The intentional animation delays needs to be abolished

[Tenku]

For one thing, the new animations will not be implemented in 1.18, but 1.19. So it will look goofy at first. And the video is a system cobbled onto the old animations rather than the complete system with all new animations.

For another, you make an assumption in your initial post that the delay is intentional. I believe it's not intentional and is a consequence of poor network responsiveness, as all commands have to bounce to the servers and back before they engage. It's been discussed elsewhere that the UI is server-side rather than client-side, which other games don't do because it causes severe performance issues.

You're correct about the UI being server-side rather than being client-side. Yes, that causes delay/lag to a degree. However, there is intentional delay. That video is directly from Square Enix meaning they are playing directly on the server so there shouldn't be any delay at all due to poor network response. It was the same in FFXI. They intentionally slow it down to make it feel more like their older FF games and to be unique from all the other MMOs out there. I do not mind the slower battle system as long as it's fun like in FFXI. (Chain kills, chain spells/skills, teamplay, CC, hate control, etc)

[Atma]

You're correct about the UI being server-side rather than being client-side. Yes, that causes delay/lag to a degree. However, there is intentional delay. That video is directly from Square Enix meaning they are playing directly on the server so there shouldn't be any delay at all due to poor network response. It was the same in FFXI. They intentionally slow it down to make it feel more like their older FF games and to be unique from all the other MMOs out there. I do not mind the slower battle system as long as it's fun like in FFXI. (Chain kills, chain spells/skills, teamplay, CC, hate control, etc)

Ok, first off, not a fanboy. Hate the entire concept of the server side UI, it's horrible, inefficient, and poorly designed.

Now, you're making several assumptions. First, that they're playing at console. This is not assured, and in fact is most likely incorrect. I would say that it is exceedingly rare for a company to have a data center of the size that it takes to house that amount, and bulk, of hardware on the same site as their main office space. We're talking special cooling systems required, and it's just generally safer from a physical security standpoint to not be able to look up the FFXIV Server Center in the NTT phone book. Odds are that in their office location, they experience the same latency that any player in Japan does.

You're also neglecting the fact that test servers aren't generally ran on production-level hardware. Some MMO's do have this, but those are the ones that have public test servers. We have no idea how many test situations are being run, or what level of hardware they're being run on.

They have also stated that to expect the animations to be choppy and non-seamless for a while. This is what happens when you add things like being able to change modes on-the-move without animations for that being in the game.

Now, I will agree with you that there IS a concept in games called animation lag, which FFXIV needs to ensure they do not introduce. *TRUE* animation lag, unlike what you describe, is the process where another action cannot be initiated until the currently running animation has completed. I do not really see evidence of this in place in the current video we've been provided, there seems to be ample delay between swings for that to not be an issue.

Yes, FFXIV has always suffered from UI lag, and hopefully it is something that is on their long-term plans to address. However, you cannot just go from a server side to a client side UI in a day. That would likely be a 4-6 month project in and of itself, and right now it is not "game breaking". FFXIV is not a "twitch game" like RIFT or WoW, and there's no glaring need for instantaneous respone. Want? Absolutely yes. Need? No.

[Tenku]

You're probably right, but I think that it's more than just latency issues if they are so close to the server yet we still see those delays. And yes, we WANT instantaneous response. Everything about gaming is WANT, not need.