FFXIV Hunts: Relink Macro & General Information
I've been asked by a lot of people how to set up a macro for hunt linking and relinking in FFXIV, so here's a simple look at it.
Do you know what , and do?
If you don't, click this link to find out.
is the target code. Whatever you select is automatically entered in place of . So if you target my character (ie, click on him) then will turn into Loony Bob when you press enter. Try selecting a monster in the game, then type /say This is a . and press enter. It will have your character say whatever it is that you are selecting where was before.
is wherever you are. This is really helpful in helping people find you. Type and press enter and it will add your current location into whatever you are entering. So if you type /shout I'm at ! and press enter then everyone in the entire map will see where you are. If they click the link, then a flag will appear on their map on their screen. This link is what I call a pos-link, and it looks something like this: Eastern Thanalan (27,17)
is very similar to but instead of showing where you are, it details the location of whatever flag you have on your map. This means that if you shout your , then someone clicks that (and subsequently gets a flag on their map), then if they type /l1 Some weirdo at is just randomly shouting their position. then everyone in their #1 Linkshell will know about where you are, too.
Do you know how to set up a macro?
If you don't, click this link to find out.
Firstly you want to go to the System menu of the game. On the PC, the Escape button will pull this up (unless you changed your keybind settings). You can also find it by first clicking on the little red button (often found at the bottom right of a screen) with an XIV on it, then clicking on System. I'm not sure where it is on the PS4, but I have a hunch it'll be the Start button.
You'll see the User Macros option there. Click it!
Select an empty square on the left hand side of the screen. On the right hand side of the screen, you'll find three notable areas. The icon and Name areas are at the top, with the macro text area at the bottom.
For the macro icon, select an icon of your choosing. For me, I chose the exclamation mark for my "I found a Hunt!" macro, and the right pointing arrow for my "Someone else found a Hunt!" macro. This icon will be the shown image on the button you press to activate the macro. Please note that to set up a button on one of your hotbars, you will need to click and drag from the left hand side of the User Macros page.
For the name, type in something like "Relink Macro #1" or whatever tickles your fancy, really - the name is just what shows up when you hover over the button.
For the macro text, it all really depends on what you want it to do. See further below for examples of macros.
The "I found a Hunt!" macro.
Here is the macro I use. It first sends the link the party along with a sound to get their attention, then it waits 3 seconds before sending the link to four different Linkshells.
Code:
/p Hunt Found: || ||
/wait 3
/l8 Hunt Found: || || Spread the word!
/l3 Hunt Found: || || Spread the word!
/l4 Hunt Found: || || Spread the word!
/l5 Hunt Found: || || Spread the word!
To use this macro, I first click the hunt I'm looking at, so the will populate with the name of the Hunt. Then I press the relevant macro button.
In case you're wondering, Linkshells #3, #4, #5 and #8 are all Hunt Linkshells for me. I don't relink in my social Linkshells, as it would probably get annoying very fast. I relink a lot...
The "Someone else found a Hunt!" macro.
Here is the macro I use. It first sends the link the party along with a sound to get their attention, then it waits 3 seconds before sending the link to four different Linkshells.
Code:
/p Hunt Found! || || RELINK!
/wait 3
/l8 Hunt Found! || || RELINK!
/l3 Hunt Found! || || RELINK!
/l4 Hunt Found! || || RELINK!
/l5 Hunt Found! || || RELINK!
To use this macro, I first click the pos-link (eg. Eastern Thanalan (27,17)) that I have been given as a hunt location. This should load up a flag on my map. Then I press the relevant macro button. Please note that if you close your map, the flag will be GONE, so please keep the map - and the flag - open on your screen until your macro has finished spreading the hunt word!
Why do you wait 3 seconds?
This is a matter of preference. On the one hand, waiting a short time means your party has no head start. On the other hand, if you wait too long, other people won't find out about it early enough to get there in time, or worse, the hunt might be killed by the time you relink if you make the timer too long! 3-10 seconds is about as long as you should wait before telling your Hunt Linkshells - it gives your party time to get off their chocobos and teleport, which is all the head start they should need. I personally like to let as many good people know about it as early as possible, because I don't like being the last person to relink a hunt!
Sometimes you might find a hunt before anyone and will want to take advantage of this for your party. In these cases, I suggest just avoiding the macro until other people start turning up, and simply chatting to your party using to let them know where to find the hunt. When other people start turning up, expect word to spread fast - this is the time to relink to the rest of the world!
Why not shout the relink, too?
Again, this is a matter of preference. Personally, on my server, there are a lot of what are called "early pullers" - people who don't wait for more people to turn up for very long - if at all. I don't like to shout because then the early pullers (who tend to be kicked from Linkshells) will find out very early about the hunts, and other people, who might have waited for me, might not have enough time to get there. I consider keeping it to linkshells the safe way of avoiding this problem, if only for a few seconds before they inevitably find out through some means I'm unaware of. Every second counts with early pullers about!
How do I know which Hunts are active?
http://ffxivhunt.com/sargatanas - for Sargatanas world, where most people who frequent this forum will probably be. You can change the server at the top to your chosen world if you're not on Sargatanas! Protip: Click the blue button when a Hunt is killed to report the death, so that the site will be as accurate as possible. :)
Under what conditions do hunts appear?
A ranks just need their window to be open (see the link above). S Ranks need their window to be open along with another condition. For the conditions for each of the S Rank Hunts, see this link. A lot of it isn't 100% certain, but it's a good guide.
