Fundamental Game Play Issues

[Alhanelem]

Except when they blink and you lose target.

We come full circle!

zing. Still you have to be pretty darn lazy for a couple taps of the arrow key to be a big deal.

[Divinius]

zing. Still you have to be pretty darn lazy for a couple taps of the arrow key to be a big deal.

It's not a matter of being "lazy".

I've been playing WHM as my main job since NA launch. I have been keeping people alive and healthy for 8 years. And I've had the discussion multiple times in the past with people of why <stal> isn't that stellar. It's not nearly as good as if the game simply didn't blink in the first place. Yes, it is a functional work around, but it is only that -- a workaround... a bandage to the bigger problem. As the game is now, you will indeed perform significantly better using <stal> than you would if you didn't, but you will never be as fast or responsive using it as you could be if you never had to worry about people blinking at all.

[Rya]

there's one fundamental game play annoyance that I'm shocked to not see anywhere in this thread that cries out for a fix: the way that you miss communications via /tell, /party, and /linkshell when you change areas. For a fix for this, I would kill. A kitten. A mithra kitten!

Tells vs Other Chat
So happy to see it mentioned! I was gonna add this~
What strikes me about this issue is that the chat system can tell if a person is changing areas!! ...but only for /tell.

Observations
-- When you send a tell to someone who is zoning, you get a "changing areas" message or something like that.

-- It doesn't always work. Sometimes if you send someone a tell just as the "zoning process" is beginning or ending, it will fail, but you get no system message. I have tested this with my mule. :(

Theory
All I can think is that would be too taxing to perform this check for all other types of communication (say, shout, party, etc) because of the sheer volume of chat. But if system resources weren't an issue, it seems they could use the "tell routine" to check if other types of chat are headed for "zoning recipients"

Solutions
--Less taxing version: Use aforementioned check on all chat types, only send the system message to the intended recipient rather than the sender -- so I can go "Missed party chat?!?! WHO'S TALKING ABOUT ME?!?!"
.....== Port Jeuno ==
.....<System Message> You missed 1 party message.
.....<System Message> You missed 2 linkshell messages.

--More taxing version: Use the check to buffer/record what was sent, and dump it out as a system message when zoning is done:
.....== Port Jeuno ==
.....<System Message> The following messages happened while zoning:
.....<Tank> who wants my stuff, quitting today
.....<Bard> dibs!
.....Rya sighs dejectedly.

[Raksha]

It's not a matter of being "lazy".

I've been playing WHM as my main job since NA launch. I have been keeping people alive and healthy for 8 years. And I've had the discussion multiple times in the past with people of why <stal> isn't that stellar. It's not nearly as good as if the game simply didn't blink in the first place. Yes, it is a functional work around, but it is only that -- a workaround... a bandage to the bigger problem. As the game is now, you will indeed perform significantly better using <stal> than you would if you didn't, but you will never be as fast or responsive using it as you could be if you never had to worry about people blinking at all.

I agree with this.

[Kaisha]

If I'm curing the same person every time, I'm probably going to have them targeted already, so it's not really an issue to me.

I just use a separate Cure macro for the <lastst> tag.

No need to re-target the last guy I cured with my stal/stpc macro.

[Twille]

* Collision Detection - Okay, it makes the game more "realistic," but can't it be optional or something? Some zones get very crowded, or many monsters may be attacking you at once, and it's just difficult to forge your way through the crowd. Could we eliminate this or make it optional?

I hate bumping into crap, it's annoying as sin.
I heard they were removing collision from 14, remove it from 11 too please.

[Sevvy]

Gonna break apart some of your concerns. Not trying to be rude, just things that you can do yourself to remedy them:

* Blinking/losing target after target gear swaps - Gear swaps are actually an improvement in this game compared to others such as the W word. No other game allows you to change gear in the middle of battle to take advantage of many stats. Of course youre going to lose target because the different gear looks different.

** Blinking on your own and losing "locked on" status - Tell me all the monsters that actually blink and do this. I bet its less than 10.

* Items being lost from the treasure pool due to inventory issues (One person lots more items than they have space for, everyone else passes, the extra items are lost) - This I can see is an issue, but its the players responsibility to keep their inventory in check.

* Cure lock - Rather annoying yes, but good healers will always preheal and the lock shouldn't take place too often

* Animation locks - I agree with you here. Instant is instant.

** Raise Delay - Again, you have to be a smart player, if you know a mob is due to TP then dont get up. If a mob is casting a ga or ja, dont get up.

* Post-Job Ability/Magic delays Cooldowns are imperative or you would have BLMs destorying everything with the same spell over and over, it would make the game much more boring.

* Engage delay Tough one to argue, I agree with you.

* Losing Items while Paralyzed - I highly disagree with you here. Being paralyzed is simply annoying but you need to have a way to take it off before you do anything. It only makes sense. S-E threw us a bone not allowing us to waste two hour abilities but you have to be smart with your items and money, just like irl.

* Ranged Auto-Attack - Agreed.

* Losing Reraise Status upon DC - I'm sure its a coding issue. Best bet is trying to have a buddy with you so they can raise as well

** Losing Cruor buffs upon DC - Agree

* Unable to Search when dead, but ability to send tells and use your linkshell - Look at every other MMO out there, its all the same. You cant do it when youre dead in any of them. Your actions are supposed to be limited when youre dead. I think this is good.

** Unable to use UI controls while charmed - How often are you charmed? I agree this is annoying and is probably atrtibuted to a design flaw, but I mean, there arent many that charm anymore outside of Dynamis.

* Tractor re-zoning us - Moving from one map to the other without you actually contolling the character actually counts as a zone. I know /follow kinda kills that, but youre character is alive and well and moving in accordance of what you want it to do.

I

[Kaisha]

Breaking apart your reply to his concerns....

Gonna break apart some of your concerns. Not trying to be rude, just things that you can do yourself to remedy them:

* Blinking/losing target after target gear swaps - Gear swaps are actually an improvement in this game compared to others such as the W word. No other game allows you to change gear in the middle of battle to take advantage of many stats. Of course youre going to lose target because the different gear looks different.

His complaint about blinking has nothing to do with the benefits of gear swapping but losing the target focus.

** Blinking on your own and losing "locked on" status - Tell me all the monsters that actually blink and do this. I bet its less than 10.

You misunderstood him. He's referring to your camera view unlocking from the mob when YOU gearswap.

** Raise Delay - Again, you have to be a smart player, if you know a mob is due to TP then dont get up. If a mob is casting a ga or ja, dont get up.

You've clearly not done later VW. They're almost non-stop AoE in all of their attacks. Granted I chalk this up to being a problem with Tractor rather than Raise. The AoE spam continues to be a trend in the new VW content also, fun times to have.....

* Post-Job Ability/Magic delays Cooldowns are imperative or you would have BLMs destorying everything with the same spell over and over, it would make the game much more boring.

He's referring to the delay of being able to not issue any actions for a short moment after every JA/Spell. The delay is the bane of every SCH's existance given their heavy reliance on stratagems. Granted the delay feels like they're part of the animation rather than an imposed limitation though.

* Unable to Search when dead, but ability to send tells and use your linkshell - Look at every other MMO out there, its all the same. You cant do it when youre dead in any of them. Your actions are supposed to be limited when youre dead. I think this is good.

You've not played many MMOs then if you really think that.

* Tractor re-zoning us - Moving from one map to the other without you actually contolling the character actually counts as a zone. I know /follow kinda kills that, but youre character is alive and well and moving in accordance of what you want it to do. I

Are you even aware of how Tractor operates? The problem with it is that it has you physically zone out and back into the same zone, but only a few feet away from your previous position. The problem is that it wipes a lot of status/buffs depending on the event/location, rendering it nigh-on useless where it would actually be used otherwise.

* Losing Reraise Status upon DC - I'm sure its a coding issue. Best bet is trying to have a buddy with you so they can raise as well

On this general subject, if they ever make RR survive a D/C, I would hope they would do the same for sneak/invis also. Fun times always had when you're trying to get around a zone without aggroing anything of a higher-lvl, just to D/C and wind up in a pack of mobs that'll just pound the living daylights out of you.

Granted that's less of a problem nowadays due to higher survivability at lvl95, but a nuisance none the less.

[Camate]

Hi everyone! Thanks for writing up this list containing a TON of feedback.

A few of these issues have already been brought up in separate threads (from a while back) and have received responses from the development team:

Blinking:
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/th...ll=1#post64481

Cruor Buffs:
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/th...l=1#post103746

Tractor:
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/th...l=1#post119814

We will continue to submit your feedback on these and the other issues you have commented on and try to get a follow up response.

[Xellith]

Hi everyone! Thanks for writing up this list containing a TON of feedback.

A few of these issues have already been brought up in separate threads (from a while back) and have received responses from the development team:

Blinking:
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/th...ll=1#post64481

Cruor Buffs:
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/th...l=1#post103746

Tractor:
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/th...l=1#post119814

We will continue to submit your feedback on these and the other issues you have commented on and try to get a follow up response.

Blinking: You said its not possible to have it so ppl dont blink. If a few people living at home in their moms basement can figure out this stuff then maybe you should hire them.

Cruor buffs: Good stuff

Tractor: lame excuse.

Overall Camate I am disappoint.