Gamerescape Interview: Summons, Chocobos, Train Tracks and Rocks

[Alhanelem]

Greetings,

We would like to gather your thoughts about jump and how you would like it to be used (In combat? Getting around obstacles?) so we can pass them along to development team. Please let us know what you think. Thanks!

I'm totally fine with some combat utility (a few monsters with attacks that could be evaded or mitigated by jumping). I mainly want jump for more freedom of movement. Jumping up and down cliffs (% based fall damage depending on height fallen to prevent abuse), perhaps puzzles that benefit from it (e.g. jump on a switch that stepping on isn't good enough for), etc.

I'll honestly accept any use for jump, though I can understand limiting it's functional capability to appease jump-haters. I don't want a ridiculous mario jump, but I would like it to be useful in ways that it is useful in real life.

The things I'd like the most are to be able to jump down from platforms in Limsa Lominsa in places where there is solid ground below.
Especially if it's functional, jumping should have a short, few seconds cooldown.

Constant bouncing isn't appealing to me. It looks cowardly.

Nobody wants constant bouncing, not even the most staunch jump supporters. You don't need to constantly bounce to leverage a combat use. Like I said, all it ineeds is a bit of a cooldown, and then you'll have to time your use of it when it is appropriate or not use it at all. Its use becomes a skill instead of a "spam this and win" button.

A little cooldown and there will be no incessant bouncing, just a useful tool that won't get out of hand. I'm really scratching my head at the "cowardly" comment. How in the world is jumping cowardly?

Just ignore the people complaining about bouncing, it's easily preventable. Nobody should be denied a useful feature just because a few people are afraid that some moron might act silly.

[Nabiri]

A little cooldown and there will be no incessant bouncing, just a useful tool that won't get out of hand. I'm really scratching my head at the "cowardly" comment. How in the world is jumping cowardly?

I was speaking specifically about PvP (in case you were confused). I don't like PvP with characters bouncing all over the place/away from each other.

Yeah, you totally misunderstood. ^^;

I prefer PvP where people face off against each other without bouncing/running away all over the place. So I was saying I don't want it used in PvP. I'd rather my opponent face me than run/bounce away like a coward.

Just ignore the people complaining about bouncing, it's easily preventable. Nobody should be denied a useful feature just because a few people are afraid that some moron might act silly.

I'm not sure who was complaining about bouncing. O.o
Or who you thought was trying to deny a useful feature.
Or what it has to do with my opinion that I don't like cowardly actions in PvP. XD

If my opinion offended you somehow, sorry? I guess...
Okipuit asked, I gave my opinion.

[Alhanelem]

Like I said, putting a short cooldown on it prevents that problem.

I don't think it should be able to avoid regular attacks, I'm only thinking of using it to avoid ground-based attacks (example: the dig attack used by moles, which is already evadable by running anyway)

I feel like if jumping is going to be in the game, it needs to have some slight functional purpose. Otherwise, the only thing it would be good for is doing the one thing people against it hate most.

I'd rather my opponent face me then run/bounce away like a coward.

People are going to run in PvP. There's really nothing you can do about it. We all have a self-preservation instinct. I don't know of one game of any sort that has successfully eliminated running as a tactic, except in one or two cases by the lame method of making damage reduce your stats, which is unfun from a gameplay perspective because it takes a potentially hopeless situation and makes it even more hopeless. Unless jumping makes you move faster (it shouldn't) it would not be an advantage in situations like this.

I'm not sure who was complaining about bouncing. O.o

well, you were complaining about bouncing.

Could you PLEASE stop posting in purple? it makes quoting you a pain because it turns all my text after what I copied purple and I have to manually change it back. It's really unnecessary. Colors should really only be used for emphasis....

[Nakiamiie]

Greetings,

We would like to gather your thoughts about jump and how you would like it to be used (In combat? Getting around obstacles?) so we can pass them along to development team. Please let us know what you think. Thanks!

I would like jump to be used for the following:

• Jump around obstacles. [An obstacle course mini-game could even be implemented!]
• Reach previously inaccessible places (climbing: jump on a railing, then on crates, then on a tree branch and finally on the roof of a house.) [use these places to hide chests, NPCs, beautiful scenery and other fun things]
• Definitely make jumping mandatory for thorough exploration! [Players should have to use jump more as they move away from the main path. At even have to jump to reach new places to explore, otherwise inaccessible.]
  
• Evade some attacks (attacks on the ground, attacks coming out of the ground, performed around the legs, etc.) [FF6 had a "float" spell to avoid ground-abilities, why not jumping?]
• Monsters should jump to try to reach players above or below them.

I think jumping should be used for more than just avoid random obstacles on the ground. It has to be used to explore otherwise inaccessible parts of the world, town and dungeons. Jumping is an exploration feature and could be used for some special mini-games.
As for combat, the influence of jumping shouldn't be great. Only reduce damage from certain weapon skills, abilities and spells. In combat, the main purpose of jumping should be strategic placement.


Also, hopefully, the new version of the game will have an actual line of sight feature that prevent us from attacking from behind a rock, through a wall and other silliness like that. I've always found it stupid that my archer was able to shoot arrows through thick walls, rocks, cliff, etc. Jumping could then be used to momentarily have the monster in line of sight and perform an attack at the cost of accuracy.

[Mirage]

Greetings,

We would like to gather your thoughts about jump and how you would like it to be used (In combat? Getting around obstacles?) so we can pass them along to development team. Please let us know what you think. Thanks!

I would like to see jump used to get over obstacles of a reasonable height. Currently, we slide up nearly vertical cliffs as if our characters had 0 mass, and it would look much better/cooler/immersive if these sorts of obstacles were dealt with by jumping instead. At the same time, cliffs and obstacles of equal height as these we just slid right over might suddenly stop us dead in our tracks. This sort of inconsistency is really annoying, and I would hope this is something jumping could be used to get around.

It could also be used to let us jump down heights that we wouldn't be able to get back up from without taking a detour. Having to manually jump when you were at the edge of such a cliff would prevent accidental drops. There should probably be a limit on how high stuff you could jump down from, cause I could imagine it looking ridiculous to jump down from height that is more than 4 times your character's own height. Then again, we did that all the time in FF11 without dying, so maybe it doesn't matter.

Maybe jumping while on a chocobo would allow higher and longer jumps than you would be able to do on your own?

In combat, maybe to get up on platforms in the combat environment? One thing is for certain, you can't use it to directly dodge ground-based effects or other attacks that would rely on split-second timing, unless you let the client deal with this client-side (could lead to hacks). If not dealt with clientside, this sort of timing would be pretty annoying to deal with for many players, because the network latency for players around the world often varies a lot. At least as long as servers stay in one single geographical location.

@nakiamiie

Good exploration ideas. I would like to be able to find stuff that would only be reachable by jumping as well.

I do hope you understand how hard it would be to avoid damage by jumping though, unless the jump made you stay in the air for several seconds. When you see an 1-2 second long attack animation and get ready to jump over it, the attack would already have been finished on the server before you were halfway through it.

[Nakiamiie]

I was speaking specifically about PvP (in case you were confused). I don't like PvP with characters bouncing all over the place/away from each other.

Yeah, you totally misunderstood. ^^;

I prefer PvP where people face off against each other without bouncing, running away all over the place. So I was saying I don't want it used in PvP. I'd rather my opponent face me then run/bounce away like a coward.

Simply add a small accuracy penalty when attacking while jumping. It will still allow for strategic PvP battle tactics (get out of sight) but at a cost.

[Nabiri]

Simply add a small accuracy penalty when attacking while jumping. It will still allow for strategic PvP battle tactics (get out of sight) but at a cost.

Nice, I like it. :3
So jumping at a cost, you'd have to think more about your actions. More strategy, yes please!

[Alhanelem]

Simply add a small accuracy penalty when attacking while jumping. It will still allow for strategic PvP battle tactics (get out of sight) but at a cost.

I like this idea.

[Skies]

As long as jumping is not an inherent combat mechanic. Like, a one-time thing (like how i've heard that you have to /kneel before Odin in XI to evade his Zantetsuken) is acceptable, but definitely not something that a player should worry more than once every Astral Era.

That said, if it is implemented in a tasteful manner (as others said, no weirdly irregular jumps, make the movement fluid and natural-looking), it's a pretty interesting exploration tool. You probably want to leave it only required for exploration achievements and easter-egg-y stuff since... This game has no need to end up turning into a platformer or something close to it.

[Hohenheim]

Greetings,

We would like to gather your thoughts about jump and how you would like it to be used (In combat? Getting around obstacles?) so we can pass them along to development team. Please let us know what you think. Thanks!

You should use it in boss mechanics meaning like final boss type not just small ones " Raid Bosses " but as long as I can jump off mountains if I feel like I don't care what you do with it don't restrict it! No one likes invisible walls!!!