dev1037 battle effects need a lot more than a resize

[Malakhim]

I can only imagine the anguish that was going through Triairy's mind when posting that:

"Oh man... The forums are going to be in such a shitstorm because of this... Geez."

[Aldaine]

Even though the battle effects aren't something that should solely focus on at the moment, it is definitely a key factor. When you spend hours and hours leveling to get better skills you don't want to gain the new skills to find out they look the same or look like something you could produce in your home in real life o_O. You want something that not only does a lot of damage but also gives a visually stimulating effect, whether it be the animation or for some of you, how large the effect is =O

[solracht]

I'd have to agree with this. Especially in the video clip posted by the OP the duration of the animations are too short that they are very much 'blink and you miss it'.

While I would like to see better animations as much as the next person, resizing probably won't be enough on its own as a quick fix solution.

In case what I was talking about isn't clear (not saying that's your case):

Look at this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wdkMBIwDCI

At 00:31~, third eye, meditate, and penta thrust are used. The effects stay until they're done, while the character model transitions to the animation for the next attack.

I haven't found a good video example for FFXIV, but that simply doesn't happen in this game.

Using Raging Strike and Ferocy the same way (in quick succession) will cut off the graphical effect created by Raging Strike in a very ugly and abrupt way. The effect just dissapears as Ferocity is used.

Ask yourself this: does it really matter if casting Aero IV brings forth hurricanes and tornados, if they're going to awkwardly dissapear midway because you used Spirit Dart?

[MonsieurVerde]

Even though the battle effects aren't something that should solely focus on at the moment, it is definitely a key factor. When you spend hours and hours leveling to get better skills you don't want to gain the new skills to find out they look the same or look like something you could produce in your home in real life o_O. You want something that not only does a lot of damage but also gives a visually stimulating effect, whether it be the animation or for some of you, how large the effect is =O

Size matters.

[Jennestia]

In case what I was talking about isn't clear (not saying that's your case):

Look at this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wdkMBIwDCI

At 00:31~, third eye, meditate, and penta thrust are used. The effects stay until they're done, while the character model transitions to the animation for the next attack.

I haven't found a good video example for FFXIV, but that simply doesn't happen in this game.

Using Raging Strike and Ferocy the same way (in quick succession) will cut off the graphical effect created by Raging Strike in a very ugly and abrupt way. The effect just dissapears as Ferocity is used.

Ask yourself this: does it really matter if casting Aero IV brings forth hurricanes and tornados, if they're going to awkwardly dissapear midway because you used Spirit Dart?

Thing with XI though, the animation system was quite glitchy with it's auto attack, that if you do animations or abilities just before the attack, you can kill off the attacking animation and just produce the damage, e.g if you use Saber Dance right before attack around, when the animation ends you can produce a full 8 attack round damage without even seeing it.

XI's also happen that way under certain circumstances (especially if you blink), on DRK I use LR > SE > DS > NV and only Nether Void's animation fully plays out because of the use in quick succession but XI's animation is broken into multiple .dats where XIV's shares a single one.

XIV's animation engine is a lot more sensitive to it because of that reason than XI's but in both games it happens, the main culprit is Skillchain animations in XI where it will completely vanish effect wise and from your log if you change any gear.

[Kazimir]

I think this is again ppl stuck in ffxi. In ffxi those were acient magics and getting them wasn't easy. They hand long cast times consumed a tone of mp and did a ton of dmg. More so with a magic burst.

The spells in XIV also consume a lot of MP, the only problem is they don't do a ton of damage because they were poorly implemented. Besides, how can you have names like quake, tornado, or freeze when you don't have any effects that show a tornado, the ground shaking, or the mob being encased in ice. It simply doesn't fit.

Some magic abilities don't even have effects, or they are so small or so boring they are hard to notice like "Slow" for instance. I think a lot of spells are also done too quickly. Things like Water. Blizzard, and Thunder last about a half a second. The spells in not only XI but a lot of other FF games last at least 1/2 to 1 second longer depending on if is an enfeeble or damaging attack. That might not sound like much to some people, but I guarantee it would make a big difference, especially in conjunction with the larger effects coming up.

And also for the record, minus a few weapon skills. ffxi had alot of reused animations

Very true^ XI did have more unique looking WS's though. Let's take MNK motions for example. They reused the one-punch motion for about 3 WS's, but they were all slightly different with very different and unique effects. Effects that actually overshadowed the fact that you were using a similar motion. 7 WS's were completely different. That is up to level 75 however so I will point out that up to level 50 (the original cap not unlike XIV) All of the WS's had their own unique motion and effects.

I'm not saying XIV should have all unique WS motions, because there are way more TP moves in this game than there was in XI but I was playing LNC yesterday, I had 4 WS's in my bar. 3 used the same motion and a very similar effect of wind encircling my blade, so the effects were way to similar to overshadow the fact it was using the same motion. That is a problem.

I feel another big problem is the fact that WS's don't seem to have any elemental attribute like XI, which is what allowed XI to make various and unique WS's. Why are all of my LNC stabs just a burst of wind around the blade? Why can't Doom Spike contain Umbral damage and do some sort of dark-based attack like I'm stabbing into my enemies soul? There is a lot of room for improvement.

Personally, one thing that makes the leveling process in MMO's fun, is looking forward to new abilities and skills. Whether it was FFXI, WoW, or Aion, I had a sense of anticipation knowing that I had some cool WS coming up, or a new one I didn't even know about that I really wanted to see the animation of. In XIV I don't have that feeling. I know the abilities I'm going to get will look boring. The only ability that I've been remotely excited about getting is Simian Thrash and I can't even hardly use it that often.


As far as peoples bashing and complaining about this dev tag update goes, lets try not to assume they aren't changing the actual effects somewhere down the road. Doubling animation size is an obvious quick fix. Re-doing animations is not a quick fix, it takes time, and there are more important things for them to fix right now. However, it is good for people to say what they would like added on top of this animation size increase. That's why these forums are here, and this is the perfect dev tag to comment on for that purpose. Just don't do it in a manner belittling the dev team or comment as though you're assuming they have no plans of fixing the effects. That does not help and it doesn't get us any closer to a change. In fact, it makes you look a little foolish.

[Betelgeuzah]

solracht has a good point and I wish people would speak about these things more, instead of aggro icons and death penalties. The actual animations and effects for the most part look fine, but the technology behind them needs to be changed. Effects are cut out from the middle (as are animations more often than not), you can't move whilst doing them and sometimes they glitch out probably due to lag (you do not actually move anywhere when doing the "jump a step forward" motion etc.).

I am not saying that some of the animations and effects need to be redone, but the actual issues are elsewhere. But as long as people care more about small problems and male miqo'tes the change seems unlikely.

Bitching is fine because that way the developers note our opinions better. But it seems that the community doesn't even know what they actually want them to do and how to make it clear.

[solracht]

Thing with XI though, the animation system was quite glitchy with it's auto attack, that if you do animations or abilities just before the attack, you can kill off the attacking animation and just produce the damage, e.g if you use Saber Dance right before attack around, when the animation ends you can produce a full 8 attack round damage without even seeing it.

XI's also happen that way under certain circumstances (especially if you blink), on DRK I use LR > SE > DS > NV and only Nether Void's animation fully plays out because of the use in quick succession but XI's animation is broken into multiple .dats where XIV's shares a single one..

Please keep in mind most of the issues you bring about XI's system were caused by something external (changing gear) that cannot even happen in XIV, yet our system is glitchier visually.

Having things glitch out when you're performing actions under very specific circumstances or when your attack speed is ridiculously fast is fine (such as what happens with Hundred Fists). Having animations glitch out more often than not (and this will get even worse if we get longer animations and effects) isn't, and unfortunately that's the case for XIV right now.

Also this isn't just about buffs - things like Luminous Spire or Seismic Shock will never finish unless you purposedly let them.

I could put a lot of words into this, but honestly I think this fits everything I want to say pretty well:

Ask yourself this: does it really matter if casting Aero IV brings forth hurricanes and tornados, if they're going to awkwardly dissapear midway because you used Spirit Dart?

[AuronYevon]

Dear SE,

I am very astounded that you believe this is what the game needs. When people say there is a LACK LUSTER on the effects it does not mean in any way what so ever that just a quick fix by enhancing the size of the effect will make everything better. The ability graphics themselves need a complete overhaul. People want to see a change in the showing of magic power when they progress in the game. Not every spell looks the same no matter what tier it is. Then all the ancient magics graphically are a joke. Players work their way up in the ranks to become more powerful and to show off that power. They do not want to see a shock that looks like a little static charge on shuffling your socks on carpet. They want to see the heavens open up above the monster and have it rain down lightning with some good sound and graphics.

SE has done a decent job at showing the differences of spell power in their past games. Why don't you learn from that and expand on it. Give the players something to really be in "aw" about. Make them proud to be a mage again. And for heaven's sakes stop with these idiotic quick fixes that solve absolutely nothing but only enhance the problem and make it more obvious. This is a waste of your company's time, money, and reputation. So get it done right the first time even if it means making us (players) wait longer. Please stop these band-aide patch works that solve nothing. You (SE) are better than that.

Sincerely,
One of your players

[BelgianRofl]

You know what.... I take back what I said. It's better that SE just keeps its mouth shut, because obviously they are just sitting on their hands with FFXIV. Updates like these are more discouraging than the mystery of whether they are doing anything or not...

What a letdown.