The Art of Alt-Tab (and other concerns)

I've been playing mmorpgs for quite a while, with Aion being the only one so far that I took seriously (for its user friendliness, and not necessarily for everything else). I also played FFXI, and as much as I enjoyed it (best mmo story ever), theres is one little detail that really turned me off which sadly made its way to FFXIV for some odd reason - the inability to minimize the game via alt-tab.

One may argue that deliberately crashing the game when it gets minimized is a form of "security". But from my experience, here's how one plays an mmo - by frequently looking at a guide on a web browser as they play.

I play this game like this for a number of reasons:
- When you play an mmo, it is safe to assume that there will be quite a number of quests both required or optional. Besides those, there are quest that has rewards that benefits or doesn't benefit our play styles. That in addition to NPC locations, and the fact that we are supposed to pay monthly playing the game, we just want to make the most out of the game as efficiently as we can.
- With FFXIV's current system of being able to level up different classes to use their skills, we want to be able to look at a guide where we know when a class will obtain a particular skill, and therefore level up our classes -again- according to our desired play style.
- FFXIV is not so important that I would be forbidden access to other activities.

Another annoying thing about crashing our game when it gets minimize is that one should expect alert dialogues to pop-up while we are playing - from anti-virus alerts, to browser alerts, instant message alerts etc. Do you expect us to turn all these features off everytime we play FFXIV to avoid interuption?

Considering that the patches coming out for FFXIV at the moment are minor fixes, I at least expect this issue to be put into consideration. I do not wish to play the game in windowed mode nor do I wish to make use of third party programs just to compensate for the lack of such a basic feature.

OTHER ISSUES

- Why does my shield drop automatically? Why isn't there a visual timer for this, and why isn't there a visual representation that I blocked an attack to alert me that I can use my blocking related skills?
- Functional NPCs such as the gear repair should have a marker. Or do you want me to alt-tab to find out where they are? Oh wait that crashes my game.
- Being able to equip gear of any rank without restrictions confuses me as to what gear I want to purchase.
- Market Wards need to be replaced with Auction House. This does not need to be debated and there's no need to hold any meetings about it. It's common sense that this is a bad idea.
- Story quest should be spread out to every level instead of every five levels. Their level should determine their difficulty.
- Bring back the old classes. Having specific classes with specific abilities has to do with organization - this is how players are able to tell who they need in their party.
- Fatigue system. I do not think any form of "business talk" is gonna change the fact that this is a bad idea. Hardcore gamers play longer, casual gamers play shorter - leave it that way.
- (hehehe) patch the Elezens to become Vieras, and Lalafells into Moogles....

There's no reason to write a wall of text to justify the support of ALT-TAB. They have to introduce it, period. It's part of the basics of the basics of PC gaming.

-The shield drops automatically to add a bit of tactical depth to the tank class, forcing players to actually use stamina efficently in order to raise the shield as soon as it drops. I happen to enjoy it.

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Originally Posted by Abriael

There's no reason to write a wall of text to justify the support of ALT-TAB. They have to introduce it, period. It's part of the basics of the basics of PC gaming.

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You're right. I'm just assuming that they don't get why we need to be able to alt-tab.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Elternteil

You're right. I'm just assuming that they don't get why we need to be able to alt-tab.

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I hope they get it by now. I just feel that they don't think it's a priority with all the things they need to fix/implement.

I can wait for alt/tab (as long as it's coming) is they use the resources to rebalance encounters and add more content.

/signed

Agreed! I play most of the time in Windowed mode so I can still look things up online, read forums, check my email, etc, while I play. Most people now in the internet age are multi-taskers.

However, I hate playing in Windowed mode. My computer runs Windows 7, and the top bar pushes my screen down just enough that I actually lose a tiny bit of visibility on the bottom. Plus, I get a better framerate when playing in fullscreen.

It's such a reflex action to alt-tab, I end up crashing my own game half the time.

Please allow us to alt-tab out of Fullscreen without crashing the game!

Please SE.

create a Windowed Fullscreen & Fullscreen mode that allows alt-tab.

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Originally Posted by Grim_Lion

Please SE.

create a Fullscreen mode that allows alt-tab.

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Fixed.
We need a real Fullscreen, because it's the only way to get sli/crossfire working with DirectX9

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Originally Posted by Ekko

Fixed.
We need a real Fullscreen, because it's the only way to get sli/crossfire working with DirectX9

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In this day and age, there should be every single typical option available.

Nothing else is acceptable. Nothing.