An open petition / discussion about Animation Lock and FFXIV

[BadJoeRed]

lol, this is sad. There's nothing wrong with animation lock. Learn to play a little bit better and you'll want to delete your own thread in a month.

[Vexerus]

Here's the horse:

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...+biggest+issue

(btw I agree with OP)

[Neptune]

I see a lot of people talking about animation lock as if it's a good thing. It's actually neither bad nor good. It's a tool to be used. Dark Souls is super animation locked, but in that game it's used in a good way to make combat super realistic. In FFXIV it's used in a bad, contradictory way because some animations can be interrupted and some can't, and you get animation locked while enemies don't. Not to mention not having enough time to respond to a prompt once you're halfway through an animation. It should be the case that you have thrice as much time (in case you start an animation right after being targeted) or your animation can be interrupted by you so you can respond in the short amount of time. Right now you have neither.

[Kymusashi]

/signed

Please remove animation lock!



Yes. It's pretty simple, actually. Happens in other games all the time.

If the spell has a 5 second cast time, after the 5 seconds is over and the casting bar is gone, you have successfully cast your spell and should be able to move immediately.

In fact, you should be able to move any time before that 5 seconds is up, that just means you cancel your current spellcasting.

There is nothing worse than being a healer, and watching someone in your party suddenly dying and being helpless to do anything until you're done doing the spell dance. It should be my decision whether or not I want to continue casting a spell with a long cast timer, or cancel and save someone. Or cancel and run away from an attack. That shouldn't be the game's decision.

I agree, that's why the rest of my post suggests that. I just don't think they should remove animation lock for the casting. Call me old fashioned, or a purist, or just old, but it just makes sense to me for the act of casting the spell to be stationary focus.

But I agree, that runnign while casting should flat out just cancel the damn thing.

[Navei57]

If you are stuck in 'animation lock' during the Ifrit fight then it's really your fault for being there. There is really no reason to be stuck on animation lock, ever, if you know when to use weaponskills and so forth.

[XStruckX]

Eh, if they fix the latency then I'm sure animation locks will be ok. I don't agree on doing a six hit weapon skill and then being able to skip off whenever you are done. On a 6 hit weapon skill there should be some "recovery" / "animation lock".
On the same token you should be able to choose between abilities that have this animation lock and those that dont.

Pierce, Full Thrust, Heavy Thrust = No Animation Lock
Chaos Thrust, Doom Spike = Animation Lock

I guess use a little common sense. A mage setting off a HUGE AOE MONSTER CURE should need a moment to recover after the cast. SE should supplement the mage's spell and ability list with some stuff that doesnt lock you up. A quick Regen or a smaller cure with a longer recast but no casting time. Mix it up I guess so the player can decide depending on playstyle or what the party needs at the moment whether or not the player will suffer from "animation lock".

[Soukyuu]

Also, i think the lock should engage the second you hit your button, not 3 seconds after it when you are done casting and already running somewhere.

It does! For the server that is. And that's where server lag hits you. Monster casting animations are long enough to be able to run away even if you are in animation lock when they start (for example, Puk's Backflip) But because of the latency, the server gets the info you GTFO'd too late.

[Kailok]

How can you claim that there is more action in those games than FFXIV?

Easily.

Rift (Though I stopped playing long ago) has it's "rifts" content, and even though it's a tad boring for ME (due to general lack of strategy required), it's still on a larger scale than anything in XIV currently.

Aion - To consider Aion, you need to look at it for what it was made to be: PvP MMO. And when considering this PvP element for Aion, raiding fortresses in the Abyss is also on a much larger scale than anything in XIV currently.

WoW - Don't really need to explain it but I will anyway: Raid content, big-ass bosses, PvP, zone phasing for more interactive storylines.

Guild Wars 2 - http://<font color="red">http://www....HPl_mEU</font> Speaks for itself. (start @50s, s'when the dragon shows up)

Even FFXI - Besieged & Campaign (from my experience up until Abyssea). Both were pretty epically scaled and felt like real action going on.

FFXIV - Other than Ifrit? Well I guess you have Garlean behest-raids...50 NPC-mobs standing around not attacking or raiding anything. Super fun. Or perhaps DH! Running through a zone making mobs chase you instead of fighting them because you have to beat Batraal with 25 minutes left to get the good chest.

While I love FFXIV, it's still lacking a considerable amount of "action". I still play, and I'm still excited to see it grow, but I'm not going to sugar coat the current state of the game with hopes and wishes. I'm going to be realistic about it, know it for what it is, and hope for the best in the future. Which is why I hope Hamlet Defense will be loads of fun.

Back on topic:

I agree with previous statements that casting/weapon skills should be cancel-able in a heated situation. If I were a PUG doing the 6-strike attack, in "reality", if I saw the ground crackling under me, I would stop as soon as I could and get the hell out of there. Same goes for Casters.

[Kailok]

If you are stuck in 'animation lock' during the Ifrit fight then it's really your fault for being there. There is really no reason to be stuck on animation lock, ever, if you know when to use weaponskills and so forth.

Yes, but when the fight is built around positioning and quick timing, Animation Lock becomes less a strategic aspect, more a development flaw. They're fighting themselves with the old + new. They want action where you have to position yourself correctly, yet they're building this content over old servers and animation lock which are keeping people from doing their best. When you have to sit back from doing attacks because of animation lock where you're stuck recovering from the animation that should have finished at the same time the damage was dealt, then it becomes a problem. It's not so much not wanting the reality of getting hit during a WS, it's more the reality of wanting: "WS and Animation need to end at the same time".

[Arcell]

Animation lock is supposed to be removed after 2.0 afaik. No need for a petition.

^this. They're creating an entirely new server system and graphics engine, both hopefully optimized to make the game work as well as it should. There's literally nothing they can do about it right now aside from what is planned for 2.0 which is a gigantic undertaking.