Enemy Sign Functionality

[Yrusama]

It's really best that only one person can control it. Otherwise you get two different people trying to mark 2 different mobs as the primary attack target or something. Eliminates confusion, and the leader is the natural choice for the one person since they're supposed to, yknow, be leading.

Maybe they could give the leader extra icons? This way any other party members can still mark mobs if the leader dies, but if the leader needs to direct people he/she can put up an icon exclusively available to leaders to prevent party members from muddling things too much.

[Soulfire]

Greetings!

I'd like to give you all an update on the status of the marking feature we have been working to revamp.

• Enemy and Ally signs will be combined into one category
• Only party leaders will be able to mark targets
• It will be possible to use these freely -- no more Guildleve or other content restrictions!

It's definitely better if every party member is capable of setting icons. As one example, Cutter's Cry had you split up. Future situations like that may have a need for it.

Now if by "targets" we mean allies as well, I've been in a situation where I would use an ally sign in response to a certain attack being prepped if I couldn't stop it from landing to indicate to healers that they better prepare to knock an attached ailment off or it's pretty much game over. Optimally, the cast to remove the ailment would begin before the attack and the debuff would be ripped off right after landing. Players most assuredly need to be able to mark themselves.

Party leaders shouldn't be expected to micromanage everything.

Maybe they could give the leader extra icons? This way any other party members can still mark mobs if the leader dies, but if the leader needs to direct people he/she can put up an icon exclusively available to leaders to prevent party members from muddling things too much.

You're on the right track. Perhaps icons set by the leader could have a differently colored outline for the sake of conflicts.

[Tinks]

I agree with the others, the signs need to be usable by more than just the party leader. Preferably everyone, but at the very least the leader should be able to delegate sign users. In any scenario where your party has to split up its going to be necessary. On top of that, if the inability for the unconscious player to do anything stands, then no mobs are getting marked while the leader is taking a dirt nap.

And what about Ally signs? Will everyone still be able to use signs to mark themselves? I can't tell you how many times I used the "I'm out of MP" sign to gently indicate to my bards that Ballad needs renewed (or was thankful when someone else did when I was on bard.)

[Myranda]

Hmm some valid points have been brought up and you've won me over. Having more than the leader able to do markings could be useful... it just needs to be done carefully so that the leader still has priority on certain markings.

[Rukkirii]

For those asking specifically about limiting the ability to place signs by the leader -- our plan is to start out with this limitation in place. The main reason being that there is a concern that parties might get confused if signs are placed randomly on multiple enemies. However, we're considering opening this up to other members but would like to base this decision off of feedback after you try it out.

[Jynx]

we're considering opening this up to other members but would like to base this decision off of feedback after you try it out.

Best solution to include the limitation to party leader, and allow party members to place signs is to leave it up to the PT leader who can place signs within the party (and Alliance if we ever get them for larger scale content)

This would help surpass the language barrier a few experience and would be greatly benificial for larger scale engdame events. If you want even more functionality place the party members #(Slot they show up in party screen to other players) beside the sign.

Let's say a giant Fist means (Attack this first!) put a 1. in the corner for the player in slot 1.

This allows for larger groups to help bring in newer members without lengthy chats before the fight, or at least dramatically reduce the length of these speaches.

[Rowyne]

Can the party leader give people assist like in WoW? Because in WoW the party leader can pick people to be assistants and they can mark stuff as well.

Agreed. I think leader plus assist (for a total of two) would be ideal.

[Shougun]

For those asking specifically about limiting the ability to place signs by the leader -- our plan is to start out with this limitation in place. The main reason being that there is a concern that parties might get confused if signs are placed randomly on multiple enemies. However, we're considering opening this up to other members but would like to base this decision off of feedback after you try it out.

Yeah... As Jynx pointed out, we really dont need to think about it. Other party members should be able to do it (when given the rights from leader).

We've seen the system before and this way is far more preferred.

[Zetsumei_Tsunarashi]

I'd like to add a suggestion to create "Number Markers" instead of shapes or colors etc. It's much easier to explain things with numbers. Use a "1" to represent kill this target first, a "2" to kill second "3" for third target, and so forth. It's a lot more straight forward than, "kill blue circle, then red triangle, then green diamond ..." etc etc. I find that those kinds of markings can be just as confusing as not having markers at all.

Also it would be helpful to be able to mark multiple targets with the same marker. Sometimes you need certain jobs to target certain types of enemies. So it would be nice if you could mark those enemies with the same icon, and say, "archers please kill all the red circles, mages crowd control the green triangles, and tanks keep the blue diamonds away from healers"

[Rex]

For those asking specifically about limiting the ability to place signs by the leader -- our plan is to start out with this limitation in place. The main reason being that there is a concern that parties might get confused if signs are placed randomly on multiple enemies. However, we're considering opening this up to other members but would like to base this decision off of feedback after you try it out.

Why not make it an option for the party leader to toggle on/off? You know? Make it so party leader can toggle whether or not other members can mark targets.