Battle Command Design -PLEASE FIX IT

[Jinko]

If FFXIV wanted to appease the PC gamer, rather than the console players, then they should have just said from the beginning that they had NO PLANS to release XIV to consoles, EVER. It would have saved us all a lot of time and disappoinment.

If SE wanted to appease the PC gamer the current UI wouldn't be anything like it is now, the current UI is massively centered around using a game pad.

Yoshi-p has already said he plans to have 2 seperate UI one for keyboard and mouse players and one for gamepad players. (its worth noting the Yoshi-p plays using keyboard and mouse just for reference)

[Rydin]

No one felt the need to look at timers. They just spammed their macro, got prompted w/ a mssg in the chat log box, letting them know what their timers were at, and went on their merry way.

You've sold me... I can't think of a more efficient way to do it. Spamming macros to see my cooldowns... sounds genius.. why can't every game do that....
oh wait...

edit: Really? thats really the solution? I had to edit just to say, once again, how bad that sounds

I don't know why ya'll can't all just come in here, and simply post: "I absolutely agree; SE should strongly consider giving players this option. It certainly wouldn't hurt."


Do you ppl really think you're being productive w/ all this bickering? It may not be a "game-changer" to have the option...but it I assure you it would go a long way in bringing back many of the FF fans.

Im sorry... it was a horrible idea...
If your friend was like "Hey Natabant, let's go rob a bank"
You wouldn't say "I respect that you came up with an idea... but how about we try something else"
No... instead you say "What the hell is wrong with you... that is idiotic.. and by extension... so are you"

I'm not saying you guys are idiots... I'm just saying I found nothing positive about that suggestion...

edit: I just reread your post.. and I must be crazy because it sounds like you said "Why can't people just come in here and agree with me"
You sound like Hillary Clinton Circa 2007-2008
Who says that?

I don't know why ya'll can't all just come in here, and simply post: "I absolutely agree; SE should strongly consider giving players this option."

haha... why would we not say that? maybe because we don't feel that way...
Are you trolling? I'm not accusing you... I'm just asking

Why would you expect people to come in and say they agree with you when they clearly don't agree with you.... I don't get it... Im missing something

[elreed]

I know you hate it, and this is the #1000 thread about this, is not hard to play with a gamepad, i use one and dont have any trouble, and for those who say that they would like the action menu like FFXI well i dont think the majority used it that much for everything, ussually you had a macro set up so it was kinda same the way it was used then than what we have now, you had 10 macros in each side that you clicked and executed several actions without scrolling the menu, you even have the same choice in FFXIV, they could upgrade the system a little bit to lessen the lag while scrolling, right now i use the gamepad for mobility, bar scrolling and targeting and i click directly the actions in my keyboard, so get just to it.

[Khal_Drogo]

I'm not saying you guys are idiots... I'm just saying I found nothing positive about that suggestion...

edit: I just reread your post.. and I must be crazy because it sounds like you said "Why can't people just come in here and agree with me"
You sound like Hillary Clinton Circa 2007-2008
Who says that?



haha... why would we not say that? maybe because we don't feel that way...
Are you trolling? I'm not accusing you... I'm just asking

Why would you expect people to come in and say they agree with you when they clearly don't agree with you.... I don't get it... Im missing something

Well, if you take the mssg out of context (like you did), then yes it comes off that way. But he was, obviously, referring to the general theme of the thread. Almost, EVERYONE, agrees that the current UI is complete S#$%. Not all them like MY idea, but they do agree that a change needs to be made.

Natabant was simply proposing that everyone should start being constructively critical of other ppl's ideas, rather than coming in here and saying: "your idea is CRAP! ME NO LIKEY!!!! <end post>"

And, I hate to tell you this, but the reason this game is failing so badly is b/c it failed to please it's XI fanbase. SE was pretty much guaranteed to get EVERY fan from FFXI to play this game, had they just brought back some of the fundamentals (i.e. battle UI, targetting system, job system (although it did need some tweeks w/ the nin crap going on), jse and level specific armor, party play for exp'n, general battle pace, etc.). And, now, b/c of their desperate attempt to appeal to WoW players and "like-minded" pc gamers, XIV is dying.

It's a classic case off "cut off your nose, to spite your face" or w/e the hell that saying is... Your ostracizing the only player-base that will pretty much guarantee this game's success. The game is being released to PS3. It's being *RE*-released to PC. Who do you think is more likely to rush to the stores to purchase the game? PC players into WoW, SWtOR, EQ, GW and so on? .....or PS3 players who are into XI?

[Rydin]

Almost, EVERYONE, agrees that the current UI is complete S#$%.

Sorry.... I stopped reading right there... Maybe you made some good points after that... maybe you didn't...
But I hate when people make baseless generalizations like that
Almost everyone? really? many posts in here have supported your idea but those are all by 2 people....
I've seen quite a few people say they have no problem with the Action Bar... and others who say they just want to be able to see all their cooldowns....
You just can't speak For everyone....
Bad Khal... SMH

edit:
ok... that was mean... I went back and read your entire post....

And, I hate to tell you this, but the reason this game is failing so badly is b/c it failed to please it's XI fanbase. SE was pretty much guaranteed to get EVERY fan from FFXI to play this game, had they just brought back some of the fundamentals (i.e. battle UI, targetting system, job system (although it did need some tweeks w/ the nin crap going on), jse and level specific armor, party play for exp'n, general battle pace, etc.). And, now, b/c of their desperate attempt to appeal to WoW players and "like-minded" pc gamers, XIV is dying.

And I've got to say.... three hundred thousand people does not a successful game make...
It might not be "losing" money... but its not breaking any records.....
FFXI AT IT'S HEIGHT... did 500k.... FFXIII sold 2 million in the first week.. IN JAPAN ALONE

SE definitely wanted all the different players to come together.... But what they DIDN'T want was the FFXI vets alienating non FFXI players....

Like I said.. FFXI had some great ideas that FFXIV could use... the battle UI is just not one of them

And to take it a step further... Some FFXI players used Macros for everything...
In which case the new system is not unlike the FFXI one for them

[darkstarpoet1]

i'm sorry, but i have to say that i am a game pad user and i love the way the ui is setup. i would agree there could be come changes i would like to see, but i do not think a menu based system would help. it may work for kb/m idk. i think both ui's need some work, but i like the majority of how it is now.



something along these lines for the gamepad i wouldn't mind, but i would want the other bars to be even smaller than i have here. it was just a quick throw together using paint, but just shows a basic idea. i like the idea of showing the bar i am on completely, but having a small section of the other 2 bars showing so i can keep up with how long is left per cool down. to do something like this they would need to work on the icons for each ability to show more of differences so you can tell what you are looking at.

yes, the system we have now is far from optimal, but it is not horrid. the biggest issue i have right now with the ui is when my cool downs show i am ready to cast an action, but the timers are 5-10 sec off at times. remember i am speaking as a gamepad user and not a keyboard player. the system in place now is much more acceptable to me than a full menu and macro based bar.

[Khal_Drogo]

I've seen quite a few people say they have no problem with the Action Bar... and others who say they just want to be able to see all their cooldowns....
You just can't speak For everyone....
Bad Khal... SMH


And I've got to say.... three hundred thousand people does not a successful game make...
It might not be "losing" money... but its not breaking any records.....
FFXI AT IT'S HEIGHT... did 500k....

SE definitely wanted all the different players to come together.... But what they DIDN'T want was the FFXI vets alienating non FFXI players....

Like I said.. FFXI had some great ideas that FFXIV could use... the battle UI is just not one of them

And to take it a step further... Some FFXI players used Macros for everything...
In which case the new system is not unlike the FFXI one for them

Ok, I'll admit that I EXAGGERATED a bit...Not everyone thinks that the battle UI is "complete s$%t;" but most do agree that it's not ideal, and they absolutely want SOME sort of change (they just don't quite know what).

And I dunno what the hell you're talking about w/ XI's customer base. It was somewhere in the several million range in it's peak (like 2.5M to 3.25M). I assume you pulled it out of your a@@ just to make a point lol, but point not made...

"Bad Rydin...SMH"



And, btw, 3 million+ ppl are worthy of SE's attention. PC gamers had their chance. They tried the game; they hated it cuz it wasn't a WoW clone; and now they're going to ruin it for XI fans by trying to make it more appealing to *their* community.



P.S. What does SMH mean?

[darkstarpoet1]

Ok, I'll admit that I EXAGGERATED a bit...Not everyone thinks that the battle UI is "complete s$%t;" but most do agree that it's not ideal, and they absolutely want SOME sort of change (they just don't quite know what).

And I dunno what the hell you're talking about w/ XI's customer base. It was somewhere in the several million range in it's peak (like 2.5M to 3.25M). I assume you pulled it out of your a@@ just to make a point lol, but point not made...

"Bad Rydin...SMH"



And, btw, 3 million+ ppl are worthy of SE's attention. PC gamers had their chance. They tried the game; they hated it cuz it wasn't a WoW clone; and now they're going to ruin it for XI fans by trying to make it more appealing to *their* community.



P.S. What does SMH mean?

i'm not sure where you got these numbers from at all. according to wiki the most players xi had was 500k subscribers.

"As of 2006, between 200,000 and 300,000 active players logged in per day, and the game was the dominant MMORPG in Japan.[4] As of 2008, in an announcement for three additional expansions in development, SE noted Final Fantasy XI still has a strong user base of around 500,000 subscribers."

now it did go on to state that in april of 2009 that they had reached 2mil total characters, but this is not subscribed players nor taking into account of the people that played several alts.

"In April 2009, Square Enix announced that the total number of active characters exceeded 2 million for the first time."

my numbers come straight from wiki. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Final_Fantasy_XI

where do your 3.5 mil numbers come from?

[Khal_Drogo]

i'm not sure where you got these numbers from at all. according to wiki the most players xi had was 500k subscribers.

"As of 2006, between 200,000 and 300,000 active players logged in per day, and the game was the dominant MMORPG in Japan.[4] As of 2008, in an announcement for three additional expansions in development, SE noted Final Fantasy XI still has a strong user base of around 500,000 subscribers."

now it did go on to state that in april of 2009 that they had reached 2mil total characters, but this is not subscribed players nor taking into account of the people that played several alts.

"In April 2009, Square Enix announced that the total number of active characters exceeded 2 million for the first time."

my numbers come straight from wiki. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Final_Fantasy_XI

where do your 3.5 mil numbers come from?

lol wow...I see that you're right now. I feel retarded. I trusted the word of my friend, who is known to pull sh$% out of his a$$...I should've known better. Well, if that's the case, I'm more than happy to settle for somewhere around the same.

XI was at it's "peak," for me, somewhere between 2004-2005. I don't know what the exact subscriber count was, but there were ppl all over the place, leveling in the major areas (Dunes, Korolloka, Qufim, Kazham, Altepa, etc.). CoP had just been released, recently, and the game was really flourishing. Personally, I'd rather see the game go back to some of the core aspects of FFXI (at least as far as battle UI, battle pace, targetting, party play/exp, and so on); but if the game can really get to a point where we've got millions of subscribers....then I'm willing to let most of this stuff go. XI was AWFUL when areas started to empty out.

So, "Kings to you, Fernand..." lol -Count of Monte Cristo quote

[Allistar]

Like I said.. FFXI had some great ideas that FFXIV could use... the battle UI is just not one of them

And to take it a step further... Some FFXI players used Macros for everything...
In which case the new system is not unlike the FFXI one for them

Actually, I find using the action bar nothing like using macros from XI, and XI did do a lot of good things, majority of which were not SOP for an MMORPG, its biggest claim...it refused to be a WoW clone, or EQ, or any number of other online rpgs out there...granted it did take some good things from the games that came before it...but when it was all said and done...you knew XI from anything else, it felt different, it looked different and it played different.
Also, a game doesn't need to break records to be successful of profitable...