Less particle effects and more gameplay

[Raven2014]

Sometime I wonder if they do it on purpose, and the visual overload is part of the challenge.

For example look at M2S, in my experience beat 1 is where people tend to mess up the most despite mechanically it should be the easiest ... why? Because we have that big visual cue on top of our head that actually blocked our view of the very things we're supposed to avoid. Especially the end of phase mechanic where 3-4 people converse for the stack ... yeah, given how obnoxiously and unnecessary big the icons are, I always tell myself "this gotta be on purpose".

That's crazy. I had to disable everyone's VFX to actually have a measure of visual clarity and see the BOSS pre-DT. Visual clarity is a thing, I don't want to enter a fight and think I stepped into a movie directed by Michael Bay.

I hunt a lot so that's used to be the reason I disable everyone effect except mine so my PC won't have a melt down. Two weeks ago I was curious about PCT's animaton, and I know I won't be playing that job anytime soon so I turn on party effect the first time in like ... probably half a decade.

And holy crap I pretty much fail every stacking mechanic in EX2 because I can't literally see ****

[Rueby]

Sometime I wonder if they do it on purpose, and the visual overload is part of the challenge.

For example look at M2S, in my experience beat 1 is where people tend to mess up the most despite mechanically it should be the easiest ... why? Because we have that big visual cue on top of our head that actually blocked our view of the very things we're supposed to avoid. Especially the end of phase mechanic where 3-4 people converse for the stack ... yeah, given how obnoxiously and unnecessary big the icons are, I always tell myself "this gotta be on purpose".

If so, then this imo is horrible design. I didn't experience the fight myself, but there's hardly any skill in making things particularly hard to see or even hurt to look at. It's cheap.

[Mirikh]

I don't think it is done on purpose to block our view here although I get what you are saying. I don't even like the big new red boss alerts but I'm pretty sure they intended them to be helpful. I've heard game designers in other games admit that they do add clutter or places where getting ones camera in the right position is more difficult to make fights harder ("Camera Bosses" ), but I don't see that yet in FF14. In 14 I think it's more just the way they've always done things. I'd love an option to turn down boss graphics.

[Kanehon]

I don't think it is done on purpose to block our view here although I get what you are saying. I don't even like the big new red boss alerts but I'm pretty sure they intended them to be helpful. I've heard game designers in other games admit that they do add clutter or places where getting ones camera in the right position is more difficult to make fights harder ("Camera Bosses" ), but I don't see that yet in FF14. In 14 I think it's more just the way they've always done things. I'd love an option to turn down boss graphics.

When the FF16 collab came out, there was a sizeable amount of requests to use that style of alerts going forward, and that's what they did.

[Daralii]

When the FF16 collab came out, there was a sizeable amount of requests to use that style of alerts going forward, and that's what they did.

I'm fine with them being in the game, I just wish there were options for them. Changing the color, moving them, disabling them, etc.

[GreenLeafy]

Sometime I wonder if they do it on purpose, and the visual overload is part of the challenge.

For example look at M2S, in my experience beat 1 is where people tend to mess up the most despite mechanically it should be the easiest ... why? Because we have that big visual cue on top of our head that actually blocked our view of the very things we're supposed to avoid. Especially the end of phase mechanic where 3-4 people converse for the stack ... yeah, given how obnoxiously and unnecessary big the icons are, I always tell myself "this gotta be on purpose".

And holy crap I pretty much fail every stacking mechanic in EX2 because I can't literally see ****

I really think that's actually the case. Mechanically the things they're introducing aren't much more difficult than they have been in the past. But oh my GOD the visual vomit this expansion is Eulogia on steroids for every basic mechanic. They seem to just have doubled down on this approach since 7.0.

[Absurdity]

I really think that's actually the case. Mechanically the things they're introducing aren't much more difficult than they have been in the past. But oh my GOD the visual vomit this expansion is Eulogia on steroids for every basic mechanic. They seem to just have doubled down on this approach since 7.0.

It isn't exactly a new thing this expansion, Endwalker absolutely already suffered from too much VFX clutter. They've increasingly relied on flash over substance and the ridiculous amounts of particle effects are part of this.

And it isn't just limited to bosses. In an attempt to make job abilities look more interesting than they actually are they plastered giant VFX vomit all over them as well.
Take Warrior for example, I actually like Primal Wrath as a mechanic but good lord is the giant molten lava slam from it and Primal Ruination obnoxious visually.

[GreenLeafy]

It isn't exactly a new thing this expansion, Endwalker absolutely already suffered from too much VFX clutter. They've increasingly relied on flash over substance and the ridiculous amounts of particle effects are part of this.

And it isn't just limited to bosses. In an attempt to make job abilities look more interesting than they actually are they plastered giant VFX vomit all over them as well.
Take Warrior for example, I actually like Primal Wrath as a mechanic but good lord is the giant molten lava slam from it and Primal Ruination obnoxious visually.

I mean , Eulogia is from Endwalker hahah , thought its pretty self-explanatory.
Also agreed that ability vfx is also cluttered but at the very least you have the option to turn those off and for encounters you can't. I turned everyone else's vfx off and party set to limited since Eureka because it was a seizure going through there with the vfx of 50+ players at the same time lol.

[HighlanderClone]

Sometime I wonder if they do it on purpose, and the visual overload is part of the challenge.

Funny how all the WoWfugees praised FF14's "clean mechanical language". In normal content where a tankbuster is highlighted, sure. But the moment they try to obfuscate it, things become a problem. It's just gotten worse and worse.







Now just look at how clean O8S was:

[angienessyo]

Funny how all the WoWfugees praised FF14's "clean mechanical language". In normal content where a tankbuster is highlighted, sure. But the moment they try to obfuscate it, things become a problem. It's just gotten worse and worse.

To be fair, compared to WoW, FF14 is significantly clearer. Dragonflight was significantly better about visual clarity compared to previous expansions, but it still had issues with mechanics that are similar colors as the floor
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzrBdEJtSsU
You'd think those light blue lines would be pretty easy to see but in the moment when you're dodging other things, it could be easy to accidentally run into one because everything else would blend together with them.