Discussion: User Created UI Addons?

[Asiaine]

Wow, lots of different discussions going on in this thread.

-- Parsers: They are good if you are interested in game mechanics/formulas. They are good to unveil the hidden meaning and impact of stats and skills. Since we are not told what the formula is, and the observed results are random, only a parser can tell us what the secret formula is.

-- Number Crunching: It can be interesting or even fun to optimize for numbers. However, do we want a game where that is necessary? So far, every Final Fantasy game I played did not care if I optimized for equipment/skills/whatever. I would either win or loose. If I loose, get something better. If I win, then I'm good enough to carry on to the next adventure. FF is not a combat simulator. It's a story telling game where children save the world from evil do-ers.

Now back to topic!

-- User Created UI: If a new UI package appears that a subset of the community deem ultra important and ultra necessary to the point that they will not party with others that do not have it installed then this has a negative impact to those who do not want to use that package. You can see this now with voice-chat. It's pretty much mainstream and many people will prefer not to party (or will refuse to) with others who do not have that voice-chat software. The same MAY become with other addons. For example, ones that show % of health and distance, where strategy says: Stand exactly 12 yalms from target and attack until 63%. (We are almost there now with Garuda and Raven).

But if you dig into those arguments above you can see the real underlying issue:
It is not the tools that we create, or the desire to have optimized equipment that matters. It is the world that SE creates. If they create a world where we NEED to know how to optimize our equipment to succeed, or we NEED add-on tools in order to finish an adventure then people will naturally go in that direction.

If however, SE creates a world where knowing the formulas or optimizing gear are 'nice' but hardly 'necessary', and the benefit of add-on tools are purely cosmetic without any gameplay impact then the need for those will be diminished.

So, Yoshi, what kind of world will you create for us? Where focus is on adventuring and storytelling with only a minor emphasis on equipment, or one where the parser and numbers shall rule us all?

[Reiterpallasch]

-- Number Crunching: It can be interesting or even fun to optimize for numbers. However, do we want a game where that is necessary? So far, every Final Fantasy game I played did not care if I optimized for equipment/skills/whatever. I would either win or loose. If I loose, get something better. If I win, then I'm good enough to carry on to the next adventure. FF is not a combat simulator. It's a story telling game where children save the world from evil do-ers.

That's essentially saying that the game does care for optimized gear/skill/etc. If you can't win, then you need to improve until you can. Obviously, better gear should equal better performance. If it doesn't, then it's a player issue. The issue is that most people can't distinguish between a bad player or bad gear based on the numbers alone. I myself would much rather group with a good player who has bad gear, than a bad player that has good gear. The good player will eventually become great, but the bad one will still just be bad.

I'd certainly hope people want a game where it's necessary to optimize for numbers, otherwise you'd be able to wear anything to kill anything, completely negating the need to ever progress in the game. Lots of games follow "Kill mob > get gear > kill harder mob > get better gear > kill hardest mob > get best gear", and MMOs are typically not all that different.

[Asiaine]

That's essentially saying that the game does care for optimized gear/skill/etc. ..

Please note: Better does not mean optimized.
Upgrading from level 40 sword to level 50 sword is better.
Upgrading sword to the best possible sword for that slot in order to take advantange of maximing each stat is 'optmizing'.

So far, Final Fantasy has only cared: Do you have a decent enough sword for this area.
It has not said: You have to have the best gear in order to finish this quest.