Battle Formations

[Enfarious]

For the most part the impact on bandwidth should be minimimal. Player posistions are already updated, the formation that those positions create can all be handled client side. There's no reason that the servers have to keep track of anything more than they already do.

I love the idea of synergistic attacks, Cnj Aero + Thm Fire = FireStorm, that's a great idea, I don't know if it should be tied to formations, but it's a great idea none the less. That with melee skillchains where a Pld Spirits Within opens a hole for a Drgs Impulse Drive to make it significantly more accurate. Those things would add some real teamwork aspects. Add to that "Optimal" positioning for different jobs and formations that strenghten different stats would truly add some team strategy and encourage team work, and possibly bring in some reasons to not class stack.

[Vaymathias]

For the most part the impact on bandwidth should be minimimal. Player posistions are already updated, the formation that those positions create can all be handled client side. There's no reason that the servers have to keep track of anything more than they already do.

I love the idea of synergistic attacks, Cnj Aero + Thm Fire = FireStorm, that's a great idea, I don't know if it should be tied to formations, but it's a great idea none the less. That with melee skillchains where a Pld Spirits Within opens a hole for a Drgs Impulse Drive to make it significantly more accurate. Those things would add some real teamwork aspects. Add to that "Optimal" positioning for different jobs and formations that strenghten different stats would truly add some team strategy and encourage team work, and possibly bring in some reasons to not class stack.

I think for mage benefiting formations, unless they add a melee based mage sometime, they should be required to keep their distance from the target for "synergy" to take effect, and be in active mode. Choosing between passive refresh and the formation boost maybe should be something the player/party should have to consider.

OR maybe alter it so that once you take part in the battle (hit the enemy or heal/buff and ally who has and enmity) the passive refresh stops and then add a formation that gives the mages/party/specific character(s) an automatic refresh.

[Enfarious]

I think for mage benefiting formations, unless they add a melee based mage sometime, they should be required to keep their distance from the target for "synergy" to take effect, and be in active mode. Choosing between passive refresh and the formation boost maybe should be something the player/party should have to consider.

OR maybe alter it so that once you take part in the battle (hit the enemy or heal/buff and ally who has and enmity) the passive refresh stops and then add a formation that gives the mages/party/specific character(s) an automatic refresh.

Agreed, I also think that they[mages] should have to be within a certain range of eachother to ensure that the "mana channels" cross properly to create the desired effect. Say 6+ yalms from the mob, and < 4 yalms from one another.

A melee mage, like blu or rdm, I would think that if they are in a proper line to be on the "mana channel" of other mages they should be able to "link" to that "channel" to also create synergistic effects.

[Enfarious]

I think some pics of possible positioning with descriptions of the benifits, and drawbacks should get done up.
Yeah I posted this just to increase the post count to try and get some dev attn ^^

[Shurrikhan]

Would love to see something similar to battle formations, but wish its need/advantage came from the groundwork of the game. It's not that I wouldn't want to memorize a library of formations if there should end up being a lot. It's just that I'd rather create whatever works for the situation on my own, based on finer and more nuanced details than prescribed formations could probably supply.

However, that would require additional programming within range--damage conversion complexity (including damage taken, and % damage sharing when stacked), enmity calculations, enemy weak points (not just for damage taken), and a lot of other things that you might not notice separately, especially if playing on your own, but altogether would make huge differences. I'll give some examples if wanted, as I come up with better ones.

As for chain-casting, I almost thought FFXIV was going to make that a trademark game feature from the beginning. But, better late than never. : P

My only contention is whether or not chain-casting should be purely movement based, such as moving across the before-mentioned mana channels between the original caster and the mob, or through a sub-targeting system instead, which could redirect the mana channels, or simply combine upon reaching the mob, with differing effects.

Do you want to ignite the mob, and then create a whirlwind on it with which to rip off and throw smoldering hide and armor, or do you want to intensify the flames before reaching the mob in order to increase its penetrating force, etc?
I'd also like for there to be times where separate casts are more advantageous, just some times.

Either way:
Something to make movement and positioning more important, preferably in a realistic manner -- love it.
Chain-casting -- sold by default, as long as it doesn't force strategy.

[Enfarious]

I also wouldn't want this to be something that ended up "forcing" people into certain formations.

I'd also go so far as to say that the benefits derived from being in any given formation shouldn't be so huge that they make anything else not worth doing. If that happens we'd just be in another "This is OP, This is Too Weak" deal. I think that to combat these situations, especially in the cases of class stacking, making it so that no more than 2 of the same attack type can be "chained" for "synergy" bonuses. So if a polearm WS hits then another polearm WS attempting to add a 3rd would destroy the delicate balance needed to maintain "synergy" and the effect would end, but axe > polearm > h2h > polearm > thm_spell > cng_spell would be fine since no skill type is repeated more than 2x. Of course a maximum number of abilities would have to exist too, maybe, depending on how large the bonus is, you could string up to 16 skills for 10% dmg bonus or +25% effect duration and it might not be to OP.

On dynamic party formations, I think that this is really the idea, certain effects granted from certain positions and distances, there's no "forced" line ups. Ranged and Mage types could array themselves where ever they want just like they do now, but mages being in close proximity to one another would provide distinct advantages. Melee would still mostly want to line up the same way we do now, DDs to the sides/back, Tank in front, they'd just gain the benifit of being able to utilize hit and run attacks from behind the tank when they do need to be in front of the mob, Conal AoE for instance wouldn't hit them so much because the tank would be like a person sized shield for them. 2 melee on the left of the mob would for instance be able to capitalize on one anothers attacks, the first gets the kidney shot and when the mob bends with the hit the other goes for the exposed head shot.

At least that's what my brain sees.

[Shurrikhan]

At least that's what my brain sees.

It and mine see alike. And I like what they see.

[Enfarious]

A thread that gets crazy in depth on similar ideas.

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...l=1#post693432