From the Live Letter:
Changes to Face Targeting System
The face target feature will become inaccessible while moving. This is in order to remove difference between different platforms. For casters, if the enemy moves your character will face the direction of the target’s current position. However, in situations where you need to face away from the target, players will not be able to simply turn around due to the auto-attack changes, therefore, you would either need to sheathe your weapon, or cancel targeting.
I think this is a good opportunity to discuss or address a number of camera and targeting system issues I have encountered during my time playing FFXIV.
"The face target feature will become inaccessible while moving."
Does this apply to the interface setting "Automatically Face Target When Using Actions"? If so, please consider the consequences of this change.
Compared to other similar games, FFXIV has an uncomfortably narrow facing range in which actions are accepted for execution.
In most games I have tried, strafing away from a target while executing actions is possible because the qualification for 'facing target' is wide — usually somewhere around the frontal 180° of your character's 'hit circle'. Thus, if you can see the target on-screen, you can attack it.
In FFXIV, this qualification angle is uncomfortably narrow. Even if you seem to be looking directly at your target, or it is clearly on-screen while you are moving around, facing errors will constantly prevent execution of actions, even while strafing to keep the target in LOS.
As well, the relative sluggishness of the engine makes an alternative solution learned in other games — jump-spinning while executing actions — difficult to execute, and prone to erratic and inconsistent failures.
This necessitates enabling Auto Face Target to have practical and consistent reaction times while also addressing other battle mechanics, because Auto Face Target compensates for FFXIV's very narrow facing qualification by simply having the game itself adjust angle as necessary to fix the 5 or 10° gap stopping execution of actions that results from turning even slightly off-center during combat.
Removing or preventing Auto Face Target, even if only while moving, will very likely have the unintended consequence of increasing the DPS and skill gap during combat far more than the Auto Attack adjustments will reduce it.
There is no HUD differentiation between Range Error and Facing Error.
An attack that fails because you are slightly off-angle from the narrow facing qualification will still produce error text indicating the target is not in range.
This is confusing and slows down reaction time: Are you actually out of range, or just slightly facing the wrong way, or both?
Auto-Face Target unintentionally attempts to kill the character due to its interaction with Standard Camera.
Auto-Face combined with Standard Camera will turn the character, and then refuse to update their directional heading until a combination of button/mouse actions that I have yet to clearly determine despite a lot of experimentation.
An example is executing a GCD attack while moving out of an AOE ground indicator. If the angle of movement is 'wrong' relative to the target's position, Auto-Face will spin the character sufficiently that Standard Camera will now result in moving straight back into the AOE again.
This is very frustrating, and is not an issue under Legacy Camera, because Legacy (for whatever reason) constantly updates your heading. Any turning is instantly compensated by continuing in the intended direction.
Again, this is distinctly different from other similar games, where executing actions while moving does not drag your character in unexpected directions (in addition to working much more consistently, because of the wider accepted angle of execution for facing requirements).
Auto Face Target does not differentiate between Enemy and Ally targets.
Friendly actions do not require * facing, yet Auto Face Target still spins your character toward allies when executing helpful actions. This is unnecessary, frustrating, and unintuitive.
Just a handful of examples:
- Regen on the tank while moving out of AOE → sudden unexpected direction change → back into AOE.
- Everyone is running from Leviathan's Spinning Dive! This is a good time to Goad the WAR tank that is low on TP. → sudden unexpected direction change → back into Spinning Dive.
- Running up to boss during a SMN opener to put up Miasma 2 before Contagion → Activate Rouse+Spur while moving → sudden unexpected direction change → Now running toward instance entrance instead of boss.
- Gaze attack on any 'Look away' boss → Party HP is low, let's throw out a Rouse + Whispering Dawn → sudden unexpected direction change → hit by Gaze attack.
(Resolved in 3.4?) Legacy Camera cannot execute spell casts on moving targets that exit the narrow facing angle without spamming a macro or the Face Target keybind.
I'm including this here to note a positive change — this issue is apparently going to be addressed in 3.4, based on the comments about targeting changes.
Thank you. Every small positive change forward helps the overall comfort and fluidity of the targeting, camera, and battle systems.
Legacy Camera cannot use Left Mouse Button to pan the camera while moving.
There is a 'Look Behind Me' keybind, however a 180° fixed camera flip is not the same thing as fluidly LMB mouselooking while moving.
This functionality works while standing still in Legacy Camera, but breaks when movement begins, or attempted during movement (instead only changing your direction, as RMB mouselook functions in Standard).
LMB mouselook while moving ranges from simply a QOL feature (admiring the scenery while traveling between quest destinations) to actually being mechanically important (for example, deciding where to run for Divebombs in Bahamut Turn 13).
Legacy Camera cannot choose to backpedal (walk backwards) without executing an awkward key combination.
Pressing the 'move back' key in Legacy Camera results in the camera spinning 180° and facing the screen.
Some players prefer this, because it allows moving directly out of AOEs. However, when tanking I find this frustrating, because it makes adjusting packs of enemies or otherwise making careful positioning adjustments difficult without exposing my back (risking loss of Block, Parry, and Evade).
However, backpedal is clearly capable of functioning in Legacy Camera, because the (extremely) awkward combination of Left Strafe + Right Strafe + Move Back will override the spin functionality and instead backpedal like Standard camera.
A setting to choose how Legacy camera interacts with the Move Back binding would be appreciated. I personally have no use for the 180° spin, yet other players prefer it or rely on it, so I think it should be an option and not a universal change.
Claustrophobic zoom distance
I understand that limiting maximum camera distance is a designer choice in many different ways: it controls the visibility of character details, it controls how fight mechanics and awareness are intended to be addressed, it controls overall aesthetic presentation — etc.
However, I find the maximum zoom in FFXIV frustratingly limited compared to other similar games. Especially when viewing recorded battles of players using ultra-wide or multi-screen displays (or other less-sanctioned 'methods') to gain visual access to more of the battlefield at once, significantly increasing awareness of positional elements such as Towers, Bombs, etc.
Please understand, I very much enjoy FFXIV and the world of Eorzea — and even most of FFXIV's combat system, which I find deeper and more satisfying than many similar games. I have few true complaints and believe the experience is very rewarding, overall.
That is why I wish to see small frustrations and details like these further improved. The more FFXIV can refine its combat/targeting/camera systems, and increase their fluidity and responsiveness compared to other similar games, the more players FFXIV can draw in, satisfy, and keep.
While my complaints and criticisms do stem from extensive personal frustrations fighting with the camera/targeting system, they also are formed by my desire to see the world I enjoy continue to grow and thrive.
Originally Posted by Bebekurenai
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