More Involving Battle Mechanics + [dev1022] Auto-Attack + [dev1032] Class Uniqueness

[OmegaNovaios]

Origin
There is an idea that I found on a thread discussing the auto-attack system and I wanted to give this idea it's own official thread. All credit goes to the user Amsai for the original idea and his post can be found in this link:

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...cussion/page10

I believe this is an idea that will make combat much more involving and engaging to all users, play styles, and roles. I have made some tweaks to the original proposal.

Mechanics
Overview
The main change to these new combat mechanics is the use of the Stamina Bar. Instead of the Stamina Bar being full when not participating in combat, the Stamina Bar will be empty when not actively participating in combat. In turn spending TP and/or MP will fill the Stamina Bar to use "Tactical Actions".

"Tactical Actions" would apply to any action that does not consume TP nor MP and is not affected by a casting timer (spells). Exceptions may be allowed that are deemed worth by SE. Examples of "Tactical Actions" are Provoke, Defender, Ferocity, Still Precision, Bloodbath, and Aegis Boon.

Stamina would progress on a percentage base and not a point base and individual "Tactical Actions" will use a certain percentage of the Stamina Bar. The same way it is now.

Cool downs of "Tactical Actions" could be subject to change if implemented. The rate of progress for Stamina will have to be changed to reflect "Tactical Action" cool downs directly because "Tactical Actions" will be the only thing depleting Stamina.
All classes and roles should will be able to build Stamina effectively.

How Does the Implementation of This System Improve FFXIV?
Instead of players spamming any action they want and only being restricted to the Stamina Bar being completely depleted and Cool Down Timers, players will now have a much more tactical approach to combat overall without dampening the pace of combat.

This system encourages players who do not use any "Tactical Actions" to do so and acts as a deterrent to those who use very many "Tactical Actions". This helps to define roles by allowing all actions to be equipped, but restricting one person to using (for example) 4 DPS (Ferocity, Raging Strike, Still Precision, and Hawk's Eye), 3 Enmity (Provoke, Taunt, and War Drum), and 3 Tanking (Defender, Obsess, and Featherfoot) all at the same time and attempting to perform multiple roles at the same time.

This system makes combat more strategical because players now have a much heavier opportunity cost on battle manipulating actions thus making your tactics have much more impact on the battle based on the choices of the players. For example you will have to make a choice whether your next move should be to Provoke or use Featherfoot rather than use both back-to-back because there is no restriction. If you feel you need more enmity then you should use Provoke to ensure the safety of your party. If you feel you have developed plenty of enmity thus far you can use Featherfoot to help ensure your own safety.

By allowing Stamina to be acquired by consuming both TP and MP then actions such as Red Lotus, Seismic Shock, and Iron Tempest (any melee actions consuming both TP and MP and which I consider to be weak and have a less rewarding outcome based on cost) now have a greater emphasis on being used since there would be a slightly increased Stamina gain.

Players who do not use any "Tactical Actions" will be encouraged to do so to be more effective in combat overall since the alternative is having an unused Stamina Bar.

This will allow parties to encounter more difficult challenges by preventing players to enter battle at 100% strength due to using "Tactical Buffs" before engaging/at the start of combat ("Magical Buffs" will not be affected due to having a casting timer).

Auto-Attack System
Overview
The implementation of an auto-attack system compliments the mechanics above very well. With an auto-attack system players will spend less time governing regular attacks and more time governing all other actions. Auto-attack should be implemented with the ability to toggle on/off by executing the action on the Action Bar to avoid interfering with Crowd Control actions and to avoid attacking in any other event where it is not in the best interest of the player/party. This will also allow players to alternate between primary and secondary regular attack modes by executing those actions.

How Does an Auto-Attack System Improve FFXIV?
Auto attack promotes communication, co-operation, helps with server side lag/latency, and does not pull away from tactical play.

Communication is promoted because you have time to chat.

Co-operation is promoted because Battle Regimens will be much more likely to be used.

By forcing less actions to be entered per second (especially with those players who spam) there will be less lag/latency due to having a server side client. Making the game much more enjoyable and allow actions like Feint to be used in appropriate time windows. Cures can be cast on demand rather than waiting waiting for an inferior attack to finish (much worse if you have several queued up) so you can mass heal if the mob(s) score multiple critical attacks or use very strong TP actions. Normally you would die by the next regular attack of the mob because you can't cast Cure in time due to some issue whether directly or indirectly because of auto attack interfering with mandatory animation delays or lag/latency.

This does not decrease tactical thought put into playing the game. My reasoning for this is because regular attacks are too inferior to really have any thought of judgment over other than "I have to be careful not to screw myself over in case I need to use a specific action immediately without any delay whatsoever" which regular attacks can definitely interfere with. With or without an auto attack I'm spending the same amount of time considering which actions to use because regular attacks are second nature to me (require no thought process behind to execute effectively like blinking).

Mechanics Combined with the Auto-Attack System
How Does having both New Combat Mechanics AND the Auto-Attack System Improve FFXIV
By having both implemented this improves the overall mechanics of the proposed system for both DoW and DoM classes.

DoW will be able to gain TP at a steady rate. Secondary regular attacks can now be appropriately changed to having a longer delay time between attacks since they currently consume more Stamina as a cost to using them over primary regular attacks. DoW Tanks can actively acquire TP over time with auto-attacks while actively Tanking with other actions and makes it much easier to acquire Stamina.

DoM will be able to gain TP at a steady rate. This allows DoM to actively acquire TP while actively participating at Nuking, Healing, Buffing, or Crowd Control role without any interference. This would allow CON and THM to use actions like Radiance or Damnation to help the party out just a little more without the need of spending time away from their current role and to be able to acquire Stamina without the need/want to consume MP just for the sake building Stamina.

Optional Additions
Have the consumption of HP also fill the Stamina Bar to make up for the lack of activity of consuming TP of MP due to spending more time actively tanking since Tank roles also require "Tactical Actions" to be performed at an equal rate of any other role, perhaps requiring even more "Tactical Actions" to be performed than any other role. Also, this will affect Hybrid classes and Soloing which could also require more "Tactical Actions" to be performed due to lack of roles present.

An in-game menu (config) option to toggle auto-attack made between active and passive (present and future if implemented).

What do you think?

Please give your thoughts and ideas and feel free to ask any questions and I will try to answer them. Thank you.

[kukurumei]

<snip>

Kind of exotic. The double edge sword here would be "stacking" of skills/combo and while tactical can be abusable. It does present a certain flow in battle if it becomes a "stacking" game.

The problem here would have a lot to do with the support systems. What brings depth or lack of depth to the idea of a "stacking" battle will hinge on if battles repeat with simple combo/spam execution.

A system you are proposing would be the JRPG Atelier Iris 3 or it's later incantations Mana Khemia type game play, where manipulation of the burst bar was the key to winning or losing.

[tachikoma]

Agreed this idea is pretty radical change wise and its almost 100% certain that battle system changes have already been decided upon and are being coded and hopefully tested already by devs.

In practice the idea doesn't work so well because you essentially are building stamina by using up TP to then activate abilities. For some jobs this is ok like tanking but for DD's this is backwords, you don't want to use abilities after an attack but rather just before in order to buff your next WS. I agree one of the major flaws is the way that we can stack so many attack buffs in a row or emnity moves in quick succession without stopping it makes jobs less unique and more spam happy. This "fast pace of game play" is just spamming stuff as fast as you can. Implementing Auto attack to me is only going to solve half the battle problem. The other side is adjusting the all jobs spam every ability and bust out retarded 3k+ dmg spikes. I think ppl should be forced to make choices no matter the route they take where you must balance your desire to do more dmg vs staying alive etc.