XXX is too far away!

[Ophannus]

Thought they said they weren't going to change this simply because if they change it for players, they'd have to change it for mobs too

[Arcon]

Thought they said they weren't going to change this simply because if they change it for players, they'd have to change it for mobs too

That was a player concern, a pretty irrelevant one if I may say so myself. SE replied they're currently looking into ways to fix it. Although seeing how "currently" was almost nine months ago, one can only wonder whether or not they've determined it wasn't possible and have given up on it. Unless that's the case, they're still working on it.

[Byrth]

I heard they were updating Rajas/Tamas/Sattva rings too...

...ten months ago. Even though I suspect this would not be a very difficult fix for competent programmers, I think that the Rajas/Tamas/Sattva thing would practically be just changing constants in their code. If they can't even do that . . . well, at least your menus look different than they did before.

[Kristal]

Those of us with training and experience in the field can tell the difference between "Okay, code isn't magic. They can't just change this at will" type code and "Why can't they just go in and change a 1 to a 0? This is stupid" type code. Both exist. They're not something we need to see SE's code to figure out.

I don't know what your 'training and experience' might be, but you just described the difference between messing with the inner workings of a complex interlocking piece of 10 year old code and adjusting the contents of a resource.
The slightest mistake, and you got a low level NM dealing 20k Magic Mortars or WAR30/WHM1 dealing 99999 dmg Cure I to undead.

It's not going to be the most difficult of exercises, but neither is it very easy, even for experienced developers. It's not like every developer knows every last line of code.. if they were even employed at the time the code was written.

[Greatguardian]

I don't know what your 'training and experience' might be, but you just described the difference between messing with the inner workings of a complex interlocking piece of 10 year old code and adjusting the contents of a resource.
The slightest mistake, and you got a low level NM dealing 20k Magic Mortars or WAR30/WHM1 dealing 99999 dmg Cure I to undead.

It's not going to be the most difficult of exercises, but neither is it very easy, even for experienced developers. It's not like every developer knows every last line of code.. if they were even employed at the time the code was written.

That's... exactly what I meant. And no, I'm sure the majority of the original programmers were fired or reassigned soon after release and the Developers now work almost exclusively with toolkits rather than with the actual codebase.

There are, however, some very simple problems we've asked them to fix that literally amount to adding an extra 0 on a few indexes or changing an 8-bit designation to 16-bit.

Trying to generalize about the hazards of these changes as a whole is simply poor form. In the case of "XXX is too far away"? This is probably a fairly easy fix. Not a 1-liner, but it shouldn't take more than 1 man-hour to change, test, and confirm it's working.

The problem essentially boils down to how many actual programmers FFXI has on staff, as the indications thus far have been fairly poor.

[cidbahamut]

I would guess it's also an issue of sending them spelunking into a deep dark cave of unfamiliar and poorly commented code. Code that was written more with performance in mind rather than for clarity and modular expansion for years to come. That's just a hunch though.

[Rukkirii]

Thought they said they weren't going to change this simply because if they change it for players, they'd have to change it for mobs too

This is the main reason why it's taking longer than expected. The dev. team is currently investigating rule adjustments and looking for a way to allow players to keep their TP when they use a weapon skill on a far away monster.

Don't worry, the dev. team hasn't given up!

[Cowardlybabooon]

Not sure what the mess of code looks like in FFXI, but it seems like a simple "if" statement before readying the WS would handle it. We can live with a nerfed blau dolche and maneater if we have to. I'm sure I'm wrong but I wish I wasn't. Appreciate the update though!

P.S. fix cruor buffs on DC as well thanks!

[Cowardlybabooon]

Or track down Azaril, buy the windower source code, make FFXI reject it, then make your own version of the spellcast plugin that only SE can modify.

[Arcon]

Not sure what the mess of code looks like in FFXI, but it seems like a simple "if" statement before readying the WS would handle it.

That wasn't what she said. They're considering enemy TP as well, which I believe they shouldn't. Outrunning mobs is so rarely done (aside from kiting, which is itself very rarely done), that it's hardly an issue. And even if they keep TP, who cares, they won't spam Throat Stab throughout the entire fight.

Or track down Azaril, buy the windower source code, make FFXI reject it, then make your own version of the spellcast plugin that only SE can modify.

Not sure how that relates to this thread, as Windower never addressed this issue, and SpellCast wasn't made for it either (and cannot perfectly prevent it anyway, it's impossible to do client-side). Also, Azaril doesn't do Windower anymore. Also, they cannot make FFXI "reject" it. Also, they could do it if they wanted to, which means they don't.

And cruor buffs also don't really belong in here... you're kinda all over the place in this thread.