Something that kills immersion totally for me and feels really bad. Read inside

When my character, let's say a lvl 1 rogue, uses his damaging ability, the character animation attacks twice. Normally this wouldn't be so bad, but the damage numbers (and loss of life on the mob) appears on the first hit instead of the second. This makes it feel like the second attack of the animation is completely useless. Why would the character attack twice if the damage appears instantly? It feels stupid and really bad because the 2nd animation is pointless. It ruins the WEIGHT of the ability and it doesn't feel satisfying.
And I know the developers understands this concept because the lancer's first ability has a small delay for when you press it until the damage shows up because it makes sense for the damage to appear at the same time as the actual animation strike hits. Why would you give Lancer this level of detail but not rogue or samurai?

So these issues aren't as bad (seemingly) on lancer, but on rogue and samurai, it is terrible. Samurai pretty much ONLY has abilities that has 2 attacks in the animatinon, and the damage appears on the first hit on all of them.

This COMPLETELY ruins immersion for me and for many others also. I cannot believe this game has been out for 10 years without this getting fixed.

My suggestion is to make 2 separate damage numbers appear for each individual animation in the ability, or make the damage appear at the end of the animation where it makes sense instead of at the beginning.

As Kevin Jordan, lead designer of WoW classic and Burning Crusade says, and Steven Sharif, lead designer of Ashes of Creation says, nothing is more important in an MMO than the feel of combat and it feeling responsive and fluid.

The combat in this game for the reason above alone makes it feel very bad to the point where I'm having a hard time enjoying the game. I don't have very many complaints outside of this though but this is a BIG one.

I really hope this gets read by someone who can make a difference in the game, especially since the fix to this must be extremely simple to implement.
Imagine using Cloud's level 4 limit break in Final Fantasy 7 and having all the damage appear at the start of it instantly, as opposed to having 9999 show up on each strike. You would end up looking at him go berserk without any actual real impact. I don't think I need to explain to you why they didn't go with that design 23 years ago when they made FF7. That's what this feels like.

Thank you for reading and understanding.

Damage numbers as immersion? Deactivate them, done. I see no issue with such since that is sepreated from the visuals and gameplay.
Are you serious here or are you trolling? There are more urgent issues then splitting some numbers to fit the animation wow.
Like reducing effects overall that are not affected by options, i got a freind with epilepsy, so far she could enjoy the game but latest dungeons and raids have effects she can't turn off, background effects mostly.
Thos should have priority rather then some fancy numbers to compare to make your ego feel good for some reason.

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Originally Posted by Celz88

This COMPLETELY ruins immersion for me and for many others also.

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I've genuinely never heard or seen this complaint prior to right now.

The reason it's done is that a single high potency attack scales way better with crit that two attacks at half potency, due to internal calculations and stuff, and it also makes snapshotting buff way easier if it register only one hit, but I understand the feeling. :p

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Originally Posted by Eliadil

The reason it's done is that a single high potency attack scales way better with crit that two attacks at half potency, due to internal calculations and stuff, and it also makes snapshotting buff way easier if it register only one hit, but I understand the feeling. :p

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The display of a number is separate from the calculation.

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Originally Posted by Darkstride

If you're going to tell others they are being hostile, you may want to refrain from doing so yourself. Your reply ventures into rant territory and people are far less likely to take you seriously if you just sling insults and try to boast as if you are superior.

Although, I suppose that's commonplace on the forums.

Regarding your complaint, I do see where you're coming from and it probably would be an easy fix. I suspect the reason it is because it reflects the tooltip damage accurately (also could be fixed if needed), and because of animation clipping. If, for instance, you had an attack that visually hits 3 times, then the damage numbers would be spread out over a short period rather than instantly when the actual attack's damage is applied. If you were to immediately use another ability and clip the animation (which is common) what would then happen with your damage numbers? Do you miss the last attack because the animation clipped? I think the way it's currently functioning is merely for the sake of simplicity.

Why is it still this way? Frankly, I'd say that it's because it's how the game was designed and most players don't have a problem with it. It's the way damage has always been applied. Apparently, not having a major issue with it means we are all "neanderthals". So be it.

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I treat people the way they treat me. But you are right. It's a personality quirk. Like Trump, I believe in an eye for an eye (up to a point). If someone ridicules me for no reason I will not sit there and take it. I was obviously referring to people who ridicule others for something they don't perceive (like the clown above). But having said that, you are either a casual or indeed a neanderthal (in the context of game design) IF, for example, a Dragoon does a high jump ability, and the damage goes off on the way up instead of the way down, and you see nothing wrong with that. It is such basic knowledge of game design that I am shocked I have to sit here to explain this. All they would have to do is delay the damage numbers for rogue and Samurai (and whatever other class has their damage appear before their animation is done) so that it matches the last hit. That's it. No coding needed. It's simply a delay code string which can be fixed in 2 seconds.

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Originally Posted by Darkstride

I've genuinely never heard or seen this complaint prior to right now.

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Well, you learn something new every day. Once you see it, you can't unsee it.

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Originally Posted by Celz88

I treat people the way they treat me. But you are right. It's a personality quirk. Like Trump, I believe in an eye for an eye (up to a point). If someone ridicules me for no reason I will not sit there and take it. I was obviously referring to people who ridicule others for something they don't perceive (like the clown above). But having said that, you are indeed a neanderthal IF, for example, a Dragoon does a high jump ability, and the damage goes off on the way up instead of the way down, and you see nothing wrong with that. It is such basic knowledge of game design that I am shocked I have to sit here to explain this. All they would have to do is delay the damage numbers for rogue and Samurai (and whatever other class has their damage appear before their animation is done) so that it matches the last hit. That's it. No coding needed. It's simply a delay code string which can be fixed in 2 seconds.

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It would appear that you're not looking for any sort of discussion or open to seeing any other aspects. You've already decided that you're right and if anyone had a differing view then they have no meaningful degree of intelligence.

Best of luck finding all of the other enlightened ones to join your crusade.

In all seriousness though, adjusting damage numbers to reflect every individual hit of a multihit animation is potentially not that simple. Flashy, lengthy attack animations are cute but they aren't necessarily practical when calculating DPS on a global cooldown. If your damage application follows your animation and you clip your animation, that has now created a different and worse scenario. The tradeoff is that the damage is applied upfront to avoid this issue. But by all means let's focus on a dramatic Dragoon example and continue to talk down to people.

I'll take my leave from this thread since it's probably going nowhere. Hopefully you're able to have a constructive conversation and get whatever it is you're looking for.

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Originally Posted by Darkstride

It would appear that you're not looking for any sort of discussion or open to seeing any other aspects. You've already decided that you're right and if anyone had a differing view then they have no meaningful degree of intelligence.

Best of luck finding all of the other enlightened ones to join your crusade.

In all seriousness though, adjusting damage numbers to reflect every individual hit of a multihit animation is potentially not that simple. Flashy, lengthy attack animations are cute but they aren't necessarily practical when calculating DPS on a global cooldown. If your damage application follows your animation and you clip your animation, that has now created a different and worse scenario. The tradeoff is that the damage is applied upfront to avoid this issue. But by all means let's focus on a dramatic Dragoon example and continue to talk down to people.

I'll take my leave from this thread since it's probably going nowhere. Hopefully you're able to have a constructive conversation and get whatever it is you're looking for.

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Well it certainly won't happen with individuals like you. And yeah, why would I pretend I'm wrong when I know I'm right? Every other MMO I've ever played got basic design down where the damage appears when it makes sense. And guess what. There is a reason for that. Shocking right? I know. But hey, it's you and your game who are losing customers/playerbase/longevity of the game because the devs can't be bothered since the community seemingly consists of predominantly casuals and people who don't really give a shit about how gameplay feels, which is the most important aspect of an MMO. So yeah, joke's on me bud. You act as if you're punishing me by not acknowledging these things but you're just hurting the game. You're not doing me a favor by agreeing with me. You're doing the game a favor, so what I say is actually extremely irrelevant. I'm just bringing this issue to light.

A lot of people don't even realize the importance of this and they get bored without really understanding why. But having gameplay that feels impactful, satisfying and responsive is extremely important. That's just a fact. There is nothing to challenge here. Having damage show up early like that makes it feel hollow and not meaty. An objectively bad thing.

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Originally Posted by Celz88

just about anything you said

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to say something on topic: while it would be nice, i will give you that, just saying "its easy to do so do it" is incredibly short sighted. i'm not even gonna argue if it should be easy or hard to do it, the fact of the matter is WE DON'T KNOW. it probably should not be hard to do, but considering all the little problems the 1.0 code brought with it, and how "fixing small stuff" often takes ages because its less "coding a new line or two" and more "fixing a broken mess that pretends to be game code" the simple fact remains that we don't know what underlying issues there may or may not be, but acting like your issue is the one priority issue the game has is a special kind of entitled.




aside from that, let me just say this.

Thank you, thank you from the bottom of my heart.

i sometimes feel like i'm too confrontational, that i should really just "let go" if i can't find common ground with someone, sometimes i truly and honestly feel like i am concending to people that don't deserve it, but you ? you've shown me the light, reading your endless rambling, your wording and your complete inability to stay civil for but a single page of your own thread ? reading through this thread made me realize just how much worse i or many others could be, so thank you, truly and heartfelt.

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Originally Posted by Akiudo

to say something on topic: while it would be nice, i will give you that, just saying "its easy to do so do it" is incredibly short sighted. i'm not even gonna argue if it should be easy or hard to do it, the fact of the matter is WE DON'T KNOW. it probably should not be hard to do, but considering all the little problems the 1.0 code brought with it, and how "fixing small stuff" often takes ages because its less "coding a new line or two" and more "fixing a broken mess that pretends to be game code" the simple fact remains that we don't know what underlying issues there may or may not be, but acting like your issue is the one priority issue the game has is a special kind of entitled.




aside from that, let me just say this.

Thank you, thank you from the bottom of my heart.

i sometimes feel like i'm too confrontational, that i should really just "let go" if i can't find common ground with someone, sometimes i truly and honestly feel like i am concending to people that don't deserve it, but you ? you've shown me the light, reading your endless rambling, your wording and your complete inability to stay civil for but a single page of your own thread ? reading through this thread made me realize just how much worse i or many others could be, so thank you, truly and heartfelt.

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Shortsighted? You understand that damage showing up is a matter of inputting a number that says how long the delay should be, right? That's all that needs to be changed. Why you guys are so defensive about something so trivial is honestly the most disturbing thing I've ever witnessed in my entire life. Do you guys want the game to keep sucking? It's like you all have stockholm syndrome. OH NO WE CAN'T DO THAT. CAN'T CHANGE ANYTHING. IT'S TOO HARD MAN. WTF IT'S SPAGHETTI CODE. Jesus Christ. And I am civil with people who are civil with me.

And thank you for saying it would be nice. I know, right?

Glad to have been of help.

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Originally Posted by Celz88

And I am civil with people...

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No.

No you are not.

Get help.

In 1.0 attacks that physically struck multiple times were calculated that number of times and you’d see that many numbers fly by.
I kinda miss it.

What you're asking for is completely pointless

i take it you havent gone far op? because frankly iam just like you back in the early days, as BRD my main gripe is that when you shoot your arrow, it didnt show your arrow going from your bow to your target, it just magically "hit" the enemy which irk me a lot backthen.

but after about mid level or so, iam pretty much forgot about it, by that time you will be busy dodging enemy pattern and busy doing rotation and weaving in between skill, this will even more apparent when you are doing high level stuff later, your mind will be much focus on defeating enemy and (for me) curious hows the story went on instead of "he hit twice, why only one damage number?" kind of stuff.

it still irk me a bit when iam doing my daily, but now iam just "meh" about it. i got better skill and much cooler looking skill so i cant complain about it.

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Originally Posted by Akiudo

from the video description.

Some clarifications:
1. I AM talking about a minority of the community. I made a huge fault in the script without properly stating that I'm talking about a minority and people rightly criticized the video saying "this doesn't represent the majority" which is true.


these are the content creators words, unless you want to doubt them just because, or you are seriously trying to argue other online games don't have people up in arms the second criticism of their favorite game comes around (hint: they totally do) your "prove" of being right pretty much states "a minority of people are too easily triggered" and to that i would recommend you a mirror

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I don't like Sony first party exclusives, try sayíng that almost anywhere lol.
Even just mild criticism against games like GoW and HZD gets you dogpiled and downvoted en masse.

And remember when HZD was announced on PC? There were PS fans having a complete meltdown about it destroying their disks and PS4's in anger and the internet is full of a crap ton of them defending the Spiderman exclusive for Marvel Avengers while mocking PC and Xbox players.
The FFXIV community is extremely tame in the grand scheme of things, the reason I think why a lot of '' criticism '' is dismissed often times is because often it's just people going '' lol weirdo weeb game ''.
And when it's something like '' the game looks slow '' I've never seen anyone react negatively to it people just explain that it is slow in the beginning but speeds up later.

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Originally Posted by Celz88

My suggestion is to make 2 separate damage numbers appear for each individual animation in the ability, or make the damage appear at the end of the animation where it makes sense instead of at the beginning.
[...]
Imagine using Cloud's level 4 limit break in Final Fantasy 7 and having all the damage appear at the start of it instantly, as opposed to having 9999 show up on each strike. You would end up looking at him go berserk without any actual real impact. I don't think I need to explain to you why they didn't go with that design 23 years ago when they made FF7. That's what this feels like.

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It would be a neat little touch.
Probably wouldn't take too much work.
I hope you get your wish OP.
Though... if they did add this I'd hope that you can either toggle it off, or they don't add it to AoEs.
Something like this on MCH's Spread Shot or BRD's Quick Nock would just look obnoxious.

As some people have already mentioned each hit showing separate numbers would result in ghosting of numbers because most jobs rotations require you to clip animations of skills.

On top of that the only LEGITIMATE way to check dps numbers is the log, if the second/third/fourth hits don't get registered due to animation clipping then your numbers will be skewed.

Truth be told that it did annoy me while leveling rogue especially when that was all you could do at the earlier levels. Would not say it annoyed me to the point of immersion breaking, but everyone is different in that regard.

I do wish attacks would have damage numbers pop up for each hit that made contact with the monster via the animation but on a technical side idk if that would cause problems with ghosting and hit registration for when animations are cliped.

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Originally Posted by ItMe

It would be a neat little touch.
Probably wouldn't take too much work.
I hope you get your wish OP.
Though... if they did add this I'd hope that you can either toggle it off, or they don't add it to AoEs.
Something like this on MCH's Spread Shot or BRD's Quick Nock would just look obnoxious.

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It would take a lot of work. They would need to go through and figure out what animations have multiple hits and the contact time for each animation. Then, are we talking about making the actual damage all at once still and just changing the floating numbers? Then we need to change the floating number system to be separate from the actual damage system, which means recreating floating numbers for every attack not just the multi hit ones. Or, are we going to change it so that it's actually multiple hits doing damage? If that's the case, does each hit get calculated separately? Do you lose the other hits if you die during the animation? What if you clip the animation (which as mentioned, happens in a lot of classes)?

The fact of the matter is that the animations are completely separate from the battle system so that it's easy to change and so the animators have free reign on making things look cool without having to worry about how it affects the battle system. Combining those together would ultimately handcuff both sides and be a ton of work to get to that point. Sure, it would be more "popping", but it isn't worth the work and ultimate negatives that come with an interconnected system. Especially when the numbers can be turned off if this is immersion breaking.

Using the comparison of Final Fantasy 7; Cross slash is multi-hit and has 1 number, Climhazzard is multi-hit and has 1 number, several of Tifa's abilities are multi-hit and have 1 number, Highwind is less than 1 number per missile. Multi-hit animations on single damage number abilities isn't some sort of "step back." It's easier for the coders and it's easier for people to see what ability does more damage. OP is unaware or ignoring the pros for having it work the way it does.

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Originally Posted by LeonKeyh

It would take a lot of work. They would need to go through and figure out what animations have multiple hits and the contact time for each animation.

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You're right, but if they broke it up it wouldn't be impossible.
In each expansion they're always adding new actions and taking away old ones.
Just make the new actions in mind and tweak a few old ones here or there with each expac and in a couple of years you'll have this huge task done.
It's not something that needs to happen now. Just... getting it at all would be nice.

And at level 80 with bunshin active? That would generate four damage numbers per GCD, imagine weaving DWAD in between two lots of that.

Unfortunately OP, you will learn real quick, if you frequent the forums often, that using logic, and pointing out an obvious flaw in design is going to be met with senseless opposition, that will be very highly supported.

There are gaping flaws in this game, but because saying "no" or insulting another person is so highly supported on the forums, no progress gets made.

Unless its for more "fluff," job changes, or making something even more trivial, the community cannot agree.

Even that black box pop-up text that appears every time you move your character, telling you your location constantly hasnt been added as an option to turn off, since launch, is a clear indication people do not notice absolutely irritating, redundant, and pointless things in this game. Bringing something like this to their attention, and they will completely fail to grasp or agree. Even when it is literally directly in the middle of the screen....

I personally would like to see a large number of changes to how damage appears on screen.

First. The option to change all numbers/actions into "pop-up" text. Instead of flying/scrolling. (This game is literally the ONLY game in the series that doesnt use pop-up damage text.)
Second, the option to turn off all other players damage/numbers.
Third the option to toggle other players and your actions/abilities that arent damage.
Forth, what you're suggesting, the option to have multiple attack numbers combined into one, as it was in 1.0.
Fifth, the option to make all damage numbers the same size. (Instead of critical hits, and other similar actions larger.)

But... since this is something that would make sense, and improve the game. and not actually "change" anything, just a simple quality of life option that makes absolute perfect sense. You're going to get people saying you're wrong, and that its never been asked for, and no one has ever noticed it.

When there have been countless requests from people since launch and nothing has been done about it, because they are too busy revamping everything to make it absolutely trivial.

So, I simply have had the damage text turned off. Because its absolute trash in its current form. I literally turned it off immediately. Once I saw it the very first time, I went straight into the menu to find the option to turn it off. Its absolutely horrid.

Countless?

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Originally Posted by Daniolaut

Snip

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While i wont argue against most of the things you wrote, since i dont care about any of them, i have to ask are you sure that what the OP is asking wont change anything? Are you sure that is a simple visual change with no other issues attached to it?

On the other hand You can just turn the damge off, as you did, and would this be an issue?

And have there been countless request from people since launch? How do you know this? Do you have any metric or solid number to back up this statement?

While there may be some senseless opposition, some of the arguments of why has not/cannot change the current state of something as "simple" as Damage numbers seem reasonable enough, maybe i am wrong.

Another thread derailed into people bashing each other over having different opinions. How surprising!

TC I'm just gonna say this...

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Originally Posted by Celz88

This COMPLETELY ruins immersion for me and for many others also.

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I have no doubt it ruins your immersion seeing how vehemently you are defending your ideas, but...for many others? Definitely no. I've never, like ever seen anyone bring this up as something even remotely concerning and I've been here since ARR.

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Originally Posted by Darkstride

I've genuinely never heard or seen this complaint prior to right now.

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It was pretty frequent going from 1.23 (where each individual hit in an attack had its own calculation and damage number, albeit with the option to replace each further number with the summation of all hits thus far) to ARR Beta, actually.

For now, if the process can be handled as simply as calculating the value of damage to be dealt (which we already know is done upon ability activation, much earlier than the damage is shown via Floating Combat Text or taken from the target's health bars) and dividing it by the number of visual hits... why not? It hardly seems like something that should be prioritized, but it seems a reasonable QoL request.

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Originally Posted by Canadane

In 1.0 attacks that physically struck multiple times were calculated that number of times and you’d see that many numbers fly by.
I kinda miss it.

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This was a thing in FFXI too. In that game it was hard to balance because of the way that TP was earned and they had to adjust/nerf skills like penta-thrust which hit 5 times as a result. Even then, though, the numbers were totalled up before displaying it to the player which given that each strike operated independently including for things like resistance could lead to wildly different damage values.

FFXIV has never had any of those issue because there's never been a secondary system tied to the number of hits afaik. That said, I prefer the single number per GCD attack way we have it now since it's much cleaner.

Also, in response to the overall thread, this was not something I ever thought about or even really noticed as a thing let alone something that might need changing unless someone specifically brought it up like in this thread. Animations are just animations and damage numbers appearing on the screen aren't an immersion thing to begin with so turning off on-screen damage numbers would be an even better solution if immersion was truly the goal.

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Originally Posted by Celz88

Like Trump,

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Troll spotted.

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Originally Posted by Shurrikhan

It was pretty frequent going from 1.23 (where each individual hit in an attack had its own calculation and damage number, albeit with the option to replace each further number with the summation of all hits thus far) to ARR Beta, actually.

For now, if the process can be handled as simply as calculating the value of damage to be dealt (which we already know is done upon ability activation, much earlier than the damage is shown via Floating Combat Text or taken from the target's health bars) and dividing it by the number of visual hits... why not? It hardly seems like something that should be prioritized, but it seems a reasonable QoL request.

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I'm a pretty mechanically focused person, but if we're going to do it just for display, I'd rather it be done at the root calculation, because that can add more avenues for combat ability interactions. Debuff windows that add flat potency per hit, for example.

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Originally Posted by Kabooa

I'm a pretty mechanically focused person, but if we're going to do it just for display, I'd rather it be done at the root calculation, because that can add more avenues for combat ability interactions. Debuff windows that add flat potency per hit, for example.

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I mean, I'd of course want to see differences between multi-hit and single-hit skills down the line, moving towards nuances of combo play, but I'm trying not to get my hopes up or derail the discussion as one of an optional immersion-aiding feature.

True, a change such as the one I've suggested does slightly run the risk of precluding the "need" for a root calculation, as it'd be a purely modular, purely QoL feature. But by the point the the devs would be discussion reasons for which to, or to not, go further with combat mechanics, we'd really just be talking excuses for whatever the devs have already set their minds to, if history proves out.

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Originally Posted by ItMe

You're right, but if they broke it up it wouldn't be impossible.
In each expansion they're always adding new actions and taking away old ones.
Just make the new actions in mind and tweak a few old ones here or there with each expac and in a couple of years you'll have this huge task done.
It's not something that needs to happen now. Just... getting it at all would be nice.

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Yep... that was the only thing that I said in the post. Great job snipping out the actual substance that explained why it would likely not be done and shouldn't be done...

The reason the damage appears at the beginning of the skill is due to the way mobs react to your damage. Old jobs like lancer work that way because that’s how it used to work in ARR and it caused all kinds of problems, the mob moving after you pressing your GCD would interrupt the attack mid animation and the biggest offender being gladiator/paladin’s rage of halone which has a crazy long animation and the mob would not react to the enmity of the attack until the damage displayed at the end of the animation (likely causing it to go and chase after your healers), people literally had to work around rage of halone by clipping the animation with spirits within to cause it to end faster.

That’s why you don’t see it in jobs added later like rouge or samurai and most of the old skills on old jobs have been replaced by new versions that resolve the delay issue such as rage of halone being replaced by royal authority.

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Originally Posted by LeonKeyh

Yep... that was the only thing that I said in the post. Great job snipping out the actual substance that explained why it would likely not be done and shouldn't be done...

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It was not malicious and I apologize.
You're right, it would take a lot of work and we shouldn't expect it.
But if it was something they were intent on doing there are ways to break the project up to make it manageable.

I'm pretty sure this dude is a troll like Militaryvet and TitanMen and all that jazz. I'm ALMOST certain it's the same dude or another dude like him. Think about it: topic is vaguely on topic, but kind of off topic... just convincing enough to spark discussion but not really something of import.... yep, this dude's a troll. Y'all just got played.

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Originally Posted by Celz88

When my character, let's say a lvl 1 rogue, uses his damaging ability, the character animation attacks twice. Normally this wouldn't be so bad, but the damage numbers (and loss of life on the mob) appears on the first hit instead of the second. This makes it feel like the second attack of the animation is completely useless. Why would the character attack twice if the damage appears instantly? It feels stupid and really bad because the 2nd animation is pointless. It ruins the WEIGHT of the ability and it doesn't feel satisfying.
And I know the developers understands this concept because the lancer's first ability has a small delay for when you press it until the damage shows up because it makes sense for the damage to appear at the same time as the actual animation strike hits. Why would you give Lancer this level of detail but not rogue or samurai?

So these issues aren't as bad (seemingly) on lancer, but on rogue and samurai, it is terrible. Samurai pretty much ONLY has abilities that has 2 attacks in the animatinon, and the damage appears on the first hit on all of them.

This COMPLETELY ruins immersion for me and for many others also. I cannot believe this game has been out for 10 years without this getting fixed.

My suggestion is to make 2 separate damage numbers appear for each individual animation in the ability, or make the damage appear at the end of the animation where it makes sense instead of at the beginning.

As Kevin Jordan, lead designer of WoW classic and Burning Crusade says, and Steven Sharif, lead designer of Ashes of Creation says, nothing is more important in an MMO than the feel of combat and it feeling responsive and fluid.

The combat in this game for the reason above alone makes it feel very bad to the point where I'm having a hard time enjoying the game. I don't have very many complaints outside of this though but this is a BIG one.

I really hope this gets read by someone who can make a difference in the game, especially since the fix to this must be extremely simple to implement.
Imagine using Cloud's level 4 limit break in Final Fantasy 7 and having all the damage appear at the start of it instantly, as opposed to having 9999 show up on each strike. You would end up looking at him go berserk without any actual real impact. I don't think I need to explain to you why they didn't go with that design 23 years ago when they made FF7. That's what this feels like.

Thank you for reading and understanding.

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Solid points, Pointless appeals to Authority though, but nether the less very true about weight of animations A lot of that was abandoned in 1.0, the animations had fantastic amounts of weight behind them then, unfortunately there is a lot of newer animations that didn't exist since then that have been added to the game where you can't see this same type of heaviest added to designs of combat.

The only time I care about/see the numbers is when i'm doing big 100k+ crit hits on blm or 80k+ hits on warrior...other than that i'm actually surprised someone cares about what numbers appear.

I agree with you. The coding for combat in this game, along with it's netcode is AWFUL! There is no debate about that. If anyone says otherwise, they clearly never played a game like WoW. Fluid and responsive combat is VERY important for mmorpgs, however I will say square done one hell of a good job with everything else, because the game is phenomenal outside of its clunky combat, with its silly animation locks.

Word of caution though - don't say anything bad about the game, this community will rip you apart unless you are moaning about healers doing more damage. The most fair and logical arguments are always sht down, with a mob like mentalityn on these forums.