Problem with Auto-attack

[ChiefCurrahee]

Really? You're going to start this again?

The current battle system is the remnants of the scrapped alpha battle system. A rushed job in an attempt to make battle feel faster. SE turned a blind eye to the fact that their Rank system was symbiotic with the battle system in the fact that actions = rank up. When they introduced the stamina bar which made taking actions faster, they didn't take into account that they needed to adjust the way we skilled up. Which lead to spamming of skills. In what seemed like a knee jerk reaction, they changed it to our current model: Mobs give set SP. Which leads to necessity to build TP as fast as possible to burn down the mob as quickly as possible because now time=SP.
So what we are left with is the need to spam TP building skills for the sake of using more damaging skills. The fundamentals are fine. Build TP to use bigger and better moves. What's wrong with it is the need to press a button for every attack to be made.

I keep hearing people state they want to be involved in the combat. Being busy doesn't equal involvement. Being involved in the game means communicating with other people, adapting to current combat conditions.
I'm too busy making sure I don't miss a combat round because my stamina bar is resting at full and I'm not taking any actions. Why? Because I'm trying to tell the PT we got an add and we need to deal with it. After all if i'm not attacking I'm taking longer to kill which means less SP.

Adding in auto attack for the sake of TP generation might actually allow you to become more involved with other aspects of the game you are otherwise neglecting.

Have you considered how a console gamer might react to the requirements to be involved in battle? The use of the directional pad to navigate all actions? Do you have any idea how tedious that is?
This isn't street fighter where all your actions are mapped to 6 buttons easily accessed by a movement of your thumb. Or an action game where you have 2 buttons and what ever sequence you press them in determines what actions you take.
That is not how FFXIV was,is or will ever be set up!

YOu might reference TERA as that "action battle system" Did you know you're two main actions are mapped with the left and right mouse button. You use those 2 attacks for a majority of your gameplay. That battle system was set up to be action.
FFXIV is a menu system layed out on a skill bar in front of you. It's not an action game.

The addition of auto attack will relieve you of the duty to build TP. That is all. You are still involved in all other aspects of battle, be it positional, flow or timing of attacks (through use of engage/disengage i.e. toggle)

[Masamune]

If you're talking then you are not being involved in the battle, you are strategizing it. If you want to only strategize, stand outside the battle, if not its pretty easy to quickly type /p add. If you are with your ls mates, use vent. It's pretty oclear when you have an add in this game and having to disengage/engage is much harder with auto attack than it is just not pressing a button.

It is pretty obvious anyone who will buy this game for a console will need to have a keyboard. Button mapping with a controller and keyboard to something that is comfortable to you should be no problem.

Do I want to wait for the computer to build tp for me, while I sit here? How is that any better than building the tp by swinging the sword myself? This does not seem any more immersive to me. As you said it is now focused on killing and gaining sp faster and this will only make people want to spam weaponskills and magic. As a GLD I enjoy timing attacking in between shield, healing and enmity. Auto attack is just a simple, easy out and extremely boring answer to a difficult problem. Most of the complaints are from jobs that mostly need to attack and weaponskill. The answer should be to give them MORE to do, not less.

[northernsky]

Auto-attack does not equal automated fights, that's a silly assumption to make.

If anything it gives you even more possibilities to focus on "action based" content that you describe.

Abilities such as Protect and Provoke are a completely different question

[AeraLucis]

So will auto attack apply to Archer's Light Shot as well? Cuz I already pull enough hate with breather room in between my shots.

[Masamune]

I do not understand how it is not automated, if my character is attacking when I am not pressing or controlling anything.

[Lienn]

Auto-attack is not automated because it only makes the base attack being used repeatedly...but it do opens the option for automated fight, just like it did in FFXI. Who never dualboxed in FFXI? Its all auto-attack fault. :/

The addition of auto-attack itself shows the incapacity of being creative of this dev team. Instead of adjusting the current battle system (which is very fun IMO) they prefer to use methods created for dial-up MMO games so people could fight "at server" and not at client side.

IMO the dev team should play Dragonica a bit to learn how to make a system that have auto attack for "easy mode" and button smashing for hardcore players that prefer performance over light play.

[Rentahamster]

Tera took a clue from Monster Hunter and it worked out fairly well for them.

I was hoping FF14 was gonna be a little more Monster Hunter-ish in nature, but I guess we'll see what happens with the new battle system. I'm cautiously optimistic that they'll be able to come up with something good.

Let's hope the study the downfall of Star Wars Galaxies, and learn from their mistakes.

[gifthorse]

They should strive to make combat more like their cutscenes and cinematics and less like a chore.