Auto-attack is a step backward.

[Elexia]

The funny part is, most MMOs have an "auto-attack", i.e you either click to attack or hold a key+attack button to auto attack.

Guess every MMO was a 'step backwards', but I guess games these days are designed for people with 5 second attention spans.

[Preypacer]

The funny part is, most MMOs have an "auto-attack", i.e you either click to attack or hold a key+attack button to auto attack.

Guess every MMO was a 'step backwards', but I guess games these days are designed for people with 5 second attention spans.

Well... not really.

That many/most past MMOs had an auto-attack (including FFXI), is something many people started complaining about because it made combat feel too hands-off to them... In FFXI in particular, a common complaint is "You sit there, watch your character auto-attacking, and hit a Weapon Skill once in a while when you have the TP."

People in FFXI have talked about playing another game on their console while in a party, or watching a movie while in a party. In each case, they'd hit a WS when they had the TP or the compulsion to do so. That's simply because auto-attack basically required no interaction by the player beyond initiating combat.

Many complained it made combat boring - especially if they were playing a less dynamic role in the group... such as just doing standard DPS and perhaps using a WS once in a while, as long as it didn't interfere with a Skill Chain others had established).

I've seen this complaint play out across other MMOs as well... for years now. People are bored with auto-attack and want to feel more personally engaged and involved with the fight.

So... in that sense, removing auto-attack and having each one require an action by players could be considered a step ahead.

Of course now... we have MMOs that don't have auto-attack in them, and so the forums have people complaining about the exact opposite... They want auto-attack to be added...

I can see the benefit in both systems. I think if SE can strike a balance where auto-attack is in there but active involvement by players still is required in order to really make a difference (ie. auto-attacking a mob to death is going to either not work out very well, or is going to take forever), then it'll be fine.

I think auto-attack should serve the role as a weak sort of "filler attack" that's done in-between major special attacks or combinations of them. It should not be suitable as "the best and easiest way to kill mobs since you just sit there and watch it happen". That would be lame. You should not be able to watch TV or play another game while fighting mobs in a MMO.

[Nabiri]

I like manual-attack but look forward to auto-attack. It will be nice to be able to type more than one word while in a party. Silent parties are really a bore.

That many/most past MMOs had an auto-attack (including FFXI), is something many people started complaining about because it made combat feel too hands-off to them... In FFXI in particular, a common complaint is "You sit there, watch your character auto-attacking, and hit a Weapon Skill once in a while when you have the TP."

All I can say to this is, I was always doing something and very busy in a party in XI no matter my job.
I never understood how people had the ability to concentrate on a movie or other game at the same time. I was constantly pressing buttons. If I were only engaging and hitting weapon skills I wouldn't be doing my job very well.

[Dragon]

I loved FFXI and I'm all for making this game more like an HD version of FFXI but this is one of those features that I think is just dated. Especially an auto-attack system like the one in XI. Auto-attack makes the player even less involved and you ultimately end up just watching your character more often than you are actually playing.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying the current system is spectacular but it's definitely miles ahead of an auto-attack system.

I can't be the only one who feels this way. I'm very afraid for the future of this game if the auto-attack change goes through.

Definitely not. As a matter of fact, I was one of those players that in FFXI would just play something on my PS2/PS3 or Xbox 360 while in an exp/merit party, or even dynamis/sky (some limbus floors too). Auto-attack just makes things uninteresting and way too easy.

If anything I would like to see a "/auto attack on-off" option that would allow players to choose how they wish to play the game.

Yeah, I'm fine with that. That or make auto-attack so slow and stamina-reliant to still force skill-heavy fights.

[Preypacer]

I like manual-attack but look forward to auto-attack. It will be nice to be able to type more than one word while in a party. Silent parties are really a bore.



All I can say to this is, I was always doing something and very busy in a party in XI no matter my job.
I never understood how people had the ability to concentrate on a movie or other game at the same time. I was constantly pressing buttons. If I were only engaging and hitting weapon skills I wouldn't be doing my job very well.

Oh I agree.

I always kept myself busy in groups as well. But there are many who were leveling jobs that, frankly, you can tell they didn't like playing but were doing it just so they could have the appropriate sub for their main ("having the right sub" is something a lot of people in XI were very specific about, as I'm sure you noticed, too). They weren't inspired to play the jobs, and didn't have the independence to say "No, I don't want to level that job"... so they did as little as they could get away with.

Other times, they just wanted the reward without the effort, and since they were able to get away with doing nothing but auto-attacking... that's what they did.

There are many players in the MMO scene who are specifically reward-driven. If they could play a game where all they had to do was walk around talking to NPCs in one little area, getting 20% of a level each time... they'd be in heaven.

But for me... if I'm playing a game, I want to beplaying the game. And so, like you, I made sure to keep myself busy... I'd pay attention to mob behavior, throw in a stun of some sort (I loved shutting down bomb tosses, for example), look for an opening and WS with another party member when they weren't chaining with someone else, etc.

Of course... on the other side, there's the aggravation of having people in you party who you can tell are there purely to leech xp while doing as little as they can. I've had people in my groups outright state they weren't paying attention to the game, but watching anime while we were in Crawlers' Nest.

I think so long as they implement something in FFXIV that makes it less feasible to rely entirely on auto-attack, that it'd be fine.