Battle Formations

[ZakarnRosewood]

I think this encourages a very static battle, sit in one place and spam attacks. I'm hoping for more dynamic fights in ARR, ones that include needing to move about and reposition yourself. Like this knock back stuff I read about.

Instead I would prefer to see something where elevation and terrain will be taken into account. A dragoon will do more damage with his jump if he does it off of a higher elevation than the enemy, Same with archers. Lightening will do more damage if the enemy is standing in water. The enemy can knock you off your "perch" as an AI strategy, or you can knock them down so they dont have the advantage over you. Like they did in FFT: War of the Lions.

Thoughts?

[ZakarnRosewood]

I think this encourages a very static battle, sit in one place and spam attacks. I'm hoping for more dynamic fights in ARR, ones that include needing to move about and reposition yourself. Like this knock back stuff I read about.

Instead I would prefer to see something where elevation and terrain will be taken into account. A dragoon will do more damage with his jump if he does it off of a higher elevation than the enemy, Same with archers. Lightening will do more damage if the enemy is standing in water. The enemy can knock you off your "perch" as an AI strategy, or you can knock them down so they dont have the advantage over you. Like they did in FFT: War of the Lions.

Thoughts?

To add to this, I remember in FFT: WotL some attacks could target specific body parts. They have already mentioned incapacitation for boss fights, I really hope it will be like this.

[Blackpearlguy]

To add to this, I remember in FFT: WotL some attacks could target specific body parts. They have already mentioned incapacitation for boss fights, I really hope it will be like this.

Agreed that would be awesome. I'm sure they will implement as it was in FFXI with the NM "Hydra" and a few others i'm not remembering.

Have any of you played FFXI as thief, and tried to Trick Attack off someone whom moves at the wrong time? I can't see battle formations working. People would never know where they are in relation to others.

That was true in an exp party but not in a linkshell event, people would pay attention to where they were at least in my experience. Having a Thief around with those options was really handy as he could put more hate on the tank etc. The idea of "tricking" the monster to give your tank more hate would be a nice option to have. A few of the systems that are being bounced around could work quite well, hope there is something in SE's back pocket regarding this matter.

[Wolfie]

I think this encourages a very static battle, sit in one place and spam attacks. I'm hoping for more dynamic fights in ARR, ones that include needing to move about and reposition yourself. Like this knock back stuff I read about.

Instead I would prefer to see something where elevation and terrain will be taken into account. A dragoon will do more damage with his jump if he does it off of a higher elevation than the enemy, Same with archers. Lightening will do more damage if the enemy is standing in water. The enemy can knock you off your "perch" as an AI strategy, or you can knock them down so they dont have the advantage over you. Like they did in FFT: War of the Lions.

Thoughts?

Wouldn't those fights again lead to a "just drag the mob next to the cliff/in the water, then fight it there" scenario?

You should be focusing less on situational bonuses, and more on designing monsters themselves that require movement and positioning. Adds, conal/directional attacks, pillars of flame, target-switching, resistances and weaknesses, etc.

These will do much more do make battle interesting than requiring the party to do a one-time repositioning at the beginning of the fight, and then having to keep the mob in that same place the whole time.

[ZakarnRosewood]

Wouldn't those fights again lead to a "just drag the mob next to the cliff/in the water, then fight it there" scenario?

You should be focusing less on situational bonuses, and more on designing monsters themselves that require movement and positioning. Adds, conal/directional attacks, pillars of flame, target-switching, resistances and weaknesses, etc.

These will do much more do make battle interesting than requiring the party to do a one-time repositioning at the beginning of the fight, and then having to keep the mob in that same place the whole time.

Absolutely, It would necessarily depend on the enemy AI. They would need to recognize when there was danger (ie, first lightening bolt in water, does AoE knockback, escapes to higher ground) you might need to knock them back to the area you want them in and they would have moves to get themselves out of the situation.

It was just a thought to break up the "tank and spank" method. I'm not saying every enemy or boss would need this to defeat it, just add an extra dynamic to battles. Heck, even have Titan changing the landscape or have pillars we can know over to get higher ground.

I was hoping to inspire added dynamics instead of excuses as to why adding more ways to play would be bad. oh well...