Changes to the Battle System and More (2/1/2011)

[Hiroishime]

http://lodestone.finalfantasyxiv.com...5db16e69fe1af4

Patch 1.15a, which is set to go live Wednesday, February 2, will contain a number of changes in line with the wealth of player feedback we have continued to receive, such as the way in which skill and experience points are awarded based on party composition or enemy rank, and the addition of a number of new text commands.

Battle
Skill and Experience Point Awards
Several balancing changes will be made that will bring greater benefits than ever before to multi-player battle. Party bonuses will be adjusted to award larger amounts of skill and experience points based on party size. Further changes will also ensure that greater differences between player and enemy rank will yield greater rewards as well. The amount of skill and experience points available from enemies ranked lower than a player will be reduced, but defeating enemies ranked higher than oneself will now yield greater amounts.

For players engaging in solo battle, the amount of skill and experience points currently awarded after rank 20 falls off sharply. To address this, we will be implementing changes that will better balance the amount available between ranks 20 and 23.


3-D Battle Text
The placement of 3-D battle text, such as damage and healing values, will be adjusted to prevent the overlapping of separate numbers. In addition, battle text will be color-coded in the following manner.



Message Type Font Color
Damage dealt by you Yellow
Actions by you that miss or are evaded Yellow
Status effects caused by you Yellow
Healing to self Blue
Damage dealt by enemies Red
Actions by enemies that miss or are evaded Red
Status effects caused by enemies Red
Healing to enemies Blue
Damage dealt by others White
Actions by others that miss or are evaded White
Status effects caused by others White
Healing to others Blue

Text Commands
/display head (subcommand on/off)
The /display head text command can be used to toggle the graphic display of a piece of equipment currently equipped in the head slot.

/display head on – Display head gear.
/display head off – Hide head gear.

* This command cannot be used while in active mode.


/clock
The /clock feature is being implemented to allow players to easily confirm the amount of time remaining until the reset of several in-game timers, such as the reissue of guildleves or the regeneration of anima.

Use of this command will display the current time (Earth time), together with the following information.

Time remaining until guildleve reissue
Time remaining until anima regeneration
Time remaining until next behest



fk, no SP chain but more SP for harder enemies and more SP bonus.. this might potentially be good if its big improvements, time to look for camps

[Karinastar]

The party increase and increases for harder mobs are definitely needed, but I worry that this might stifle lowman SPing. I guess it depends if this is more of an adjustment to stop people from killing the same cobs for 10 levels, or if it's an adjustment to make killing anything below your level pointless to more strongly encourage grouping for real progress. Hopefully the bonuses for higher level mobs are generous and apply to things around your level and not just red mobs. This way groups of all sizes can see SP increases, with the bigger increases going to bigger groups, but things like duos still also being viable. With the game's current population, changes that too strongly lean the balance towards FFXI-style grouping might be bad. ><

I also kind of worry about leves in smaller groups, as many of the best leves for SP are ones where the mobs are almost guaranteed to be below your level. Hopefully they rebalance the shitty leves like they plan soon so that people can do leves closer to their level and reap the bonus for higher level targets there too.

Other cosmetic stuff is nice, but I honestly didn't have too much trouble following battle. Less number clusterfucks will be nice though. And also, yay hide helmet! The clock function will be nice to see stuff at a glance, I do like the timer for anima regen. Hopefully in the future they'll add a timer for Guardian's Favor as well.

[Shuichi]

Looking good there Yoshi.

[Ambrosia]

The amount of skill and experience points available from enemies ranked lower than a player will be reduced, but defeating enemies ranked higher than oneself will now yield greater amounts.

I wonder how much experience and SP will be lowered during solo sessions. If it is nerfed too harshly I wonder if any sort of soloing will be viable past level 24-25 (or if people will continue to do so regardless). I am glad they are adding bonuses to party but for those people that play odd hours or off peak times I am not sure why it had to be done. I know they are giving more experience and SP for kills ranked higher than oneself, but usually people who solo don't go for those types of mobs for the most part. I think one of the reasons Square Enix did this was to stop the mass Coblyn solo killing spree as well as Hey-find-the-mob-with-the-lowest-hp-and-kill-this-for-hours-for-efficiency-syndrome.

[Corrderio]

Yeah that bolded statement is a pretty bad move on SE's part for solo.

[Arximiro]

Display the time until the next Behest >.> I think we all know when the fuck that is gonna be. Exp changes sound good. Put /search in dammit!

[Hyan]

Depends what you mean by viable. I've always seen it as "can't find a duo partner? well I guess I can do this while waiting" sort of thing. Which is how it should be, in my ideal MMO. We'll see what happens though.

[Ambrosia]

Yeah I was going to ask if people who duo or trio (best friend, girlfriend, boyfriend) usually beat up stuff higher or lower than their rank. I do see quite a few duo players when I am soloing here and there. I may have jumped the gun here. The first paragraph starts with “changes for multi-player battle” and then it goes off telling us what the changes will be.

Then there is a break to that paragraph.

And the next one starts with “For solo players” this is what we are changing. So maybe… “Just maybe” they will keep the experience points and SP points chart table for solo the same past 24 (while keeping the nice bonus up to 23 now). Of course this will still hurt people who duo especially since that will already constitutes a party. We will see what happens! *Keeps fingers crossed*

[Hyan]

I fear that this change may give birth to more strict party set-ups and sizes. But that also means increased 'difficulty', so it's not all bad I guess.

I think there'll be a clash between soloers and groupers soon enough, lol. One is going to suffer the defeat. And I'll slap this guy if he wants to aim for a silly middleground of some stupid shit.

[xopher]

Display the time until the next Behest >.> I think we all know when the fuck that is gonna be. Exp changes sound good. Put /search in dammit!

Behest is every hour, on the hour.

Why do you need anything other than a clock for that?

[Arximiro]

Behest is every hour, on the hour.

Why do you need anything other than a clock for that?

Yeah.... that's what I'm saying. Why the fuck do we need a command to tell us when the next behest is?

[xopher]

Yeah.... that's what I'm saying. Why the fuck do we need a command to tell us when the next behest is?

Whoops, misread what you said lol

[Chakra]

Looks like people will be grinding on the same mobs they would have skilled on before the first SP patch again. Eft, Peiste, Raptors, ect.

[Celeras]

Yeah that bolded statement is a pretty bad move on SE's part for solo.

Leves are the solo/low man content. Fuck people who actually want to grind coblyns to cap imo

[Lucavi]

I fear that this change may give birth to more strict party set-ups and sizes. But that also means increased 'difficulty', so it's not all bad I guess.

I think there'll be a clash between soloers and groupers soon enough, lol. One is going to suffer the defeat. And I'll slap this guy if he wants to aim for a silly middleground of some stupid shit.

This makes it sound like you want a return to XI's party style of 6 people, all the time. Dunno how I feel about that.

IMO, this doesn't really bother me, simply because its more SE's style to encourage grouping over solo. There's already plenty of games that offer a wide variety of playstyle choices, and a few of them get slammed for being too "easy", as if there's some correlation between choice and EZ-mode. XIV, being a niche game (as admitted by its most purest of fans of the two games), should probably just head back into its "Group to advance" mentality. Better early on then at some point down the road when the game makes a full revival and you've got people feeling slighted.

My only hope is that people don't start nodding their heads with a cocky grin saying "this is how you make challenging content".

[solracht]

Leves are the solo/low man content. Fuck people who actually want to grind coblyns to cap imo

I disagree with that statement for as long as doing them in 15man groups gives so much more. Doing them by myself or lowman has always felt like a waste of time (past 25ish). Leves are "raid" content if you care about getting to the cap anytime soon.

[Grey Jorildyn]

I'd rather see the game move to a 5-person party and bring back alliances with 5-5-5- instead of 6-6-6-man parties. There is too much stupidity in trying to balance a combat system when your combat is one large party of 15 frickin' people. I mean sure, it can be done, but is SE gonna be able to pull it off? Kinda not feelin' that.

[Hyan]

This makes it sound like you want a return to XI's party style of 6 people, all the time. Dunno how I feel about that.

Mmmm in a way, but I'd rather see more flexibility as well.

I also don't see leves as solo/lowman content, quite the opposite. It can work as a quick spike of SP for a soloer but not much else, due to it's nature that heavily encourages grouping to leve-share (the more people the better, up to certain point).

Parties can be 15-man for all I care but the optimal # should be somewhere between 4 and 8 probably. What I wouldn't like to see is someone being excluded because the group is 'too large', but that's a bit much asked realistically speaking.

[Cichy]

Well that's all fine and dandy but there is still no decent fuckin search option for lfg people. So back to group exp being a primary choice for grinding but you better have ppl in your ls to exp with. GG SE just needs to end this nightmare.

[Hyan]

GG SE just needs to end this nightmare.

Well fuck you, I want to see where this is going.