I love beautiful animations.. but I think they're too slow for this game

[Rjain]

When I read stuff like this is makes me resentful. I argue against parts of the game which limit the player's control or ability to react, but I argue for very difficult demanding content. They are VERY different things, so don't come in here telling people to stop "QQing" when you don't know the difference between a mechanic put in the game to be challenging, and a byproduct of bad design that unintentionally makes the game a hassle.

Alright then you smart cookies. When you come up with a brilliant idea that doesn't involve watching characters slide around while using an ability for the developers to do I'll be on the sideline waving a little flag cheering you on. But all the suggestions that seem to be agreeing with the "yeah let's slide while using a weaponskill" is gonna put this game back several generations.

As I said earlier, this game's greatest strength is its visual appeal, and pretty much the only reason the press is willing to give it a second chance for its rebirth. If they're going to sacrifice the visual appeal for WoW-like mechanics, might as well toss it in the bin.

[Riaayo]

Alright then you smart cookies. When you come up with a brilliant idea that doesn't involve watching characters slide around while using an ability for the developers to do I'll be on the sideline waving a little flag cheering you on. But all the suggestions that seem to be agreeing with the "yeah let's slide while using a weaponskill" is gonna put this game back several generations.

As I said earlier, this game's greatest strength is its visual appeal, and pretty much the only reason the press is willing to give it a second chance for its rebirth. If they're going to sacrifice the visual appeal for WoW-like mechanics, might as well toss it in the bin.

I believe it was stated that in 2.0 the engine would be able to handle blending of upper body and lower body animations. This means that the upper body could perform the weapon skill animation while lower body could still utilize a run or walk animation. That's not sliding, last I checked.

Also, I like oatmeal raisin.


Edit: I forgot to note that the reason this game's biggest strength is the graphics is because everything else is so screwed up. The graphics of any GOOD game should NEVER be the biggest strength. EVER.

[Rydin]

Alright then you smart cookies. When you come up with a brilliant idea that doesn't involve watching characters slide around while using an ability for the developers to do I'll be on the sideline waving a little flag cheering you on. But all the suggestions that seem to be agreeing with the "yeah let's slide while using a weaponskill" is gonna put this game back several generations.

As I said earlier, this game's greatest strength is its visual appeal, and pretty much the only reason the press is willing to give it a second chance for its rebirth. If they're going to sacrifice the visual appeal for WoW-like mechanics, might as well toss it in the bin.

Did you not see this:

Just like all things... let's strive for compromise

Maybe remove animation lock for abilities (Buffs, vokes, etc.)
Speed it up for spell animations (They're really not that special to begin with, and they already have to deal with casting times)
Weaponskill animations stay relatively unchanged. I know it can be annoying... but being able to execute a devastating acrobatic maneuver is already impressive enough... Doing that while moving... I don't see it

There is one area of weaponskills that could be addressed though... it seems when I finish a weaponskill... I am stuck there for a second unable to move... looking like "Hey... Did you guys see that awesome thing I just did?"
It would be nice if you were able to move a lot sooner after doing a WS, I think that would be a step in the right direction and make both parties a little happier
Take Doomspike for an example.... The second you hit the ground you should be able to move...
That way you improve animation lock without compromising the animation itself

[Rjain]

Did you not see this:

My last couple of posts are mostly directed towards the dodos who are supporting the slide mechanic and WoW/other MMO shit-animation mechanics. Not people with half-sensible ideas like yourself.

[Treach]

My last couple of posts are mostly directed towards the dodos who are supporting the slide mechanic and WoW/other MMO shit-animation mechanics. Not people with half-sensible ideas like yourself.

Cause even with a new graphic engine FFXIV is getting at 2.0 they still can't create new animations that don't slide while running? Must be PS3 limitations...

Really?

[Riaayo]

My last couple of posts are mostly directed towards the dodos who are supporting the slide mechanic and WoW/other MMO shit-animation mechanics. Not people with half-sensible ideas like yourself.

You can't really take the high road while also taking the low road, which is what you do when you throw around preschool insults at people. I believe I said somewhere (but I'll say again here) that throughout the years I was always impressed with FFXI's animations vs other mmos (especially WoW's), and FFXIV's animations are also very beautifully done. If I could have a fusion of both, I would take it, as I prefer things that look nice over things that don't.

But that said, if I want pretty things and want to totally disregard gameplay, why don't I go watch a movie? I'm here to play a GAME, and GAMEPLAY is what matters. I've seen shit games with beautiful graphics. I have seen games that could have been great but had horrible controls. And last, but not least, I have seen ugly games that have some of the most fun gameplay and mechanics in the world. The third one is the best game of those three, because it focused on what games are supposed to be over the superficial additional flare that should be focused on only once the core is complete. Do you like to eat apples that look beautiful on the outside but have a rotten middle? That's what you seem to want, and I can't begin to understand the 'reasoning' as to why.

I want to be perfectly clear here: I LOVE beautiful games, I LOVE and PREFER extremely good animations. But at the end of the day if the game doesn't play well, I don't care how beautiful it looks.

[Treach]

^ Pretty much thread.

[OJtheLIONKing]

Personally, I think focusing too much on graphics to the cost of actual gameplay is part of why SE games have not been doing too well. This is especially sad because this generation many western games have caught up to or surpassed Japanese games in the graphics department while also having great gameplay--look at The Witcher 2 or Arkham City. Yes, SE games are very pretty, but if you don't have fun playing them, there's no point. Gameplay must come first, end of story. I love great fluid graphics like FFXIV has, but at the end of the day that's not going to keep me on the game if the graphics cause the actual gameplay to work terribly as they have in the past.

It is possible to have both by having animations for individual sections of the body, which has been shown in series like Uncharted, and yes, FFXIII-2. Even if there weren't, it would still be a much better idea to have sliding weaponskills than a pretty ws that gets you killed because the game doesn't want you interfering with its light show with your selfish desire to avoid death. If SE can have more fights with mechanics like Ifrit while fixing the animation lock problems, they'll have a real contender. If they don't fix animation lock and have the same tank and spank stand in the same safe spot fights that plagued almost all of FFXI, this game will fail, and no one here wants that.

[Firon]

I don't give a damn if i slide as long as i dodge the attack.

[Rjain]

I want to be perfectly clear here: I LOVE beautiful games, I LOVE and PREFER extremely good animations. But at the end of the day if the game doesn't play well, I don't care how beautiful it looks.

/golfclap

I'd imagine most sensible people would agree to that. I still prefer NES games over most stuff released these days.

The situation is that this game, even amidst the excitement and support of the XIV community, is hanging by a thread. The people that essentially choose whether or not this thread is cut is the press come 2.0's release. The press, at this time, pretty much only praise XIV for its graphics and animation. Do you want to cut the graphics to improve gameplay? No, because that will either A) Keep you where you are or B) Blow up in your face, making the situation even worse.

So instead, try to improve both. What I'm saying is animation lock is a negligible problem for those who actually learn how to do the content. To be hypothetical, if the servers were fixed to the point that what happens on my screen is within 0.1 seconds of what's happening on the server, animation lock would hardly even matter. Or, as someone said above, keep the lock but slice off the time that it holds you in place after the animation is done (like after doomspike).

Or just do the upper/lower body thing which I didn't even read about before I posted about animation lock. Again, I was mostly referring to the clowns stating things like "I'd rather go back to WoW".

I don't even know why you're still going on about it. I was done a while ago. I guess you wanted to beat my preschool insults with a preschool riposte. Chill out a bit. First world problems.