Originally meant as a reply to the recent Battle Formations thread, but got overly long-winded. (It's amazing how length escapes me in that tiny quick-reply box that's so rarely quick.) This uses some basic theory work I've been messing around with on a blog, but hopefully will be concise and practical enough in its implementation here.
I'd actually like to use this thread primarily for amendments and solid feedback. I'll be making a second thread via the general forum for general comments.
* http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...tive-Secondary *
I think some additional work could be doable within unique job effects outside of their abilities, but I think that's actually a broad extent of a 'stats' issue more than Battle Regimen. Well, with that long ado...
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Given fulfilling combat system revisions, formations can work themselves out through primarily two things: interception and ability linking. In other words, if you have a broad cone attack and your tank(s) can actually soak up or misdirect the damage within or from those angles to keep it from passing behind him, then the positioning decisions are obvious. If you want friendly fire flame-baked goblins, have your AoE tank move in between two shieldies aiming the flames between them and dodge to the side at the last second. If you just want to stay alive yourself, move behind the tanks. If you have a Samurai skilled in blocking incoming arrows and has complete threat on AoE-less melee trash, go ahead and fight near the mages who are being shot at, within the line enemy line of attack. There, interception.
Ability linking requires more drastic but no more greatly fundamental change, and presumes a few other sets of changes to be truly handy. For one, weapon type differences matter. Shocking. Two: elemental mass and mixing. Three: likely shocking itself, essentially interruption through sheer burst damage. Without the first, melee composition is pointless. Without the second, casters are handicapped and composition is largely pointless. Without the third, targeting patterns based on this coordination are fettered and fun but risky attack schemes then become simply impossible.
Okay... so, some basic examples of ability mixing. Well, first some technical details. The best way to do pull this off would likely be threefold--target-led, support-led, system-led. In short, offensive by actually targeting the enemy and matching, if that's even necessary, incoming party abilities, offensive by attaching abilities directly to a teammate or self, and targeting a zone with preexisting activity (such as an Aerora in order to play a Firaga off it, or match it with Fleetfoot for dodge counter-attacks, etc, etc).
Additionally it requires a slight control scheme addition, essentially optional queuing. In a way this makes combos in and of itself, well, the self-contained strings of abilities we had before. Furthermore it gives visibility of which spells will be used before and during the attack sequence. It also makes various other additions possible--mixing one's own abilities in terms of elemental mixture or simultaneous attacks (limited in quite a few cases based on obvious physical restraints).
Normally I'd do this with the Space bar, but we have jump. In that case, I'd normally make jump a reasonable part of combat...but...there's that. Barring the use of space bar, I'd simply cause queues to be formed when an attack cannot be made, i.e. out of melee range. If we get any Archer abilities back that take stance rather than 360 jump-spins, they can also be formed during the cast time or until stationary. Casters could prepare future casts while already casting or moving between casts. Etc.
This may mean that a whole one ability would have to go off before queuing could start. I don't mind that. We shouldn't need to start each fight with a 10-man cannon blast. These mixes generally affect utility far more than sheer power. There is no 'utility' in the first shot of combat. I find 'unmatched' abilities just as valuable. Matched usage is not keenly necessary. It's the coordination of attacks and/or defenses that matters, and that *can* be done without actually combining abilities one bit. However, many of the actual mixes will need to be Active, so we'll need a button for that. End of technical details.
The broad sense of all this mixing is a bit much to describe here, so let me just give examples specific to my three points--both sets.
Weapon Typing & Direct Selection
- You have a giant rock golem strong by percentage to all but blunt weapons, but with a heavy flat bonus vs. blunt that normally equals this out. But now you're attacking it with Aura Pulse (complete with jumping, mind you) while Thundara is being used. Thundara combines with your attack by hitting more or less simultaneously, resulting in a thunderclap strong enough to shatter some of its armor near its head. Go future incap possibilities!
Weapon Typing and Support Selection:
I, a Monk (I like Monks) use Howling Fist through an attacking Lancer, sending the attack down his Doomlance/Skewer equivalent. Hits lots of creeps. The magic changes its backing weapon type, a small amount of magic is lost in transfer, and the total damage it causes has been about doubled or tripled. Honestly, pairing it with Impulse Drive is more fun, even if not as obvious a choice...
Melee fighters in System Selection
I, a Monk (I really love Monks) am using using Fleetfoot while broadly intercepting close-range attacks for a fellow Lancer while he intercepts long-range attacks from a more particular couple enemies. As my specials for the ability proc, he adds a Leg Sweep in 360 degrees upon the momentum. (Momentum is a calculable force. But here lets say it's a multiple of 2 radians to the AoE effect span. It's momentum 'effect' is the Leg Sweep damage source times that bonus.) I then Dragon Kick atop that, momentum still going. But by then we are out of spinning AoEs. This 'momentum' is the System in that area.
Elemental Mixing and System Selection:
To be honest, "mixing" isn't quite the right word. It's more like sequencing. You wet a target, you zap the target. Zapping the target normally gives off heat and something along the lines of static. Burn a target and gets burns, which allows for additional damage based on pain, and gets hot. Put water on something hot and you've got steam, useful for broiling and defensive cover. Air will move faster from hot targets, and more heavily move towards cold targets. Burning and freezing targets both take less damage over time as the effects degenerate and body heat returns towards normal. Maximum heat (or least heat in the case of freezing) is a factor of its own. Earth has mass. It can be used to weigh down enemies. Mud pits can be made to slow enemies with the addition of water. They can get further stuck when ice is then added atop that.
There are approximately 6 factors to make this work if any of the original (astral/umbral) Thaumaturge spells make a return, fewer if not. The factors are potentially highly cumulative and work hand-in-hand with blunt/piercing/slashing aggregate effects in breaking down a boss's defenses. The factors sourcing this concept are probably the largest implicator of long-term fight strategy aside from the boss's own attack patterns.
Now a crucial note: interactions vary slightly between the different selections by which the abilities may be used. You may set them to 'auto-fit' so to speak to what seems best, or leave them to how they're actually selected.
These differences, while minor, are not 'small bonuses'. They each lend themselves to a different goal. For instance, if that Featherfoot-->Leg Sweep-->Dragon Kick combo had been used offensively instead, it wouldn't have served to AoE all surrounding enemies so much as topple one in particular. Used supportingly, it would have depended on the actions I was supporting.
Switching between systems: Tab reform.
1. Systems can be considered as targets. Player targets may be minimalized to those relevant to you. (Fellow offensive casters, players directly nearest you, players in trouble, whatever it may be. You can script the parameters yourself.)
2. ~ is the default key to swap targeting settings. Target settings are far more customizable than before.
3. That includes a default scheme for Attacker/Support/Opportunist (to be renamed) schemes, which work with a focus primarily on the roles associated with the different selection methods and modify the 'auto-fit' mentioned above.
Simulation example: I'm a back-line offensive caster, Conjurer.
The cast bars and targets of my fellow offensive casters are currently in the center of my screen, just above my actionbars. Without an enemy selected, pressing tab simply swaps between those casters. I notice a teammate starting to cast Fira on a Quirrin Village Chief, so I match him with a quick Aerora. In this case this creates a fear buff that lasts a short time until the flames are dispelled. My Aerora will cause the flame to go off, even if with little extra damage, a few more immediate clicks to increase the chances of their being affected. From there I tab twice to the still-targeted Quirrin Village Chief and then to the Aerora and start spamming it with Aero to keep it going.
It'll fade soon regardless, but I still want to maximize the fear chance and refresh burns. Once it's faded, I'll tab from the faded Aerora (permanently inexistant once I stop targetting it) to the nearby Quirren, tab through to affected ones, and start duplicating their burn ticks with Aero (again, little bonus damage from the flame, but the tick counts with flame damage, so it has a chance to restart the fear effect). In my case, I simply hit ~ to go back to target-less, tabbing through fellow casters, once I'm done.
(For the record, my mob group only appears as the ones focused on by my teammates, and the main fight mobs, both in the left corner of my screen. When I actually switch to a system it shows me the enemies within its range over the center of my screen (above my fellow casters). The center-most when swapped is center-most, and fading is used to show this afterwards. When I switch to a mob group, the same is done, but fading is opposite to any debuffs I keep up. That's just my personal setup though. The last bits is tied to my ~ setup even.)
Alright, that's all I got.