Request: Multiple Attack Sites

In order to freshen up the battle system with forthcoming content, would it be possible to battle mobs with multiple targetable sites?

Like this:

Monster: ______ Player Characters:


O ______ iiiiii (party attacking head)
\
=3 ______ IIIIII (party attacking hand
\
___ ____ OOOOOO (party attacking feet)


There are a number of ways to actually do this, using platforms or just ranged/magic damage, but this is pretty common in most role play games. Bosses with multiple attackable points add even MORE difficulty asking players and parties to cooperate beyond the parameters of the standard FFXI battle.

I understand that hardware and the age of the game may not justify this, but it seems to be a logical jump from killing two mobs at the same time such as Yin and Yang or Jailer of Prudence (I think).

Uh... that's actually not that common in RPGs. <_<

I was talking with some friends about this. Perhaps a monster similar to the towers in campaign with multiple points of attack and similar to Hydra where your point of attack can change the monster.

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Originally Posted by Tagrineth

Uh... that's actually not that common in RPGs. <_<

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Really? Wow. I can think of AT LEAST 1 in NEARLY every single Final Fantasy game......

Multiple attack points doesn't mean you necessarily have different people attacking at the same time. It's typically executed as you destroy one component which leads to another taking damage.

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Originally Posted by Lemoncloak

It's typically executed as you destroy one component which leads to another taking damage.

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Plus you could totally have each body part have different damage resistances.

For example, lets say you have a monster with feet, legs, hands, body all attackable. Attacking the feet would slow it down, attacking the legs would make it crouch so that the body is attackable by melee attacks, and attacking the hands would make its attacks weaker.

The feet could be weak to piercing, the legs could be weak to blunt, the hands weak to slashing. Thus different types of attack would also be interesting. I feel this wouldn't be too hard (relative to the effort/reward ratio) to do for a boss fight or two, or maybe even a family of mobs.

It is clever, a nice throwback the the previous Final Fantasy games, and the only thing cooler would be suplexing a ghost train.

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Originally Posted by Bulrogg

I was talking with some friends about this. Perhaps a monster similar to the towers in campaign with multiple points of attack and similar to Hydra where your point of attack can change the monster.

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I had imagined it a bit differently. I pictured Hydra stuck inside Heaven's Tower with different groups fighting at different levels.

My guess is that SE probably evaluated it with TOAU release. When they came up with the two 3 headed monsters, it's likely that they considered the possibility of being able to tank/target each head, but decided against it.

I think the bigger idea is more use of terrain in battle. When we used elevation to avoid TP attacks, it was promptly nerfed and yet Diabolos can take away the floor allowing me to plummet to my doom?

The idea is this: If you're going to build a beautiful virtual world to run around and adventure in, why not incorporate terrain a bit more? Create mobs and areas that allow for a change in dynamic. A demon wall that is gradually encroaching upon the players that will kill them all if it's not destroyed in a particular time. A giant mob that is fought simultaneously on multiple tiers by well balanced parties. Shit, even a mob that would have targetable legs that, when destroyed, expose it to an area in direct damage could be done.

There are a lot of ways to go about this, but it requires a lot of work. It seems to me that a first step would be to create mobs that have multiple targetable points. The iron giants head's could be target-able and susceptible to only magic and ranged attacks while the feet are susceptible to physical attacks.

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Originally Posted by Economizer

Plus you could totally have each body part have different damage resistances.

For example, lets say you have a monster with feet, legs, hands, body all attackable. Attacking the feet would slow it down, attacking the legs would make it crouch so that the body is attackable by melee attacks, and attacking the hands would make its attacks weaker.

The feet could be weak to piercing, the legs could be weak to blunt, the hands weak to slashing. Thus different types of attack would also be interesting. I feel this wouldn't be too hard (relative to the effort/reward ratio) to do for a boss fight or two, or maybe even a family of mobs.

It is clever, a nice throwback the the previous Final Fantasy games, and the only thing cooler would be suplexing a ghost train.

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YOU....... ARE....... AWESOME!

Closest what FFXI has right now is fights like Yin/Yang, where you need to defeat both dragons within 30 seconds, or they revive the other. Or perhaps big wyrm battles, where you position so as NOT to attack certain body parts..

In White Knight Chronicles, you can stagger big mobs by attacking a particular weak point for a while with a specific attack. Then, while the mob is lying prone, you can access different parts of the body normally not reachable. For example, attack either of the left legs on a Cerberus, and it'll eventually fall over to the left. Perfectly positioned to drop some heavy slashing attacks on the left neck, cutting it off entirely. Repeat the process on the other side, and it'll only has 3 of 5 heads left. (yeah, they got 5 heads.. 3 bunched together, with 2 more on long necks.)
Wyverns tend to fly up to deal tons of damage, unless you attack their tail. (This can even be done while in flight, to bring them down.)

In terms of directional fighting, ZNM Wulgaru takes more damage from certain directions than others until it blows up its body parts.

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Originally Posted by Vyvian

In terms of directional fighting, ZNM Wulgaru takes more damage from certain directions than others until it blows up its body parts.

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Right. I had considered the most basic application of this idea to be Yin and Yang or Jailer of Prudence esque with the primary difference being that they'd be the same mob.

A basic example, like the above, would be an iron giant that takes double damage if attacked on it's head, and half damage if attacked at it's feet. /ra and magic can target the head but you have to stagger the feet in order for melee to reach the head. It's not so different from the Eye NM in abyssea Kon.

Another thought just discussed was how "staggering" would play a role in this. I thought it'd be cool to have a big mob with targetable feet, arms, and head. When you stagger all 4 components, (both arms and feet), you would be able to attack the head directly. This would take advantage of VW stagger stacking AND add a cool variation to "exploit the enemies weakness."

What do you think?

I don't suppose that continuously bumping this thread will increase the odds of one of the community reps posting or garnering other players opinions of the above ideas.

Everyone seems interested in whining about VW/Nyzul/Beastmasters;; /sigh

I'm still interested, even if it is only doable by instanced or BC mobs.

Problem is I doubt FFXI is even capable of this. Giving one mob Multiple I.D's for its different body parts.

I guess they could make it like an Iron Clad, Different "Pieces", So technically it could be 5 Mobs in 1. Could set 4 of them to be unable to attack.

I thought they might be able to pull something off using the way Campaign fortifications are but that's all SE code stuff that I know nothing about.