Comments from the Devs

[Takiwaki]

I don't think the animations are necessarily being covered up, since you could turn them off completely, it's just that there's no balance between what you see the characters do and what shows up around them. I think the animations are great so far and even though they lack the time needed to really smooth them out they are keyed amazingly well. The animations read nicely and look cool, you have no idea how many times I popped Fists of Wind/Earth/Fire just because of how badass even those animations are. But again, too many particles covering up animation not really through necessity, but I think it just...is.

Edit: Actually, were you talking about anime in general? If so you're totally right and you can disregard what I wrote.

This is true, every skill has a unique animation to it, love it. and on Pugilist the constant usage looks awesome in motion.

[ArchDizzle]

PGL animations are just badass, I did notice they changed the animations for Archer from P2 > P3 they look a lot more stiff now when doing abilities then they did before. P2 they pulled back and there whole body would get into the animation, this phase they seem to mostly stand perfectly upright and just pull back on the bow.

[Lucavi]

I don't think the animations are necessarily being covered up, since you could turn them off completely, it's just that there's no balance between what you see the characters do and what shows up around them. I think the animations are great so far and even though they lack the time needed to really smooth them out they are keyed amazingly well. The animations read nicely and look cool, you have no idea how many times I popped Fists of Wind/Earth/Fire just because of how badass even those animations are. But again, too many particles covering up animation not really through necessity, but I think it just...is.

Edit: Actually, were you talking about anime in general? If so you're totally right and you can disregard what I wrote.

I speak specifically about our crit buff. Such a nice sequence of motions covered up by yellow, red, pink, green and blue flashing lights. Same for Chakra.

Now that I know that there's an option, I'll be testing the hell out of it on Friday.

@Arch: I think Yoshi was talking about modifying some animations to speed them up, since the flow of combat was increased between P2 and P3. Archer is one of them that got whacked with some cuts.

[Niiro]

Um, you guys do know that there's an option to filter out the sparklies, right? They added it for phase 3, and it allows you to filter out None, Some, or All for both yourself, party members, and others.

I know, but I don't want the effects to be absent, I just want them to be reasonable.

[miokomioko]

Yeah, I'm very happy that they made each ability animation unique and weapon-class-related instead of a blanket default "POWERING UP" animation. Monk elemental fists, for example, are pretty fuckin' sweet, along with Featherfoot and Internal Release. They simply nailed it with PGL/MNK. Now I finally feel like I'm on a class that has roots with Sabin/Yang and actual martial arts instead of street brawling.

[ArchDizzle]

I miss my archers crouching double shot ability.

[Lucavi]

Yeah, I'm very happy that they made each ability animation unique and weapon-class-related instead of a blanket default "POWERING UP" animation. Monk elemental fists, for example, are pretty fuckin' sweet, along with Featherfoot and Internal Release. They simply nailed it with PGL/MNK. Now I finally feel like I'm on a class that has roots with Sabin/Yang and actual martial arts instead of street brawling.

If I could upvote this, I would. Pug has been a joy and a pleasure to play this weekend. Absolutely stoked for P4/launch.

[Takiwaki]

Yup according the Yoshi the animations are not even done yet for everything and they are working to get rid of the sliding around as much as possible by launch. I hope for the best, I really enjoyed every minute over the weekend.

I also found that for pugilist not making a combo macro worked better, since not restarting a combo chain from scratch but constant continuation is what really keeps max dmg going. I can be quite challenging at times, depending on the type of encounter.

[LD]

I wonder if Limit Breaks are solving the role problem for DDs. Is high single-target damage enough to make sure melee are always brought along? Do the Caster AOE LBs reduce the need for stacking (only one person can use the bars and using 2 Lv1s is less efficient than 1 Lv2)?

[Lokus]

I really hope they do fix the animations cause honestly, that shit looks amateur as hell for what's suppose to be a "AAA" MMO. Running forward and just spamming Ring of Thorns on Lancer looked awful. Granted, the way the game is, you're not really expected to move much except for maximizing or activating combo damage. You're static for the rest of the time.

I'm curious, what would be the negative implications be of doubling both weaponskill damage and TP cost? (I'm well aware we haven't seen combat at 50 yet.)

Not really sure how it'll matter on a really long drawn out fight at 50 but I went to zones with lvl 47-50 mobs over the weekend and just kept soloing them near non-stop while mashing all combos on MNK/DRG/BRD. I occasionally did have to stop as I ran out of TP but it regened very quickly when not doing anything that it was barely noticeable. This may be largely resolved when a BRD with TP song comes into play but due to how songs work now, BRDs will eventually run out of MP. Seems they might need to pop Ethers to keep things going.

[Grey Jorildyn]

BRD will likely put Ballad last in their rotation for themselves. Used to be they could put Paeon there so the MP cost significantly changes things. Negating its 20% damage bonus sucks but defnes their role.

[Lucavi]

I really hope they do fix the animations cause honestly, that shit looks amateur as hell for what's suppose to be a "AAA" MMO. Running forward and just spamming Ring of Thorns on Lancer looked awful. Granted, the way the game is, you're not really expected to move much except for maximizing or activating combo damage. You're static for the rest of the time.

And that mindset goes right out the window when its PVP time.

[Raldo]

BRD will likely put Ballad last in their rotation for themselves. Used to be they could put Paeon there so the MP cost significantly changes things. Negating its 20% damage bonus sucks but defnes their role.

You haven't heard how Bard works recently, have you? There's no more rotation; you activate a song and that's your 'aura'. Anyone inside your aura gets the effect, anyone outside loses the effect.

Also, it's worth noting that my lv50 Bard was still losing MP with ballad up, I think even when I had Soul Voice up.

[ArchDizzle]

I haven't touched Gld this phase, they still get shield lob?

[Zzsark]

Lvl 50 open world trash mobs can be killed in one 3 part combo pretty much on DRG. Hardly a good indication of what a level 50 boss encounter will be like. I imagine its going to take some self control for best pacing of combat (and dmg) rather than button mashing until you're out of TP. Based on how quickly you can run out at 35ish against that dragon with higher TP costs for higher level skills at 50 it's going to be even faster.

Shield lob is level 15 quested I think.

[Grey Jorildyn]

You haven't heard how Bard works recently, have you? There's no more rotation; you activate a song and that's your 'aura'. Anyone inside your aura gets the effect, anyone outside loses the effect.

Also, it's worth noting that my lv50 Bard was still losing MP with ballad up, I think even when I had Soul Voice up.

Oh boy. Totally forgot about the aura...

[Lokus]

And that mindset goes right out the window when its PVP time.

PvP will just exasperate how bad the sliding looks. Though, that'll be the least of their worries if their balancing is completely whack. Gonna have their hands full balancing 1v1, 4v4, and 8v8.

[Omniyoji]

Of course, the particles and shit are a separate issue and definitely need to be fixed, just because the clarity of animation is lost underneath all the WAZZATSPARKLES. If you look at the animations, they're really fucking good and unique. I think I said earlier that I expected similar animations for abilities of a similar nature, but they were different and fun to look at. Of course, I never noticed any of this in battle because as you said, you're focused on the GCD and when you aren't you're looking at positions and what the enemy is doing or what you're doing. 1.0 was good for seeing what your character was doing and making a big deal out of it (SPOTLIGHTS), but that's really because all you could do during that moment was stare at the screen and watch. I will say that 2.0 does a much better job at keeping you engaged and busy during combat, but does a bad job of making you feel like what you're doing is important or has much impact.

Ugh, the attacks are big enough. I wish there was an option to cut DOWN on the colors and lightshows at this point. Running toto-rak with just a Glad and Monk up front and when you have to zoom in because of tight walls its like seizure city. I'm still mad that so many nice looking animations get drowned out by all these colors and particle effects. Give an option to cut it just in half and I'd be happy.

I want to SEE my monk, not a bevvy of lights surrounding him whenever he raises his foot or fist.

I think they said in the notes they working on decreasing the flashy effects but yeah it's fucking ridiculous. I was in a FATE where like 30 ppl fought a boss and you couldnt see him at all in the flashes

Okay so sparklies aside, animations are great. What about the sounds? In FFXI the WS/MB/JA sounds for me at least were very distinguishable. I can't say if that was intentional or from the hours I put in the game. How are the skill sounds in FFXIV for people that have been playing for a while or have they changed from beta to beta/1.0 to 2.0 and are still a work in progress???

[Cichy]

this guy made a really cool mock up of how stat allocation should be revamped http://forum.square-enix.com/ARR-Tes...perience/page4

[Lokus]

^ Basically how Glyphs work in Tera in a roundabout way.