Suggestion for zone-in cut scenes in 2.0

[Hiruke]

I don't know if you cats already thought of this, but I'd like to lay out a suggestion for the 2.0 release:

Currently, there are some pretty cool cut scenes that play once you get a certain distance into an area, such as Dzemael Darkhold, that shows some of the monsters and environments, then shows the name of the area. I actually like these quite a bit. However, my problem is that by the time I get to where this cut scene plays, my group is ready to get going. Everyone else cancels the cut scene and starts going. If I don't do the same, I'll be left behind, or hold everyone up. This also happens when rolling into beastmen strongholds and whatnot.

What I think you should do instead is this:

When loading into a zone, play the cut scene for that zone, instead of the normal black loading screen. This way I have something to look at instead of the loading icon. Also, make the cut scene unskippable. This will kind of "hide" the load time when changing zones (something I think we'll see more of in 2.0 when areas become smaller), and give us something cool to look at. Ideally, this should be done for every zone in the game. (If you don't want to play this kind of cut scene when teleporting into a zone instead of walking into it, it would still be nice to play some kind of cut scene. Pretty much anything other than the black loading screen would be appreciated, and make the game flow that much smoother.)

On a related note, if there's any cut scene (that plays during a group encounter) you want me to be able to see, ever, you should make it unskippable. A good example is, again, Dzemael Darkhold. Once I get to the Deepvoid Slave, everyone is spamming cancel to skip the cut scene (with good reason - the whole dungeon is on a timer). That said, I've NEVER seen this cut scene played all the way through in-game. The only time I saw it was on YouTube. If you think these cut scenes are cool, and should be seen, you need to sync the whole group up. Either everyone watches it, or no one watches it, or no one can do anything until everyone watches or skips it. Or something. I'm sure people will get bored of the cut scenes eventually, but in all reality, currently pretty much no one is watching them ever. As long as the cut scenes are relatively short, I don't think there's really any problem with forcing people to watch them. As it stands now, 9 times out of 10, you're being forced not to watch them, which means they are kind of wasted (which is shame, because they're typically nice to watch).

[Zyph]

When loading into a zone, play the cut scene for that zone, instead of the normal black loading screen. This way I have something to look at instead of the loading icon. Also, make the cut scene unskippable. This will kind of "hide" the load time when changing zones (something I think we'll see more of in 2.0 when areas become smaller), and give us something cool to look at. Ideally, this should be done for every zone in the game. (If you don't want to play this kind of cut scene when teleporting into a zone instead of walking into it, it would still be nice to play some kind of cut scene. Pretty much anything other than the black loading screen would be appreciated, and make the game flow that much smoother.)

This is impossible, or very hard to pull off. The reason you're waiting at a loading screen is for the models, textures, and sounds for the environment and creatures to be loaded. So, what you're essentially asking is for a cutscene to show you the environment and creatures before the assets have even loaded, hence why it's impossible.

Your second suggestion makes sense though, a lot of multiplayer games have a "Vote to Skip" option that requires like a steep majority vote, so if like you and one other person don't want to skip, the whole party gets to watch. I would support that.

[Hulan]

While I appreciate your motivation for requesting this, and being in a similar position often myself - this isn't something they could reasonably implement (if they don't want to irritate players beyond reason). Most of the content in an MMO is designed to be repeated, most likely many, many times. That means they need to give a lot of thought to things like this; unskippable cutscenes, animated loading screens, stuff like that which seems cool and benign on one or even two views, gets incredibly grating at 5 or 10.

The solution isn't something new to SE, they did it in most of the FF games from X on. You just need to add a flag on the client to detect a "new" zone and play the video just the first time during the load screen. In instances that the video is much longer than the load screen, add a "gateway" (doesn't have to be an actual gateway, but a metaphorical one) that doesn't start the clock until everyone is there and ready. It doesn't solve every problem, but these types of things are impossible to please everyone on.

[Hulan]

This is impossible, or very hard to pull off. The reason you're waiting at a loading screen is for the models, textures, and sounds for the environment and creatures to be loaded. So, what you're essentially asking is for a cutscene to show you the environment and creatures before the assets have even loaded, hence why it's impossible.

Your second suggestion makes sense though, a lot of multiplayer games have a "Vote to Skip" option that requires like a steep majority vote, so if like you and one other person don't want to skip, the whole party gets to watch. I would support that.

Actually, queuing up a pre-rendered avi of the zone, as long as it does not show your character (or any other dynamic elements) would not require any extra time. It's how games like Mass Effect and... well most Western RPGs... have video loading screens.

[Zyph]

Actually, queuing up a pre-rendered avi of the zone, as long as it does not show your character (or any other dynamic elements) would not require any extra time. It's how games like Mass Effect and... well most Western RPGs... have video loading screens.

Right, I was actually going to add a thing in my post about that.

My only issue with it is that if you play at a high resolution, the videos usually look like crap.

While we're here though, FFXIV 2.0 needs better looking loading screens in general, even if it was just a static image

[Vaymathias]

Actually, queuing up a pre-rendered avi of the zone, as long as it does not show your character (or any other dynamic elements) would not require any extra time. It's how games like Mass Effect and... well most Western RPGs... have video loading screens.

Not an MMO but FFXII did it.

[Picoman]

I think it would be cool to see the black loading screen replaced with something more interesting.

Also, it would be cool if the name of the zone overlays upon zoning in the same style as when you enter a stronghold for first time or a dungeon.

A cut-scene every time may be too much.

[Fear]

I'd be happy with a blank loading screen IF they just filled the page slightly with some info, maybe about monsters etc.