on. It will be more fun knowing that you can't see the /emote ;)

what could also help is, give a TP report using /p TP @ <tpp> in their macro so anyone who's involved in the chain can have an idea when SC would be. putting <call> in their TP alerts and WS alert macros is also helpful even to us mages since we know when to stop healing and start readying for a Burst.

<call5> is the loudest, most annoying call.
Use it when someone is asleep @KB <.<;
(I have never fallen asleep during PT... they LIE!)

There's nothing more annyoing to me than being in the middle of a spell when melee decide to SC out of nowhere. Yeah, a little heads up is nice if you expect a MB. I personally prefer melee to have <call> or <call1> in the WS macro, but for constant TP updates and other things, I'm partial to <call14>.

I block almost everything except special actions for me, party, and foe. As BLM, I like seeing my damage and party damage (otherwise I can't see the SC and MB were successful). As WHM, I only look at damage taken by party, or perhaps attacks evaded by party if I'm watching NIN shadows.

I seem to be having difficulty picking out the right filter so I can see my NPC's damage. I tried party, alliance, other, and NPC attacks and I'm still not seeing it. Only thing I have left to try is "damage taken by foes".

It can take a while to get used to seeing everything in the log. My personal preference is to always unequip my LS unless I'm really comfortable with how the party is going and can manage the conversation while keeping tabs on the battle.