Battle Formations

[Vaymathias]

Love the idea. Wonder what the server to client traffic would amount to if it was automatic. And how much they would have to ping the updates. Aslong as it was party only i'd expect it wouldn't be that much. But Devs seem get antsy about bandwidth. Partially because people bitch about it so much. (some times with good reason)

Course if the updates are too far apart it will get abused to death. Form up, get bonus, scatter, run back to keep bonus etc.

All that aside. Would love it. And it would give some real incentive to mid range classes. Theres so much Melee and Full ranged that the Mid or pole range from alot of classic games including tabletop has been lost because it really doesn't matter. For instance despite the Lancer's slight bonus to range over other melee classes it doesn't "keep" anything away from you due to the threat of the pointy end, cause numbers know no fear!

But if you add formation like you have above. and perhaps add even 3 deep formations such as:

X X X 0

There the 3rd X out really has to be at midrange to be in range to hit it could serve as an added bonus to design by the devs, and bring by the players more midrange style classes/jobs. Could definately add a new dimension that we haven't seen in alot of games in a long time.

Oh yes, party only, maybe alliance if/when, but I couldn't imagine how hard it would be on the servers if there were 30 people all wailing on a single enemy and everyone of them would have like 8 battle formation just because of numbers. I'll specify that.

3 deep certainly, possibly 4 if you think about Archers, maybe an arrow head like formation, or even a cross formation (front, back, left, and right of enemy)

There could also be formations that benefit mage abilities, like auto-refresh, so they could go into active mode, aoe range increases, potency enhancements, more spell accuracy, or even recast alterations. The only thing about mages is not really knowing how it would work for them, maybe they would have to be over 8 yalms and in a triangular formation? Or one behind the other? I wouldn't mind hearing ideas for how it would work for them.

[Viritess]

For ranged you could maybe move from Formations to combo synergy. While still close together myabe a cap on how many can be bunched (unless thats a handy way for the devs to write an attack that hits all your mages at once)

Maybe a CNJ's Aero and a THM's Fire on "formation" combo makes a firestorm. Possible effects could include hitting more targets, longer burning with higher damage (since your fanning the flames so to speak)

Since Ranged biggest boon is distance and mobility may have a stronger case for having their "formations" more of a synergy of spellcasting then base placement vs the enemy.

Another idea for casters/ranged in formation could be Maybe an Arher infront of a BLM. when the archer uses say, heavy shot. It gains an elemental dmg, or direct path damage, (aka it hits the target and any enemies more or less directly between the archer and the target.

That could make for some skillful positioning party wide for the tanks to line up multiple enemies, and the archer to target the farthest away. thus hitting all of them.

But the possabilities are really endless.