[dev1032] Spell Casting Animations Needs More Love

[Darrkness]

You mention the fire spells in your example. I've noticed how much better the fire on the Bombards for the summer event looks than the fire produced by the spells. It shows the are capable of so much more. I hope they will redesign the fire spells with this higher quality of flame visual.

i hope so to but my element of choice just because of visual wowness is lightning! I would love to see arcs of thunder exiting my hand with static charges bouncing and flickering off the enemy I know that CON has particular elemental weakness spells which i love using but once again visual effects lack on this one

[PEANUT]

I'm just adding my comment to show I agree with this thread 100%! The unique magics and magic effecrs have always been my favorite in the FF series and this game should be no different!

[Darrkness]

the magic effects and casting in dragon age were epic.. i would love to see some of that implemented with FFXIV graphics capabilities after all i'm sticking around BECAUSE of the graphics potential i cant wait to see what things will look like when all the dust settles i'm really hoping for some sweet looking magitek armor at some point with epic casting effects that give your eyes a visual orgasm lol

[Azztaroth]

Lets not forget the total lack of animation for all the Raise spells.

[Darrkness]

Lets not forget the total lack of animation for all the Raise spells.

i've only managed to unlock one Raise spell so far unfortunately

[Roll]

i've only managed to unlock one Raise spell so far unfortunately

They all look the same, Raise, Raise II, Rebirth, and Resurrect still have no animation...

[Atomisk]

Lets not forget the total lack of animation for all the Raise spells.

how many times have you had to notify your party members that they were raised since there is no animation? I lost count on how many times I have . . .

[Roll]

how many times have you had to notify your party members that they were raised since there is no animation? I lost count on how many times I have . . .

I seriously have to macro in both a "/t <t>" and a "/p" macro just to inform people they are being raised and to get ready to open the menu and accept the Raise so they don't miss it.

[Fensfield]

Oh definitely, I've been saying it for a while and all. Stuff the spell animations; if you ask me they look (and looked) alright. In fact, I rather liked the understated style, myself. It's the utter lack of variance in the casting animations and effects that need seeing to.

[Aravou]

Oh definitely, I've been saying it for a while and all. Stuff the spell animations; if you ask me they look (and looked) alright. In fact, I rather liked the understated style, myself. It's the utter lack of variance in the casting animations and effects that need seeing to.

I can definitely see your point. As in nearly every Final Fantasy game of the past, the magnitude and visually impressive effect of magic scales with each Tier. I think it's reasonable to assume that the vast majority people don't expect Fire I and II, to be a "huge amazing explosion of supernatural living flame dancing about".. or anything. Although, it would be incredibly cool to see something like that implemented for Fire V or even Flare, maybe. One can only hope.

I'm with you, the beginning tier magic (which is really all we have access too at the moment) should be of a subtle design and nature. However, this doesn't mean they need to be rendered badly, as we both would agree. Currently, I think it's the general consensus that many spells are rendered badly, or are completely uninteresting.

Let's look at Fire I:

In it's present form, Fire seems to be little more than a simple sprite animation that briefly poofs onto an enemy, when cast. There seems to be a few particle effects; in the form of small smoke plumes that waft up from the fire. The flame itself is rather muted. It's not very bright, and this doesn't lend to convincing the player that the flame is actually there, burning the monster. It does scale to the size of the monster you are fighting. This scaling (along with the increase in size of spell effects introduced in a former patch) actually seems to work against the appeal of the spell. It's far to blurry, it's detail stretched and skewed to a point where it looses it's visual appeal.

If you compare the animation for Fire I to the animation for the fire that envelops the Bombard monsters of the summer event; there is a striking difference. The animation size and complexity is relatively the same, but the textures or shaders used on the Bombards is far more convincing, and appealing. It's not an overly dramatic animation, or effect; so, it isn't unreasonable to suggest that the dev. team should strive to reproduce this effect for Fire I, and above. It would be fitting, and far more appealing.