Titan issues that need addressing.

[DoctorPepper]

I pretty much agree with Tiggy as far as Titan is concerned, all it takes is practice in order to anticipate what to expect.

If anything, latency is the biggest issue with Titan for some people, but even if you have latency issues you can easily dodge the mechanics if you know when they're coming. It just takes time to learn the patterns and be able to react accordingly.

[Ayuhra]

So I haven't done Titan yet because I'm a dirty, filthy noob but I do feel like this game needs to have its netcode tightened up and the way it deals with enemy casting cleaned up in general. As a newcomer it took me a while to figure out I had to look at the castbar and a while longer to figure out that to see the castbar properly I had to move the entire enemy healthbar. Ten+ years of MMOs and a lifetime of gaming taught me not to let my eyes wander and to pay attention to where I was standing, only really looking at castbars if I was on interrupt duty.

Yes, yes, if this game wants castbars to mean something to everyone then peachy but there does seem to be a problematic disconnect between the warnings and the actual abilities. My internet connection can be iffy since I'm in Phoenix but no other MMO has given me this problem. And I've played quite a few.

So far I really do enjoy this game but this issue is my biggest beef as a new player.

For, ya know, whatever a new player's opinion is worth.

[Reivur]

So I haven't done Titan yet because I'm a dirty, filthy noob but I do feel like this game needs to have its netcode tightened up and the way it deals with enemy casting cleaned up in general. As a newcomer it took me a while to figure out I had to look at the castbar and a while longer to figure out that to see the castbar properly I had to move the entire enemy healthbar. Ten+ years of MMOs and a lifetime of gaming taught me not to let my eyes wander and to pay attention to where I was standing, only really looking at castbars if I was on interrupt duty.

Truthfully at this point in time the game's felt like its had tight net-code for awhile now. The issue I would agree on is that animations don't necessarily make sense in correlation to damage. Case in point the moment a player realizes that a warning cone disappearing = the hit or miss confirm is locked in, and nothing you're going to do now will help (Unless its re-positioning for a push-back) is also the same moment a player usually improves at dodging vastly. People can be elitist about this and pretend that its obvious, but the reality is its not obvious when you're adjusting to it and you play pretty much any other action game or any movement-based MMO. At the very least its made me appreciate the attention to detail other games like Tera (Expected, since its Action) or even WoW (Not quite as expected) to pair animation timing to mechanics.

Case in point, if there's a circle on the ground in WoW, and it fades, and it fires a catapult style attack at me, I will not be damaged until the stone shard or fireball reaches my model, and I can still move out of the way in correlation to distance. In FFXIV, I will be hit because I was in the circle as it faded. This also leads to odd conclusions like having the orange warning fade, then having one appear where you stand, and you 'walk' into the explosion in front of you that's animating that's completely safe because you weren't there at the confirmation check. This was disorienting for me when I was still juggling both games at the time because sometimes I'd wander into attacks that 'faded' in WoW since I was so used to XIV dodging because I was playing that more.

But there are benefits to how it works the way it does now too, such as consistency in dodging different mechanics/fights.

[Ayuhra]

I guess the netcode is tight for some but not for me.

Or maybe I should think about it with a game designer hat on. Network systems aren't really my thing but from what I understand FFXIV was designed from the ground up to have a server-dictated live state as opposed to a client-dictated one. When the in game actions are determined by the server instead of the client the lag can kill you. There's no observable difference in combat for people with sound internet connections but folks like me it's a bit rough. I say move and I move but the server still sees me standing where I was a second ago.

WoW has, I think, a client-dictated live state so things like AoEs etc seem to sync up better there.

Soooo I guess what I am saying is I frequently wish the game was client-dictated. But that would take SE a year or so to do and a whole lot of money, it's not happening.

There was a point to all this rambling originally, I'm sick today and forget where this train of thought was supposed to go.

[Izsha]

I guess the netcode is tight for some but not for me.

Or maybe I should think about it with a game designer hat on. Network systems aren't really my thing but from what I understand FFXIV was designed from the ground up to have a server-dictated live state as opposed to a client-dictated one. When the in game actions are determined by the server instead of the client the lag can kill you. There's no observable difference in combat for people with sound internet connections but folks like me it's a bit rough. I say move and I move but the server still sees me standing where I was a second ago.

WoW has, I think, a client-dictated live state so things like AoEs etc seem to sync up better there.

Soooo I guess what I am saying is I frequently wish the game was client-dictated. But that would take SE a year or so to do and a whole lot of money, it's not happening.

There was a point to all this rambling originally, I'm sick today and forget where this train of thought was supposed to go.

Trouble with that is the more you rely on clients the easier it is to hack. If my position on my client decides if I take damage instead of the server, I only have to hack my client to adjust my position and I dodge aoes (teleport, speed hacks etc) because the server doesn't have a chance to check me 1st.

You also have issues of desyncronizing multiple clients. Right now the fight happens in real time on 1 server. Plumes go out the server decides who gets hit and insanely sends hp data out to the healer client so they can heal. If it's client based, the server sends a message 'titan casting plumes'. All 8 get the message. Plumes go off (still client), and clients individually decide who gets hit then send that data back. then whm gets a memo to heal. What happens if the server doesn't receive plume hit or not data from 1 client? Does it just guess what happened? Does it wait until everyone's arrives tell the healer who got hit? It really creates problems. Server side is way simpler with the downside of lag sucking.

[Ayuhra]

Trouble with that is the more you rely on clients the easier it is to hack. If my position on my client decides if I take damage instead of the server, I only have to hack my client to adjust my position and I dodge aoes (teleport, speed hacks etc) because the server doesn't have a chance to check me 1st.

...

Oh absolutely. Teleporting hacks are much easier on client dictated games and can make botting more of an issue, plus the desync problem. When I say I wish the game were client-based I'm not kidding but I'm also speaking out of pure selfishness. I'm not saying the game would be objectively better that way.

I *am* saying that, given the game is server dictated some changes should be made to the timing of certain things as well more user friendly UI tweaks made.