Realm Reborn = downgrade?

[Starlord]

FFXIV 1.0= Eyecandy People leave
FFXIV 2.0= Less animations better everything else= people still "saying" they are going to leave because of it

Damned if you do damned if you don't.

[Arcell]

I wonder if it's a budget issue? Is it expensive to capture animation? Would it delay the game?

I think i read somewhere that Yoshi P didnt want to officially show the gameplay footage because it looked like every other MMO...That gave me hope that he was refering to the animation...Guess that's not the case.

Im Pretty dissapointed that this is the direction the animation is going. Ill give it a try, if its too distracting guess ill find my fix somewhere else. That's really all any of us can do. It's just a drag that i put in so much time, with the intentions on "being ready" when 2.0 launches and there is a possibility i wont even play.

Devs please consider how important of an issue this is to a lot of people.

Not really specific to you but to everyone who says they're considering quitting because of this:

Is this really such a huge issue that you would really quit solely over it? Does it really outweigh all of the other good they are doing for the game? Are you really going to throw away all of your progress, all of that time and effort spent getting where you are, just because of an animation? I can understand being a tad upset about it or even disappointed but to consider completely quitting a game over the lack of an equally fluid start/stop animation, that seems a bit much to me.

Does it suck? Yeah, kind of. Is it a compromise? Most assuredly. Could they have both? It's a possibility. These people (the devs) want the game to succeed just as much, if not more, than we do. If they really thought they weren't making the right decision I imagine they wouldn't do it. If they really don't feel like they could realistically do both by the launch of 2.0 then we're going to have to take them on their word.

I mean this is their job, what they do for a living. If 2.0 flops it could end poorly for them. The success of 2.0 could easily make Yoshida's career, hailed as the guy who fixed a failure of an MMO two years after launch (something that is entirely unheard of). Do you all really think they wouldn't be doing everything in their power to ensure 2.0's launch is a success?

I can understand being upset, I just can't understand completely throwing away all your progress and shunning all the improvements that are being made over a few animations. I guess I should probably stop here though, enough of a rant for now.

[Exn]

1.0 is the past and is based on old overly-complicated code. We are not asking the devs to copy/paste or force implement 1.0's code into ARR. Hellz no. We loved 1.0's animations, but it won't work in ARR... this is agreed. What we are simply saying is that a stop animation unique to ARR can be done. GW2 proves that it is possible in an MMO to have fluid-like walking animations outside and inside of combat with no lag. It's really just a subtle 1-2 second additions of foot placement that should be coded to be overwritten by any next command prompt entered. Nothing major. Simply stopping altogether is just too noticeable and robotic. Unfinished. Unpolished. Especially after 1.0's experience. They are following too closely into WoW territory with character animation expectations.

ATTENTION DEV'S: SEE ABOVE.. & GET IT DONE.

[Elexia]

FFXIV 1.0= Eyecandy People leave
FFXIV 2.0= Less animations better everything else= people still "saying" they are going to leave because of it

Damned if you do damned if you don't.

This actually isn't a damned if you do damned if you don't situation, no one wants to see SE willingly sacrifice anything when everything is supposed to be better.

[LlenCoram]

Not really specific to you but to everyone who says they're considering quitting because of this:

Is this really such a huge issue that you would really quit solely over it? Does it really outweigh all of the other good they are doing for the game? Are you really going to throw away all of your progress, all of that time and effort spent getting where you are, just because of an animation? I can understand being a tad upset about it or even disappointed but to consider completely quitting a game over the lack of an equally fluid start/stop animation, that seems a bit much to me.

Does it suck? Yeah, kind of. Is it a compromise? Most assuredly. Could they have both? It's a possibility. These people (the devs) want the game to succeed just as much, if not more, than we do. If they really thought they weren't making the right decision I imagine they wouldn't do it. If they really don't feel like they could realistically do both by the launch of 2.0 then we're going to have to take them on their word.

I mean this is their job, what they do for a living. If 2.0 flops it could end poorly for them. The success of 2.0 could easily make Yoshida's career, hailed as the guy who fixed a failure of an MMO two years after launch (something that is entirely unheard of). Do you all really think they wouldn't be doing everything in their power to ensure 2.0's launch is a success?

I can understand being upset, I just can't understand completely throwing away all your progress and shunning all the improvements that are being made over a few animations. I guess I should probably stop here though, enough of a rant for now.

As one of the disappointed, I agree. I love FFXIV too much, and except for this little bit of news, I cannot wait until it's out. I need to play it. I won't not play the game, but I'll definitely complain about the animations if they stay the way they are.

I'll just be hopping about on Kwefka while I do the complaining.

[whoopeeragon]

^ ...Now why didn't I think of that chocobo name. Genius.

[Wynn]

Not really specific to you but to everyone who says they're considering quitting because of this:

Did people actually say they would quit over this?

The issue raised is important to me, but it certainly wouldn't make me leave the game...

[JGwinters]

FFXIV 1.0= Eyecandy People leave
FFXIV 2.0= Less animations better everything else= people still "saying" they are going to leave because of it

Damned if you do damned if you don't.

And what do you have to say in their defense for those of us who like unrestricted movement? As per the video, it looks like we won't be getting it. Just curious. I'd say being arbitrarily unable to run in one direction due to camera position is one hell of a crippling move.

[Shadowedge]

FFXIV 1.0= Eyecandy People leave
FFXIV 2.0= Less animations better everything else= people still "saying" they are going to leave because of it

Damned if you do damned if you don't.

1.0 was eyecandy without substance.

2.0 promised to add substance, but at the loss of eyecandy?

Even then, eyecandy isn't the proper term. Like others have said, a major part of the appeal of this game is the connection players make to their (one) character. It's also the reason for the armory system -- so you spend more time with one character, creating an attachment, making you feel more a part of the world you're playing in.

Character animation has a lot to do with that. Watching my character move has made me feel an appreciation for the character I take control of every day. I know there are a lot of anti-immersion people out there (I'm looking at you, BG forums), but it really is the point of playing an MMO -- to feel like you're really part of a living, breathing, ever-changing world. Robotic character movements completely take that away. We're losing some of the little details that made us all think the game had promise in the first place.

Someone made a point about FF games' focus should be mainly about story, and I agree. But wait a minute -- aren't all the cutscenes in-engine? If we ditch some of the amazing character expression and animation we've seen so far, are we going to end up with SWTOR-quality dialog exchanges with nothing more than static talking heads? I don't want to be bored watching a cutscene. I want to witness the cinematic experience that I expect from a Final Fantasy game.

I also want to throw this out there: I kinda' took offense to what Yoshi-P said about the current player base not being a good source of feedback simply because "we've only played FFXI and FFXIV." I did play FFXI for several years. I've also played WoW, Warhammer, CoH, LOTRO, Tera, and SWTOR extensively. Even after hitting level caps in those games and experiencing end game, I kept coming back to FFXI. It had some things I couldn't find anywhere else: a strong connection to my character, an immersive world with so many small areas to explore and little intricate details that made it feel alive, great music, an amazing sense of community, and a great cinematic experience whose storyline really gripped me and made me feel the peril!

Sure, I've played FFXI and FFXIV a lot, but I've also played other games, and I know what I want -- it sure as hell isn't another WoW/LOTRO/Warhammer/Tera/SWTOR clone with a Final Fantasy skin slapped on it. But then again, I seem to be a dying breed.

[LlenCoram]

^ ...Now why didn't I think of that chocobo name. Genius.

Haha, thank you ^^