Spell Animations

[finiteHP]

It makes sense to me that all CNJ spells have the same animation because you are calling upon the power the same way for all of them. I would have a problem with THM, CNJ, and ARN (is that the correct abbreviation?) all having the same animation though. I'd be very happy if a job's spells had a different stance than its respective class' spells. Of course this is largely because I really like the new CNJ spell animation.

[Jinrya-Geki]

It makes sense to me that all CNJ spells have the same animation because you are calling upon the power the same way for all of them. I would have a problem with THM, CNJ, and ARN (is that the correct abbreviation?) all having the same animation though. I'd be very happy if a job's spells had a different stance than its respective class' spells. Of course this is largely because I really like the new CNJ spell animation.

That shouldn't be a train of thought though for spellweavers. Just because you can summon a weak spirit with minimal effort one way, doesn't mean you can use the same movement summoning an extremely powerful spirit.

The same goes for elemental magic as well. The more powerful you want it, the more incantations/preperation/ingredients you need for it. This one spell getting stronger over time makes a little sense, but for only so long.

[finiteHP]

That shouldn't be a train of thought though for spellweavers. Just because you can summon a weak spirit with minimal effort one way, doesn't mean you can use the same movement summoning an extremely powerful spirit.

The same goes for elemental magic as well. The more powerful you want it, the more incantations/preperation/ingredients you need for it. This one spell getting stronger over time makes a little sense, but for only so long.

Having a more involved casting animation for the bigger spells would be great, but that wasn't what I was referring to. I should have made myself clearer. I was saying that I don't see a need for every spell to have a different animation like some people want. Just because every weapon skill looks different, doesn’t mean that every spell has to have a different casting stance. I'm not sure how they're treating the spell progression, so I'll use how 1.0 was at the end for spell examples. I was going to say, but obviously forgot, that I'm assuming all the spells we've seen in the alpha video take roughly the same amount of time to cast, so it's fine that they have the same casting animation with the different glow showing what you’re casting. When we get the -agas (or higher tiered spells) that take longer to cast, it would be very nice, but not totally necessary in my opinion, if we used a more involved casting animation (more intricate cane waving for example). THM of course should have a different stance than CNJ and same with ARN and any other spell casting class. It would also be nice if the jobs had a different stance than their class to show that these spells are above and beyond what practitioners of the class are able to do. This is all just my personal opinion of course.

[NoctisXZ]

Having a more involved casting animation for the bigger spells would be great, but that wasn't what I was referring to. I should have made myself clearer. I was saying that I don't see a need for every spell to have a different animation like some people want. Just because every weapon skill looks different, doesn’t mean that every spell has to have a different casting stance. I'm not sure how they're treating the spell progression, so I'll use how 1.0 was at the end for spell examples. I was going to say, but obviously forgot, that I'm assuming all the spells we've seen in the alpha video take roughly the same amount of time to cast, so it's fine that they have the same casting animation with the different glow showing what you’re casting. When we get the -agas (or higher tiered spells) that take longer to cast, it would be very nice, but not totally necessary in my opinion, if we used a more involved casting animation (more intricate cane waving for example). THM of course should have a different stance than CNJ and same with ARN and any other spell casting class. It would also be nice if the jobs had a different stance than their class to show that these spells are above and beyond what practitioners of the class are able to do. This is all just my personal opinion of course.

I don't think anyone wants every single spell to have a different casting animation though, just a little variety. I was using melee skills as an example just because literally every single animation is different.. when you compare the two magic in general, and there casting animations, look absolutely meager and underwhelming.

I know this is only the Alpha build and things can/most likely will change when it comes to a lot of things but that doesn't mean I'm going to sit around and wait and see. From the sample spells that we've seen so far I wasn't really impressed.. perhaps it's just the coloring, maybe if the spells themselves were a little darker and easier to see it would be a lot better. But as is.. and this is not bullshit, you really have to pay attention to see your spell going off. They go off so fast and if you aren't focused on them it's kind of hard to see. Totally losing sight of the spells your casting in the midst of battle is not a good thing in my book, regardless of what tier it is.. just imagine how much worse it'll be when you're in a group. It'll feel like you're not even really doing anything.

[NoctisXZ]

I just wanted to add something to the argument. I think it's almost hypocritical to find the wealth of weapon skill animations perfectly acceptable but when it comes to the lack of spell casting animations I am somehow knit-picking the game.. shouldn't there be some form of balance between the two?

It's almost disgraceful when you compare the footage side by side.. the spells and casting animations are bland as can be while the weapon skill animations and effects are so over the top. I'm not asking for each and every spell to have a different animation.. but the LEAST that can be done is alternate casting animations or something of that nature.

I'm starting to believe that a friend of mine is right.. that no one really cares that much about the magic in this game because everyone is mostly melee. It's tiresome when you're actually trying to have a reasonable conversation about a certain aspect of a game and all you get is two different extremes.

I fail to see how this thread is ridiculous or can be seen as myself just complaining. I am voicing a concern, telling you why I feel that way, and giving solutions. That's constructive as can be.. what's not constructive is people coming in here and having absolutely nothing to say besides the fact that they think this whole topic is rather silly.

As I have said before. Is this a game breaker? No.. it's not. But could it improve the game by just a little.. yes. They obviously want things to be more free flowing and organic so I fail to see how making the same motion over and over like a robot is that...

[Nayto]

I'm starting to believe that a friend of mine is right.. that no one really cares that much about the magic in this game because everyone is mostly melee.

Could of sworn BLM burn was the thing to go in 1.0. Then again maybe that's why people are not caring, because they're just used to BLMs just destryoing w/e with thundaga and mindlessly doing it over and over again.

Though, if that would still be the case. It would be nice if they had different animations for different 'levels' of cast. If going to second tier magics (-gas) i'm hoping that the cast time would be longer, and have a more 'focused' cast animation. So far we've got two animations for two different times.

And like one of the posters said, I really would like different stances for each mage class. It would actually make each mage class feel more unique.

[Andrien]

THM/BLM is getting this casting animation. I like what I'm seeing now, and of course more unique animations will be like adding ice cream with the cake.

[Ryans]

THM/BLM is getting this casting animation. I like what I'm seeing now, and of course more unique animations will be like adding ice cream with the cake.

This is a CGI screenshot so you can't take it verbatim as to what ARR will use for BLM casting animation or spell effects.

As for the original topic, I would much rather see more varied spell effects between the levels than a different casting animation for each type of spell. I actually like the idea of each mage class having one unique casting animation (maybe varying between each race as well) than three or four per class.

I wish we could go back to a tiered system for a few reasons, but this is neither here nor there so long as we get scaled spell effects as we level. I want to see noticeable differences between a level 5 thm and a level 25 thm. It is one of the main reasons I went from being an advocate for mage classes to loathing the blm class in 1.0, blandness in spell effects (plus the overall boring-ness of using the same two spells over and over.)

As far as trying to make a balance between melee and mages, I am tired of this idea. In both animations and play-style, these two divisions in gameplay have been getting blended together more and more over the past few years in MMOs. Maybe it was just noticeable in 1.0 because the lack of choice in class options and it'll change once we actually get more than one magic DD.

[Artiss2k]

This is a CGI screenshot so you can't take it verbatim as to what ARR will use for BLM casting animation or spell effects.

If you take a look back at the limit break trailer you will see the BLM casting is indeed like image posted. you see the WHM casting like we now see in the alpha footage and i believe the PLD casts too.

[Tonkra]

This is a CGI screenshot so you can't take it verbatim as to what ARR will use for BLM casting animation or spell effects.

Heh CGI?

Its an ingame screenshot... its in the section of screenshots on the official website.. and you can see that spell already in one of the ingame gameplay trailers:

Thunderbolt (Burst)


/edit oh i see someone posted it already, but well without link^^

I wish we could go back to a tiered system for a few reasons, but this is neither here nor there so long as we get scaled spell effects as we level. I want to see noticeable differences between a level 5 thm and a level 25 thm.

well i would like it that way... if they could stick to the system which we had in 1.0. in the end.. where the skills automatically scale up with your level.

but with one difference.. that there would be different stages of the specific skill.

so that you have Fire I from lv 1-25... which gets replaced at lv 25-45 by Fire II ..
just for the visuals.. that'd be nice. but i dont think that they are going to do it like that. because i think its motivating to receive "new skills"... stronger spells (visually) even though its just only for the visuals..
but that would be at least somethin.