Final Fantasy 14 Director Reveals The Impact Of Mods

"Final Fantasy 14" had a bumpy road upon its initial release, but now it is an MMO that can be enjoyed by both casual and hardcore gamers alike. However, Square Enix continues to expand the game's more challenging content with each update, all in the name of making it worth playing. Because of this, many players opt to use third-party tools to tackle some of these encounters, especially as the game's graphics and UI continue to be viewed as dated. For instance, popular tools such as Advanced Combat Tracker alter the game's UI to log boss mechanics and individual player contributions, making raiders lives easier.

Unfortunately for players who enjoy them, these add-ons are technically against the "Final Fantasy 14" Terms of Service. In the past, players were rarely banned for using them, with the only real  exception being if a player openly discussed the mods in-game or bullied other players using the information gathered by a third-party program.

Things are about to change, however. Following the release of Patch 6.11 and the Dragonson's Reprise Ultimate Raid, Square Enix is cracking down on these popular third-party tools, according to a recent blog post.

On April 9, producer and game director Naoki Yoshida uploaded a blog post to the "Final Fantasy 14" forums regarding the use of third-party tools. Yoshida outlined the previously communicated rules that prohibit modifications to the UI and other such tools. He explained that because "Final Fantasy 14" relies on server-client communication, there is no client anti-cheat available to check for these programs on individual PCs. This wasn't a total surprise, as many players have already taken a "Don't ask, show, or tell" approach to using add-ons.

Although hiding an add-on is hard to do while streaming, those competing to be the first to complete the "Dragonsong's Reprise" Ultimate raid found this out firsthand. For example, user BagelGooseFF was suddenly banned on-stream in the middle of a raid, seemingly out of nowhere. This was most likely in response to the player blatantly displaying a combat tracker on their UI for everyone to see.

However, the game's devs understand why players use these mods and has explained that they don't want players to feel like they need them. Yoshida said, "We intend to review the most prominent tools, and in order to discourage their use, endeavor to enhance the functionality of the HUD." Essentially, "Final Fantasy 14" may be making some changes soon that will make up for the same shortcomings that players use mods to fix. This is great news for players everywhere, especially in the case of console players who have always been at a disadvantage when it comes to add-ons. However, Yoshida explained that these updates would take time. In the meantime, players shouldn't discuss mods in-game if they want to avoid a ban.