An open petition / discussion about Animation Lock and FFXIV

[MegaMage]

As this is my first post to this forum I will not be nerd raging in this post. However, I have spent a few hours scouring the forums today and have seen this topic mentioned but never really addressed...

I would like to address it. I would like a Dev to address it as well.

I haven't seen anyone (please correct me if I have missed a post) on the Dev team bat an eye towards what most people consider a huge design flaw in this game. The pace of FFXI was in such a way that you were mostly "camping" things and thus animation lock wasn't such a problem (albeit still a problem).

This is not the case with FFXIV.
FFXIV is a game that is designed at this place in time to be a high paced action MMO and our characters need to be able to respond accordingly. All other MMOs in this same genre and pacing do not force the players to be stuck in one spot while they activate abilities. As the fight Ifrit has proven, we need to be able to be in control of our characters at a moments notice in order to survive. Currently, we have to be extra observant and try to guess when Ifrit will activate abilities in order to not die from animation lock. As many will agree, this is not an acceptable way to "challenge" your players. As any MMO in this same genre with similar pacing will tell you, the players should -never- be out of control of their characters unless some outside force (Like Sleep or Stun) has caused them to. We know that they have the capability to deal with animation lock because they already implemented a similar fix to the active/passive mode switching.

(I'm aware that the graphic engine is being redone in 2.0, but I have not seen a single Dev post about animation lock and whether or not it is being addressed in 2.0 or before. I and many players would like to know.)

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This is why I am starting an open petition among the players of FFXIV; to either address their position on animation lock (at the very least) or provide us some clarity on when/if this issue will be dealt with (and how it will be dealt with) as it will heavily affect many players decisions to continue playing FFXIV. --Especially after the end of the free period.

Please like this post or respond with "Name signed [date]." I will be adding names to the list as they come in from posts. Let's try to get the Devs attention on this issue.

Thank you all for reading.

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Petition Signed by:

Mega Mage [11/27/2011]
Liar Lips [11/27/2011]
Neptune Deepsea (Neptune) [11/27/2011]
Premium Virtue (viion) [11/27/2011]
Dragonhaven [11/27/2011]
Lionheart [11/27/2011]
Grover Eyeveen [11/28/2011]
Geumran Utym [11/28/2011]
BlaiseLallaise [11/28/2011]
MistyMew [11/28/2011]
captainpicard [11/28/2011]
Krausus Dracul [11/28/2011]
Sanlord [11/28/2011]
Rowyne [11/28/2011]
Vexerus [11/28/2011]

This list is truncated as the people who thumbed up this post should also be considered.

[MeowyWowie]

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

[MegaMage]

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

Can you please back this up with an official post?

[MeowyWowie]

Can you please back this up with an official post?

Yoshida interview with rpgsite.net

RPGSite: With the new server systems, will the major game breaking issues such as animation lock, server lag latency, positioning imprecision, and interface lag be greatly reduced?
Yoshida: Yes, all of these things will be fixed.

Source: http://pc.rpgsite.net/interviews/327...-naoki-yoshida

Edit: BTW, it only took me about 10 minutes to find this using the search feature >.>

[viion]

Yoshida interview with rpgsite.net



Source: http://pc.rpgsite.net/interviews/327...-naoki-yoshida

Edit: BTW, it only took me about 10 minutes to find this using the search feature >.>

While it is saying they will be fixed, it would still be nice to get more details specifically related.

It could even just be fixed in their eyes as "reduced". locking from say 2 seconds to 1 seconds is not fixed so clarification I think is needed.

[MegaMage]

Yoshida interview with rpgsite.net



Source: http://pc.rpgsite.net/interviews/327...-naoki-yoshida

Edit: BTW, it only took me about 10 minutes to find this using the search feature >.>

Great information! I must have glazed over it in my searching. However, this says "greatly reduced" and his answer is also incredibly vague. I would still like to have more information. Thank you for linking this, however.

I would like to see some detailed information from a Dev specifically on this forum and not from an interview.

[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.

[Lauro]

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

I really wish we could get an OFFICIAL Confirmation of this

[MeowyWowie]

I really wish we could get an OFFICIAL Confirmation of this

It's already been confirmed via interview. Now, if you want a more detailed answer, then yea, we'll have to wait.

[MegaMage]

I really wish we could get an OFFICIAL Confirmation of this

Exactly. All I'm asking for is a few answers and yet people seem fit to think "oh well you just suck because you can't play outside of animation lock." Not that I need to defend it, but I've won Ifrit plenty of times and don't need any more skill. I say to those negative people: Thanks for the suggestion, but you really have no idea what you are talking about.

It seems like the player fan base of SE/FFXIV are totally brain washed from being jerked around for years in XI. I'm actually laughing out loud every time I open this thread now and see all these posts about animation lock being a positive thing. Doesn't seem like many of the people supporting this have any experience with MMOs outside of FF.

Do you really want everyone and their mother kiting mobs around to avoid damage? It'd kill any notion of tanks in a pt.

You can see a similar example of such a battle system's results in White Knight Chronicles 2. Standard Tanks are outright shunned there.

As it stands right now, heavy armor = tanks in EXP PT. It's already "Kill as fast as possible to increase EXP." This is pretty common in most MMOs with the same pacing as FFXIV and not a new concept. The tanking concept only becomes important later when you deal with raiding. However, all characters participating in a raid should be able to perform their roles without standing apart so greatly from one another that they are marked useless and never invited to that raid. Ifrit is a perfect example of this. Archer gets animation lock from regular attacks? Bam. Instant useless class. You levelled Archer to 50 for absolutely no reason and SE spits on you in response. Time to play LNC, MRD or CNJ I guess. Or quit.

It's no wonder why this concept you're defending is unpopular and considered a design flaw.

I already made my point on another thread and was declared the devil for it, but if you really insist on me repeating myself:

An archer cannot shoot while running period, not in fantasy, and certainly not in real life. Compare the steps necessary to firing a bow to shooting a gun.

bow:
1.nock
2.draw
3.hold
4.aim
5.release
6.follow through

now a gun:
1. load (does not have to be done at time of immediate use)
2. aim
3. fire
4. follow through

Do the math, 6 steps vs. 4. (3 if the gun is pre-loaded) With firearms, you can justify firing on the move, as the mechanics of firing a gun are simpler than firing a bow, and there are firing stances that allow a marksman to fire accurately while moving at a reduced movement speed. With a bow, you don't have that luxery. If you tried to shoot a bow on the run, you would miss at best, break the bow or wind up with a shattered arrow shaft in your arm at worst. The only way archers have ever been able to fire on the move, is from a mobile platform, whether it be a chariot, horse, or if you live on Middle Earth, a shield surfboard. I don't see any of those options happening anytime soon.

Real life & Movies != Video games. Just because something is hyper realistic does not mean it will be a good idea when you create an artificial world with artificial systems that only work by mimicking real life and then skewing reality to be entertaining. In real life you wouldn't be casting magical purple light that suddenly is supposed to heal another characters wounds, even when those wounds keep coming. In real life you wouldn't be taking repeated hits from a giant creature considered a primal god and live to tell about it. Saying "it's realistic and that's why I think it should stay this way because I can just play another class" is being highly counter-productive and very besides the point.

It is rather funny though, about a month ago I posted a strat for archers in Ifrit, and people tried it, and it worked :P Use the mage spots and shoot away. Be smart, you can do 3 shots after each tp attack. Think your way out of a problem.

The problem here is not that a player couldn't figure out a way to adapt like everyone else who actually gets to go as one of the "required classes". The problem is because everyone knows that they are "gimped" from a broken mechanic, they do not get invites. They don't even get a chance to defend why their class should go if it's really in the hands of a more-capable player. This is a direct result of a design flaw. You can't really blame the majority of the player base from shying away from ARC when you are trying to set up a group and have your heart set on winning.