Comments from the Devs

[Hyan]

Imo many questions were pretty good and that's what makes this q&a good in my book. If the answers are going to be "yes, we are in fact going to address this concern in the future" then the only thing that could make the q&a better would be to have questions that pinpoint the most valid concerns regarding the topic at hand. And I think this q&a does both.

The alternative is questions about cheesecakes and lengthy explanations about 80 item storage caps and other no-can-do's. The questions were good, the answers were for the most part favorable. What the fuck more do you want?

[Vuitton]

For how much I wish this game to succed, this Q&A is embarassing at most.
Six months have passed and I wonder if they're still defining priorities over what to fix and what not. All these "we'll look into it" would had been nice around January, for ex.

Are you blind or is your reading comprehension on the same level as retard? It's a little Q&A so players feel like they received some attention for the week. If you want a list of what is actually being worked on and a list of priorities why don't you re-read last week's letter from the producer and Matsui's battle reform blueprint? Let it sink in a little, and contrast it today's little morsel they threw to the dogs.

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/threads/11012
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...form-Blueprint

I swear people around here have no ability of recollection. They read this shit and hip hip horray holler, then they wait 5 minutes and start bitching like it never happened.

[Hyan]

Well damn, now I look more mayad than I am.

Oh well.

[Sephiroth]

I kept hoping the Q&A would address the annoying time synch issue with abilities that can mean popping a 30 second ability only acts like a 15 second cooldown in the worst case, so you think you can use it again when server side won't let you until the 30 seconds are up. But that's only half the QA apparently.

[kisada]

has anyone ever posted about trying to speed up weapon sheathing/unsheathing?

[Greedouw]

Should just scrap the whole engine/game.... Turning a pile of shit into a shiny pile of shit

[Corrderio]

Part two: http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...l=1#post155460

Spoiler: show

Casting Cure while performing an attack will cause you to lose focus on your target.
We'll address this issue during our review of the action-related data.

Whenever someone casts cure on me, I end up targeting them.
We'll address this issue during our review of the action-related data.

The subtarget of my action gets set to an enemy the action has no effect on.
We'll address this issue during our review of the action data.

I want text commands that use pronouns, like "/assist" and "/mark" and "/ta," to be implemented.
We'll look into these during our combat-related revisions.

Monsters often clump together and make it difficult to accurately select a target.
When monsters bundle up together, it does become difficult to tell which has the yellow name and which have red names. It's also hard to tell which of them has the "attack this one!" mark attached.
To address these issues, we're looking into implementing a system that allows you to set the target cursor to appear above the nameplate.

Raise can end up targeting enemies.
We'll address this along with the previously mentioned "subtarget of my action gets set to an enemy the action has no effect on" issue.

I'd like it if my target could "glow" using a bloom graphical effect.
This would require modifying the graphical system, so although it would be difficult to implement in the near future, we'll look into it.

When targeting someone as the main target, when you change targets, the party member list flashes to indicate you're targeting them. I'd like to have this implemented when sub-targeting someone as well (About to cure yourself, but tab over to them).
We are going to implement this.

I'd like an arrow, or a highlight, or some kind of indicator on the party member list to show which party member is selected as my subtarget.
We are going to implement this.

Sometime when standing directly in front of a PC or NPC, I'll press the confirm button and it will end up targeting something ridiculous, like a target that was next to me or behind me.
In Patch 1.17, we adjusted the target selection mechanics, so please see if the situation is resolved now.

I'd like to be able to manually set up the controller configuration myself when using a gamepad for targeting.
We are working on expanding the list of configurable commands for both gamepads and keyboards.

The battle system is compromised of two types of attacks; Turn based attacks (stamina gauge, recast, attacks whose success is determined after the hit) and action based attacks (attacks that can be dodged by moving around).
As stated previously, the stamina gauge is scheduled to be removed. We believe that all the other issues mentioned do not detract from the game significantly.

I would like distance, movement, and positioning to play a larger role in the game. The graphics are so nice that it would be a waste if the battles are mostly number based.
Once the basic upgrades are taken care of, more advanced upgrades involving attack direction and positioning and regional destruction will be worked on.

Stamina gauge, recast interval, and TP requirement present 3 major hindrances to using abilities.
The action gauge will be removed, but recast interval and TP requirements will remain.

Recasting the same spells takes way too long (Reuse interval)
We will be reviewing all actions, so recast times that are disproportionately long will be adjusted, while some recast times are intentionally long. We would like to continue to receive feedback on the forums.

The usefulness of supplementary abilities and the effects of food can’t be easily seen.
Don't worry, these will be adjusted. The effects of food will be reviewed and made readily available through help text.

Important moves that are earned in multiples such as Shadowbind/Shadowbind II share the same recast, so they are difficult to take advantage of.
Shadowbind II is an upgrade of Shadowbind, so we have planned for the recast time to be shared.

My actions miss frequently. My attacks never hit successfully.
Even using the proper rank and gear, my accuracy is too low (or my opponent’s evasion is too high)
Accuracy and action accuracy will be considered important points when we upgrade the battle calculations.

Spells are easily resisted (full / partial) no matter how long the spell takes to cast or how much MP it requires.
We will be working on adjusting the balance. It would be fantastic if we could continue to hear your thoughts via forums.

If a monster dies while you are casting a healing spell, the spell is canceled.
We will discuss this with the person in charge.

I wanted to play a healer, so I chose to be a Conjurer, but I think it's strange that a Thaumaturge is better suited to act as a healer. In terms of HP healed and area of affect, the Thaumaturge is just better.
In addition to the review of battle class actions, we're also going to be adjusting the classes to give them each specialties and defining qualities. We'll continue to look to you all to provide us with feedback as we move forward.

When I play as a Conjurer and see fighter classes cast buffs and healing magic that I haven't yet learned, I get pretty bummed out.
This should be addressed in our adjustment of class roles and specialties. We'll continue to look to you all to provide us with feedback as we move forward.

It might be cool if we could attack and cast spells while moving.
I stop moving as soon as I begin casting a spell.
These two points will be addressed in an upcoming modification that will allow close range attacks and actions to be performed while moving. As for spellcasting, we'd like to make a separate, more comprehensive announcement regarding our plans, so please hang on until then.

Moving while attacking seems to randomly cause the shield to rise up.
It can indeed be frustrating to try to move during an attack/ability. We'll look into reworking shield usage.

The damage from actions typically doesn't exceed 1.5 times that of a normal attack. Conjurer spells that take 30 seconds to cast are weaker than rank "II" spells.
We'll be adjusting this. The previously mentioned revision of battle class actions will include these adjustments.

The camera is unresponsive and it's hard to get a good grasp of the situation due to the constantly changing POV.
We're looking into allowing changes to the camera rotation speed in the settings.

I find it annoying how my player character keeps moving its position when they perform an attack. Occasionally, the character will end up overlapping with the monster and the camera will start turning around the monster.

I don’t like how the camera moves back and forth when my player character is attacked by a monster. It tends to occur when the monster overlaps with my player character after an attack and the camera swings back to its original position.
We are currently looking into the movement of the player character. There are plans to start addressing the issue in the near future.

Currently when I lock onto a target, the camera is centered on the particular target. I would like to see a function where I could turn this feature on/off at will.
We will discuss this with the person in charge.

I would like more control over my character’s point of views.
We will discuss this with the person in charge.

Avoid haste from becoming the primary factor of the game when auto-attack is implemented.
Rest assured that we will handle this situation delicately.

Please be sure to think about the changes in hate management (especially casters) when implementing auto-attack.
Rest assured that we will be careful regarding this.

Please be sure to think about the amount of TP generated from auto-attack. I would like to avoid situations where we have to tell the melee characters to not feed TP to the monster.
We agree that this is indeed a sensitive matter. We will be sure to exert extreme caution.

Intensify status ailments used against a player character in order to make the battles more interesting.
Once we finish adjusting the overall balance of battle, we may look into other factors such as status ailments. However, we will most likely save the intense status ailments for special encounters.

Turn on character collision during battle.
We believe that we will be able to address our current issues by improving the monster AI and hate management instead of making changes to the collision.

The field is currently too peaceful. There should be more active monsters placed along the road.
We will be adjusting monster placement bit by bit.

Levequests and behests are currently boring due to the monsters not having enough HP. It seems like all we’re doing is running from one place to another.
Once the algorithms for battles have been revised, we will look into additional factors such as monsters that appear during guild leves, the amount of their HP, group settings, etc.

We are currently unable to switch between passive move and active mode while moving.
Switching between passive mode and active mode takes too long.
We are currently in the process of experimenting with the issues stated above.

There are too many buff icons.
I agree. We will look into it.

When I play as a Conjurer and see fighter classes cast buffs and healing magic that I haven't yet learned, I get pretty bummed out.
This should be addressed in our adjustment of class roles and specialties. We'll continue to look to you all to provide us with feedback as we move forward.

This kind of has me worried.

[Alderaan]

Casting while moving and hopefully getting rid of active/passive mode locks? I'm honestly impressed.

[Alderaan]

Double.

[Alkar]

I honestly really like what I'm reading. Seems like most of the issues are being worked on and will be fixed starting with 1.18.
I'd still like to know what's going to happen with mages and auto-attack, hopefully they'll replace Spirit dart with something else.

[Kurokikaze]

Thats a good thing. Sounds like spells from classes after a certain level will be unusable by other classes. Imo theres no reason why any other class should be able to use Sac/Cure 3. Fuck the whiners.

[Corrderio]

Thats a good thing. Sounds like spells from classes after a certain level will be unusable by other classes. Imo theres no reason why any other class should be able to use Sac/Cure 3. Fuck the whiners.

I just thought maybe all abilities will be changed from optimal rank to required rank? Would make some sense if they want to keep the freedom concept behind using a class over a job.

[Waraji]

Should make a new thread for the Q&A discussion. It will get drowned in this thread tbh.

[Corrderio]

Should make a new thread for the Q&A discussion. It will get drowned in this thread tbh.

Good idea, assuming this wasn't a "once in a blue moon" type of thing

[Waraji]

Well just really meant for Discussion purposes.

[Corrderio]

True, although thinking back I should have put this in the battle reform blueprint section since a majority of the stuff was about the battle system.

[Sephiroth]

Thats a good thing. Sounds like spells from classes after a certain level will be unusable by other classes. Imo theres no reason why any other class should be able to use Sac/Cure 3. Fuck the whiners.

Cure 3 is the reason I can solo rank 65 mobs on my ARC. Fuck the whiners about whiners. There's better ways to make a conjurer playing as a WHM unique than making awesome solo skills unique to that class.

All classes should have the ability to heal themselves for a good amount, whether it be through cross class skills or their own unique healing skill. I actually prefer the latter but we all know SE are lazy.

[Draylo]

Melee should only use potions and items to heal themselves.

[Draylo]

What idiot asked this question...

Avoid haste from becoming the primary factor of the game when auto-attack is implemented.
Rest assured that we will handle this situation delicately.

Haste was a HUGE benefit in almost every single FF game...

[Lucavi]

I'm trying to do mental acrobatics in lining up all of the "problems" in these questions compared to similar games on the market. Things like recasts and overlapping attacks, clipping animations, forced-targeting, vanishing action bars. Vuitton, you can complain that its a bunch of whining from a bunch of neckbeards that don't know how Godly of a game they're blessed to be able to play, but over 2/3rds of the real questions and issues there come standard-equipped in other new games.

Its not so much of an issue of SE just not getting it; its an issue of trying to take XI's engine, make the graphics "more better", then shipping it out the door and claiming that its some state-of-the-art modern tech, when it clearly isn't. Many of these issues (things like forced-targeting when someone casts on you, uninterrupted animations, ect.) are straight outta XI.

For all the people that complain that XIV was XI-2, the game has an overwhelming amount of similarities. That being said, this game is going to be an amazing case study of how to completely reshape a modern MMO. If they address (Read: Fix) even half of what they say they're looking into and planning to adjust, it'll be amazing to see the result. I've never seen a company have to seriously take apart their entire project and rebuild it from the ground up in the design of another.

Not trolling in the slightest, either. If they can actually pull it off, it'll be nothing short of a spectacle. I only worry that, while they're working on turning XIV into Final Fantasy War-Rift (IE: Catching up with the modern generation of standard MMOs), the other MMOs on the block will be busily designing the next generation (IE: Tera's combat, GW2's skill synergy and teamwork, ect.). I'd hate for SE to fall behind even before they finish revamping XIV to the modern era.