An open petition / discussion about Animation Lock and FFXIV

[MegaMage]

I would agree with maybe weapon skills having an animation lock seeming you'd be focusing attacks on that. However, casting cures and using abilities (things that in the roleplaying world would be considered as skills a character has attributed to them intimately) should definitely not have animation lock. It irritates me that I want to use Soughspeak + Cure III to keep hate low and instead it's just better to Cure and use nothing. The current Ifrit strategy of "use nothing and be aware of swipe/abilities" is really boring. Although they are changing the number of abilities we get, if we still don't use anything but the same 4 spells and move around the whole fight that is not innovative nor is it challenging.

[Xquiel]

Animation lock is fine. I'd rather that than have abilities and run all over the place. A good example is how archers attack. An archer needs to take aim, realistically, if hes moving and jumping everywhere, hes gonna be really inaccurate. But that's just aesthetics. Its part of strategy... Here is an example: at lvl 15 as a PUG I'm fighting moles around drybone. Moles have that wonderful dig attack that if you notice their attack patterns, will see they use this move towards the end of their lifespan. You should be expecting that it will activate the technique, and anticipate when is not a good time to pop a skill so you are not locked to your location when the mole digs. I've only fought mini ifrit so i have no boss mode comparison, but i think animation lock should stay.

agree, the same with ifrit battle =)

[Vanguard319]

Animation lock is fine. I'd rather that than have abilities and run all over the place. A good example is how archers attack. An archer needs to take aim, realistically, if hes moving and jumping everywhere, hes gonna be really inaccurate. But that's just aesthetics. Its part of strategy... Here is an example: at lvl 15 as a PUG I'm fighting moles around drybone. Moles have that wonderful dig attack that if you notice their attack patterns, will see they use this move towards the end of their lifespan. You should be expecting that it will activate the technique, and anticipate when is not a good time to pop a skill so you are not locked to your location when the mole digs. I've only fought mini ifrit so i have no boss mode comparison, but i think animation lock should stay.

I agree, people were whining about how weaponskills weren't impressive or unique enough, now they're whining even more about the animation lock caused by these flashy weaponskills THEY demanded.

Seriously people, flashy moves and lock, or no lock and boring moves. Pick your poison and live with it.

[Dragonhaven]

They need to just get rid of all animation locks! They removed it for pulling out your weapon and putting it away why they did not remove it for everything else is beyond me. I agree that the vague answer is not any answer at all its just a delay tactic. How about posting the fix for the horrible delay, position lag and animation lock on the design chart for the game, honestly this is my biggest issue with the game id throw down the full price for membership in the game if this was looked at as a big issue by Yoshi. This issue actually affects end game play and battle, it prevents a lot of people from enjoying iffrit (myself, and several people who I have spoken to in game about this issue). Please fix this soon I wouldn't care if you took out the moogle battle, adv jobs etc as they mean nothing if everything which is kept server-side (retarded) is lagged to hell.

[MeowyWowie]

Well, it looks like they will be removing animation lock completely anyways.

However, I would prefer if they kept it for weapon skills. Using abilities and casting magic while running seem realistic, but weapon skills, not so much.

[Buddhsie]

Taken from another thread, please read:

For the record, animation lock isn't a mistake, it's realistic and it's an obstacle you have to deal with when playing. If you don't like animation lock, then don't use weapon skills like Doomspike II. If you can't avoid using it, then plan better, don't blame the game for something like dying to Ifrit because you aren't able to time weapon skills appropriately.

Same can be said for abilities.

umad.

[lackofwords]

First lets define what an animation lock is, or at least what I think it is
Animation Lock - the lost of control or limited of control character upon a certain animation caused from executing a certain action.
Such as;
Animation lock is during the moment a spell is casted or weaponskill is executed, the player is unable to move or cancel the action.
Animation lock for basic and auto attacks is negligible or non-existent.

I honestly thought animation lock was part of the design. It only seemed to make sense not to be running away while your character is in mid-attack animation from a weaponskill. They did take away animation lock for drawing and sheathing your weapon though, so that only reinforced the idea that it was their intent to leave it in.

Additionally, if it was part of their design, then they should have given the player more choices to pick from short animation locks to long animation locks. Almost all of the animation locks now pretty much leads to the players death if chosen at the wrong time.
"Oops, didn't mean to cast a spell now" -> death
"Oops, didn't mean to do that long flashy weaponskill now" -> death

Take for example where some animation locks were part of the gameplay for more action oriented games;
-Souls/Dark Souls where you can't run away when swinging a giant maul.
-Or almost any fighting game where you can't run away when executing a combo or special attack.
These types of games offer a huge range of short and long animation locks. Additional some fighting games even allow you to cancel your action mid-way as a feint.

If it was truly not part of their design, then moving during mid-action should cancel, or nullify all damage the weaponskill, magic spell, or whatever the action would have done. However, it didn't seem like they wanted to have movement as an action interrupt as you could clearly see how they've applied odd work-arounds to cancel spell casting.

[Dreadnought]

there is almost 0 animation lock in SWTOR.
even though it is not an ARPG, it sure as hell feels like it, and its all due to the absence of animation lock. melee or mage.

[Buddhsie]

Please don't reference SWTOR, it sucks, like.. a lot.

[Dreadnought]

Please don't reference SWTOR, it sucks, like.. a lot.

lol ok, cuz your opinion is infallible.
i happen to dissagree and so do soooooo many other people including the great reviews by other dev companies.
for the record i hated WoW and no SWTOR is not a WoW clone.

if you enjoy terrible features such as sub targets and animation lock on every. single. ability... then i guess im the one with the infallible opinion. i wouldnt be surprised if you want lame Gobbue mounts too.