More illustrated fights?

I know other games have done this so it can be done. Only in a few rare instances (kill this monster before he calls for reinforcements!) does it actually show, but I'd love to see more intelligent combat, or at least more illustrated.

Like if your character gets petrified, why do they not turn into stone and burst out of it when the effect expires? Why do characters like the Dullahan not block our moves with their giant swords? Why can't Stereopes pull out a few arrows before he one-shots us?

inb4 ps3/server limitations

Seriously thought it would give so much more vibrance to the world..to see snow wolves traveling in packs or wild chocobos ganging up to flog you.

Your character does have a "stone" effect when you get petrified though. As to monsters reacting our actions like Dullahan blocking our attacks, not only would that require pouring a lot of resources into making it worthwhile, but this is not an action combat type of mmo. In other words, as of now, that kind of intelligent combat just doesn't work with the FFXIV style.

I agree with the OP, but this thread (like you said) is just going to be filled with PS3 limitation posts, in which I say they need to do something about that. This game has a lot of potential that can't be fulfilled :(

Edit: Of course I know the PS3 will be discontinued soon. I'm just hoping they improve a lot of aspects of the game when this happens.

Not sure where these 'PS3 discontinued soon' ideas are coming from when the only source I've seen saying anything to that degree... is a story about New Zealand. Not saying New Zealand isn't relevant, just that it's not relevant outside of New Zealand. As to PS3 incapable of handling action combat with multiple players, the Souls games would like a word with you. It can totally handle action combat, XIV just isn't built with it in mind. The game engine has to be there to support it before you can start building encounters around the concept. Would I play an action MMO? Yes, I have, actually. It's called Dark Souls and it's rather fun.

Append: New inb4 category! Engine Limitations

It'd be nice to see additional flavor thrown in, but let's be honest here about the animation bit... most of us wouldn't give a damn the first time we see it. Those that would won't give a damn by something like the 20th time they see it. It's just wasted resources and time really. It's like if someone gave you $10 that you needed to fully use immediately, and they decided to go the extra mile and give you it in as crisp of a bill... heck, maybe they also wanted to give it to you in a 5 and five 1's just in case you preferred it that way. Thanks?

If we had actual cause to pay attention to the world, actual mob function (like wolves in packs) would be interesting. As is, there's no point to it. It's not like they run around, and if they did... people would probably die. The zones in FFXIV are not as quick moving and large in scale as games like WoW, where such things do exist. Let's also not forget the detail and closer to life graphics put into this game, as opposed to the other.

@Gilraen, it was stated a long time ago that if the PS3 started to seriously hold the game back, they would discontinue FFXIV on PS3. It's also kind of obvious really.. The PS3 is already outdated. The comparison between PS3 and PS4 is absolutely insane. At some point, eventually, they will discontinue it, it doesn't even have to be said.

I'm not getting into the PS3 argument, just saying the whole argument about limitations will be pointless at some point anyway. ^^

We used to have lots of animations, flare, and detail in the game.

It was called 1.0.

People complained about the core gameplay system and the developers decided to toss alot out with the core system that should have stayed.

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Originally Posted by Jynx

We used to have lots of animations, flare, and detail in the game.

It was called 1.0.

People complained about the core gameplay system and the developers decided to toss alot out with the core system that should have stayed.

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Pretty much this.

The game used to have unique monster animations and behaviors along with varied move lists that they would choose from, sadly they threw things like this and many of the other good systems out along with the few not so good ones when they made the change to the 2.x series.

It's not that they threw out a few things, they threw out the entire game engine. 1.0 was made using the Crystal Tools engine, a great engine... for making cutscenes. The only thing 2.0 reused was graphics assets, and even then they were still pared down in quality to accommodate a wider range of systems, not just the PS3. My laptop could just run 1.0, 2.0 it's barely breaking a sweat the differences are that huge. People seem to like to gloss over this particular detail of 1.0.

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Originally Posted by Stormfur

I know other games have done this so it can be done. Only in a few rare instances (kill this monster before he calls for reinforcements!) does it actually show, but I'd love to see more intelligent combat, or at least more illustrated.

Like if your character gets petrified, why do they not turn into stone and burst out of it when the effect expires? Why do characters like the Dullahan not block our moves with their giant swords? Why can't Stereopes pull out a few arrows before he one-shots us?

inb4 ps3/server limitations

Seriously thought it would give so much more vibrance to the world..to see snow wolves traveling in packs or wild chocobos ganging up to flog you.

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Some of the levequests they call reinforcements but the problem arises when your class has nothing to stop them like a stun or slow. If you have special abilities, especially hard hitters, then the job/class has to have ways to counter or negate it. You would end up with rows of buttons with very specialised uses. MMO game development is tending away from a button for every situation.

New effects are great but you have to develop them for every race and each sex. For one type of attack it's just too resource intensive.

You parry with swords not block. If a mob can parry more than usual that means melée would be disadvantaged since you can't parry a fireball.

While pulling out an arrow would be cool the base skeleton is probably very simple compare to character models they wouldn't have the dexterity, so a new complex model would have to be created.

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Originally Posted by Ryel

Pretty much this.

The game used to have unique monster animations and behaviors along with varied move lists that they would choose from, sadly they threw things like this and many of the other good systems out along with the few not so good ones when they made the change to the 2.x series.

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Originally Posted by Gilraen

It's not that they threw out a few things, they threw out the entire game engine. 1.0 was made using the Crystal Tools engine, a great engine... for making cutscenes. The only thing 2.0 reused was graphics assets, and even then they were still pared down in quality to accommodate a wider range of systems, not just the PS3. My laptop could just run 1.0, 2.0 it's barely breaking a sweat the differences are that huge. People seem to like to gloss over this particular detail of 1.0.

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By all accounts 1.x was all flash and little substance but what people also forget it that there's two programs running too: the game client and most importantly the server code. From Yoshi P's 1.x post-mortem the server code was very bad too so all these little additional things put huge strain on the servers too.

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Originally Posted by Gilraen

It's not that they threw out a few things, they threw out the entire game engine. 1.0 was made using the Crystal Tools engine, a great engine... for making cutscenes. The only thing 2.0 reused was graphics assets, and even then they were still pared down in quality to accommodate a wider range of systems, not just the PS3. My laptop could just run 1.0, 2.0 it's barely breaking a sweat the differences are that huge. People seem to like to gloss over this particular detail of 1.0.

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You act like systems like.

• Fracturing monster body parts to disable skills
• Monster behavioral AI (Agressive, Curious, Sound agro, Magic agro, Defensive)
• Momentum with movement animations (This was scrapped for a reason unrelated to system resources mainly to stop people from crying about movement being slowed when changing direction like in the real world)

were removed for system requirements, the only thing 1.0 had that made computers kneel in pain was a insanely bad optimization because the game was pushed out the door before they could get to cutting high poly models down to proper size for use (Ala the infamous pot with as many polygons as character models)


Everything else was a mechanical choice it had nothing to do with their terribly slow UI and server code. These systems didn't need to be removed but were for the sake of accomidating not only to the lowest common denominator CPU wise but player wise as well.

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Originally Posted by CookieCakes

not only would that require pouring a lot of resources into making it worthwhile, but this is not an action combat type of mmo. In other words, as of now, that kind of intelligent combat just doesn't work with the FFXIV style.

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Nah, parry/block only requires an animation to be played whenever a parry/block occurs... which DO happen in game (quite frequently acually).

If you play pld, you hear a metal clash sound whenever you block with your shield, and if I remember correctly, is also accompanied with an animation of your char blocking with the shield... not really sure atm cuz I'm usually spamming weapon skills and that might override the blocking or make it go unnoticed. But the block sound is indeed there (I love that sound) xD