Renaming Abilities?

Would anyone be interested in being able to rename your class features. Like, I'm not a fan of how spells are named Fire 1/2/3/4 and would rather use names like Fira/Firaga/Firaja and so forth. Thoughts?

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Originally Posted by Dragonexx

Would anyone be interested in being able to rename your class features. Like, I'm not a fan of how spells are named Fire 1/2/3/4 and would rather use names like Fira/Firaga/Firaja and so forth. Thoughts?

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Proceedings of the Council of Magi
Proceedings of the 284th Convocation of the Amdapori Council of Magi
A Vote was called to settle on a Name for a potent and newly fashioned Healing-Spell. Being that said Healing-Spell was an Augmentation of Curaga, erst the most potent Healing-Spell, the following Names were proposed by the Council.

Curago, Curaza, Curaja, Curagura

Finding the afore-written Names duly lacking in Gravity and the existing Hierarchy of Spell-Names needlessly abstruse, the Council did Vote by a margin of Seventeen to Three to do away with existing Naming-Conventions entirely and adopt a new system of numerical Spell-Names, as writ below, to be used henceforth.

Cure I, Cure II, Cure III, Cure IV

It is recorded.

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Originally Posted by Dragonexx

Would anyone be interested in being able to rename your class features. Like, I'm not a fan of how spells are named Fire 1/2/3/4 and would rather use names like Fira/Firaga/Firaja and so forth. Thoughts?

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Not really interested in renaming my own abilities but you can make macros with no tooltip (not advised but hey). I wouldn't be opposed to this feature either, though.

THAT. SAID....

Fire/Blizz 1-4 need to use the a/ara/aga/aja system. The numbering makes it sound like each spell is an upgrade of the one before it, which isn't the case.

I am really baffled about the Fire I-IV stuff. German client uses the -ra/-ga/-ka System the usual main titles use.

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Originally Posted by HeulGDarian

Finding the afore-written Names duly lacking in Gravity and the existing Hierarchy of Spell-Names needlessly abstruse, the Council did Vote by a margin of Seventeen to Three to do away with existing Naming-Conventions entirely and adopt a new system of numerical Spell-Names, as writ below, to be used henceforth.

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Addendum: The Council has been made aware that Gravity is already in use as a spell-name and will vote on changing the above wording in the next session.

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Originally Posted by RicaRuin

I am really baffled about the Fire I-IV stuff. German client uses the -ra/-ga/-ka System the usual main titles use.

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The version of the story I heard was it was localized to I-IV to be "less confusing" which is kinda funny, considering it usually leads to MORE confusion.

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Originally Posted by Ayuhra

The version of the story I heard was it was localized to I-IV to be "less confusing" which is kinda funny, considering it usually leads to MORE confusion.

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English always has the worst localisation team.

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Originally Posted by Ayuhra

The version of the story I heard was it was localized to I-IV to be "less confusing" which is kinda funny, considering it usually leads to MORE confusion.

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FFXI had it bang on with spell naming for those cases.

Single target spells: Fire, Fire II, Fire III, etc
AoE spells: Firaga, Firaga II, Firaga III

Simple. Easy to understand.

Yeah I never really agreed with the changes to spell naming conventions they done for English localisation. From what I understand the game mostly follows traditional naming conventions (Cure/Cura/Curaga) and their localised equivalents.

The numbers system just makes it seem like the spells are all direct upgrades. Even though Cure III is weaker than Cure II, Fire II is weaker than Fire I, Fire IV is stronger than Flare (on single target at least). Miasma I is a standard single target casted DoT, Miasma II is (was lol) an instant/cast AoE DoT for weaving

If you ask me it’s easier to think of how the spells work properly with the traditional naming. It’s just makes more sense when ‘Fire’ is the stronger single target and ‘Fira’ is the AoE but weaker on single target. Or Curaga being AoE but Cura being single. I wouldn’t expect Cure III to be weaker than Cure II outside of aoes, since the numbers just make it sounds like Cure III would be a stronger version of Cure / Cure II.

Not that I think they’d change the naming conventions now. Its been this way for so long that i think it’d have the opposite effect of making things clearer if they changed it now lol

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Originally Posted by Ayuhra

Not really interested in renaming my own abilities but you can make macros with no tooltip (not advised but hey). I wouldn't be opposed to this feature either, though.

THAT. SAID....

Fire/Blizz 1-4 need to use the a/ara/aga/aja system. The numbering makes it sound like each spell is an upgrade of the one before it, which isn't the case.

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That wouldn't be any less confusing considering if you play any of the Final Fantasies that use that naming system,

Fira is a strict upgrade to Fire, Firaga an upgrade to that, so just as the 1, 2, 3 system isn't intuitive, neither is that one. Also I'm pretty sure there's a lore tidbit in the game, though it's been years since I'd have seen it, where they said the citizens of Eorzea rejected that naming convention as being too unintuitive. So that means two things, the possibility for a non-Eorzean casting job using those names, but also a reason for the numeration of the spells as opposed to nonsensical names.

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Originally Posted by Callinon

FFXI had it bang on with spell naming for those cases.

Single target spells: Fire, Fire II, Fire III, etc
AoE spells: Firaga, Firaga II, Firaga III

Simple. Easy to understand.

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I totally prefer this one. It makes complete sense.

Aren't skill icons also usable for macros? if so, just make a macro called "Firaga" with the instruction to execute Fire III, and use the Fire III icon

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Originally Posted by wereotter

That wouldn't be any less confusing considering if you play any of the Final Fantasies that use that naming system

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It was mentioned above, but FF11 was really good about this in that you had a line of spells for Fire (fire I, II, III, etc) and a completely different line for Firaga (also I, II, etc). All base spells were stronger, single target. All -aga were AoE, but weaker.

It was weird for the first -aga spell obtained, but really intuitive later.

The naming scheme isn't to blame for the confusion here; it's simply the way this particular game works.

In most other games "Fire 3" or "Firaga" would both be understood as a more powerful (and probably rarer or higher cost) variant of Fire, but this game doesn't use it that way; it simply has different utility than Fire does.

I'm not sure renaming the abilities is particularly warranted (for everyone who would welcome the change there is someone who would abhor it), but it would be spiffy if they somehow made it so that people could type "Fire III", "Fire 3", or "Firaga" into a /ac macro and the game would recognize any of them as the same action, kind of like how some emotes can be called using several different slash commands. As long as the actual ability name isn't changed I doubt having the option would ruffle any feathers.

I personally prefer the numbering system, could you imagine the naming convention for malefic II or Broil ||? Also to my knowledge in games with the Ruin spell it’s only had 2 variants, Ruin and Ruinga, no ruinra or however else. Even if we go based on previous games, FF1 fire and firaga were single target whereas fira and firaja/za were aoe, same deal with the cure spells and we currently have cure III being the aoe variant (where’s my cure IV SE) and fire IV being single target. For me I like the numbering system from a nostalgia standpoint, but reading your tooltip should always be done when you get a new skill so you understand how it works. If the skill was intended to be a direct augment they would have given us traits to augment them as opposed to a brand new skill.

SCH "art of war" that name doesn't fit for an active spell, it's more fit for a passive spell

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Originally Posted by lolicon09

Aren't skill icons also usable for macros? if so, just make a macro called "Firaga" with the instruction to execute Fire III, and use the Fire III icon

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Except for the part where using macros causes you to clip your GCDs every single time. I guess if you don't care about your damage, it's fine, but if you do, that's a critical thing to avoid doing.

I do this anyway. Lol half the time I don't even know the real names. Used and still is very hard talking to an fc mate about scholar and referring Thier heals as fairy hot, your shield and aether heal. Or I would be oh ummmm that's R followed by 2,3 then shift T.

the skills are numbered as they are because there is no consistency between them. Not all of the spells that would end in -ra are AoE spells. Fire II, Blizzard II, Thunder II (now but it wasn't always), Miasma II (when we had it), Fan Dance II, Veraero II, and Verthunder II are all AoE spells. But Stone II, Aero II, Ruin II, Broil II, Bio II, Malefic II, Combist II, Cure II, and Benefic II are all single target.

A good comparison is how the materia names are. In English, each tier is just a number higher. Bit in Japanese they used the ra, ga, ja, system, and now you have grade 8's being named Mega Materija, or something to that effect. So each system has their strengths and weaknesses. While the ra, ga, ja system is more "iconic" what happens when you go beyond the system? Number can always be added upon, but ever wonder why we haven't gotten a Stone V, or Fire V? There is nothing beyond the ja suffix, so they would have to create a new one.

I feel like numbers should only indicate spell strength, not group multiple effects under (say) the label "Fire" when some are single, some AoE, etc.

As for renaming spells, I'd love to be able to do that so I can rename all the cryptically named ones to things that remind me what they do.

The reason why the english version and only the english version uses the 1-2-3 ECT affixes for the spells is because of history. The original translations of Final Fantasy in the west used numeric values for spells, all the way up to I believe final fantasy 8s release? Re-Releases of the older games since use the a. aga, aja now, but for the localisation of 14 they decided to use the numbers as that is what they thought westerners would be more familiar with it

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Originally Posted by Dragonexx

Would anyone be interested in being able to rename your class features. Like, I'm not a fan of how spells are named Fire 1/2/3/4 and would rather use names like Fira/Firaga/Firaja and so forth. Thoughts?

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No because you don't stop using fire once you learned fire 2, as you don't stop using 2 once you learned 3 and you never stop using that once you use 4. People assume 4 is better then 3, this is not a single player Game. it doesn't work that way. Learn your rotation. Thanks.

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No because you don't stop using fire once you learned fire 2, as you don't stop using 2 once you learned 3 and you never stop using that once you use 4. People assume 4 is better then 3, this is not a single player Game. it doesn't work that way. Learn your rotation. Thanks.

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Your tone is completely unnecessary. There is nothing about the OP's post that suggests they don't know their rotation or how to play.

The original JP convention is still Fire, Fira...etc
Only the non-JP versions changed.

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Originally Posted by tymora

The original JP convention is still Fire, Fira...etc
Only the non-JP versions changed.

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And all of them do their own thing, as far as I'm aware.

Only the English localization changed the spell name to include roman numerals.
The German localization uses the -ra/ga/ka (notably not -ja for the fourth iteration of a spell) suffixes (but uses roman numerals for Materia).
French uses Extra/Mega/Giga as a prefix.

It's at the point where every time I refer to a spell by it's actual name instead of it's general function I automatically use Auto Translate because there's no real consistency across languages at all and just because people chat in a language doesn't mean that that's their client language.

Also, in the early FF games, like back on the Super Nintendo, the white mage's big powerful offensive spell was called Pearl. I wonder why they changed it to Holy.

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Originally Posted by Feronar

Also, in the early FF games, like back on the Super Nintendo, the white mage's big powerful offensive spell was called Pearl. I wonder why they changed it to Holy.

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Presumably because while both are light-related, Pearl seems too...specific? confusing? Like are the WHM throwing pearls at the mobs?

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Originally Posted by Feronar

Also, in the early FF games, like back on the Super Nintendo, the white mage's big powerful offensive spell was called Pearl. I wonder why they changed it to Holy.

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It always was Holy, but because of Nintendo's draconian American censorship rules at the time, they forced Square to change it in the US versions of FFI, IV and VI to remove any trace of religious iconography (this is also why the chapels in FFI became 'clinics'). Sony had no such scruples however at portraying even distantly 'religious' terms in FFVII, so Holy was properly translated as Holy for the first time, and has been the case for each FF game ever since.

The 'Ra/Ga/Ja' thing however is more just pragmatism. Ra/Ga/Ja are suffixes that are obtuse and confusing to new players who are not familiar with past FF games, so FFXIV has reverted to the old style numbering system for spell tiers (and before you pass judgement, FFXI actually used both, leading to such silly spell names as 'Curaga VI'). It is not necessarily a bad thing, just a different thing, and as others have said, it's more easily understood if you were familiar with the older FF games pre-FFVIII which signified the change in the English-language versions from spells being numbered to 'Ra/Ga/Ja' suffixes.

^ This was also the reason why Death spells weren't actually called that, why Garland will "knock us all down" (except this one became enough of a meme that it lived on in most FF1 remakes), why Celes's blatant suicide attempt was played off as an exhilarating leap off a cliff, etc...


Censorship is a helluva drug, man.

I just wish there was at least consistency across the board.

Sometimes IIs are an AoE (Fire, Blizzard, Miasma (RIP), Medica). Sometimes not (Ruin, Cure, Stone).

Sometimes IIIs are an AoE (Aero (RIP), Cure). Sometimes not (Ruin, Miasma).

New AoEs are always being added and taken away and the consistency just gets worse.

There are only a handful of times when a spell directly upgrades and that is a perfect time to use the numerals in my opinion. They show it's a stronger version of the same spell. Stone I thru IV works perfectly this way.

I'd really like it if AoEs were all hard consonant -ga/-ka(-ca) spells and all ST spells were soft consonant -ra/-ja/-sa spells.

Cure II > Cura, Cure III > Curaga, Fire II > Firaga, Fire III > Fira, Fire IV > Firaja, Thunder II > Thundaga, Thunder IV > Thundaga II, Ruin II > Ruinra, etc.

It would better show which spells are different from one another and which spells are direct upgrades.

So then we have Cure, Cura, Curaga, all representing different spells and spells like Thunder, Thunder II, Thundaga, Thundaga II all representing different spells and logical progression.

Thunder advancing to Thunder III and Thunder II to Thunder IV is pretty darn confusing, especially when compared to Ruin's advancements. And don't get me started on Miasma upgrading to Miasma III even after they removed Miasma II from the game!

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Originally Posted by SavishSalacious

No because you don't stop using fire once you learned fire 2, as you don't stop using 2 once you learned 3 and you never stop using that once you use 4. People assume 4 is better then 3, this is not a single player Game. it doesn't work that way. Learn your rotation. Thanks.

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Well, for starters, I main BLM and know my rotation quite well. Not sure what made you think I don't. This is more about customization for fun, being able to just change the name of your abilities, just for personal aesthetic.

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Originally Posted by SavishSalacious

No because you don't stop using fire once you learned fire 2, as you don't stop using 2 once you learned 3 and you never stop using that once you use 4. People assume 4 is better then 3, this is not a single player Game. it doesn't work that way. Learn your rotation. Thanks.

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You should learn to read tho

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Originally Posted by Stepjam

Except for the part where using macros causes you to clip your GCDs every single time. I guess if you don't care about your damage, it's fine, but if you do, that's a critical thing to avoid doing.

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Isn't that something that happens only when you have two or more skills in the same macro?

This seems like a feature that doesn't really add any value and could only lead to confusion. Doesn't seem like a good idea to me.

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Originally Posted by lolicon09

Isn't that something that happens only when you have two or more skills in the same macro?

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No, it's any macro, which is why it's generally not a good idea to macro your GCD abilities.

Love shout for the localization team for thinking the same job should have "Intervene" and "Intervention".

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Love shout for the localization team for thinking the same job should have "Intervene" and "Intervention".

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I have grievances about Meditate and Meditation being two separate abilities (Meditate being SAM's ability because it was one of their iconic FFXI abilities, and Meditation being MNK's because... just because), but yeah, now that I think about it, this is even worse cuz they're on the same job, and I even play PLD so I'm surprised I didn't notice.