The Problem with Healer Feedback, and requested changes

[Shurrikhan]

A character's entire animation moveset must be loaded into an area at once in anticipation of that character's actions, and each moveset has different file sizes which means different server load.

Why would the animations not simply be stored client-side?

(a tricky advantage of being locked into a job while instanced)

But not all instances lock you into a job, nor does the open world. I can cycle every animation on one job, immediately swap to another, cycle all its animations, etc. And there are far, far more animations going off at once around an S-rank than in any dungeon, despite job-swaps being possible at any time in that more burdened setting.

The fact that modders can swap any animation to any animation, including from collected parts of multiple other animations, likewise seems to hint that every animation possible within the entire game is always available to every client.

If the nouliths themselves have four separate movesets in order for each one to be separately programmable, then the presence of a Sage in the party is 5 entities on the field, each with its own moveset, which is a significant multiplier on server strain compared to most jobs that are only two or three.

Maybe, but I've not asked for that. I just want them to have more than a single idle position and for their part within spells to be, well, more than just the spell animations themselves. A degree of dynamism that gives them at least the pretense of actually functioning how they look like they should be able to function. And then to build out the toolkit from there, that weapon of choice and all that would seem feasible thereto that could be put to significantly entertaining and cohesive use.

[ForsakenRoe]

Maybe, but I've not asked for that. I just want them to have more than a single idle position and for their part within spells to be, well, more than just the spell animations themselves. A degree of dynamism that gives them at least the pretense of actually functioning how they look like they should be able to function. And then to build out the toolkit from there, that weapon of choice and all that would seem feasible thereto that could be put to significantly entertaining and cohesive use.

IDK about all the animation mumbo jumbo you ask for, but I could definitely envision a job gauge where you have to keep all 4 Nouliths balanced, keep them powered enough to function but don't let them overheat sort of thing. These 'Formations' sound like different amplification effects though, like Eukrasia Formation changes skills to apply shields instead of direct healing, or Zoe Formation amplifies the potency of both damage and healing skills, but puts strain on the Noulith and starts to overheat it (reminds me of the Pyretic Booster from the G-Warrior instance), so you'd have to swap to a different Formation to allow for it to aggressively vent that heat before it gets too hot and has to cool down. Unfortunately though, in practice that would probably end up working like Gauss Barrel from SB, except you have 4 guns to worry about the gauges of (and they're all on seperate gauges too). Maybe if it were a DPS it'd be more likely, but SE'd probably say 'well what if the SGE overheats their Noulith and now they cant heal, we cant have that so no this wont work'.