[Suggestion] Monster Bestiary

[MysteryG]

Sounds awesome. It's a really great idea that might help add some depth the game needs.

[Toffy]

This is a great idea coupled with the collecting thing i cought myself smiling just thinking about spending time on this

[ArkhamNative]

I can't really say if I like what SE has planned without seeing it, but it sounds our screens could be getting a lot more cluttered. There's a ton of info per mob and they could get really crazy with it.

I like the names because 2D things on a 2D background can be hard to discern, but it's starting to sound like each mob will also have an entourage of icons tacked on as well. I'd prefer seeing what I need to know as I walk by (will it aggro? maybe will it follow?), and anything else (strength, tactics, party size) as an added set of info when I target it, perhaps in a HUD or side list. If that's a bestiary, I'm all for it.

Each player building a "pokedex" to gather monster info for his/her own private book seems too complex a side-game to add to FF14. Offline wikis have been providing this for over a decade and are much better. They can list all kinds of detail SE might not want in-game, and also testimonials of how others have strategized to defeat it.

[Reika]

Gotta Catchem all.

[Glaive]

I can't really say if I like what SE has planned without seeing it, but it sounds our screens could be getting a lot more cluttered. There's a ton of info per mob and they could get really crazy with it.

I like the names because 2D things on a 2D background can be hard to discern, but it's starting to sound like each mob will also have an entourage of icons tacked on as well. I'd prefer seeing what I need to know as I walk by (will it aggro? maybe will it follow?), and anything else (strength, tactics, party size) as an added set of info when I target it, perhaps in a HUD or side list. If that's a bestiary, I'm all for it.

I was just about to post something along these lines.

I really don't think we need more than an NPC's name floating around at a glance. Further inspection of (targeting) the NPC should provide the indepth information that one might need to know. This can be added to the name plate health bar thing that already exists for the enemy and already contains the relative difficulty icon. I think the aggro marker should be moved here as well. There when you need it, hidden when you don't.

I do agree with the bestiary suggestion though. As it stands, I plan on replaying FFXIII just to complete the datalog within (I missed those damn first-tier targeting beacons >:C). I know that, for me, the bestiary would add hours upon hours of content and enjoyable exploration to my gaming experience.

[Jynx]

It seems with the new artwork for the agro icons and mob level coming out do people still feel that the besitary would be a great addition to the game?

Personally I still think it has alot of offer in terms of Lore and giving the game some more life as well as providing the completionist in all of us something to do.

[Munba]

Nice! I'm for it.

Sidenote: and i would apply this concept for the 'areas' too, with lore and art for every of them. A sort of evolving Eorzea lore book, in which you could be able to write something too.

[Lenneth_Valkyrie]

I see someone's already on it.. oh well..
I will quote my idea of Scan/Libra/Bestiary that I had posted on ZAM..

Following the thread about the "Aggro icon" in the other forum.. I've read about more information about enemies being shown to the players..

Now I would like to propose, why not making it so it would be shown by using a Scan or Libra ability or magic and a stackable item with the same effect (Bestiary)..?
Just like the old single player Final Fantasy titles.. the spell could get resisted and display limited to no information depending on a mob's level too high or either a NM..

For example, this is how I would make it work..:
Information shown about a Too Weak monster..:

=== Wharf Rat ===
Level: 1 / Too weak
HP: 720
MP: 230
Race: Rodent
Resistances: None
Weaknesses: Fire / Thunder / Piercing / Slashing
Aggressive: No


Information shown about an Incredibly Tough monster of 10 levels higher or more than player..:

=== Ahriman ===
Level: 65 / Incredibly tough
HP: ?
MP: ?
Race: Floating Eye
Resistances: ?
Weaknesses: ?
Aggressive: Yes



A brief hint about how to fight the monster would be also shown like: "Uses powerful area attacks" or "Attack the horn to expose its weak point" for example, know what I mean..?
In case of complete resist.. the player would just get a message like: "The Ahriman resisted your spell/item." or rather "You are unable to determine the Ahriman's strength"

Beside with leveling, to make information about an IT monster completely available, the player would have to fight it and discover personally it's weaknesses and resistances by using various attack and elemental magic (in a party if one uses an effective attack, all members will be aware of it in their personal scan results).. and if he manages to win, also HP and MP will become available.. you know, little by little with experience..

Scan, Libra and Bestiary would not draw aggro from the targeted mob..
If the scrolling text seems too much, I think "Race" and "Aggressive" could be gotten rid of.. race is probably evident once you get to know the monster.. and for the aggro well, we already have the aggro icon (if it doesn't get removed).. so that makes it two lines less..

[Zacko]

I like this idea. I've also been thinking about something like this, but maybe with s little bit more info we'd have to work for.

(I apologize if someone said it already, didn't really read all the posts completely, at work now ).

For example cards you mentioned I would leave out of it (and have it as separate, collecting cards from mobs and use them in some kind of card game, have tournaments, play with other people, NPCs etc...but that's for another topic ).

But i would love that "learning" thing mentioned before. For example, once you fight the NM (or any other mob), and kill it, information like LVL, HP, MP, inhabitance (zone), elemental affinity etc...all the basic info that was already mentioned, becomes available.

Beside that, more detailed info like:

• Tends to use [insert ability name] when lightly injured
• Uses [insert ability name] when extremely hurt
• Frequently uses [insert ability name]
• [type] Arrows very effective
• [type] attack very ineffective
• etc...

However, detailed information would take longer to learn, not in one fight, and only if certain conditions would be met (if there's no archer using [type] arrows, then there's no way you could learn that attack is very effective against the mob).

Ability to trade/sell information from your bestiary with other players.

[Jynx]

As far as learning besitary stuff I think the only real limiter should be some sort of cap on how many you need to kill to have full bestiary pages filled out. Otherwise it would be far too hard for a solo player to fill out his/her bestiary without requiring multiple damage types.

While on paper it sounds cool to learn by experiencing it, I feel it would prove a rather large barier to solo players. Great ideas so far people lets keep them flowing!