Auto attack: A complete battle system

[Kimahri]

That solution is as simple as longer cooldown timers. Right now Feint is overpowered in the sense that it's just supposed to be a guaranteed hit, not a weaponskill. Even critical damage from your weapon does less damage than Feint as a Lancer. It's really easy to take away the TP requirement for Feint and add a longer cooldown timer to balance it's powers. Instead of a three-five second cooldown, make it one-minute+ and it'll be done.

As far as you telling me they need to bring something different to the table? They always do. Doesn't mean they have to completely redesign everything in the game to please you. Flour is a required ingredient in both Pizza & Pasta. The battle system might've been boring to you, but to me it was great. Maybe you just weren't doing your jobs right, or never played endgame like me. Hell last thing I remember was when Dark Ixion came out and he was fun as hell to fight.

SE has always come up with different storylines, characters, ability systems, etc. They just started recently in the past two one-player RPG's (FFXII & FFXIII) have they started turning away from the turn-based-action. I am all for inovation, but it requires much time and/or trial & error. They have a massive Final Fantasy Fan crowd that aren't pleased at all. I can bet that you played other MMO's besides FFXI. This game isn't WoW or any other MMO from a different company. We wanted a FF game with a FF background. All I see now are graphics with dismal gameplay. Remember, don't fix what isn't broken. Oh, and like I said up above. Pizza or Pasta? You still need flower for both, my friend.

[Teknoman]

Its sad because i liked the current battle system and its also sad that they felt they had to scrap it because either couldn't make it work or it would take too long to get it right.Whatever i'll give it a try i guess. Hurray for FFXI-2

Not necessarily. Remember even FFX-2 and the upcoming FFXIII-2 are alot different from their predecessors. That and no FF game has ever had the exact same combat system, even if they shared similar features.

REMEMBER: Auto-attack does not equal the exact same thing as FFXI, no more than the ATB system in FFIV is the same as VI is the same as X.

[Teknoman]

Any ideas you've got, you may as well post them.

[Rinsui]

*Cough* TERA battle system *cough*

or the Monster Hunter battle system
or, since it might evoke less knee-jerks: The FF XIII Versus battle system
or anything that requires more skill than countless re-iterations of pre-defined ever-the-same skill rotations.

Don't get me wrong: I definitely don't like twitchy high-speed button mashing. But the FFXIV and FFXI battle systems are too static to be interesting.

Basically, I want a real fight. The necessity to react to the situation.
Not just a fight where the outcome is defined by how well I have memorized the optimal sequence of skills / abilities.

...did I make myself understood?

I want something involving. Dangerous. Thrilling. Less fights, but more meaningful ones.
Instead of killing the 10.000th Dodo in quick succession to get 0.1% of the EXP I need to level up, I want to fight a really dangerous beast that gives me 10%.

[genmakenx]

Ummm the monster hunter battle system is pretty much free flow just with a stamina gauge. You have some jobs that have TP buildup which lets you do a berserk type style mode... ffxiv is sorta like monhan now just everyone has those things.

[Physic]

*Cough* TERA battle system *cough*

or the Monster Hunter battle system
or, since it might evoke less knee-jerks: The FF XIII Versus battle system
or anything that requires more skill than countless re-iterations of pre-defined ever-the-same skill rotations.

Don't get me wrong: I definitely don't like twitchy high-speed button mashing. But the FFXIV and FFXI battle systems are too static to be interesting.

Basically, I want a real fight. The necessity to react to the situation.
Not just a fight where the outcome is defined by how well I have memorized the optimal sequence of skills / abilities.

...did I make myself understood?

I want something involving. Dangerous. Thrilling. Less fights, but more meaningful ones.
Instead of killing the 10.000th Dodo in quick succession to get 0.1% of the EXP I need to level up, I want to fight a really dangerous beast that gives me 10%.

skill rotations arent really the key here, you have to avoid and plan carefully, move in and out of battle BUUUUTTT that only matters if you fight something higher around 10+ levels higher than you solo, and in groups even higher, so what they should really do is eliminate the exp cap.

[Dreamer]

Rather than changing the style of attack completely, what would be the best way to go about preventing people from complaining about spammy actions or "lack of strategic actions"?

TP costs need to be reexamined - there are far too many abilities that cost 1000 TP that provide little to no benefit over standard attacks. Most of those should cost 200-500 TP, and if an ability costs 1000-3000 TP, it should be worthwhile.

Streamline TP costs, lower stamina costs for TP moves, and give mobs attack vector awareness - if you hit a mob with the same attack several times in a row, it builds resistance to that specific attack, which can be lowered by using another. This would make the preferred attack chain something like 1-2-1-2-3-1-4-2-etc, which is viable with the current system already but this would encourage people to diversify in order to maximum their damage and effectiveness, instead of spamming.

[Kimahri]

Give mobs attack vector awareness - if you hit a mob with the same attack several times in a row, it builds resistance to that specific attack, which can be lowered by using another. This would make the preferred attack chain something like 1-2-1-2-3-1-4-2-etc, which is viable with the current system already but this would encourage people to diversify in order to maximum their damage and effectiveness, instead of spamming.

Hell no. You're spamming already everytime you hit 1-2-3-4-5-6-blah-blah-bullshit. I hate this stupid ass battle system that requires YOU to hit a number like it's a damn broken record. I want auto-attack. Auto-attack isn't spamming, so shut up if that's all you have to say. It's not boring, either. Boring is pecking the "1" key every 2 seconds. Just like having to press enter at least 15 damn times per synth....It's just stupid. It's nothing special and doesn't amount to a hill of beans. Just because it gives you the illusion that you're doing something, doesn't mean you have to defend it. It's like running on a treadmill. Sure. You're running, but you're not going anywhere.

Another thing I'd like to see changed is the stupid ass quene in BR. Why not instead be able to make a quene in BR and then when everyone has put a move into the quene THEN you can start the BR which results in people to stop attacking and all that mumbo-jumbo. There's already enough s**t to fix in this game....I don't want to see "Vector Awareness" coming anywhere near a possibility. You know I'd love to be able to talk to my friends while fighting something....

[Alaltus]

Personally having come from ffxi im not too thrilled about the idea of going back to auto-attack because the whole no auto-attack was one of the reasons i purchased the game in the first place. I enjoy the current battle system despite its flaws but i'll reserve my judgement until i see what SE comes out with. For the most part i'll probbably be happy if the game doesnt become a leveling love affair where instead of running around participating in leves, behests etc the whole party just decides to pick a spot and send someone to pull till they ding max lv. Prior to level cap increases Nyzul isle's ability to be unpredictable and get you regardless of how prepared you went in is very much how i like to spend my time in a mmorpg. Being constantly in your comfort zone is boring and thats what made leveling in xi boring.

[Teknoman]

Just remember, The auto attack system is not only supposed to have a much shorter delay than FFXI according to the lead battle director, but also done in a way where you cant just defeat enemies by relying on auto attack alone (should be obvious but still).

It wont be anything like XI...and auto attack wasnt the cause behind party camps in XI. XIV is still going to focus on mobile exp, moving from place to place or cutting/blasting/stabbing/punching your way through a dungeon, just hopefully with a better more thought out battle system where the stats matter.

The battle system should also improve the importance of character positioning (attack from the left, right, front, rear) and character distance like the image showing attack radius on the main FFXIV site.