Is Battle Meant To Be This Fast?

Hello everyone!

This is not meant to be a request for change, nor even a suggestion that something is right or wrong. This isn't even a whiny post. This just me asking a question and wondering if its me that there's something off with ^.^;

I do not play action games much (first person shooters, fighting games, etc.) as they have no real interest for me. But I do know that they require very fast reflexes. And if you are slow (even if you know what to do), you will loose.

I notice in Titan, after the Heart, that even if I know what to do, I can not move fast enough. It seems to me at least that I have to have lightning (teehee) quick reflexes, and see where the danger is and where to go all within fractions of seconds.

So I guess my question really is:
Are MMORPGs nowadays designed to be more action-y like this?

Is the rest of FFXIV (Bahamut and future challenges) also action-y like this?
Or is there something weird with me and its not action-y at all and I'm just very slow? ^^;


Thank you.

(Please note, not asking to change anything, just trying to understand)

Yes.

/10char

Titan requires faster reaction time than Coil in my opinion. Though Titan is quite easy with enough knowledge as knowledge will tell you which skill Titan does next.

A little update... it seems it is not so much that it is a fast game at all. It's actually a bit worse (in my opinion). Fast suggests 'reflex'.. see something, and having to react. Here, you do not need to see to react. You know what the moves will be before they even start. So it may seem action-y reflex-y until you find out that its so pre-scripted you could start moving before there's anything to react to.

So, on the plus side: not action-y
On the down side: Heavily scripted
On the side side: I suppose one could make a macro now to just beat Titan o.o

I miss the types of strategy required in old turn based FF games. I feel like that's been replaced with this script / reflex crap. I was hoping for more from SE.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Asiaine

I notice in Titan, after the Heart, that even if I know what to do, I can not move fast enough. It seems to me at least that I have to have lightning (teehee) quick reflexes, and see where the danger is and where to go all within fractions of seconds.

So I guess my question really is:
Are MMORPGs nowadays designed to be more action-y like this?

Is the rest of FFXIV (Bahamut and future challenges) also action-y like this?
Or is there something weird with me and its not action-y at all and I'm just very slow? ^^;

---

My first impression when fighting titan was....

"God... Why am I feeling like I'm playing Contra?"

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Umero

My first impression when fighting titan was....

"God... Why am I feeling like I'm playing Contra?"

---

At least we have the super command with infinite lives.

One of the reasons I left WoW, was I felt like it was more about skill and speed, than thought or strategy. I came to this game hoping for more of the latter. I still remember trying to figure out the three sisters in FFIV or II as it was called at the time... or the battle with the ultimate weapons in VII, or just about any battle in FF Tactics (before figuring out OP combinations).

They required very little skill, but careful strategies that were very rewarding accomplishments.

I had a lot of trouble with the Titan fight and agree it requires very quick reaction time. I've found the best way to overcome this is by memorizing the battle and trying to move before you know you have to. Because of this, I am usually the first or the last to react to aoes and things, and yeah, I do still die quite a bit. Keep practicing! You'll get better.

If the game didn't still have so much delay, you would be able to dodge all the aoe attacks: landslide, weight of lands, alot easier. Somedays, the instance server for titan is so laggy that I don't see the places where the weight of lands hits, until the castbar is full, then I see the places and see that I have 3 weights, under me and I know I'm dead. And on somedays, they don't lag at all, and I can dodge everything. And I don't remember the attack pattern for phase 5.

So the feeling of you being too slow to react is entirely because of server's delay (especially for EU, for the servers/datacenters are in canada, which increases the delay even more.)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Simaril

I miss the types of strategy required in old turn based FF games. I feel like that's been replaced with this script / reflex crap. I was hoping for more from SE.

---

*grindgrindgrind* I AM NOW STRONG ENOUGH TO DEFEAT THIS BOSS

MMOs in general cannot work in anything except an action/real time setting. It might have worked back in the old days, but today, everyone's a griefer unless proven otherwise. What if you were with a party and one person goes AFK in a turn based system? In MMORPG parties, you either play with a select few to avoid ....... unfaithful acquaintances (defeating the purpose of interacting with thousands of other player, except to extort money from them), or you take your chances with PUGs (usually done for bragging rights and/or degrading others).

As for fights like Titan, it's not necessarily about reacting, but rather anticipating. Memorizing Titan (or other bosses, for that matter) is like memorizing a multiplication table and just as exciting and predictable. That's why you see videos of people beating HM in bikinis.

And not every "old school" FF was about grinding to overcome enemies. FFVIII, for example, scaled monster levels with the characters, FFVI only required two spells (Vanish+X-Zone or Doom), and FF on the NES was more about conserving your magic since you couldn't recover the limited usages on spells except with Tents (definitely the most strategy heavy and unforgiving the first time with no walkthroughs).

Haha, I'd like to see the look on a WHM and tank's face if told, "You can only use Cure ten times, Cure 2 five times, and Cure 3 three times until you reach the checkpoint at the final boss about 3 hours away. By the way, all monster fights will be randomly generated and if your party wipes once, you have to start all over again." Maybe game devs need to be less forgiving these days, so that gamers will be more humble and helpful to others when they play. It sure would weed out the potential unsubs and create a dedicated niche fanbase again, instead of caving to every want of every MMO gamer currently playing ............ but this is where I digress into a rant.....

Combat in this game is already really slow for an MMO, other than the "move out of the stuff on the ground" thing (which has been pointed out is more of a memorization than a reaction thing).
2.5 sec GCD is loooooooooong though, and already slows combat down quite a bit. I prefer EQ2's 0.5 sec GCD (which can be reduced to 0.25 via stats).

I love strategy/tactical RPGs, but that kind of gameplay doesnt always do well in an MMO environment.