Battle System Improvements (02/22/2008)

[Tsrwedge]

Improvements to the battle system have been scheduled for the next version update.

Battle Music

Up until now, battle music would only be triggered when the player executes the "attack" command on an enemy. This has meant that battle music is not triggered when other commands, such as "magic," are used instead.

The development team has made considerations for battle music to be triggered based on factors such as distance from the enemy, and whether or not a party member is engaged in battle. However, it was raised that triggers that would cause unexpected and abrupt changes in BGM would not be well received by our players.
Furthermore, depending on platform, sound playback can be a hardware intensive process. Frequent changes in music would result in lowered hardware performance, e.g. a delay in log messages. For these reasons, the battle music system has been left untouched until now.

For the next version update, however, our programmers have been working hard to make improvements to the battle music system become reality. These adjustments should allow battle music to play if you are within the vicinity of a party member currently engaged with an enemy, even if you yourself have not executed the "attack" command. This way, even those who play with long range attack characters such as mages, will not have to miss out on an essential atmospheric element in the game. While it may not be possible to account for all scenarios, due to the nearly limitless ways in which battles can be initiated; we believe this will improve things significantly.

Monster Name Text Color

A new text color will be added to monster names, in order to differentiate those that are engaged with an alliance member as opposed to those engaged with players from another party. The names of monsters being engaged by an alliance member will now be displayed as reddish-purple.

Macro and Marker Data

Until now, it has been possible to store character macro and marker data only on the hard disk drives of players' game machines. However, the next version update will make it possible to also store this data on PlayOnline's servers. Now you can enjoy the convenience of using your very own user-defined macros no matter where you go!

From FINAL FANTASY XI Official Web Site.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

These seem more like technical adjustments than battle-specific. Still some of these seem pretty nice, though monster name text color doesn't seem to be any different than what happens now.

[Ellipses]

reddish-purple

I lol'd.

It's about time on the macros and map markers. Other than that, just awaiting the more compelling changes.

[Dymlos]

Sweet, now I hope this also includes party battle music in the different expansion areas when I'm not in a party. Now if only they could make it so I don't have to be in attack mode to use a ranged attack WS.

[Wise Donkey]

Kind of an odd update... The Macro thing is cool, too bad I just spent the time getting all the Macros on my Laptop and Desktop the same... The Battle Music thing, just seems like they could be focusing on some more serious matters, but whatever.

[Lmnop]

This is wonderful news. All of it. More than anything, it shows that S-E is finally changing the way things in the game behave instead of simply adding more content to their inflexible system.

Now if only they would fix magic/freeze glitch or add a way to be engaged w/out auto-attacking... or fix the skillchain chat log issues... so on and so forth.

Also, I hope the change in text color makes it so my <bt> macros work in alliance play... or has there been an alliance target tag around for years that I didn't know about?

[Dark Raz]

Kind of an odd update... The Macro thing is cool, too bad I just spent the time getting all the Macros on my Laptop and Desktop the same... The Battle Music thing, just seems like they could be focusing on some more serious matters, but whatever.

Explain these "serious matters" that are indeed serious matters and not just a personal want.

[Celeal]

The battle music changes is nice. I am not sure for other gamers, but for me, background music is an essential part of most video/computer game in general.

[Malacite]

SMN's brokenness? The cost/drop rates of dynamis and broken state of Zilart end game?


@_ @ I was hoping this was gonna be the job update info, but this is still very good! I wonder what's gonna happen to my macros now though since I have 2 different sets (PC and PS3) so wtf is gonna happen? Which takes priority?

[Ellipses]

This is wonderful news. All of it. More than anything, it shows that S-E is finally changing the way things in the game behave instead of simply adding more content to their inflexible system.

That's a good point. With the way they talk about the difficulty of changing the way battle music works, it sounds like they've had to dig a little deeper into the code than most of their other updates. The optimist in me wants to think this is a sign that some of the game's other long-standing technical problems could see some polish.

[Balfree]

I appreciate the battle music thing.

Thank you Se. THANK YOU! finally.

Been wishing for that since the day i stopped meleeing as RDM in the dunes.

[Dark Raz]

Yeah, FFXI is one of the few MMORPGs that has this type of "Sound system" so to speak, so it would seem very complicated to change 1 aspect without ruining the others.

[Ellipses]

@_ @ I was hoping this was gonna be the job update info, but this is still very good! I wonder what's gonna happen to my macros now though since I have 2 different sets (PC and PS3) so wtf is gonna happen? Which takes priority?

It's probably just that the macro saving thing on the character select screen will save to SE's servers now instead of the hard drive, so you can transfer them around or not as you see fit.

[Mhurron]

I appreciate the battle music thing.

Thank you Se. THANK YOU! finally.

Been wishing for that since the day i stopped meleeing as RDM in the dunes.

No kidding. It's one of those little things, but it's a little thing that adds to the experience.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

SMN's brokenness?

You don't level SMN, you bitch about the job a lot though. Really, we know the adjustments are coming, we know new avatars are coming. We don't know when, but we know its in the works. Why not stop this inane crabbing about the job? Its just about as annoying as the incessant and needless wants RDMs have.

The cost/drop rates of dynamis

Just because you're too lazy to farm, too lazy to craft or BCNM doesn't mean there is anything wrong with the cost of entry. The cost is partially there to discourage spam, along with the three day wait, I might add. Its also there to prevent every damn LS on the server from cramming themselves into a zone that cannot be instanced.

If you want to complain about anything for Dyanmis, complain about the lack of instancing. The cost is reasonable and often split between LS member, often ending up less than the present entry fee to Limbus? If you can't whip up 30k before a run, you have some more pressing matters to attend to in this game than doing Dynamis.

And SE has said it before - relics are INTENDED to be rare. There would be nothing special about relic if it dropped commonly. Linkshells have been taking advantage of the TH info given at fanfest, asking THFs to sub /BRD and elegy on mobs in Dynamis, so they can hit more mobs and get on more of the mobs the hate lists.

and broken state of Zilart end game?

Zilart Endgame is what it is, if you're expecting a massive overhaul of Zilart endgame anytime soon, you may as well just give up. If you don't like Zilart Endgame - and I'm honestly not fond of it - then you have the option of not doing it. However, you won't get everything you want if you avoid Zilart endgame. At this point, its just a neccessary evil and no matter what SE does to Zilart endgame, people will complain about either what has changed and what has not. Its best to just present further alternatives to Zilart endgame, which ToA's endgame has proven to do incredibly well and those trends will likely continue with WotG