welcome to pomelo's ffxiv modding guide
Hello, and welcome to my tutorial on how to mod Final Fantasy XIV!! I hope to make this as comprehensive as possible and cover all bases, but I may miss some details so if you have an questions or are confused about anything, please don't hesitate to reach out to me via email! Also, I realize as of writing this, some of this may be outdated by the time Dawntrail releases, the newest expansion which which promises to upscale character models, armor type textures and the lighting system. From what I've read though from posts by modders, it shouldn't be an issue but we will see!why mod your game?
I will admit it, i love modding games, if the game has mods I will use them!! Let me tell you why you should too!
1. you can truly make your character yours! The options are endless, especially if you're like me and have very specific tastes and aesthetics you want to go for!
2. If you ever get bored with the look of your character, you can change it up on a whim. It can breath new life into a character you're tired of looking at or even just save you the cost of a Fantasia.
3. Changes the vibe of the game, especially with things like shaders and UI mods, the game feels different to play, even if its just for looking pretty or convenience. So many missing QOL features are available through modding.
4. Final Fantasy XIV is unique compared to other games because the community has made tools that syncs you and your friends mods together so you can enjoy the looks of each other's characters without having to download anything extra!
1. you can truly make your character yours! The options are endless, especially if you're like me and have very specific tastes and aesthetics you want to go for!
2. If you ever get bored with the look of your character, you can change it up on a whim. It can breath new life into a character you're tired of looking at or even just save you the cost of a Fantasia.
3. Changes the vibe of the game, especially with things like shaders and UI mods, the game feels different to play, even if its just for looking pretty or convenience. So many missing QOL features are available through modding.
4. Final Fantasy XIV is unique compared to other games because the community has made tools that syncs you and your friends mods together so you can enjoy the looks of each other's characters without having to download anything extra!
what is square enix's stance on mods?
I'ts a bit complicated. Other games tend to take a hard line approach. On one hand, some developers fully support the community modded creations, some take a passive stance where they allow it but don't mention it and others take a more synergetic approach with native support. Square Enix has more of a "feigning ignorance" stance and turns a blind eye to it. They know the game has a massive modding scene, and while it technically breaks TOS, nothing will happen to you if you don't talk about it in game since the game has no tracking, telemetry or anti cheat.
In a video of the lead developer, YoshiP talking about his stance on it, more specifically about plugins and third party tools use to push high end progression raiding but the point still stands for all game modifications, don't use them, we don't like you using them but we can't stop you. Also in this blog post, SE clearly lists out what they consider to be game modifications in this post as well in this post on the official site, it lists our more egregious examples that are possible. Mods like ACT and Cactbot are an example fo what Square Enix really hates lol.
There are a few ways these sneaky mod users make themselves be know in game. The first is while standing around in congested places like the Limsa Aetheryte, you may find yourself clicking around on random players Adventure Plates, you might come across this strange text that says "Mare Lamentorum" in some auto translate brackets. This is one way mod users signal to each other. It's a reference of the mod Mare Synchronos.
pom's mod hot takes??? (cringe)
I figure since this is my site, I have to use the opportunity to talk about what I personally like and dislike about mods. Obviously, feel free to do whatever you like but this is why it's HOT takes. I like cute faces and makeup, I love hair styles especially less anime looking ones (Holy hell, enough ripping Shining Nikki hairs and importing them to FFXIV and just give me a middle part) I don't really care for clothes and armor mods because honestly, I am a fantasy enjoyer and I have always loved the aesthetics of the Final Fantasy series and just cool armor and fantasy themes in general. I feel that the irl clothes looks out of place at best but cringe at worst (the "e-boy" rejects🤢). Some of it looks really nice but I'd rather use it in the Sims than FFXIV. Saving the worst for last, what the community lovingly dubbed "mod beasts" I'm all for making your character tastefully cute or hot but this is when people make them so completely detached from reality, like so laughably pornsick and coombrained it's totally removed from human sexuality. and before ya'll come for me just remember.