Auto attack: A complete battle system

[Uazet]

Your ignorance is forgiven.

Any auto attack system will resemble another auto attack system. FFXI / WoW / Aion / Rift.

In FFXI you had to auto attack 5-10 times (depending on gear and store TP) to be able to use 1 TP move.
Under FFXIV conditions you can use TP skills after a single attack.

As a mouse and K/B user the need to hit "1" to attack isn't much of an issue. But as soon as you pick up a gamepad you are very very busy scrolling through attacks to fire a TP ability then scroll through icons to end up at "basic attack" again.

Implementing an auto attack feature will free up the need to constantly be busy finding that one attack.

If people are worried about auto attack being a huge source of dmg or having people AFK and just auto attack mobs. Lower the attack rating on these basic attacks so they become purely TP generators and not DMG skills.
So after a single auto attack you can start to use your TP abilities.

Differnces between my idea for auto attack and FFXI for your enjoyment:
Mine:
Auto attack speed based on weapon type
Auto attacks generate TP
stamina governs the speed and number of TP skills you can use in a given time frame
TP allows you to use skills on demand
Auto attack continues while cued for battle regimen, however TP skills can't be used in this state.

FFXI:
Auto attack speed based on weapon delay
TP skills used once 100-300 TP is reached

I see the logic here indeed. However, part of the reason I enjoyed the auto-attack function in FFXI is because in each party you may get for example a samurai, or a thief, or a tank/mage of varying different skill levels. In this regard you would have players that can really play well and players who can't be bothered or play casually.

I personally worked hard in FFXI to become the best party player I could be and felt a sense of achievement from being appreciated by my fellow party members for performing well. My philosophy in many things is if you put the effort in (correct gear, clever macros, communicate tactics and battle info well, good response times to unfolding battle events) then you will enjoy the game more anyway.

I say leave the lazy players alone. It gives the community the freedom to be less than average, or be very successful like real life. It allows skilful players to shine. Because what's the main reasons you play MMO's for such a long period of time? Well that's easy - progression (storyline, new abilities), socialise and make friends and last but not least, for a large sense of achievement.

[EDIT]

Oh thought I'd add my 2-pence here as well to save me writing another post.

I for one am in favour of auto-attack. Here are my reasons:

1. When attacking a creature, if the battle changes suddenly, I have time to use another/different ability than I was going to use. I could mention a long list of various different situations here. I won't mention the frustrating lag between attacks, I think this point has been raised already.

2. Another would be the amount of time to gain TP for TP abilities. 3 hits tend to be the average for gaining 1000TP which is the average needed for using most TP abilities. (Or 2 hits for a 500TP ability and a Second Wind for example). I think FFXIV would benefit greatly from auto-attack in this regard.

3. Third of all, it would speed up battles and add somewhat more structure to battles allowing for more strategy and skill (and the timing would still be there). With the wider array of skills you can pick from different classes, it stands to reason that the abilities you pick are going to be more useful and used more and battles would still be action packed even with addition of auto-attack. It just leaves out a minor TP building attack to focus on more important battle commands.

4. With your hands more free, you can relay battle information and strategy between your party members easier and keep a lot more combat efficiency.

Having said all that, I think that having had 2 manual attack modes for over six months from release, SE should allow players to switch between manual attack mode to auto-attack mode. I know from experience that when you give a consumer something for a period of time and then take it away, you lose a vast proportion of consumer trust as opposed to if you hadn't offered it in the first place.

I think it's important for SE to decide carefully here so as not to lose any more consumer trust.