Missing Interface Features

[AyinDygra]

Changes to the User Interface have been announced. Since this is being considered, there are several elements of combat that seem to be entirely missing from any existing in-game interface that would be logical to include:

1. A method of accurately determining your range from a target.
2. An Area of Effect indicator.
3. The Tactical Points (TP) of other party members.
4. Status of party members. (both buffs and ailments)
5. Remaining time on status effects.
6. Text command to cancel buffs.
7. A "Text Advance" button that does not select menu options.

1. A method of accurately determining your range from a target.
Many actions in this game require you to be within certain ranges to interact with targets. This range-finding method would need to be context sensitive to provide valuable range information that is relevant to the action you are trying to perform. For example, when trying to auto-attack a target, you're either in range or not. When attacking with a ranged weapon, there are several important distances.

It is understood that both RAM and on-screen real estate are valuable commodities and the addition of new features needs to take as little of each as possible. Battle needs also dictate that the graphic indicator be simple and give needed information at a glance.

My suggestion is using existing interface elements to fulfill a dual purpose. The candidates for adjustments that fit the requirements are:
Potential Changes
* The golden arrow above the target's head could change color, or just part of the arrow: the diamond shape sitting above the arrow, if that's just as easy.
* A new icon could appear to the left of the word "target" on the target box's frame. The icon would change color.
* The "lock on" frame could change color from its normal orange. (less useful since you have to take the additional step of locking on to the target)
* When in parties, several colored dots are used to indicate things like "party leader", "alliance leader" and "quartermaster". These dots could also be put next to a target's name in similar fashion.

Color changes:
Target is Out of Range or Out of Line of Sight: Red
Target is in range of selected action.: Black
Within Ranged-Attack close range.: Black
Within Ranged-Attack middle range.: Gray
Within Ranged-Attack long range.: White
(I am not aware of any other important ranges, but I'm sure other posters will make suggestions if I forgot any. Almost all actions fall within the first 2 distances.)

These listed color changes should avoid "color blind" issues and give immediate visual feedback that can quickly and easily be used in combat. With ranged-attack indicators being the most sensitive to distance, the fading of the mark from black to gray to white naturally gives the idea of increasing distance from a target. There is no indication of "sweet spot" for ranged attacks, or any differentiation of accuracy or damage bonus/penalty due to the range they are currently attacking from, so there is still some room for player feeling and skill.

For emphasis, the color changing icon should always change based on the currently equipped weapon/action, not being hard-coded to change at fixed distances from a target.

Something else to keep in mind: While most of the applications for this are in combat, there are several non-combat scenarios to consider, such as range to: doors, ??? locations and trading, so this should be a universal addition to the interface, and not be limited to combat.

2. An Area of Effect indicator.
Many abilities and spells in this game have an "Area of Effect" (AoE) that is not seen until after the effect either hits targets or misses them entirely. In Final Fantasy Tactics, there would be a clear indication of AoE ranges, but that sort of effect doesn't really fit with the style of the FFXI interface.

Closely connected with the range indicator suggestion above, the AoE indicator could also make use of the currently golden target arrow. The difference would be, when selecting the target, multiple arrows appear above every target that would be in range (if the action were to be instantly used that second.)

During the charge time of the action, those targets who will be effected may have a graphic effect moving around them, such as a "note" for bard songs, a glowing white orb for white magic, a black orb for black magic, blue orb for blue magic, a pair of dice or a card for corsair rolls, etc. (A generic "effect pending" icon would be the least I'd expect)

The "effect pending" graphic icon would be useful even for abilities or spells with single targets only, so people know when they have been targeted. This would also allow people to move out of range, if they don't want to receive the effect, such as melee players avoiding a Bard's Ballads.

3. The Tactical Points (TP) of other party members.
Seeing the TP of other party members is more important than ever before. Requiring all melee jobs to report their TP to coordinate party tactics these days is as absurd as asking all mages to constantly report their remaining MP.

In the past, the only real need to know another's TP was to coordinate for skillchains. In recent years, skillchains have lost their efficiency in most combat situations (they can still be useful) because many have found that individuals using their weaponskills independently as soon as they have 100% TP is more efficient than using skillchains. This has lead to nobody reporting how much TP they have to each other, and another type of inefficiency developing, that of overkill near the end of a monster's life because two or more people decide to use powerful weaponskills to finish off the enemy (one weaponskill is mostly wasted.)

The addition of the Dancer job to the game has made this even more important, since their TP serves the same function as a mage's MP.

To display TP, I'd simply suggest placing it as a number to the left of a player's MP.

4. Status of party members. (both buffs and ailments)
Currently, the only ways to know the status of your fellow party members are for you to watch the combat logs for effects landing on each person and keeping a mental note, along with how long effects last so you know when they wear off, or asking each person to tell you (more common than not, they tell you out of frustration that they either don't have a buff, or still have an ailment.)

There are two additions I'd suggest here:
The first would be a graphic display of certain status ailments:
Sleep - Zzz's rising from the player's head. (graphic already exists for monsters)
Poison - Green bubbles rising from the player's head
Paralyze - Constricting chains of thunder
Blind - Black cloud of smoke around the head
Silence - Text bubble overhead with ". . ." in side it
Curse - A transparent purple ghost-like image surrounding the player
Virus - Green amoebas shrinking and growing around the player
Stone - Player turns gray. OR A non-transparent rock forms around the player's body
Slow - A clock with hands slowly spinning counterclockwise above the player's head
Bind - A glowing red symbol appears at the feet of the player
Weight - A glowing blue symbol appears at the feet of the player
Charmed - A red heart floating above their head
Doomed - A legless Grim Reaper holding a scythe should be floating over their head
Elemental Damage over time - (burn,dia,shock,etc) This collective group of ailments needs something, but not necessarily a unique graphic for each one
Death-Weakness - A transparent white skull and crossbones with a blue glow hovering over head

The second would be either an addition to the "/check" command when used on other party/alliance members or a new text command called something like: "/diagnose". Either way, this would display a list of all buffs and ailments active on a party/alliance member, in the user's chat log, separated into buffs and ailments, not mixed together.

5. Remaining time on status effects.
This is less important than other entries on this list, but would still be good to know. Perhaps simply add a text command: /duration that would print out a list of buffs and their durations into your chat log.

6. Text command to Cancel Buffs.
We can manually remove certain buffs. The ability exists. The method of canceling buffs is clumsy and can lead to canceling the wrong buff if something changes the order as you are navigating the buff icons.

Adding a simple text command such as "/cancel" would be much appreciated to accurately cancel only the buff we want to target, by name, instead of relying on the changing icons. This would also allow this functionality to be added to certain macros that apply buffs that will not overwrite the existing effect.

7. A Text Advance button that does not select menu options.
Many times, when talking to certain NPCs, in an effort to rush through their dialog we've read a thousand times to reach their menu, one can accidentally select the default option in the menu that is part of the NPC's conversation. This usually forces one to exit out of the menu and start over, or suffer the consequences of the wrong option when there is no secondary confirmation.

I suggest a second button that can be used to advance text, instead of only "X" on the Playstation2 controller. There are many other buttons and Circle is generally used to cancel/exit, so either Triangle or Square please.

~*~

It is my hope that these changes are seriously considered for implementation. Thank you for your time and translation efforts

[Smokenttp]

you know some of these are actually pretty good ideias, maybe with a bit changes here and there it would be a perfect fit i liked specially the aoe ideia,the range indicator and the debuffs indication would be good and acctually not hard to execute (see some job emotes like smn or blu) also tp showing would also be easy, the hardest ones would be indeed what buffs target has on (unless they are done in similar fashion of the debuffs like a blue glow aura for protect , a green one for shell etc, maybe even the duration could be done like that (the graphical effect starts to become transparent or blinks when they are close to ending)), the text comand to cancel buffs it would be usefull for some marcos (im looking at you utsusemi/stoneskin).These would require some graphic implementation on the game but again, since they gave us the job emotes they might be able to work on it as well.

[AyinDygra]

I'm glad someone agrees.

I considered adding buffs to the visible effects list, but I don't think that would be good for the game's "look" overall. If everyone was blinking with blue and green auras for protect and shell, and had clocks over their heads for haste... it would potentially become very confusing. As for duration, I'd leave that just on or off, since blinking fading of effects would again cause potential confusion about someone's status.

Status ailments are things that are "wrong" with a player and indicate that something needs to be done to fix the situation. Buffs are up to players to keep active, in my opinion. Even then, I added the suggestion for a text command to reveal what buffs are on a target. That text suggestion included status ailments also, just in case the graphic effects cause issues with some game systems or PCs (such as lag or crashes), where the effects had to be turned off like other battle effects. The text command would also clarify exactly is wrong with a player in case a monster causes multiple status effects that are hard to distinguish when multiple effects are shown at the same time.

[Pufardo]

That was quite the read, however, I agree with you. Like some of the NON-ELUA GUI programs out there it would be nice if they could implement some better GUI experiences. Even the compass lost when fighting or the time of day disappearing.

[Gaspee]

Some very good ideas are presented here. I particularly like your status effects idea (#4).

[Daigotsu]

I like most these ideas, but the PS2 probably can't handle them in a MMO

[Arcon]

I wholeheartedly agree with everything that's been said here. About the pt member debuffs.. something that works on XIV, but might be harder to realize on XI, is have some select icons displayed next to the pt member name in the list, while having the chatlog truncated horizontally. This may be a problem on the PS2 and other short-width displays, but for most people there's plenty of space there. And it wouldn't need to display all debuffs, only important ones, sleep, para, silence, slow.. and maybe something else. Anyway, it shouldn't take up much space, so may even be doable on smaller displays. Or it could overlap, or go into the background when you view the chatlog or something. I'm sure there's some way to do it.

[AyinDygra]

Another thought I had, that sort of fits into battle content, would be macro-related.

Currently, the only ways to edit macro locations are: Copy, Paste, Delete.
I'd really like to "Swap" macro entries, to re-arrange them.

The Copy/Paste system requires at least 1 empty slot in the macro bar to keep both source and destination macros... I don't know about you, but I usually have them all filled. (and switching palettes for blank boxes is just as annoying and cumbersome.)

P.S. Just a slight note: don't forget to use the like button if you like what you see. The Community team seems to be using the "like" numbers to prioritize what they look at, maybe just a little.

[Sarick]

Not many likes. I bet if the OP was a dev or SE staff they'd have 30+ likes..

Guess people don't want/like anything from the OP because when I made this post only 3 likes.

SAD....

[Rukkirii]

Hello AyinDygra!

Some of the things you mentioned have been covered in Camate's post here, which you can see.

As for a text command to cancel buffs and a button to advance text, those sound interesting! While we can't make any promises, we will look into the viability of adding it.