I love punching the horns off of goats...

[RichardButte]

Think of how surreal the thread title sounds, but it's actually a LOT of fun.

Seeing as how one of the key ingredients in making arrows is horn glue, I decided to go out and harvest some aldgoat horns of my own. With the help of my LS mates, I learned that I would need one of three special attacks to break the horns off of the Aldgoat Billies in order to get them to drop (concussive blow II).

I can't stress enough how fun this was. Attacking a mob with a goal OTHER than simply whittling its health down to 0 made the encounter much more challenging, fun and rewarding, especially when I got 2 horns to drop at a time. The focus changed from just doing damage to doing as little damage as possible in order to get my TP up and them maximizing the damage and chance to hit of concussive blow II.

We need more situations like this, situations where you're trying to kill a mob under certain conditions (and it would probably help if there were some in-game way for players to learn about this).

Let's take it a step further and have more interaction between player and mob, such as...

-Mobs that need to be killed with a specific element to yield a specific drop (might already be in the game).

-Mobs that can be made friendly to the player through a certain action. Pressing the U key (by default) will allow you to use items on something. Why not feeding something to a mob that will make it follow you for 5 minutes and fight other mobs with you?

-Mobs that can be frightened away through a certain action.

-Mobs that we can communicate with. We have quite a few human mobs out there. Maybe we could tell them to leave us alone (maybe with an autotranslate sentence to standardize it) or threaten them. Maybe you say something like "I'm on your side." and the mob suddenly stops being a mob and becomes an NPC you can talk to.

-Mobs that can be "hired". What would happen if I walked up to a human mob and offered him 5,000 gil? How awesome would it be if he followed me around and helped me until his "contract" expired, after which he'd either start attacking me again or return to his normal location?

Yes, all of this may be a bit much, but I can't stress enough that more interaction between players and mobs is always a good thing. Most MMOs are just "hit it until it dies or you die". I'm glad to see FFXIV is already heading in the direction of new territory with using specific attacks on mobs to yield different results in drops.

[Otemori]

I had no idea that some drops required specific attacks. I think that's a fantastic element. Ingredient collection requiring player knowledge and personal goals not only increases a sense of interactivity, but also a sense of challenge.

[Nephera]

Finally a game where i can punch a goat in the mouth.


They should take a cue from monster hunter and have parts of the monster "break" to signify you've done enough damage to a part to get a drop/chance of a drop.

edit: oh apparently they do do this i just havent fought anything that has

sadface.

[Eiyaya]

what next? you butcher the dodo and slice it off all of its parts for food?
A conjurer's Fire II will result a very well done dodo.

[Dromox]

It's one of the positive elements in the game, I personally really enjoy snapping the antlers off antelope stags, or knocking a goblins bomb out of his hand.

[Reika]

Yes, to get aldgoat horn drops from billies, you need to use Concussion Blow II, and i believe Skull Sunder II will also work. But only from the front.

[Malakhim]

I've been "skull hunting" with some LS mates in Copperbell(or Nanawa... I forget), and it was cool to see the skeleton's heads fall off, but I don't know what other mobs actually have an animation for a part falling off. I'd love to see a dodo's face smashed in when I pull it off, or a malboro tentacle just being lopped off.

Can anyone tell me what other mobs have animations for this?

[darkstarpoet1]

well mobs that i know of that you can see incaps on are

great buffalo
antelope stag
billygoat
mosshorn billygoat
one of the beastmen found around the red labrynth also, but cannot remember the name.

these all take special attacks that you can level your character and acquire, but they also require a certain amount of damage to incap. the billygoat for example needs shrieker(arc), concussive blow 2(pug), or skull sunder 2(mrd) and needs right at 1k damage give or take to break them off. this type of farming has led me to many hours of fun in solo and groups due to the not just tryin to kill the mob, but accomplish something in the process of killing the beast. it led me to level multiple classes to have the ability to not only kill those beasts, but also be able to see that animation of the horns getting broken.

btw, i am sure there are alot i have not mentioned, but just tryin to give a response off the top of my head.

[Dromox]

well mobs that i know of that you can see incaps on are

great buffalo
antelope stag
billygoat
mosshorn billygoat
one of the beastmen found around the red labrynth also, but cannot remember the name.

these all take special attacks that you can level your character and acquire, but they also require a certain amount of damage to incap. the billygoat for example needs shrieker(arc), concussive blow 2(pug), or skull sunder 2(mrd) and needs right at 1k damage give or take to break them off. this type of farming has led me to many hours of fun in solo and groups due to the not just tryin to kill the mob, but accomplish something in the process of killing the beast. it led me to level multiple classes to have the ability to not only kill those beasts, but also be able to see that animation of the horns getting broken.

btw, i am sure there are alot i have not mentioned, but just tryin to give a response off the top of my head.

Skeletons(can knock off their heads), Cobyns(can break the crystals on their back, they can also break them themselves) Goats, Antelope STAGS, Buffalo(break their horns). Can also knock down Piestes, Buffalo and they fall on the ground.

[Arcell]

I've always been behind this idea, ever since I first saw it in Monster Hunter. Break parts of monsters to increase rewards or disable certain moves, it adds a great layer of strategy to fights. I certainly hope we see this trend continue, I'd love to see this become an integral part of some boss fights.