What do you think of jobs having different stances than classes?

[Kiote]

Asking for unique animations for the races is not as unreasonable as you're making it out to be.

Yes it is..

Each Class/Job gets 20 skills..

Assuming we're only talking about Combat thats 7 Current classes plus a minimum of 2 being added for a total of 9.

Thats 180 skills.

5 races, 2 genders, two tribes - lets eliminate tribes, but if your doing races you have to do genders cause girls and guys dont move the same.

Thats 10 race for 180 skils thats 1,800 ability animations.

2.0 has been in development for a year and a half, and FFXIV has some of the most intricate combat animations of any game, let alone an MMO.

I would love to meet the animation team who can create 1,800 noticeably different, aesthetically pleasing combat animations that are FFXIV level intricate while completing all other in game animations in one and a half years...

[Xaimera]

Although I am sad about no race-specific stances, I hope to god they do something about the magic casting animations (and magic animations in general). This is one of those things I think FFXI nailed and should just be adopted outright.

I totally agree FFXIV is rly lacking when it comes to magic casting animations I liked how FFXI was different from each race. Id love to see different casting animation and stances for even a lot of different spells that would be awesome!

[Kiote]

Oops, i forgot Auto-Attack... That at least another 210 animations since each Class has three or more auto attack animations...

[Radnar]

Oops, i forgot Auto-Attack... That at least another 210 animations since each Class has three or more auto attack animations...

You keep throwing numbers around without actually explaining why they're unrealistic.

[Kiote]

You keep throwing numbers around without actually explaining why they're unrealistic.

Because it takes weeks to create just one of those animations(not including implementation and testing), they cost a fortune, and To actually think up 10 variations of a single skill 180 times is next to impossible.

[Radnar]

Because it takes weeks to create just one of those animations(not including implementation and testing), they cost a fortune, and To actually think up 10 variations of a single skill 1800 times is next to impossible.

Alright. So then why has every other MMO I've ever played, from FFXI onwards, and every other MMO currently on the market, been able to do it? And don't tell me it's because FFXIV has higher quality animations. FFXIV has a higher polycount, but their competitors already doing comperable - if not better and more varried - animation in their products.

Time may be a limiting factor, but it is no excuse to accept mediocrity.

[Kiote]

Alright. So then why has every other MMO I've ever played, from FFXI onwards, and every other MMO currently on the market, been able to do it? And don't tell me it's because FFXIV has higher quality animations. FFXIV has a higher polycount, but their competitors already doing comperable - if not better and more varried - animation in their products.

Time may be a limiting factor, but it is no excuse to accept mediocrity.

Because they were in development for 5+ years.

What creates mediocrity is trying to rush out a bunch of crappy Animations in a completely unrealistic time line. Look at all the new gear they have implemented. Even with 1.0's crappy launch you never saw a single instance of clipping in Gear. Now, because they are rushing, every new piece of armour clips through bodies and other pieces of armour.

They could implement race specific animations before relaunch, but you know what we would end up with? The animations at 1.0 launch.

And for the record, FFXIV has significantly more intricate animations than every other MMO on the market. Most other MMO uses the same animation repeatedly and add flashing lights to cover the weapon so users can't see it.

[Yucie]

Because it takes weeks to create just one of those animations(not including implementation and testing), they cost a fortune, and To actually think up 10 variations of a single skill 180 times is next to impossible.

FFXI probably has that many skills and spells, if not more. A lot of the skills in XIV run off the same base animation - Fast Blade, and several others for example, including Phalanx, are all a sort of spin-around-backhand animation, except with weapon in hand. But, FFXI still manages to make the races unique. Why? Here's how:

Each weapon has.. I don't know.. 3-4 different AA animations that loop and work together seamlessly when they need to.
Weapon skills utilize these recycled animations, accompanied by different visual effects and sounds.
An idle stance and a handful of auto-attack animations that can be used for WS animations isn't that much.

Abilities. Each race has literally one way they use a skill, but each animation per race and per gender is unique. These are only segregated by names and visual effects.

Casting. Each race has a different blue magic, white magic, black magic, ninjutsu, and song casting animation. Other than that, the spells that fall under each category are separated by, again, visual effects.

FFXIV could easily replicate this, and it'd be far easier to come up with new visual effects than making an entirely new animation from scratch.

FFXI did it. So can FFXIV.

[Kiote]

FFXI did it. So can FFXIV.

FFXI was in development for 6 years.

FFXIV has been in development for 1.5 years and they are rebuilding the entire game right down to the server hardware..

Also, a massive number of XI's skills were repeats of other skills. There were actually very few Different animations. They did the same trick as most current MMOs. They used the same animation and added a different light.

[Yucie]

FFXI was in development for 6 years.

FFXIV has been in development for 1.5 years and they are rebuilding the entire game right down to the server hardware..

That doesn't change the fact that it CAN be done.