Melee while casting?

[ManaKing]

Any chance RDM could be upgraded so that we could continue to auto attack while casting under composure? No WSs or JAs, just auto attacks?

Casting can be interrupted as normal, you just don't waste auto attacks while waiting for your failed spells to go through their entire cast cycle.

[Doombringer]

this has been suggested and shot down a LOT. i still say it's a good idea, but i think at some point it came straight from se that no, it was never gonna happen. like.. COULDN'T happen. something to do with the nuts and bolts of the game.

[cidbahamut]

Why must all improvements fall under the umbrella of "while using Composure"? It's ridiculous I tell you. We don't need to tie every modification to the job to Composure. If we do that we may as well make all the changes independent of Composure because it will simply turn into a great big "Make Red Mage function properly" button.

</rant>

More on topic, I'm going to echo Doom's sentiment. That sort of change would require delving into the core code of the combat engine and SE is extremely reluctant to do that. Even if they wanted to, I'd wager they don't have sufficient staff on hand that's familiar enough with that part of the code to untangle all the spaghetti code involved.

[Greatguardian]

The only people who would know how to do this were probably fired or shelved to other projects years ago.

[saevel]

this has been suggested and shot down a LOT. i still say it's a good idea, but i think at some point it came straight from se that no, it was never gonna happen. like.. COULDN'T happen. something to do with the nuts and bolts of the game.

Pretty much this. You can only have one action *active* server side, its like this for many online games. The most you can hope for is more fast cast and spells with less ridiculous casting times.

[Seriha]

I don't think making it happen is so much the difficulty, but more the side effect of whacking a mob in MND gear or whatever wouldn't be terribly productive without some kind of active stat conversion.

[Greatguardian]

No, it's pretty much a matter of making it happen. Obviously, hits in MND gear would also suck. But it's pretty impossible to do with the current combat engine regardless.

[Seriha]

Something in code says to stop melee timer when you JA or cast (or maybe more simply, it's a default delay addition and the timer truly is counting down all the time). Implement check to maintain countdown (or eliminate that addition) if user possesses Combat Caster trait. Timer hits 0 while spell is being cast, attack is executed with whatever stats are determined, swing delay is reset as relative to current haste/weapon delay and the CC check is run again. Spell ends, timer is still ticking away, next attack round goes off and things are basically as normal until another spell is cast.

I know "spaghetti code" is right up there with the "PS2 limitations" lingo of why things could never happen in FFXI, but let's not pretend a couple conditional code checks are an impossibility.

[Greatguardian]

The game's combat engine simply won't allow you to be in the process of 2 actions at the same time, of any type, ever. It is not built for it. Monsters can't do it either.

Spaghetti code is not the excuse. Engine limitations are.

[Crimson_Slasher]

Parrying/evading/guarding/blocking while attacking can be done, as can spell casting while parrying/evading/guarding/blocking, thats even the point of shield mastery, so just saying it cant be done due to the engine is dumb, people say a lot cant be done due to engine, but look at the proc system, they told us it would be "too costly to list who triggered a stagger" and yet they did 2 updates after. There is always a way even if you need to make an exception to the rule, by treating the effect as something else. Such as classifying auto-attacks as a DOT effect during spell casts. Hell even not getting the TP per strike but allowing for the damage to be done would do wonders.