I suck at reading the center of the screen

Something I noticed while doing the last boss of CC as healer last night. I suck at reading the center of the screen and dislike mechanics based on such ><.

Combat in this game is so pretty and visually assaulting that it distracts my eyes like a magician (art of misdirection).

The text doesn't stand out. As a healer, I find that I'm keeping most of my focus on health bars while also watching my feet. As a tank, it's pretty much the opposite, unless I'm doing something like stunning on Ifrit.

I for one hope that text on the screen is not a common trend. I dislike having to watch for such basic text in very colorful gameplay.

I haven't had a problem with it per se, but i've had multiple instances where it tries to say his eyes are whichever color, and that he's focusing on one player, and it will usually only say the latter in the middle of the screen so I end up getting blasted. Has happened at least once every time i've done the dungeon, and it's annoying.

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Originally Posted by Macka

This really sound like a Personal Problem as you said "I suck at reading the center of the screen and dislike mechanics based on such ><."

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That's exactly what I said. No, I'm not a sucky player, as you try to imply, I just suck at reading the center of the screen and and dislike mechanics based on such. I'd much prefer the red aoes.

Edit: Red, black, anything. For instance, landslide has no red, but I'm fine with the visual representation.

The text is just too basic for me. Visuals keep drawing my eyes away.

Erm.....you know it is shown in the chat box right? Lol. It is easier to read there.

i had this problem to.. i know is was my own problem because i was paying more atention on the flashiness of the bosses skills rather than the text on screen, but after a couple of deaths because of not paying atention i learned and now i have no problem with the message cues,

What helped me out was making the health bars a little smaller and putting them right next to me, and put the focus bar right under it. That way my eyes are always at the middle of the screen. Its ugly but it works lol.

Is there a way to make the focus bar...better? I noticed that the boss' casting bar was covered by text D:

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Originally Posted by LordSideKicks

Erm.....you know it is shown in the chat box right? Lol. It is easier to read there.

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It'd be easier if the chatbox had adjustable background transparency. I can't read crap in the chatbox as it is.

And yea, OP, the lettering for alerts flashing across the screen gets very easily lost in the clutter of background effects. It needs to be brought out more somehow. My eyes have a lot of trouble focusing on lettering when there's a lot of stuff going on behind it. It's not so much a personal focus thing as it is a physical inability thing.

What I did for the chimera in CC was just watch for the cast bar, as it's more easily visible than the words across the screen. And I always have the boss targeted anyway, because mouseover macros don't change my target, so it's easier to just keep an eye on that rather than looking for impossible to discern lettering.

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Originally Posted by Steeled

That's exactly what I said. No, I'm not a sucky player, as you try to imply, I just suck at reading the center of the screen and and dislike mechanics based on such. I'd much prefer the red aoes.

Edit: Red, black, anything. For instance, landslide has no red, but I'm fine with the visual representation.

The text is just too basic for me. Visuals keep drawing my eyes away.

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Im not implying you suck I would never be little anyone if thats how it came off maybe I shouldve underline (at reading) also that being said I apologize.

I think having to watch bosses and mobs and their spell effects and stuff in the actual 3d world is the most fun. Contrary to reading text. I never liked text adventures or long quest text.

Additionally, the party window in this game is also a bit too crowded with non essential information, and it doesn't have proper customization options. So from a healer point of view, the party window draws too much attention away from the world or chat window or on screen text.

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Originally Posted by Nepumuk

I think having to watch bosses and mobs and their spell effects and stuff in the actual 3d world is the most fun. Contrary to reading text. I never liked text adventures or long quest text.

Additionally, the party window in this game is also a bit too crowded with non essential information, and it doesn't have proper customization options. So from a healer point of view, the party window draws too much attention away from the world or chat window or on screen text.

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I disagree I find the Chat window highly custimizable, you can even change the size, length and width and even move the chatbox to a more convienent area on your hud.

Edit: you talking about the party window oh, thats custimizable also I have it set to the smallest size and put in the bottom right hand side like in FFXI.

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Originally Posted by Macka

Edit: you talking about the party window oh, thats custimizable also I have it set to the smallest size and put in the bottom right hand side like in FFXI.

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You can't adjust what information it displays, however. There's a lot of unnecessary info that shows up, such as the mana bars of other players (situated to the right of the health bar? Even if they wanted to display that, it is done in an incredibly space-inefficient way) and cast bars, nor can you adjust what buffs/debuffs display, or see a timer for said buffs/debuffs. It's a pretty crappy party interface, to be honest.

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Originally Posted by Naunet

You can't adjust what information it displays, however. There's a lot of unnecessary info that shows up, such as the mana bars of other players (situated to the right of the health bar? Even if they wanted to display that, it is done in an incredibly space-inefficient way) and cast bars, nor can you adjust what buffs/debuffs display, or see a timer for said buffs/debuffs. It's a pretty crappy party interface, to be honest.

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To be honest, while may jobs want to know the mana situation of the group, it could better be represented as color coded percentages. (67-100 is green, 34-66 is yellow, 0-33 is red).

Chat bubbles would fix everything.


am i being serious?