How games can have less scripted encounters

[Tunda]

I have been playing games since I know games exist
I would like to share How FFXIV can have less scripted fights:

1- add variants that can be manipulated
2- encounters should have decision making based on the current situation
3- rage mechanic is always scripted but with a twist.. it can manipulate variants like boss attack speed been increase, boss move in unpredicted way.. boss can change his mode between being defensive or offensive based on situation.
4- taking advantage of some jobs skills to trigger more unpredictable boss behavior.

These things are not a new thing.. it is a lack part that I feel from shadowbringers that could come back in a modern more fun more engaging way

[MoofiaBossVal]

The most obvious reason why FF14's fights feels stiff compared to WoW's is that the boss always returns to the middle of the room to stand there and cast. You don't get WoW esque fights where the tank ia dragging the boss around the room as the boss hurls lava and the room slowly fills up with lava until there is little space to stand.

[Reimmi]

The most obvious reason why FF14's fights feels stiff compared to WoW's is that the boss always returns to the middle of the room to stand there and cast. You don't get WoW esque fights where the tank ia dragging the boss around the room as the boss hurls lava and the room slowly fills up with lava until there is little space to stand.

Yeah i'd say this too. wow's fights are just as scripted as ff14's otherwise

[EusisLandale]

The most obvious reason why FF14's fights feels stiff compared to WoW's is that the boss always returns to the middle of the room to stand there and cast. You don't get WoW esque fights where the tank ia dragging the boss around the room as the boss hurls lava and the room slowly fills up with lava until there is little space to stand.

You're making miss Sohm Al Hard's Lava Scorpion.

[Jojoya]

The most obvious reason why FF14's fights feels stiff compared to WoW's is that the boss always returns to the middle of the room to stand there and cast. You don't get WoW esque fights where the tank ia dragging the boss around the room as the boss hurls lava and the room slowly fills up with lava until there is little space to stand.

We do have a similar mechanic to the latter where portions of the arena get destroyed to reduce the room the party has to use.

But I agree with you in general. We've always got a very flat circle or square to work with (barring mid fight changes). There is extremely little variety in how encounter spaces are designed (E12 is the only one that comes to mind immediately) and the environments tend to get stale in appearance. Do we really need to have almost every fight on a dance floor?

There are pros and cons for both styles of raid design but ironically for a game that was so bad when it came to story telling, WoW did a much better job of creating immersion with its raid environments. Compare any of the raids in FFXIV with something like Siege of Orgrimmar. As good or bad as individual encounters might be, they don't add up to the feeling created by having to force your way through a heavily fortified and defended city. It's just a shame that WoW didn't add in shortcuts direct to boss room to use after wipes (or did they finally after Legion).

[hydralus]

Doesn't matter how long you've been playing games it doesn't make you an authority on anything related to game design.

[KageTokage]

Doesn't matter how long you've been playing games it doesn't make you an authority on anything related to game design.

It doesn't take rocket science to know that doing the exact same thing with little to no variance is going to get boring after a while.

I also consider it one of the biggest flaws with XIV's design in general and I inherently find random mass AoE spam mechanics like the second Archadion boss' "big" mechanic more entertaining then the "stand here to not die" puzzle mechanics harder content is a fan of.

[hydralus]

It doesn't take rocket science to know that doing the exact same thing with little to no variance is going to get boring after a while.

I also consider it one of the biggest flaws with XIV's design in general.

Precisely the reason why we'd be terrible judges on how to 'fix' this issue. Seeing it on some surface-level "we want more variety in fights" like no duh. Thanks for the input. I'll definitely subscribe to your news letter where next week we learn that if you add variance to a fight, it won't be so scripted.

[Cyllia]

People have given feedback several times and it falls on deaf ears. Keep dreaming I have been for 10yrs now and it's gotten worse. Accept it or move on, it's not hard to path an AI to use a random set of skills at random times but they will never do it.

[CaptainLagbeard]

One thing they could do to reduce the fights being as scripted as they are is randomizing the order of attacks somewhat. The boss usually does all their attacks in a completely set pattern, usually only thing randomized is if an attack has variations it will basically flip a coin on which to do.

One of the best examples I can currently give on normal difficulty content is Thaleia's last boss... The fight will always do the same attacks, in the same exact order every time you go through the fight. Once it's finished one loop of attacks, the attack order does get somewhat randomized, with certain attacks still paired together into a single mechanic but you actually have to react to the boss as it's not just doing everything in a predetermined order.