[dev1032] Spell Casting Animations Needs More Love

[Roll]

I know this has been brought up before awhile back but it would be nice to see some graphical changes to casting spells. Something like a magic circle under the caster, glowing particles, sigils, runes, staff spinning, raise your staff up instead of holding it out looking awkward, etc.

Make it more than just "Conjury makes your hand glow purple and Thaumaturgy makes your hand glow red"...


Maybe when jobs are introduced make it so that Black Mages casting animation will be that green magic circle shockwave and White Mages will have those white orb/bubbles floating around in a circle like in all the other Final Fantasy games.

And we could use some better spell animations. For example: Cure/Cure II/Cure III look almost identical except they have different sounds and slightly bigger animations.

[Alyssa]

I agree. Disciples of War are having animations for their abilities spiced up, but (so far) Disciples of Magic have been overlooked. The casting animation for every spell features the mage just kind of flinging their arm out in front of them.

Below are a few clips of animations from other games that I hope might inspire some graphical changes to casting spells in FFXIV:
Fable II
Dragon Age

[Alyssa]

On a related note, I think it would be cool if there was an option to toggle an effect that lets the caster see the circular/conical radius of their AoEs. It could be displayed when you select the ability, before you use it.

Here are two god-awful drawings that I slapped together really quick in Microsoft Paint to illustrate what I mean, lol:
CON
THM

[zaviermhigo]

I hope since they're adding being able to cast with your weapon away for mages, that we will get "real casting animations" not, "omg i love my sceptre/wand so much I clutch it to my breast while casting"

[Azurak]

Agree with poster.
Why? I always thought the casting animation was very generic for a Final Fantasy game.
Solution: we do not need flashy animation but make it look more like FFXI's style. It shouldn't be a copy of FFXI but something on par with it.

[DoctorMog]

+1 from the Mog.

Epic animations make it feel like Final Fantasy ^^

And mages NEVER have gotten good animations, just good spell effects.

[redmage]

On a related note, I think it would be cool if there was an option to toggle an effect that lets the caster see the circular/conical radius of their AoEs. It could be displayed when you select the ability, before you use it.

Here are two god-awful drawings that I slapped together really quick in Microsoft Paint to illustrate what I mean, lol:
CON
THM

I've been hoping for something like this for a while! I'd love it was something you could toggle on and off.

But on the subject matter at hand, I totally agree that we should have more unique animations for spellcasting as well as upping the graphical effects for said spells.

[DoctorMog]

I do wish there was a "highlighted" area on the ground where the AOE effects take place.

Not knowing if the thing 20 yards behind my target will get hit is kinda .... scary...

[zaviermhigo]

Yeah I do like that toggle, kinda reminds of dragon age, but it wouldn't have to be flashy, simple transparent lines of an easy to see color. Just for those moments where you think you know you're range and you hit that one mob that was borderline in/out of it. It wouldn't be needed all the time, but useful for when everything kicks your butt, hell give war drum and aoe moves one on DoW the most, some of them really need it >.>

[Estellios]

If I recall right they were planning on implementing an AOE indicator a while back, but it was a WHILE back before the dev team changed. Hopefully it's still planned to be implemented once these revamp patches are over with. It's one of the features of FF12 I was hoping would have made its way into FF11 waaaay back when along with the "aggro lines" =P

As far as animations though I like the casting animation just fine, personally. It gets the job done and I like actually using my staff to cast. The spell effects could be nicer. I'd like them to look more powerful but not take a year to get through the animation. The recent Persona games come to mind where higher level spells look wicked strong but are really quick so the pace of fights stays brisk.