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

[Malacite]

FINAL FANTASY XIV, The Lodestone


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

[jenova_9]

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

Great news!

[Aeni]

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

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.

They finally acknowledged this but up to rank 23 onry? I hope that this means that the changes made between Ranks 20 and 23 will affect skill points gained all the way to 50. I did notice a sharp drop after Rank 20 and things seem to kind of taper off from there so ... here's hoping.

[Kailea]

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

I know this game is to be made more solo friendly...but lets not have another WOW where you can solo all the way to 50 easy as hell, THEN suck in parties where it really matters at "endgame"

[jenova_9]

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

I have to agree, mew. That's what's hurting things like DC Universe Online, so much is soloable and at the cap, people are having trouble understanding and accepting what teamwork means and what it involves. The solo nature of that mmo is also hurting the community, leaving less reasons to communicate and socialize, so ya mmo that makes soloing easy makes things really empty feeling and divided among people.

I mean imagine if Cloud could solo their progression, they wouldn't of met or have the need to team up with Barret or Tifa or Red XIII or Aeris or Vincent or Cid or Cait Sith, or Yuffie. They would have no friends.

[Takelli]

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

I mean imagine if Cloud could solo their progression,

Actually... that is quite possible... With the right Materia that is. Also, with the right level.

But, I don't think that the game actually would allow that.

[Malacite]

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

I know this game is to be made more solo friendly...but lets not have another WOW where you can solo all the way to 50 easy as hell, THEN suck in parties where it really matters at "endgame"

Eh, it's all in finding the right balance. I like the idea of being able to solo to the cap if you so choose to, with the option of partying being much faster and fun, rather than mandatory.

[Aksannyi]

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

What Malacite said. I'm all about xp partying - hell, that was some of the most fun I had in FFXI, when the parties were going well and the xp was just rolling in, but sometimes I didn't have the time for it. Sometimes I'd log on, have about two hours before I had to be at Fafhogg, and that's not enough time to gear up for and find a party and then of course change back to one of my main jobs and run alllllllllll the way through the tree to the Aery. Those were the times I would have loved to be able to run out and do some quests and grab some quick solo xp.

XPing in WoW is done two ways - you can either quest your way from 1-85, or you can quest your way from 1-15 and use the random dungeon finder to place you in dungeons with random people from other servers (which is nice, especially if you're on a low pop server) and you'll get xp from fighting the mobs in there as well as completing quest objectives in that dungeon if it's your first time there. Dungeon leveling was great because you'd get a feel for how the job plays on your way up, but I always felt that questing through many levels was a lot faster. It should be the other way around.

Let's use FFXI as an example. Accounting for xp chain bonuses as well as the xp gain from an IT being significantly higher than anything you can kill solo (unless you're one of the jobs that was forced to solo like BST or BLM), xp partying was the way to go. They added in FoV, well, that's great, but solo leveling was still painful. I think the 1-per-vana day restriction removal is going to do a lot for that, but it's still very slow at higher levels (starting about level 30ish) to solo an easy prey mob. Maybe the way they're increasing the xp reward from those will make a difference and scale soloability to where it's actually a good alternative to campaign (lol) or xp partying if you just can't seem to find one available.

Anyway, going on a tangent. If xp partying gives you, say, 100% of experience possible, then solo questing/leves/whatever should give you something like 75%. That way, it's still viable to solo when you just want to be by yourself but partying is still much more attractive. If soloing is equal to what you can do in a group, then there's no incentive to group. If SE does it right, they'll make it attractive to both camps.

[Malacite]

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

It's kinda ironic too in a sense, because in a lot of standard offline RPGs if your party members should all die but one, often times (like I said there are RPGs that don't do this, which puzzles me) the EXP earned is greatly increased as it's no longer being split evenly among the party so you can essentially power level a single character, provided he or she can take the monsters.


Back on topic though, IIRC the game grants EXP bonuses based on party size & mob level. Just have EXP apply as normal for solo groups and increase the bonuses for Parties.

[Aeni]

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

I know this game is to be made more solo friendly...but lets not have another WOW where you can solo all the way to 50 easy as hell, THEN suck in parties where it really matters at "endgame"

Who says soloing to the end was going to be made easy? There's a difference between soloing as a better option (as in WoW) and partying being a much more efficient option (like in FFXI) What I want is a middle ground ... and let me tell you, there's better soloists out there than there are "groupies". Just because you party doesn't necessarily mean you know what the hell you're doing. I've seen people aoe a lot in parties and then die and then complain about it. When soloing, you learn fast when to aoe and when not to aoe. Let's not generalize here and say "all people who solo suck" or "everyone who can group up are the best in the game".

[CrimsonDeath]

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

FFXI HDR