System Transparency in FFXIV

[SargentToughie]

FFX, in my opinion, has the best turn based combat in the entire FF franchise. I've been playing through it again recently, and the further I go, the more upset I am at the fact that SE seemed to completely abandon the way that it played afterwards in favor of going to the more quasi-MMO action based FFXII.

I like the battle system in FFX so much that, despite valuing writing and world building far higher than battle systems, putting FFVI and FFIX at the top of my list, FFX is still in contention for my 3rd favorite FF just off the merits of it's battle system alone.

So what makes FFX so special, then? And what does this have to do with FFXIV? Well, to break it down let's take a look at a standard encounter in FFX.


FFX gives us a ton of information. More so than any other turn based game, at least at the time of it's release. Just from this one screen alone we know the enemy's turn order, how much HP they have, what element they're weak to, and how weak to it they are.

And there are games out there that give us even more. Up until about a month ago I was playing Dissidia Final Fantasy: Opera Omnia, a mobile gatcha game with Dissidia battle mechanics. This game plays almost exactly like FFX, but goes even farther to tell us the potency of our buffs/debuffs, and who the enemy is planning on attacking on their turn. Were I not easily sucked in to spending on Gatcha games due to a gambling addiction, I'd still be playing DFFOO just off the merits of it's battle system alone.

These games give us a ton of information about ourselves, our enemies, and the battle flow in general. Having this information allows for the players to make informed decisions, and it allows the developers to create truly harrowing mechanics that, while broadcasted, are still absolutely terrifying if not dealt with properly. It creates a more fair system as opposed to simply blindsiding the player with an overpowered attack that they weren't prepared for.

Simply put, the more information that you can place transparently in the hands of your players, the better. That's what I've believed since my first playthrough of FFX, and I hold it true today. On that note, I've been of the opinion for years that FFXIV would benefit greatly from being more transparent with it's playerbase.



Okay, cool! So this stat does everything... Uhh... How much does it do, exactly? If I have 2000 Determination, how much stronger are my attacks, or my heals, than if I had 100? What about Critical Chance, or Direct Hit? Tenacity? Why are these numbers hidden from me?

The only way for me to try and get an idea of how much value I'm getting out of these stats is to create entirely different sets of gear, meld them to max out a given stat, and auto-attack a dummy for about 5 minutes while logging the differences, or just look up the stat weights online. The dev team seems to believe that the mystique adds something to the experience, but there's a reason that Dervy's blog gets absolutely lambasted every time a new expansion comes out. People just wanna know the value they're getting from their stats, they want to see their number go up.

I asked one of my other, more MMO savvy friends about how other games do it, and he provided me with this screenshot from WoW.


I think that's really cool, and I think FFXIV would benefit from doing that to it's secondary stats. It would allow players to get more excited over a big gear upgrade, and it would allow the playerbase to make more informed decisions about their gear path, without needing to rely on people like Dervy to help them through it.

There's a lot more that goes into this whole subject than just secondary stats, but I'm gonna cut it off here before this goes to wall of text-ey. Besides, there are already 2 active threads about those nasty P-words going right now, so I'd like to keep that talk away from this thread if possible.

So that's it. Hopefully this thread starts some healthy conversation about the transparency in FFXIV, and other ways it could be improved. Thank you to everybody that took the time to read all of this.

TL;DR - showing us in-game stat values would be pretty cool.

[MoroMurasaki]

Very much agreed. ESO also gives you complete transparency with stat values and what they augment.

I think to an extent this is due to the idea that other MMOs have more diverse builds for their classes. In this game there is one optimal way to play BRD, in ESO there are several ways to play each class even at endgame that all aren't just viable but have complimentary strengths and weaknesses.

Basically we don't "need" that same transparency here. Not saying I don't want it or course, I very much agree with your post, but it isn't as technically detrimental for things like stat weights to be questionable when the only substantial differences in gameplay come from minor variations in gear sets.

[Vid]

I think to an extent this is due to the idea that other MMOs have more diverse builds for their classes. In this game there is one optimal way to play BRD, in ESO there are several ways to play each class even at endgame that all aren't just viable but have complimentary strengths and weaknesses.

This is rather huge. There are no typical "builds" in this game. For those of us who raid and like to optimize we pretty much figure out what stat(s) would benefit us most and optimize our gear around that. But your rotation for dps, or general gameplay with that class won't change based off of your stats.

I'm not sure how WoW is now, but back in the day there was originally 3 talent tree's you could play as per class, and each one was very specific to what it would/could do. FFXIV has nothing like that, you can't suddenly change your Bard to start using a crossbow that fires slowly but deals more damage per hit and has completely different skills, or a Red Mage who focuses more on melee combo's rather then casting spells, or a Paladin who can suddenly be a main healer with the spells to match.

I personally wouldn't mind seeing %'s based off my secondary stats (or for that matter my main stats when upgrading to a new weapon for example), but overall it's not going to change how I play my class in any way other then deciding what gear to pick for optimization. The majority of the playerbase do not raid savage/extreme content, and I dare say they probably aren't nearly as concerned with 2ndary stats other then maybe to ask someone "Hey what's a good 2ndary stat to invest in for SMN?" Now a little more information might influence their gear choices just a smidge, but it's not going to change how they play their class at all.