Not Just Bigger Battle Effects, but BETTER Battle Effects [dev1037]

[Kiara]

To Producer Yoshida & Final Fantasy XIV Team:

Your latest post about having enhanced Battle Effects will help some of the effects stand out a bit more, but a more pressing problem is having BETTER Battle Effects. The Battle Special Effects need to be more distinct, grander, livelier.

Just magnifying the current mediocre Battle Special Effects "1.5 to 2 times" the current size doesn't help many of the current Weaponskill and Magic Special Effects which are downright embarrassing.

Look at all the Ancient Magic for Conjurer in this game currently:

* Tornado
* Flare
* Quake
* Freeze
* Burst
* Flood

blowing up their almost non-existent Special Effects 1.5 times the size does not fix the problem that they're just ugly and bad-looking. Flare is one of your classic Final Fantasy staple spells, a hallmark, and it and all your Ancient Magic need NEW Special Effects that match the grandeur that they're supposed to have.

Look at Weaponskills in this game. Where are the gorgeous special effects (and really, Animations as well) to match something like FF XI's Asuran Fists?

FF XI's PROVOKE looks and sounds 2 or 3 times as good as FF XIV's PROVOKE.

The list goes on.

So "yes," it's a start to make the special effects slightly bigger, but you need to redo many of the Special Effects as well.

And add NEW ANIMATIONS for many of the attacks (look at how many of the Archer's Weaponskills have the exact same animation).

Thanks~

[REDace0]

I definitely do want more awesome in my Flare, which was a bit disappointing, as I'm a fan of most FF ability animation. Generally spells and abilities in FFs do a good job of conveying their effects and power in visually interesting ways, but things in FFXIV seem a bit lacking. On the other hand, the difference in the sound effect for the tier 1 and tier 2 elemental spells does convey the increased power pretty well. The rocks on Stone II practically screech, so good job there.

As for action animations, I'm pretty sure this is an unfortunate side-effect of the complete cross-class flexibility. You can't make a unique animation for every ability with every weapon type for every race; it's just not practical. Maybe an increase in class distinctiveness with the possibility of more unique skills will help. Archer, though, was perhaps a poor example. You can pretty much fire a strong shot or a bunch of quick shots; I'm not sure what other animations there could be. Other DoWs have a larger variety of animations, such as the 3 or 4 on Lancer.

[Reika]

FFXI's provoke may have looked flashy, but it was just plain noisy to me ><. you are right tho. All of those Ancient magics not only need better looking effects, but longer lasting ones, staying in view for at least 4 seconds. Flare especially should be a thick ball of ultimate flame destruction. not poof.

[Hotohori]

I can see the names of those spells being considered ancient magic but I haven't seen anything to suggest they are anything besides normal magic in 14. I'm sure there is a version II of the spell in the .dats already and many just don't seem to be using them as intended based on the unique casting designs on those spells. If the complaint is about the particle effects of the spells, bigger maybe be the solution seeing as how the increase to monster sizes really brought out some of the great detail. Just wait til it comes out before making judgments.

For those who may not have played 11 those spells you mentioned are no different from any other magic in the game to them. Also it's pretty clear that they are something designed as an opening hit for perhaps a soloing conjurer. With a longer then average casting time and a long delay before the actual effect, it is surely not something to use mid-battle. I hear there is an aftermath effect as well of lowering resistances to elemental magic after it hits making it even more suited for early use in battle. I am going to assume it does what it is intended for and not some straight power hit to one shot monsters left and right. If it was this powerful every Disciple of Magic could simply equip it with a INT build and solo their way to max rank quickly.

[Xatsh]

I will have to see them, spells like Cure, Sacrafice, Drains, Dia, Bio, Poison, all the elemental dots, Blind, Slow, Paralyze, Banish, Scourge, and the normal tier 1 and 2 elemental nukes if you look at them look fairly decent just sorta underwelming and short. I think the animations of them are done fairly well though. So maby making those bigger will be enough, they need to do that and not resize them based on the mobs size. Until we see it no one can really say.

Now AM or the spells that where AM in XI need to be redone completely they are just pure 100% sad, tornado needs to look like a tornado, flare is a staple FF move it needs to look like a Flare from the FF series.

[MinStrife]

I agree with everything that's been said but... what i'm going to say can be quite stupid... i just want to be able to shoot a beam like the Gnat do. Seriously, i love that animation. THM Astral Beam/Ray (Can i have it?)

[Reika]

That would be an awesome addition. Thinking about it, Thaum and conj dont get very many weaponskills to use their TP with. That would make a fine Line Attack addition for a weaponskill. Damage (and appearance) depending on weapon affinities.

[Neffie]

I just thought i'd second +1 this as well for effect. I mean i understand that scaling monster bigger to make it cooler kinda works, but it isn't the same for the battle effects ^^;

[shots]

This post defiantly says it all. It's a good start but this is only putting a band-aid on a broken arm.

[JayvirDeforte]

I just have a question for you all... Have any of you seen the III or IV spells? I actually have been attacked with both Thunder III and Thunder IV and although IV didn't have an animation or sound Thunder III not only looked great, but the sound have that deafening crack and nice light effects. It looked like a true FF spell