An open petition / discussion about Animation Lock and FFXIV

[Chinook]

It's about the player finding the right moments in battle to execute their attacks.

Great post and comparison, that adds up to my opinion that animation lock should stay.

[MegaMage]

Hi Mega Mage,

As a few others have mentioned, I think we need to make sure we're not confusing Animation Lock vs. Server Lag / Latency in the Ifrit fight. (BTW, I'm not saying you don't get it, just stating it for everyone.)

lackofwords' post brings up some very good examples of why real Animation Lock (remaining in place while your Attack is executing) is a valid part of many games.

Look at one of the most famous examples of this in games:

* Street Fighter's Dragon Punch (Shoryuken)

If you execute a Dragon Punch at the wrong time (too early or late), you are wide open to a counter attack from your opponent. That's the risk you take with executing this attack at any given time in battle.

Same here with Ifrit. If you choose to spam Chaos Thrust (long animation, powerful attack), then you have to be prepared to time it right. Ifrit's timing is something one can learn after fighting it a few times. You'll know when you can safely execute a Chaos Thrust, or when you can't.

If we ask the devs to completely remove any true Animation Lock, then people can spam any Spell or Ability or Weaponskill with complete abandon. I can imagine scenarios like this:

* During some major Boss Battle, you focus and cast the most powerful spell in the game (e.g., Ultima or Mega Flare or Fire IV, etc.). Or execute whatever Weaponskill you want.
* Boss starts Dangerous Attack.
* (With No Animation Lock) Move instantly and avoid the attack.
* Repeat.

At that point, all you have to do is just look for Visual Tells (Ground Glow), etc., and just move. The difficulty and danger is greatly nullified. Repeat.

There is a give-and-take in Combat. You can't just spam a Shinkuu Hadoken (Super Fireball) and move instantly on the next frame if you see an Opponent land next to you and start their Super or Ultra. It's about the player finding the right moments in battle to execute their attacks.

Note that Server Lag / Latency is something completely separate and hopefully they do resolve that (as promised with 2.0).

I agree with a lot of things you said, however my post was generally geared away from the removal of animation lock in Weapon Skills and more-to-do with abilities and certain types of spells. I agree that animation lock should most likely stay as is for weapon skills (besides scaling the level/power of a weapon skill to how long the animation lock lasts). However, this concept doesn't lend itself well to things like using abilities or curing.

As it stands healing utilities are already really low. Additionally, the way that animation lock causes you to lose control of your character for such an extended period of time makes it so that using no abilities is considered the best option. This means healing has come down to 1 or 2 spells and stoneskin. However, even this isn't enough to deal with the lag and animation lock endured while trying to keep a tank alive. When I am curing in almost anything that requires movement during the fight...I find myself trying to cancel a cure when I need to move urgently (nearly impossible once you gotten past the very short cast bar) and unfortunately being totally unable to. This may be due to the short cast time or server latency/lag but in any event it leads to the same outcome time and again. My character stops running away from eruption or ghosts, etc to cast a cure and ends up biting the dirt. All over an overly long cast animation lock and lag between casting spells and things that kill you displaying on the ground/around you.

Obviously, I've learned to deal with this and adapt for wins, but more times then not even adapting to the situation isn't enough. You can't predict when something will be too laggy to save yourself or when a cure you thought you cancelled ends up locking you in place 2 seconds later and killing you even though you had moved and tried to do your job to the best of your ability. This would be solved if animation lock wasn't in existence. Why do we have to wait for a new server structure when they are asking us to pay now? Even if it was laggy, as long as animation lock wasn't there I still wouldn't be dying.

I totally agree that lag/latency is also part of this issue and didn't glance over it for any other reason than I'd like to address one thing at a time. I believe if we narrow our questions down and petition for attention on a case to case basis we are more likely to receive direct answers.

[tachikoma]

I support animation lock for specific actions and spells where appropriate, as stated a 6 hit WS should lock you in for a period of time. This is the price you pay for one of the strongest single target WS's in the game. Fix the lag to a reasonable lvl and this animation lock becomes a moot point. I do agree "Light Shot" should be the only non locking skill since it is archers AA.

I do support a slightly increased animation pace for some skills, abilities and spells. Specifically I think abilities should not lock you at all. I support locking as part of battle design where strong big WS's and spells suffer a longer lock period to justify the power and impact they have on a fight.

[Krausus]

I support animation lock for specific actions and spells where appropriate, as stated a 6 hit WS should lock you in for a period of time. This is the price you pay for one of the strongest single target WS's in the game. Fix the lag to a reasonable lvl and this animation lock becomes a moot point. I do agree "Light Shot" should be the only non locking skill since it is archers AA.

I do support a slightly increased animation pace for some skills, abilities and spells. Specifically I think abilities should not lock you at all. I support locking as part of battle design where strong big WS's and spells suffer a longer lock period to justify the power and impact they have on a fight.

Moving during a skill should negate the damage or at the very least with mutli hit skills stop the damage when you move, it allows you to be mobile without exploiting animation lengths. Example: all of the combat in AoC.

[Chinook]

Specifically I think abilities should not lock you at all. I support locking as part of battle design where strong big WS's and spells suffer a longer lock period to justify the power and impact they have on a fight.

Great point about abilities like Ferocity, Blindside, etc .. that shouldn't lock you up.

[UnsayMoon]

My $0.02, but I just don't think SE has the skill or technical knowhow to match up with their competition anymore. Yes I'm thinking of Blizzard. I just feel SE is outmatched on this level.

[Krausus]

/signed Krausus Dracul 11/28

and personally if future content is going to require us to move at a moments notice I would rather not wait for 2.0 to be able to do that.

[Seif]

Animation blending is actually really hard to do and only few dev's have pulled it off successfully like Capcom and From Software.

Considering their history with iffy action titles I'd rather keep the current old fashioned system than ask them to do it the SE-way which as we all know would be to just interrupt the previous animation and start the next one.

Same when people were bitching about the fences having collisions or enemies being not menacing enough. I'd be careful what to wish for.

[Rentahamster]

Animation lock for high power weaponskills and abilities so that the usefullness of the skill is balanced in part, or in whole, by the period of vulnerability - fine.

Animation lock for normal moves and abilities that aren't that useful (especially when mobility is supposed to be a large part of a character's playstyle - see: Archer) - not fine.

[Dreadnought]

Animation lock for high power weaponskills and abilities so that the usefullness of the skill is balanced in part, or in whole, by the period of vulnerability - fine.

Animation lock for normal moves and abilities that aren't that useful (especially when mobility is supposed to be a large part of a character's playstyle - see: Archer) - not fine.

i agree.

a;lsdkfa;lsdfjl;a