Solution to "blinking"

[Sarick]

We brought this matter up with the development team and we were informed that unfortunately it’s not possible to change. As many of you have stated previously (in other threads as well) it is possible to prevent targeting problems through the use of certain macros ( stpc, etc.). We encourage and recommend that you utilize these as a way to avoid targeting issues with frequent blinkers.

Did they give details as to why It can't work. Just making a statement like this after me explaining how it could be fixed on the client end seems oblivious to what's really stopping the solution.

If you can change a belt without blinking because it doesn't affect the character display then the gear swap updates could be filtered on the client end. There where cases also in extremely laggy situations where gear swap updates where completely ignored/filtered without critical side effects to the clients. In fact this could benefit players who aren't effected by the swaps as well because the Updates do consume extra data transfers and CPU to swap.

To me the lack of a descriptive explanation just sounds like a cop out to avoid a basic engine change because it circumvents the core gear-update. It's just like the excuse that the title menu volume issue couldn't be fixed where simply reducing the music file volume or disabling it completely was a viable solution. As a programmer sometimes the ability to think outside the box can allow amazing features to be implemented without sacrificing stability or function.

As I stated before having the ability to shut off the gear swapping updates by filtering them is a a viable fix for many issues. If the outside client can turn on a filter to not update visible gear then no blinking should happen. The gear blinking is because aesthetic changes. It has no effect on the status of a third a party other then the targets visible appearance.

[Alkalinehoe]

As someone that is on the 360, and has played since it came live for the 360 users, I must say blinking people is a major problem and not the fault of the mages. <stal> and <stpt> is an ok solution if I kept my keyboard on my lap at all times so I can tab though my party....But I dont. Now I know accessories like Back, Belt, rings, and ear rings dont cause a blink, just the main gear everyone can see and ranged causes a blink. So let me give you a healers perspective. Trust me DD and Tanks, I understand yours....I've heard it enough about why the gear change is needed...Improves WS....Improves casting time of shadows....Gets faster TP. I get that....So here is the healers side playing on the 360.

A few years go...Doing Dark Ixion...PLD is tank...I'm on WHM and main healer. Party set up was 1 whm, 1 rdm, 1 brd, 2 plds, alliance set up was rngs, blms, and smns. PLD dances around to avoid Lightening Stance and Wrath of Zeus. The PLD blinks for WS, Shield Bash, and his cures...NP...Ranger gets stomped on for getting hate...Not in my pt so out goes <stpt> and <Stal>...So scroll though macro book to get other cures for out side pt and cure them...Mean while as I get that done, PLD gets slapped around pretty hard, RDM is spaming Cure IV on PLD. I get back to my page for tank party and resume keeping the tank alive. Now, PLD dances the wrong way to avoid Ixion's move, runs out of range, Ixion makes the PLD die...Second PLD is up. Second PLD had a very bad habbit of changing gear for everything. Exact same gear as the first pld, but changed gear for cure, flash, and everything you can think of. <stal> helped here, but every time someone else took hate, I had to scroll though my macro book to get to the cure macros to cure them then have no choice but to go back for the blinking pld....Who no one could target including the rdm because he blinked so much. He was hardly ever on the screen he blinked so much. Stressful? Oh hell yes...Took a lot of focus and stress to heal in this situation. By the time Ixion was dead I was worn out because I could not take my eyes off the TV, had to read every bit of info to take of debuffs, and keep them alive while stressing though macro book to do it. Is it right? I dont think it is. And yes, I did get blamed for deaths even when they ran out of range. What would of been easier? Being able to stay in the same macro set and use the D pad to target the different members of the alliance...A lot less stress. It didnt matter what HNM we did, it was always this way.

Recently I was in a regular Abyssea party on WHM...Only WHM too (sigh). Everyone blinking in the different alliances. I had no choice but to use my general cure macro set to keep people up....And it's very annoying when you just get the person targeted, hit the left trigger for the macros, and they blink. Then go and re target them, hit the left trigger, and they blink again. Rinse and repeat until I finally get the stupid cure off...And by then someone else is hit and needs a cure. Stressful? Yep...And so annoying that I just wanna throw my controller across the room. And people wonder why no healers can be found for Abyssea parties on Ifrit. Maybe us healers should demand all the DD to always sub dnc and keep yourself alive if you want to blink....Thats like blaming us healers for not being able to target out side of their party easily and DD die.

Like I said <stpt> and <stal> are good for the same party the healer is in, but once you get out side of that party and into the alliance, those dont work. I'm not saying force people to lock one certain type of gear....That would kill even me on my BLM, which requires gear changing as much as a regular DD...If not more....But I dont think it is right for people to blame the healers for them dieing in a game. What I think SE can do is once the mob is claimed and the fighting music starts for those members, visually lock them in that gear where they can not blink until the mob is dead. I'm not saying totally lock them in that gear, just visually....What we see when looking at them. They can gear change during it, but we dont see it and stops the blinking. That way they can have their TP/Haste gear, Cure Gear, and all the other gear everyone feels they need, and change it as they want, but we see them still in their original gear they started their fight with. Only way to find out if they are gear changing is by checking them during the fight. So if a NIN starts off in TP gear, thats all we see even though they have changed several times during the fight. Or if there is a way, what the person that is changing their gear sees is the blink and the gear change, and the rest of us still see his locked in gear at the start of the fight. I mean we can turn off the animations others can do, so you dont see other brd songs but your own, or other blm nukes but your own....Why cant you put in a blink solution under that? Where we have the choice to see them locked into a certain gear yet they can still change it and stop the blinking? I know I would have that turned on at all times!

Ok shutting up now. Oh and as I tell people I'm healing...."Blink as your own risk"

So much wrong in this post.... I don't even know where to begin. Basically, it was your fault.

[Catsby]

Too much is tied to the character model. It would be best to separate it all even if it means dramatic changes.

I would KILL for a technical update that introduces 0 new content and simply makes gameplay smoother. Everyone can name at least 3 seemingly small things related to UI that if changed would lower the frustration level of the game dramatically. For me it's;

1. blinking. because too many other things are needlessly tied to it.
2. menus that offer you a selection from a list. atmas, assaults, campaign ops, reward lists etc. 3 options visible when there are 10 pages with 10 options each and the game has to redraw the menu every time you go back or forth a page drives me insane.
3. any doorway that hijacks your controls to show a cutscene of your character walking through it.

[Antipika]

It isn't that it can't be done in general....it is that it can't be done on the PS2 because of a hardware limitation (forget if it was system or graphics memory limitation, but it was at least one of them). The same core code from the PS2 is used in both the PC and Xbox version to maintain continuity of code as well as the gameplay.

Well that isn't what was being said. When something couldn't be done because of "PS2 limitations" SE always said it that way.

I don't see also how it can be hardware/memory related. Simply give a player the ability to freeze -all- armors change with no exception. It doesn't consume more resources, actually it does use less resources as armors loaded into memory will just remain there as long as player is locking them.

[BorkBorkBork]

We brought this matter up with the development team and we were informed that unfortunately it’s not possible to change. As many of you have stated previously (in other threads as well) it is possible to prevent targeting problems through the use of certain macros ( stpc, etc.). We encourage and recommend that you utilize these as a way to avoid targeting issues with frequent blinkers.

Even SE is telling bad mages to stop crying and fix their macros. Honestly if people can't figure out how to target a party member that "blinks" you should either
A: Never play any kind of job again that requires targeting other player.
B: Quit and go play WoW or something that has a 3rd party tool that will auto target and cure people so you truly never have to do anything.

All this crying on these forums about not being able to target people can be chalked up to people being lazy or horrible at their job.

[Sekundes]

Even SE is telling bad mages to stop crying and fix their macros. Honestly if people can't figure out how to target a party member that "blinks" you should either
A: Never play any kind of job again that requires targeting other player.
B: Quit and go play WoW or something that has a 3rd party tool that will auto target and cure people so you truly never have to do anything.

All this crying on these forums about not being able to target people can be chalked up to people being lazy or horrible at their job.

Yep, we should just suck it up and use a work around for a basic game mechanic flaw. Also, Camate told us to use <stpc> which will not avoid being blinked out. A <stpt> is the one for that. While many of us will do just this and suck it up, it is hard to get friends in to the game when they have to learn tips and tricks that the game never teaches you just to get by. They get frustrated and quit before they ever get to the fun parts of the game. FFXI is an old game with an exceptionally clunky menu system and just clunky in general. Problems need to be fixed to keep this game competitive, not excuses made why it's too hard to do or lie to us saying it is "not possible". I for one would be more than happy to completely forgo an expansion and new content just to get some of the flaws that have been in the game since it's conception fixed or at the least lessened to some extent.

[BorkBorkBork]

Crying about it is just silly. It's part of the mechanics of the game and it's not hard to work with it. Long story short, it is what it is, it's not hard to work around and be an effective Mage. I've played both sides of the mage/melee fence for a long time and if someone dies A: They got one shotted and it couldn't be helped, B:I was watching TV and wasn't paying enough attention if someone changed gear. If people get frustrated take a few moments to have a little pride in what you do in game and get a little better by learning how to work within the current game mechanics. Learning to get better at a game used to be part of the fun but maybe I don't get kids these days

I'll say it again if blinking makes you a horrible healer play something different instead of shaking your fist at SE over something silly. Save your fist shaking for something good like Walk of Echoes.

[Sekundes]

Not saying you can't get around it and still be a great player. I'm saying we shouldn't have to, yes it is a mechanic of the game but it is a flawed mechanic. It makes SE look sloppy and lazy and I honestly want people to think better of the game and not have to make excuses for it.

[Catsby]

It's like a pile of dirty clothing in the corner of your room. you would clean it up but you have other stuff to do and the clothing smells so you don't even want to get close to it.

[Gamiina]

if you were so inclined you could replace every body armour dat with one particular one and do that for every slot for every race.

then no one would ever blink on your screen.

However everyone would all look alike and the game would be very lame, lol