[dev1008] About Jumping

[Tezz_Xivectro]

Hi everyone, this is Producer/Director Yoshida!

Thanks so much for the lively discussion in regards to jumping.
Since the points that we are currently reviewing in regards to jumping have caused a lot of confusion for the community, I’ll go ahead organize them there.

Jump review:

* One form of emotional expression
* Additional action-related expression during movement
* Able to get over small fences (This is not the main idea)

I believe that jumping as a form of expression, which allows the player to indicate the location of NPCs and also to inform others of meeting locations, will be able to be used in many subtle ways.
However comments such as "Aesthetically, the game will be ruined by everyone jumping around," and "It’s not FINAL FANTASY," and other comments were a bit unexpected, so I decided to add these types of comments into our discussion as well.

Though the idea of jumping was based on wanting to reduce the feeling of being tied to the ground, I will continue to evaluate whether or not this should be implemented by following along with your discussions and comments!

Map Collision Detection Adjustments:

* Being unable to descend ledges where it seems you can easily fall off
* Feeling of strangeness when you can't climb up a hill that looks to be easily climbable

We have received a lot of feedback pointing these things out from numerous players, but the task of relieving stress during character movement is currently being tested by development in the form of map collision detection adjustments.
If you can think about this separately from the jump implementation discussion it would really help a lot.

Jump review:

Honestly, you need to see where the majority is at. I suggest in-game polls made easy for player voting as well as on the forum/lodestone.
From what I've gathered so far, the people not wanting jump are a minority, without any good arguments as to why we shouldn't add it.

Aesthetically it will ENHANCE it and it IS very Final Fantasy-esque (especially with good animations). Why/How is it not? People are just afraid of change.

Map Collision Detection Adjustments:

With jump out of the picture. I would consider a system VERY similar to that of The Legend of Zelda. Hopping off ledges and climbing.

At the very least, i believe most would be happy with a Zelda-like system if there were no jump.

[Nephera]

How about clamber, the more sloped the terrain the slower you go but you can always go up it, if you're going slow enough your animation changes to a sort of climbing animation.

[Rowyne]

Honestly, you need to see where the majority is at. I suggest in-game polls made easy for player voting as well as on the forum/lodestone.

I hope that Yoshi-P won't assume that the early kneejerk reactions represent the majority opinion of whether or not it should it be introduced, and how it should be implemented. This is a hot button topic that continues to grow.

He seems to be a fan of polls, and I hope this is also surveyed.

[Betelgeuzah]

Aesthetically it will ENHANCE it and it IS very Final Fantasy-esque (especially with good animations). Why/How is it not? People are just afraid of change.

There has been no jumping mechanics in Final Fantasy before FFXIII (and even then it was automatic), thus I can't say it's very FF-esque at all. One of the best action games of the last decade (MGS, Demon's Souls) didn't have jumping, so the excuse of the game being somehow "inferior" for not having it doesn't apply either.

Aesthetically it can enhance it but the point is that when done wrong it will look dumb. Final Fantasy as a series and as an MMO is more classy than other MMO's, thus free for all jumping around does not enhance the aesthetics, but the opposite. Making it an action that happens when needed (maybe by a press of a button or automatically) is more classy and makes sense. Limitations are not always a bad thing, just like your name always starts with an uppercase letter and you can't use numbers or any weird letters in your name for the aesthetics' sake. The female models are also not merely a pair of huge boobs and ass, and the equipment stays for the most part classy even if mildly revealing. It is simply more classy that way, and so is jumping when you can do it only when needed.