Aggro Icon

[Keith_Dragoon]

First week of CE launch I took my LS on a guided tour of Eorzea, the most fun I ever had in this game to date. Reason being I was leading and we were on vent, I was all like "I don't think those agro!" *walked by* "OH GOD THEY DO RUUUUUUUN!* only to get ranged for like 9k.

When I explored solo I was taking screenshots of mobs I thought were docile and cuddly only to hit prnt screen and get 1-shot at the same time. THIS is where the excitement of exploring comes from, not so much the beautiful scenery but the chaos that insues on the ground right in front of you.

[BelgianRofl]

^Yes. The most fun I've had in the game was when I was level 1 grabbing all the telepoints.

This game F*n holds your hand every step of the damn way by allowing you to teleport to places you haven't physically walked to before. And now there's no adventure in the game at all with that bigass Aggro icon...

[Synthesis]

There could be this icon in smaller version - next to enemy HP bar when you select a mob.

[Kimahri]

I'm not a big fan for the aggro icon. I can understand its purpose for newer players or people that just want to know what enemies aggro or not, but a lot of people (like myself, obviously) prefer the surprise and danger of not knowing what aggros and what doesn't. In addition, when you're in an area that has tons of aggressive enemies, it looks downright ugly to see dozens of red dots all over the place.

Please include an option to turn the aggro icon off, or at least make it more subtle.

Well first of all I agree with you only that you should be able to turn it on or off. I do not see taking it away completely since as you said it can help new people. There really isn't no surprise of not knowing considering that once you know the first time, you'll know from then on out. Besides I'm one who really doesn't care about finding out. If I don't know, I'd like to be able to check by turning back on the icon rather than asking around the linkshell.

I concur with the motion to add the option to turn the icon on or off.

[Linkurrra]

I don't agree with the argument that all aggro monsters look vicious. And making the game more newbie-friendly and giving it pick-up-and-play quality can only be a plus.

Exactly how I feel. While the Veterans may think that the newbies must go through the same trials and tribulations they did. They are really just trying to protect their elite status of being the few, that have rare items, and high level that nobody else has. What they don't realize is this attitude really inhibits newcomers from joining the game.

A MMO that doesn't grow is a dead game. Sure after an MMO reaches a certain population it may be profitable, but it's not our goal to just stay that way.

I'm not saying we need to newbie everything either because there needs to be a sense of risk vs. reward to make a player feel they are earned an item and not just have it given to them!

This is something FF has always excelled at! If not kinda got carried away with it! 20hr drop rates from NM's is pretty crazy but ppl still do it so they can have that ultra rare item.

All in all I think the icon is ugly, we need a more subtle way to tell if aggro. Even if it's just not visible till you select the creature.
It needs to not be visible if it won't aggro you because it's to low of a level because at this point it really isn't aggro anymore. Maybe a seperate icon so you know it will aggro, but your lower level friend may get attacked by it. Maybe a pink name vs. a bright red name.
Would also be interesting that if in addition to it not showing till you target a creature that it stays showing red after you check.

Or they could just bring /con or /consider back. In FFXI I found this to be a pain to type all the time in dangerous areas. So if conning a creatures could be as easy as just clicking or targeting a mob. I'm all for it.

[BadJoeRed]

Just my opinion, not anymore important than anyone elses. Not talking about the people that more or less don't care about the feature and are indifferent regarding it because it helps out newbs, but I'm talking about the people that really really ABSOLUTELY want the game to tell us which mobs aggro by icon or any other means = pathetic gamers, discreetly viewed as a joke. Most won't be crude enough to tell you, but they probably think it.

A stupid example: If they added a toggle switch into the game that made you invincible, there WOULD, without a doubt, be supporters of this feature. It would be yet another thread that got riddled with 800 replies with arguments ranging from one end of the spectrum, much like my comment here, all the way to the other end of the spectrum with people labeling dying as a timesink and unnecessary because we have cheat codes in console games.

But you know... I bet most of us would be bold enough then to tell them they were pathetic gamers and it was ruining the game. It's pathetic, no sense in explaining it to you, and no sense in you defending yourself. Just accept that the masses probably view you like this.

[Rhomagus]

I would like to adapt the philosophy of "let me turn it off" to the entire UI. While it's off topic it's still related. I'm all for giving people new to the game in-depth tutorials or "hand holding" them through the process. The inclusion of pop up tooltips is a neat suggestion that I've seen implemented in other MMOs.

I'll use an example from XI as a lot of the players here have played it. In XI, when you started out as a new player, you had this giant question mark above your head. This feature would last for either a preset amount of time, when you reached level ten, or until you turned it off in the configuration menu, whichever was first. Nonetheless, I remember asking some very naive questions to random people by the AH in Bastok and they were able to see that I was a new player and reacted accordingly. It really helped me when I first started out, and I made some really decent friends that lasted quite a long time.

If a veteran player had created a new character, they knew how to turn the question mark off from the get go. By making features toggleable in this manner it's a win-win situation. Make the game easy to pick up and play, then once you are used to it, give us (the players) the freedom to suit it to our tastes. Put a toggle UI feature lock/unlock button in the configuration menu so rookies couldn't accidentally get rid of certain aspects of the interface on accident and not know how to get them back. Better yet, implement it so that when you do figure out where you want everything, you aren't worried about moving certain parts of the UI by accident so you can choose to lock it back down after you have it set.

In my rookie days it was incredibly frustrating when I'd get attacked by aggressive monsters. Over time I learned to adapt, but honestly, if it weren't a Final Fantasy game and I hadn't made some good friends, I may not have spent seven years on the game.

There are a lot of UI things I never use in certain situations:

Mini-Map: Is it useful? Definitely. Do I need it when I don't mind using the larger map? No, toggle it.
SP/Exp bar: Is it useful? Sure. Do I need to know that I'm physical level 50 for the rest of my game life? No, toggle it.
The 4 quick access buttons: Useful? Mouse users, maybe. Controller users? Absolutely useless, toggle it.
Moon Phase: Necessary? Could be for some. Me? No, toggle it.
Send/Receive: Necessary? I could see it being nice to have. Doesn't change the fact that I'm D/Cing, so toggle it.
Aggro icon: Useful when exploring new areas? Yes. Eyesore when you know what's aggressive? Yes, toggle it.
Levequest mob count: Useful? Sure. Can you finish almost all leves without it? Yes, toggle it.
Chat log: Useful? Almost a necessity. During CS's or playing solo? Could make do without it, toggle it.
HP/MP bar: Useful? Same as ^. When synthing? Who gives a hoot, toggle it.
3D battle text on screen: Useful? Same as ^. When one-shotting easy mobs for materials? Not so much, so toggle it.
All the empty slots on my action bar: Good to know? Sure. Necessary? Not entirely, toggle it, why not?
Sidequest indicator on NPCs: Useful? Okay. Could do without it? {Yes, please}, toggle it.
New targeting system: DD's love it? fine. Healers and FFXI vets with controllers? Give it back, and toggle it.


Unimplemented features:
Party member TP bar: Useful? I'd love to see it as an option. Necessary? We've been gettin' along without it, toggle it.
Rookie indicator: Would be nice to see? Aye. Useful for vets with a secondary character? No, toggle it.
Mentor program: Useful? Could be if used as intended. Unnecessary e-peen +10? Most of the time, toggle it.
Distance indicator: "You are too far away from the target" spam? Not so fun. Necessary? Not absolutely, toggle it.

No need to reply to everything listed but in general I would like it if they started building and implementing UI features with a toggle philosophy in mind from the ground up. I thought that's what they were doing from the get go from early dev interviews pre-alpha but that doesn't seem to be the case. I'm assuming there is some coding or resource allocation problems when including something like this but I'd imagine that it would be a tremendous boon to help streamline the game for veteran players without leaving newer players to fend for themselves.

Sorry for being off topic, but I think the aggro icon really is a cog that is part of a larger more encompassing problem with the design in general.

[Rhomagus]

I am in favor of a system in which you are severely punished for not learning basic coordination and common sense navigation. This is detrimental to other endgame players who have to hold your hand and add 20~30 minutes to an endgame event because you can't learn common sense.

What are rookie players doing in an endgame event? Why did the veteran leader invite them? Who is at fault here?

[BadJoeRed]

What are rookie players doing in an endgame event? Why did the veteran leader invite them? Who is at fault here?

We can't shake'em, this game breeds them more and more everyday with these stupid additions. This is in no way meant to be an insult, but I'd guess you haven't done many endgame events with large groups of people. It's inevitable to play with people like this.

[Zkieve]

Anyone that says a toggle option is bad is an idiot.
Apologies in advance for being so blunt but sometimes is necessary.