We interrupt your current server woes to talk about casting

[Rydin]

Except you have 2 blue arrows to tell you when your not moving...? Is it that hard to look @ those 2 arrows to see when your not moving?

or...
(and this is going to sound crazy)
Casting a spell instantly stops your movement???
You see what I did there? I'm a problem solver
(and let's be honest... that seems like it would take a lot less effort to implement)

[Nakiamiie]

Furthermore, in the case of spells with a short casting time, graphics were affected drastically when continuously using /facetarget and instantly casting. After using /facetarget, in the case of moving mid-turn or using a weaponskill mid-turn animation, I am sure there would have been comments saying “My feet are sliding when I change direction…what is this? This isn’t FF!”
(The current FFXIV system does not separate upper and lower body animation movements.)

[...]

I feel that visuals should continue to be one of the strongest assets of FFXIV going forward and I would really like you to continue to pay attention to stylish and cool visuals.

As a FINAL FANTASY, we have every intention of paying attention to this, but with your comment I will be sure to take this into account even more and it will be reflected in future updates and 2.0!

You will fix this for 2.0, right? Right?
I think that visual is really important too. It would allow to do more things while walking without looking awkward (even emotes? ).

[Riaayo]

A small explanation from a person who believes he is smarter than he is:
What he means to say is that there is only so much they can do for their lag, they can and will fix what is possible because the current system is in fact sub-par (and that is one of the big reasons behind 2.0 being a complete reconstruction, they need to rewrite the way the game does it's networking). However, not all lag is fixable due to the very nature of the internet itself.
Imagine as if they had a bottleneck at their servers for the data coming in and out. They can widen that, but if there is another bottleneck between your computer and their servers, nothing can be done on their side.

The problem is "there's only so much they can do" doesn't measure up with what other companies have done and proved possible. I want to know why FFXIV, or FFXIV 2.0 specifically, can't match WoW's speed. Is it because Blizzard has better servers (they have massive coffers after all), is it because FFXIV is transferring more data than WoW does? WoW certainly has more people connected to it than this game so unless SE's servers or their bandwidth is much lower, I don't see how it can be said it's due to so many people connecting.

My concern, to Yoshi-P specifically if he were to see my words, is that his wording right now sounds like even 2.0 will continue to have this long delay between my input and my character's actions. Does SE not feel like it can do better, or have you guys put this issue aside or given up on "fixing" it? Or are your words pertaining specifically to pre-2.0 and will 2.0 be faster? I am putting up with this delay now with the expectation it will not exist later. Dealing with the delay to dodge Ifrit's eruptions, as-is, is not acceptable for a finished game guys.

I have high hopes for this game, I have grown to adore it more and more with each patch you give us, and I have had increasing hope in and respect for the new team working on this game. But if this delay continues to be THIS bad post-2.0, I cannot guarantee you than any of the new content will keep me playing. Please do not give up on fixing this issue, if you have. If you have not and you know, or are trying to make 2.0 better in THIS regard, PLEASE say so specifically.

[Kiara]

or...
(and this is going to sound crazy)
Casting a spell instantly stops your movement???
You see what I did there? I'm a problem solver
(and let's be honest... that seems like it would take a lot less effort to implement)

Hi Rydin (and Yoshida-san),

This is a great suggestion, and alternative to the problem.

Instead of making ALL players have to press an extra button (or type /facetarget) to be 100% safe to cast a Spell, to alleviate momentum / slight ancillary movement, you should build in a command on the game side that basically sets up:

* Start Casting Spell = Set Motion to 0 (ZERO), instantly.

So even if you might've had some momentum from stopping, or were worried about compensating for lag, if by *default* inherently in starting ANY Casting for a Spell, you're immediately stopping the Character and telling the engine that the Motion Value is Zero, that would alleviate the problem for ALL players immediately.

You remove the burden of this really clunky, antiquated method of having to manually Face Target / press an extra Button and/or Wait a second or so before casting.

Think about it this way:

With the changes that Moving will Cancel a Spell, when would you ever want to try Casting a Spell while moving? In other words, we wouldn't want to fail Casting because of movement.

Even with this change (forcing Motion to Zero for the Player automatically), the player can then choose to START MOVING again (after this happens), if they wanted to truly cancel casting a spell (or were being chased and started moving), etc.

I hope you consider something like this for a fix, if you can't get a better system in for 2.0. It just makes for a far more seamless experience.

Thanks!

[WillRiker]

i wouldnt expect them to redo/reexamine this work once 2.0 is released. once implemented, its a safe bet that its staying.

After all, YoshiP did state that it was primarily done this way for PvP.

[Hulan]

For those wondering why it is that SE seemingly can't make their game as responsive or as fast as Blizzard or Trion, it may be worth mentioning the obvious again. That being, this is a game served from Japan. For better or worse, any problem that Blizzard has to deal with downstream is going to be compounded orders of magnitude worse for SE servers.

Yoshi-P is saying that they can do better than what they have right now, but light only travels so fast. FFXI handled it by fundamentally designing the game around a 2-3 second delay (long casting times and relatively slow movement obscured the fact that things you saw on your screen were actually 2-3 seconds off everyone else). For whatever reason, FFXIV was not.

[Riaayo]

For those wondering why it is that SE seemingly can't make their game as responsive or as fast as Blizzard or Trion, it may be worth mentioning the obvious again. That being, this is a game served from Japan. For better or worse, any problem that Blizzard has to deal with downstream is going to be compounded orders of magnitude worse for SE servers.

Yoshi-P is saying that they can do better than what they have right now, but light only travels so fast. FFXI handled it by fundamentally designing the game around a 2-3 second delay (long casting times and relatively slow movement obscured the fact that things you saw on your screen were actually 2-3 seconds off everyone else). For whatever reason, FFXIV was not.

FFXIV was not because no other game does it anymore, and the general MMO community is not looking for a game (nor use to one) so sluggish as XI was. The "distance" from Japan to the United States, etc, is not what causes this lag as much as people want to make it out to be; that's an excuse. Go watch any JP video and you will see they experience the same delays NA players do.

And honestly, if SE has launched this game for both Japan and NA / EU and this is that big of a problem, then SE needs to explore placing servers in other countries that will better service players in those countries. Excuses don't sell games.

Sorry if I sound rabid, I do appreciate ALL of the work the current team has put into this game. But for myself, and others, I am concerned all their hard work will be for nothing if this game can't pick up the pace with this server/client delay.

Edit: "Light only travels so fast." It travels at 299,792,458 meters per second. If SE's internet was light its server could be on the sun and still be an instant connection. It's certainly not light, but we're not exactly on 56k internet anymore either.

[Hulan]

To avoid sounding ignorant, I am aware that the physical distance (or even the network distance) is not the primary cause of the lag in FFXIV or even a major cause. But given SE's global servers policy (one I happen to agree with actually), SE will never be able to produce the same experience as a local server is capable of producing in terms of latency. Although on reflection, my original post perhaps came on a little strong. I was only trying to get across that no change is going to stretch that nanosecond of wire.

[SirOleas]

To avoid sounding ignorant, I am aware that the physical distance (or even the network distance) is not the primary cause of the lag in FFXIV or even a major cause. But given SE's global servers policy (one I happen to agree with actually), SE will never be able to produce the same experience as a local server are capable of producing in terms of latency. Although on reflection, my original post perhaps came on a little strong. I was only trying to get across that no change is going to stretch that nanosecond of wire.

That link was very informative. Thanks.

[Riaayo]

To avoid sounding ignorant, I am aware that the physical distance (or even the network distance) is not the primary cause of the lag in FFXIV or even a major cause. But given SE's global servers policy (one I happen to agree with actually), SE will never be able to produce the same experience as a local server is capable of producing in terms of latency. Although on reflection, my original post perhaps came on a little strong. I was only trying to get across that no change is going to stretch that nanosecond of wire.

Can you either link or possibly explain their global servers policy then? Unless you just mean the generalization of the fact their servers are not for specific regions.

As much as I like the fact our servers have all manner of people from all over the world, I don't know if personally that bonus is worth the cost in game performance... it is just not fun to not be able to react to things, and no form of fun PvP is going to exist in this game if that's the case. Laggy, slow, unresponsive PvP is just... bleh. It effectively makes you feel cheated out of your own reaction time and abilities, and forces you to try and adjust yourself to the lag (which some seem to consider part of the game, but I think it's only worth putting up with until 2.0).

Also, touche on the nerdy, it was indeed a very informative lecture (no sarcasm).