Alpha First Look: Video 3 - The Black Shroud

[VerthandiValkyria]

I love the swaying of all the trees. I always thought the motionless trees looked so lifeless, like cardboard cut-outs.
The beautiful, vibrant colors (leaves, flowers, buildings, etc.) also give the world more life and depth.

I've never minded jumping in games. I like that we will be able to avoid the small trip hazards and barriers.
About the lack of inertia/gravity during a landing though, although it doesn't look "correct", a game I've recently played had the landing animation and with that comes a small animation lock. That was not fun and I'm sure I'll get used to it this way quickly.

[Aerenvel]

Jump jump jump jump jump jump.

Jumping seems to serve almost no purpose except to make me wonder why somebody is jumping. I was going to wait to complain until I saw how nervous players would be, but after seeing the Live Letter and now even this video where the PR rep can't keep from jumping, I must say that I really hate the jumping. It is really distracting. It looks bad (one should jump differently if one is running vs. standing still). It also seems like it will actually be unneeded to actually get anywhere.

The jumping needs to be fixed.

Jumping can serve a few purposes one instead of walking 10min around a corner you can jump over certain choke points.
Also not saying they will do this but, in Rift there is a raid battle where it is kinda like simon says.
Jumping can bring a whole other mechanic dodging shockwaves going over obstacles plus i like it gives me something to do while running and i like seeing the chocobo attempt to fly.

[Mihen]

It looks really nice. What I loved about 1.0 was the ultra realistic and crisp appearance of characters and their armor as well as the environment. In most cases down to the appearance of thread count on wool and cloth and the sheen of metallic armors and chainmail. I hope this aspect was not sacrificed for more vibrancy and lower specs for PS3.

[Mihen]

I have to agree. I felt while playing FFXIV 1.0 that because the characters were anchored to the ground everything the they did was incredibly well animated because there was no detachment mechanism. The character animations felt like they belonged on the surfaces and there was not an enormous contrast. Very smooth. The last thing I want to see is a few hundred people bouncing around in a zone. Incredibly huge turn off and it makes me feel like the players are separate entities from the world and the floor, ground, zone area is just a make shift stage. I am not against the realism of jumping, tumbling, acrobatics or whatever but it really needs to be handled carefully. Even if I were to jump six times in a row not everyone of them would be 6 Feet off of the floor. Hop, Hurdle, Bounce, Leap...I would keep these in mind when designing jumping mechanics so that the experience doesn't feel out of place from your absolutely gorgeous world.

[Tupster]

Re: Small Trip Hazards

A game without jump that gets you stuck on a rock is broken because the level designer put those foot hazards there, not because you can't jump (FFXI doesn't have this problem). The solution wasn't full blown jumping, it was not letting a small rock get in your characters way.

Re: Going through instead of around

If you aren't supposed to go through, and instead go around, then a level designer is just going to put a tall fence or wall around it (if you can jump). The reason you couldn't jump down in v1.0 wasn't because you couldn't jump it was because the level designer didn't want you to go that way.

This is true no matter if you can jump or not: You can go where the level designer wanted you to go.

I think being able to jump over fences is nice, but making a 2 story leap off a ledge ... not so much.

Certainly there are still some invisible walls because some of the most beautiful places in FFXI had places you shouldn't be able to jump into (chasms, river beds, off the edge of a floating fortress, etc.). One big problem that jumping introduces now is that the invisible walls will seem out of place were before they were natural.

I'm also thinking of some zones like the Beaucidine Glacier where you were blocked by 2 story drops from getting through the zone quickly. To make this zone work in FFXIV you either have to introduce invisible walls or add walls of some kind that block the view.

Oh well, it is too late to change these consequences of jumping, but I do hope that at least somebody will see that from a game design standpoint, being able to jump is not as obvious as they think. There are lots of games were you cannot jump, even very popular ones, even ones with lots of action.

[Aerenvel]

Re: Small Trip Hazards

A game without jump that gets you stuck on a rock is broken because the level designer put those foot hazards there, not because you can't jump (FFXI doesn't have this problem). The solution wasn't full blown jumping, it was not letting a small rock get in your characters way.

Re: Going through instead of around

If you aren't supposed to go through, and instead go around, then a level designer is just going to put a tall fence or wall around it (if you can jump). The reason you couldn't jump down in v1.0 wasn't because you couldn't jump it was because the level designer didn't want you to go that way.

This is true no matter if you can jump or not: You can go where the level designer wanted you to go.

I think being able to jump over fences is nice, but making a 2 story leap off a ledge ... not so much.

I'm hoping there are still some invisible walls because some of the most beautiful places in FFXI had places you shouldn't be able to jump into (chasms, river beds, off the edge of a floating fortress, etc.). One big problem that jumping introduces now is that the invisible walls will seem out of place were before they were natural.

Your nit picking at nothing, Jump has advantages as i said.
Add more mechanics to the fight if your already getting overwhelmed should go play oregon trail and not a evolving game.

[Tupster]

Your nit picking at nothing, Jump has advantages as i said.
Add more mechanics to the fight if your already getting overwhelmed should go play oregon trail and not a evolving game.

You didn't address anything I said.

[Aerenvel]

You didn't address anything I said.

I did in the post above
FF11 use to be good yes but it is also over 10 years old.
11 isnt as good as it use to be abby ruined 11.
And they can implement fall damage if you fall 2 far you die. ez enough i only see pros 0 cons.
other than people not understanding the additional aspects it brings to the table.
Also extremly usefull in pvp.
you make uneducated posts.

[Tupster]

I did in the post above
FF11 use to be good yes but it is also over 10 years old.
11 isnt as good as it use to be abby ruined 11.
And they can implement fall damage if you fall 2 far you die. ez enough i only see pros 0 cons.
other than people not understanding the additional aspects it brings to the table.
you make uneducated posts.

You keep addressing ME, not my points. Calling me "uneducated" isn't constructive. If you open yourself up to the possibility of having a conversation instead of insulting me you might enjoy yourself more.

At least you address level design with the potential of adding fall damage but in an MMO it doesn't mean anything to die if you can just be raised.

Even if they ruined FF11 that has nothing to do with the design of the Beaucidine Glacier zone which hasn't changed since 2002. The truth is that that level design only works if you have invisible walls. Same is true of Tu'Lia, a fortress floating in the sky.

[Shadow_Sama]

It's pretty disgusting to see how people are complaining about jumping. Is it perfect ? No, it can use some polish, but keeping up with thread has really made me scratch my head in wonder with some of the complaints. There's nothing wrong with adding a jump feature to this game. Just because people have an itchy jump button finger, you guys are getting bent out of shape and complaining because of jumping. You guys need to get over it.