FFXIV Random Speculation/Question thread III: Where's my beta invite?

[Biggie]

I hope the mobs running away is not that common. I don't mind if its not that far, but hell in the video he was chasing them down forever. I think it would annoy me after awhile. A quick 10-20 yard dash for a breather near death is one thing, but I would rather not chase mobs all around the zone and back.

[LD]

The running distance for the fleeing type Guildleves is usually not greater than the mob spread of a non-runner, so you're not actually traveling farther than you normally would.

[Oreth]

I decided to give Lancer a go tonight, seeing as nobody in game wants to help any idea where i can go to get armor for Lancer? Lancer can wear heavey armor right? In Hawkers Alley i only see Leather & Cloth?

Thanks

[bluefan]

I hope the mobs running away is not that common. I don't mind if its not that far, but hell in the video he was chasing them down forever. I think it would annoy me after awhile. A quick 10-20 yard dash for a breather near death is one thing, but I would rather not chase mobs all around the zone and back.

Agreed.

I don't think most guildleves will require you to do that, but this one had a second part to it, no? The last crab led you to right where the next targets were, the water spirits.

[sephir]

So when is the next batch of Alpha/Beta invites expected?

[Hyan]

So when is the next batch of Alpha/Beta invites expected?

Uhh.. a month from now, perhaps.

[Jinko]

It is way too hard to animate characters with long hair consistently. Have you tried out the benchmark with female characters? Even shoulder length hair ends up being cut off anytime a character leans back.

I personally prefer long hair on myself, but I'm ok with short hair in a game character if that means it won't be messing up the rendering.

Collision detection isn't that hard really, although it seems impossible for SE so yea there is little hope.

[Kaylia]

Collision detection isn't that hard really, although it seems impossible for SE so yea there is little hope.

Collision detection for hair is easy? That's new to me.

For a tiny increase in aesthetics, you would spend a couple of week programming an engine that most pc couldn't run? Sound like a good plan.

[Jinko]

Collision detection for hair is easy? That's new to me.

For a tiny increase in aesthetics, you would spend a couple of week programming an engine that most pc couldn't run? Sound like a good plan.

You are talking about physics which is not the same as collision detection.

Nightelfs and Bloodelfs both have longish hair in WoW and don't suffer any huge problems with their hair going through their armour or being flipped in weird angles, it just requires a little time on the dev's part to make sure this doesn't happen.

[zephys]

Collision detection is physics.
Modelling and animating things so that things never go through eachother is not.
But FFXIV doesn't have static hair like WoW does and the characters are more animated so it's almost impossible to avoid.

[Jinko]

No collision detection is just a way for a developer to stop an object reacting in a way it shouldn't.

Physics is when hair flows and moves based off which way the wind is blowing or the way a character moves, this still requires collision detetction, to stop the hair going through objects and moving in odd angles.

One is relatively easy and requires little CPU power the other is very difficult and requires masses of CPU power.

[Kaylia]

You are talking about physics which is not the same as collision detection.

Nightelfs and Bloodelfs both have longish hair in WoW and don't suffer any huge problems with their hair going through their armour, it just requires a little time on the dev's part to make sure this doesn't happen.

Collision detection is part of a physics engine. If you want long realistic hair (or any piece of gears) that collide properly with the rest of your armor, it's still a shitload of trouble. Detecting the collosion is one thing, but how the hair react after is where thing get complicated.

I hope you're joking here about WoW. The hair in WoW are stiff, and do glitch a lot through most armor. Since the focus isnt on your character like FFXIV, maybe you wont notice it as much, but they have the same issue.

Spoiler: show

http://img19.imageshack.us/img19/5141/wow1c.jpg
http://img687.imageshack.us/img687/7780/wow1l.jpg

[edit]
If there is one graphics thing I want them to fix, it's your weapon floating midair a 3 inch from your waist. It looks completely retarded.

[Jinko]

Im not saying its not part of the physics engine (when our characters are running on the ground that is physics saying don't fall this object), all im saying is that the two situations require different levels of work and CPU power.

I certainly don't expect FF14 to have realistic flowing hair anyway, most single player games can't even pull this off without it looking awful.

Man all this because I suggested long hair, lol.

You are right though those small thin eyebrows sure ruin the look of the character /sarcasm.

[Kaylia]

Im not saying its not part of the physics engine, all im saying is that the two situations require different levels of work and CPU power.

I certainly don't expect FF14 to have realistic flowing hair anyway, most single player games can't even pull this off without it looking awful.

Man all this because I suggested long hair, lol.

You are right though those small thin eyebrows sure ruin the look of the character /sarcasm.

I never said they ruin the look of the characters, I'm just pointing out that WoW doesn't do what you said they did. Polygon clipping through each other won't go away anytime soon in mmo, so get used to it. It's not SE being lazy, it's just a lot of work for little effort.

[Jinko]

Ok, I still want long hair tho .. :D

[Kaylia]

Ok I still want long hair tho .. :D

If they want to give us long hair, I definitively won't complain. More options is always better.

[edit]

While we are on the topic, did they mention anything about changing your hairstyle after the character creation?

[roippi]

Realistic hair physics ranks awfully low on my shit-I-care-about meter. Though I guess there's not much else to talk about while we wait for beta.

[bluefan]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YF8CUSiPDJ0

It'll be a good, long while before we start seeing it in a MMO I would think.

[Caerith]

If they want to give us long hair, I definitively won't complain. More options is always better.

[edit]

While we are on the topic, did they mention anything about changing your hairstyle after the character creation?

While we do get a bunch of style options and like, what, 32 different options for highlights, I did not see a hair salon anywhere in Limsa Lominsa.

Would be nice to have the option, but then again it would be nice if they gave us a character creator to play with before launch.

[Kaylia]

While we do get a bunch of style options and like, what, 32 different options for highlights, I did not see a hair salon anywhere in Limsa Lominsa.

Would be nice to have the option, but then again it would be nice if they gave us a character creator to play with before launch.

Yeah, I know it's not in the alpha atm, I was just wondering if they mentioned it somewhere in interview.