Letter from the Producer LIVE Part LX Digest (10/20/2020)

[Voltenyne]

Special Talk Session “Ask the Devs!”

Guest: UI Designer Kei Odagiri

(01:30:06)



Our special guest, UI designer Kei Odagiri, joined us for the latter half of the broadcast, and answered some questions we had gathered on the forums beforehand.

Q: Please tell us about what you do as a UI Designer.

A: I develop various game elements that act as a connection between the content and players, such as menus (Duty Finder, inventory, etc.) and interfaces. Generally speaking, we take a look at the content planned by other teams and integrate them into FFXIV’s menus and control schemes, also known as UI/UX. The UI team is also in charge of planning and developing certain features, such as group pose and the World Visit system.

Q: Are there any plans for new helpful features for taking screenshots, similar to group pose and duty recorder?

A: We’re currently working on a feature that will allow you to freely explore dungeons that you’ve completed at least once.




Explorer mode will be added to the same menu where you can choose to enter dungeons unsynced, and will be usable solo or in a party. As you can see in the screenshot, you can use Limit Break 1~3 whenever you like!

Yoshida: The multitude of dungeons in the game means there’s a lot for the QA team to check through. As such, dungeons that were added before Shadowbringers will be gradually be made compatible with explorer mode as their checks are completed.

Q: Each patch comes with so many UI-related updates! Please tell us about how they’re developed!

A: FFXIV’s UI team is comprised of game designers, programmers, and UI artists. First, we confirm what content is being implemented by the other teams. The necessary tasks are then organized and divided up to be assigned to team members. We also review player feedback from the forums and social media, so we can reference them when making various improvements in each patch.

Q: Is there anything you keep in mind when it comes to designing UI?

A: I carefully make sure I have a solid understanding of what the content designers are proposing, so I can make improvements from a UI-centric perspective instead of just executing what’s requested. For instance, with Air Force One in the Gold Saucer, your rank is displayed one step after the score is shown, which feels better for the player. That’s one thing that was suggested by the UI team.

Yoshida: The larger the content, the greater the need to dissect necessary elements and refine the small details, so large-scale content is typically assigned to Odagiri.

Q: Do you have a favorite UI element or setting out of what’s been implemented so far? If there’s a convenient element that tends to get overlooked, please let us know!

A: For me, it’d be the /bgm and /mastervolume text commands. The ability to adjust the volume or toggle mute by typing commands is really convenient!

Q: I think it’d be convenient if the flying text for damage dealt by enemy attacks could indicate whether the damage is physical or magical, are there any plans for something like that in the future? It’d affect content difficulty, so I understand that it may be difficult to do so...

A: If we’re strictly speaking about whether it’d be possible or not, it’s possible. However, the data relayed to the damage displaying UI doesn’t contain an indication of whether the damage is physical or magical. Implementing this feature would likely make the packets of data larger, so it’s hard for the UI team to determine whether it’d be possible or not.

Yoshida: Even if the packet sizes were increased, it would still be considered possible from a technical standpoint. However, there are other reasons why this sort of feature hasn’t been implemented. For high difficulty content, we’re constantly making balance adjustments up till patch release, and one aspect of that is determining whether each enemy attack will deal physical or magical damage. From time to time, we’ve had cases where a method that allowed you to ignore mechanics was discovered right before the deadline for patch release.

This is sometimes resolved by changing physical damage to magical and vice-versa, and reflecting this sort of change in the flying text would require another several days of QA testing. This would in turn affect the patch schedule, so we’ve intentionally refrained from implementing such a feature in favor of securing a more stable schedule for patch releases.

Q: As of Patch 5.3, the status effects applied by you are now prioritized when displayed on a target bar. Would it be possible to do the same for focus target?

A: This is technically possible, but difficult to implement. Focus target currently can display up to 5 status effects, but let’s say there’s a mechanic where need to look at an enemy’s status effects. If you can inflict 5 status effects or more, the status effects you need to resolve to pay attention to wouldn’t be visible.

One way we could address this is by never creating a mechanic that works in such a way. However, it’s currently possible for this theoretical situation to happen, and we can’t implement this idea until we can guarantee that this situation would never occur.

Yoshida: We understand this has been a common request, and we do wish we could make it happen. However, when it comes to FFXIV’s UI, we are cautious to avoid implementing any elements that may hinder the creativity of the content development team. Focus targeting is ultimately intended to be an assistant to the target bar, so we’d like to ask for your understanding in this.

Q: Would it be possible to add an option to display HP and MP bars separately in the HUD layout?

A: We know this has been requested for some time, and this is also technically possible.
However, the option to display HUD elements separately is quite finicky due to the fact that it needs to be properly displayed on all compatible platforms. The MP display is also changed into CP or GP depending on the class you’re playing, and each of those would have to be investigated as well, so it’s quite difficult to implement. If you were to ask if that means it’ll never happen, then that isn’t necessarily the case.

Yoshida: Not all HUD elements were originally designed to be separable, so something like this would probably need to be rebuilt from scratch. As Odagiri said, this doesn’t mean we’re never going to do it. After all, the FFXIV team has been known to suddenly make something happen once a method and reasonable cost have been determined.

Q: I’d like to change the sizes of HUD elements more precisely, in increments of 10%. Would this be possible?

A: This one is possible as well. My only concern would be that for gamepad users, making a selection would require more inputs involving pressing down on the joystick. Deciding just how many increments to implement is also a difficult decision.

Yoshida: Right now, we’re working on making the UI compatible with higher resolutions. Increasing the number of increments would make adjustments difficult, so for now we’d like for you to use what’s currently available. In exchange, we’ll be developing a UI that looks great even when playing on high-resolution monitors!

Q: I like having HUD elements perfectly aligned, so a grid snap feature would be great!

A: Going slightly off topic, we were working on a feature that snaps HUD elements together, but we ran into various issues and have been putting it on hold. Position coordinates on FFXIV’s HUD are determined by percentages (0-100%), and these values are rounded to a certain decimal when saved in order to cut back on memory usage, among other reasons. In certain cases, when the game is launched again, this causes HUD elements to be displayed one pixel off from the position where they were originally saved. This is regretfully caused by the game itself.

With this in mind, even if we added a grid snapping feature for aligning HUD elements, in some cases they’d be displayed differently when you launch the game again. A misalignment would likely seem like a bug, and so we’ve been putting off implementation for now.

Q: Are there any games where you were impressed by the UI?

A: In terms of flavorful UI, I’d say Persona 5. Quite often, you’ll see versatile UIs that could be reused in various situations. But with Persona 5, the design is different for each shop, and yet the design theme is unified across the entire game, even the official website, which I thought was amazing.

In terms of controls, I’d say Ghost of Tsushima. There were scenes where you follow NPCs on horseback, where the horse would follow the path without having to do complicated inputs, and the camera would follow you at just the right pace. I felt it was wonderful that the UI was so supportive of immersing players into the world of the game.

Q: Please make it easier to tell if we already own a certain minion, orchestrion roll, or Triple Triad card when they drop as rewards or are displayed on the market board!

Yoshida: I’d like to answer this one, since it isn’t limited to UI. At the moment, this would be difficult to handle on the server side. Your character save data, including data on whether or not you own a certain item, is stored on a database server. In order to check whether you own a certain minion, for example, would require interacting with this database server. If we multiply this by several tens of thousands of players doing this simultaneously, this would put an unimaginable amount of strain on the database server.

Another possible method would be to store this item possession status as local data on the client side, which would be your computer or PS4. However, since FFXIV has an immense number of items which will only continue to increase, this method would affect memory usage and is unrealistic as well.

Q: I’ve always wanted to know, what is the motif for the icon that appears above characters who are registered for Duty Finder content?

A: That icon represents a ticket. The idea is that you’ve registered and received a ticket and are now waiting for your turn.

Q: I’d like a feature that displays job icons on the side of characters’ nameplates. I think it’d be really helpful in large groups of players, like FATEs and alliance raids!

A: I definitely understand what you mean! While I’d like to do something about it, at the moment we can only use two icons on nameplates.

One is reserved for indicating your online status, and the other is used for signs (player markers). In order to make this work, we would have to override one of these icons, or make it possible to display another one.

Adding another icon, however, would increase graphical-related resource strain and would be quite difficult. (Job icons are displayed in the Feast by overriding the online status, which was given an exception since it was limited to certain content.)

Yoshida: When we were future-proofing the UI on our in-house game engine during A Realm Reborn, nameplates were the number one cause of strain on resources. Nameplates are a 2D interface element displayed based on a character’s 3D coordinates, which is more resource-intensive than it may seem. If we were to make this happen, I think we would consider seeking another alternative other than increasing the number of icons.

Q: I would like a feature where I can select several items at once to throw them away.

Yoshida: I’d like to answer this one, since it isn’t limited to UI. As with the question about checking item possession status, this requires interacting with item data and adds a lot of stress to the database server and would be difficult to implement. In the interests of preserving your character data in a safe manner, we’d prefer to avoid increasing the burden on the servers. We’d like to ask for your understanding regarding this as well.

Q: I’d like to know if you have any plans to add new UI themes!

A: We’re currently developing a theme that mimics the appearance of older FINAL FANTASY games.



Not only does this theme change the color of the UI, it also gives each of the buttons a pixel art appearance! Furthermore, while this isn’t related to themes, we’re planning to display the role for Adventurer in Need in the list of Duty Roulettes! The role information will be updated in real time, even if you keep the Duty Finder menu open.

Q: I’d like an option in group pose to hide the entrance indicator for instances!

A: This is something we’ve been looking into for a long time, and I completely understand how you feel. These indicators are considered objects and categorized along with other objects, such as walls that can be destroyed with certain mechanics.

This means that if we hid these entrance indicators, it may also hide other objects in the dungeon, so implementing this feature would require us to go back and recategorize these object groups. We would have to do this with every battle area released up to this point, and it may be difficult to do in terms of resource costs. We’re continuing to look into other possible methods that may make this feature possible.

Q: Would it be possible to assign specific emotes to party members in group pose? I wouldn’t mind if it required each member’s approval, similar to the Duty Recorder.

Yoshida: We’re not allowing this for policy-related reasons.
I believe players cherish their characters, and allowing someone else to control their character, even if it’s through a feature for taking screenshots, may result in a feeling of unease. I understand it can be very difficult to capture videos and screenshots involving multiple player characters, but I also believe that putting in the time and effort to capture these moments and memories is a part of what makes them special. With that in mind, we aren’t planning to add features that may end up being too advantageous, such as controlling other characters or the weather.

Q: I’m having a hard time pausing battle actions at the right timing for taking screenshots. Would it be possible to implement a feature where we could have more precise control over the animation?

A: We’ve been looking into a slow motion feature for a while now, but we’ve discovered certain animation issues when slow motion is enabled. We haven’t been able to allocate the resources to resolve this and have been putting the feature on hold.

Yoshida: There are times when we implement animations that toe the line in terms of what’s acceptable, and to be honest, I’m hesitant to allow them to be played back frame-by-frame, as it would make it easier to take those kind of screenshots and upload them to social media.

Q: Are there any additional features you’re looking to add into the group pose?

A: We’ve expanded upon group pose features quite a bit, so we plan on working on the stickers for now. Group pose started off as a simple screenshot feature where you could synchronize emote timings with other players, and I think it became quite complex as more features were added. For this reason, we’re thinking of making improvements to help players who aren’t familiar with the feature, such as presets that can help anyone can take a good screenshot.

Yoshida: I’m looking forward to an update where it’ll be accessible even for players who focus on other things. For instance, players who enjoy battle content would be able to take great screenshots to celebrate their victories!

Fan Festival




(02:49:13)
In light of the ongoing novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, we have made the difficult decision to cancel the European Fan Festival, similar to the Japanese and North American Fan Festival. As the physical Fan Festivals for all regions have been canceled, we will be holding an event in February 2021 to announce new information.

While this will take place in Japan, we’re planning to make it an online event so players around the globe can participate. We’re also planning to have a 14-hour broadcast on the same day.

Furthermore, we are now considering going digital and hosting an online event in 2021.
This is also being planned as an online event where all players around the globe can participate, so please look forward to it!