Quote Originally Posted by Abriael View Post
Action based mmos rely on correct positioning/tactics/synergy a LOT less than other MMOS, for a physical matter of netcode and for a simple reason of balancing. The point if you can't have the same level of position/synergy.
Why not? I don't see how balancing is a reason for that. Yes, it makes things more difficult if you have to think about tactics, positioning and synergy at the same time. But it's much more rewarding if you achieve it, so simply saying "it's not possible because it would be too hard" is not an argument for me.

You're minority. Gear collection is a major element that makes MMORPG addictive for most people, and it's in a developer's best interest for their MMO to be addictive. You'd be probably better suited for a more immediate kind of game with no real gating like MechWarrior online.
I guess I am, what do you mean by "gating"?

To be totally honest, you not agreeing is irrelevant.
Excuse me? I was under the impression we were having a discussion here.

That's just client-side bandwidth. It has to be multiplied by everyone communicating with the same server. Bluehole had to develop a completely different netcode to make tera possible, and had to do a TON of compromise with encounter complexity in order to achieve it.
Server farms are not running on a DSL-lite type connection, and Bluehole did make it possible. Team Bloodlust seems to have done better, not concentrating only on making combat appealing, at least so far.

Even assuming B&S does just as bad as TERA, using those 2 games to say action combat = less complex encounters is generalizing. If it's not possible atm, it will be possible sooner or later. TERA and B&S did a step in the right direction, others could simply expand on it and learn from the mistakes they did.

Meanwhile target-based combat is getting more and more stale with each game that is using it.

That is fine. It just means that ARR won't be for you. At the moment, though, the majority of MMO players seem to prefer (just looking at subscriber numbers) target based combat.

Action combat is interesting, but is also niche
It's not clear whether the majority prefers it or just settle for it because the majority of the games come with target-based gameplay because it's the current norm. TERA didn't fail because of it's combat, but because of failing publishers (EU) and the game not giving you anything interesting except for the combat.

Anyway, I'm not claiming TERA/B&S are better than FFXIV, but this thread is about SE settling for the norm, which is not the way to go imho.