Gamerescape Interview: Summons, Chocobos, Train Tracks and Rocks

[Denmo]

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!

A moderate amount of platforming in dungeons would actually be refreshing. But don't overdo it.

I don't want to have to backtrack the bottom of some behemoth's bowels with broken bones, because my premature pounce onto precariously poised platform pillar P provoked my passing plummet into a pit of putrid pestilence.

If you perceive my point.

[Taters]

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 have to say that you're probably better off handling jump the way Rift (artifact/treasure hunting, platforming), GW2 (dungeons, platforming), or any other modern MMO does it: unrestricted, in/out of combat, and it doesn't really impact much outside of line-of-sight issues.

I mean, arbitrary restrictions on standard MMO actions are going to dissuade a lot of folks early on in the game. I know there's a vocal hardcore community here that is really against any sort of "WoW-type" mechanic, like bouncing or jumping in combat...but based on my reading from the E3 stuff it looks we're going to get some modern western-MMO/FFXIV blend. And since you folks are trying to trying to attract people from those games, I assume you are anyway...you're probably best taking note of how those games handle such a standard action and not immediately adding some unnecessary restrictions.

What would I like to see personally though? Just the ability to climb over obstacles that I'm unable to 'float' over...

Cheers.

[Xikeroth]

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!

Wow, a lot of people crying about the jumping addition?

Seriously its something that every MMO has now in days and really it shouldn't be restricted it could add a lot of very dynamic gameplay to boss fights.

Some of you may like the mindless lazy mechanic of to kite mobs until they die, or just standing there tanking but many MMOs have real boss mechanics where jumping can be used to get out of a harmful situation.

Stand tanking, attacking specific enemies or spawns, kiting, They need more than that to have a competitive endgame environment to other MMOs. FFXI and FFXIV currently have very little if any mechanics to the endgame boss fights and they could use more.

Jumping can add a more tactical advantage, such as jumping to avoid some sort of ground shock effect or at least lower damage from those effects. People in the Final Fantasy community trash talk other MMOs for not requiring "skill" yet they refuse to allow the FF MMOs to go beyond the very basic and weak system they have in place without crying about it. Consider this, it takes more skill to adapt to more situations then it does to stand there and beat something to death or kite it in a circle.

You think jumping will hurt the game? If anything having every boss fight require some sort of kiting or just stand tanking it will hurt it more giving it less verity and more bland repetitive gameplay.

The only thing I think Jumping shouldn't be allowed in is PvP, which I think no one really does in many MMos anymore since it actually hurts their performance, MMOs arent first person shooters.

Also i find it greatly annoying that i can't run up a cliff that's up to my knees, also to the person that says 10 yalms = instant death clearly doesn't know how the majority of mainstream MMOs work, that would be more of an annoyance then anything.

Half the people here are fanboys anyways they'll play regardless and still think its perfect.

[Scratches]

A moderate amount of platforming in dungeons would actually be refreshing. But don't overdo it.

I don't want to have to backtrack the bottom of some behemoth's bowels with broken bones, because my premature pounce onto precariously poised platform pillar P provoked my passing plummet into a pit of putrid pestilence.

If you perceive my point.

omg... the alliteration... it burrrrnnnnssssss... D: lol

I do agree though; some platforming in dungeons and platforming/jumping puzzles out in the world (hide randomly-spawning collectibles, like what Rift does) are quite refreshing.

Yoshida spoke in one E3 interview about adding fences or walls of some sort when a cliff is too high. That might be fine in towns, but it would look artificial if out in the mountains every cliff above a certain height had some kind of "wall" preventing you from falling. (It would also ruin the view. )

I think (hope) what Yoshida-san was referencing with that comment was areas like La Noscea. Swimming isn't exactly a feature in XIV (yet?), so...being able to plummet off a cliff like that and into the water...well, it isn't exactly a good idea. So having fencing or invisible walls (like now) is really the only option. And %-based fall damage (oh, I hate dying to fall damage -- and elevator bosses -- with such a raging passion, but it makes sense) could basically cover every other area in the game as we know it right now.
Maybe, instead of outright killing you, fall damage can reduce you down to 1hp at max? A nearby player/monster being able to kill you by just breathing on you might be a swift enough deterrent to make someone think about jumping, but not as overly-punishing as death...and having to respawn alllllllllllllll the way back at an aetherite camp...

[Rane]

Definitely jumping for exploration. Combat-wise, it would need to be worth it mechanics-wise. Like some people were saying, avoiding stuff like earthquakes would be sweet if there are no latency issues. Otherwise, the only real combat use I'd like to see would be for moving around/positioning around an arena in order to avoid certain attacks. For example, a boss could be fought in an arena that fills/drains with poisonous water, so you have to jump to higher levels to stay out of it.

Regarding what button to use on the gamepad, looking at the 2.0 screenshots we are getting an active mode toggle on the action bar so they could just get rid of that button on the gamepad.

But on topic, you have some cool ideas about knock-back. Would be more exciting if we had to worry about being knocked off the edge of a cliff. (Also for some reason I pictured a boss battle on an island-like platform where we could be knocked off any side. ) And if they can fix lag/delay issues perhaps we could jump to avoid earthquake-like attacks that might knock us back. I wouldn't be to bothered by that I guess.

I love these ideas! As both of you said, 2.0 would have to fix the current problem with lag, or it wouldn't be very much fun trying to dodge ground-based attacks with jump. If this problem is fixed, however, I think there are a lot of very interesting, creative ways that jump could be integrated into certain battles (especially boss battles).

[JGwinters]

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!

Strictly exploration only please. Disable it completely in active mode.
Make it realistic, no super-jumps. Or ridiculous exaggerated motions while in air. Add falling damage. Make you die if you fall too great distances.

For the love of all that is holy, please put it on cooldown. No bunnyhoppers, thanks.

[Jynx]

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!

For the love of god please keep it away from Combat, keep it tastefull I don't mind jumping over fences but I sure don't want to be jumping down sheer cliff faces.

[Alhanelem]

Now that you guys mention it, I actually like shades of purple a lot myself :3

No Alhanelem, it is seriously not something I'm just saying to annoy you. If I linked you to a desktop screenshot, you would see that basically everything that can be changed to purple is changed to purple. Winamp, Windows Aero, MSN, everything!

I don't have anything against purple specifically. I just prefer t hat text on a forum or chat be kept plain. My wallpaper has a lot of purple.

On topic, I'm pretty relieved to see most people being open minded on use of jumping. I really like the ideas that have come out so far.

you have some cool ideas about knock-back. Would be more exciting if we had to worry about being knocked off the edge of a cliff. (Also for some reason I pictured a boss battle on an island-like platform where we could be knocked off any side. ) And if they can fix lag/delay issues perhaps we could jump to avoid earthquake-like attacks that might knock us back. I wouldn't be to bothered by that I guess.

I totally agree with this, i just hope that they can improve network performance enough that we don't have to end up jumping way before something actually happens and then have it not look like it made sense.

[Alerith]

For the love of god please keep it away from Combat, keep it tastefull I don't mind jumping over fences but I sure don't want to be jumping down sheer cliff faces.

Or if there are some steep cliffs we can jump down, make it so that when we land, we have that epic gravel slide the rest of the way down.

[Radnar]

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 think Jumping is great and I hope the development team keeps it in the game.

As far as jumping in combat goes, implementation would need to be done carefully. I would not make jumping required to avoid certain kinds of attacks (even though it adds variety), such as having a boss charge up an AOE attack which players can avoid if they jump. Many people simply are not good at that kind of timing (even if they are good players otherwise) and high latency might make such attacks unavoidable for some players. If the Dev team would like to implement jumping in combat, I think it would be a much better idea to add a dodge-mechanic, similar to Tera or Guild Wars 2.

However I fully support adding in some platforming elements, or making players avoid obstacles every so often, both inside and outside of combat.

Please do not put jumping on a cooldown, but if you do, please keep the cooldown short - no longer than 3 seconds.