[Suggestion] boss starting animation earlier

[Sylvain]

Hi, so as many of you may already know, FF14 isn't the most responding mmorpg around there and this is due to a multiple of factor.

On interesting thing you learn (and unlearn when you try another mmo) is to never take into consideration a boss animation. Basically, if the attack is resolved, you can bath into the fire all day, it doesn't matter.

In general, when boss have a cast attack, if you're in the AoE range when the cast is over, you're screwed even if the animation takes a whooping 1-2s to show the attack.

Hence the suggestion: Would it be possible to start a boss attack animation 0.5s before the cast is resolved?

I'm pretty sure in the current state of the game, this is impossible but could it be done? especially on un-interruptable cast?

A good visual representation can be found there : https://youtu.be/zMbv2JrnekQ?t=269

If the boss would start the attack animation 0.5s before it would align more properly with what's actually going on (damage appears right at the end of the cast and not 0.5s after).
Beside making the game more visually consistent, this would also help a great deal of new players who keep being hit without understanding why.

You know that one sentence we all heard "But i was out!"

This is because player, especially new one, focus on visual clues and not especially UI clues (casting bar).

Thanks for your time

[Jollyy5]

I agree wholeheartedly, it's been really jarring how you get hit even if it visually doesn't look like it which could be easily fixed by just having enemies perform their attack animations earlier.

Would feel a lot less cheap and more immersive.

[Sylvain]

Don't forget to like, dev actually pay more attention to post with loads of likes.

If you think it's a good idea, thumbs up, with enough tumbs up it might actually be discussed at somepoint.

[Callinon]

While I understand your frustration with this, and it's definitely an aspect of the learning curve in FFXIV, I'm not sure it's really worth fixing and wouldn't be nearly as simple as you're suggesting.

For *most* attacks, the server processes the entire attack as soon as the cast bar is finished (or when the aoe marker disappears) including affected targets, damage, status effects, etc. This is no different from processing a player attack which also happens as soon as the cast bar finishes. Not all attacks work this way though. The second boss in Keeper of the Lake, for instance, has an attack that outlives its cast bar and aoe marker. In this case both the end of the cast bar and the end of the animation are relevant for determining when the attack is happening and when it isn't.

Also let me point out that half a second is a REALLY long time. Most humans have a reaction speed around a quarter second. Gamers tend to be a little quicker because we're used to reacting to things we see, but generally a quarter second is going to be about right.

[Sylvain]

Well half a second was an example. Wathever the right value would be doesnt matter much as long as the damage somewhat lines up with the animation.

It just feels extrememy weird to be able to go through an attack untouched or dying miles away from it.

I'm no fewer quite aware this would be tricky to implement.

Regarding keeper of the lake、 that kind of very rare action is obviously not targeted by this post. (No need to cherry pick one of the 2 attack that work this way)

All I'm saying is、 when the boss cast sonething、 I'd like the result to match like animation like most modern games. And not just receive the damage (often killing the player) before the animation even begins.

Os12 Earthquack is a prime example of animation of overly delayed animation.
You can litteraly sprint half the arena between the beginning of the aoe and the actual Earthquack.

It just feels weird that the right thing to do is to run in the Earthquack as soon as he moves、 similarly、 you're dead if you're not in melee as soon as move、 even tho visually you're safe by the time everything explodes

[Adeacia]

I do get annoyed when I'm on the other side of the arena from an attack, yet get hit by said attack anyway. It doesn't make sense to take damage from an attack when you visibly were not hit by it to begin with.

Should I be able to throw a punch irl, the person very clearly gets out of the way, yet somehow still gets my fist in their face when I hit the air? Obviously not.

I agree with this topic.

[Callinon]

Latency also plays a role here. How long should the server legit give you to account for that?

I understand it does work differently than, say, WoW where the animation for the attack is usually (though not always) the determining factor in whether or not you've been hit by it. But forgive me for saying so, you're level 70, you're doing Omega Savage, you've been through the learning curve here (or you should have by this point anyway). You know there are even going to be attacks too fast for you to dodge if you wait for the AoE marker to come out first, let alone the animation, (Orbonne Monastery has several) so you have to be in position before they happen. You know how this works right now and should be able to execute it. So what are we talking about here? Changing a fundamental aspect of the game's mechanics for... what? What benefit does this confer or what problem does it solve?

[XiXiQ]

Latency also plays a role here. How long should the server legit give you to account for that?

If you're after a level playing field, the answer to that is obvious. The amount of your latency. There is probably a threshold where it doesn't matter, probably in the 30-50ms area, so anything above that gets taken into consideration.


another thing they can do to level things is to give ps4 users a wider field of view, or make the bosses smaller so you can at least see what they are doing, far too many have their heads cut off even with the camera pulled right out.

[Callinon]

If you're after a level playing field, the answer to that is obvious. The amount of your latency. There is probably a threshold where it doesn't matter, probably in the 30-50ms area, so anything above that gets taken into consideration.


another thing they can do to level things is to give ps4 users a wider field of view, or make the bosses smaller so you can at least see what they are doing, far too many have their heads cut off even with the camera pulled right out.

You've got a scenario there where attacks would not only appear to affect different people at different times but would ACTUALLY affect different people at different times. My average latency to FFXIV's servers is around 50ms but there are plenty of people with latency averages in the 200-300ms range. How would that work? I have less time to react to something than they do? How long should the server sit there processing one attack at 150 different latency levels? It also opens up room for abuse there with people artificially increasing their latency to gain an advantage.

The FoV thing on PS4 is interesting. I will say there are several bosses and even some trash mobs that get cut off on PC as well even with the camera in the stratosphere. What I'd actually like here would be for the nameplates to snap to the screen rather than be in fixed position over the mob's head. If the mob's head is over the top of my screen I can't see the nameplate and that can cause issues. I don't necessarily need to see the boss' head, but the nameplate has actual game functionality and that should be available no matter how tall the mob is.

[XiXiQ]

You wouldn't have less time to react, those with higher latency would have more so they are on a par with you. It's only deciding a hit or not, higher latency will still stunt your max dps, because you can never get that time back. It's a single variable decided beforehand so the calculations wouldn't be a big deal. There's always "oh, but exploits", that happens already, they already exist, cheaters will always be out there.



I'm not advocating or expecting such a thing, but it's important to remember this game does not have a level playing field, plenty of players carry a handicap.