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Artificially increasing difficulty with visuals
Wandering Mist
Moderator, Member, Founder, Kickstarter, Alpha One
So I was watching a video of a FFXIV raid and the sheer amount of visual clutter on screen during the fight is ridiculous. It gets to the point where you literally can't see either your boss or your character because of all the different spell effects. Here's a couple of examples so you know what I'm talking about:
Now, idk about you guys but this whole thing seems like artificially raising the difficulty of the fight just from messy visuals. The mechanics of this fight are not that hard - for the most part it's your basic "stand here to avoid the big aoe", and "stand in this puddle to stop an add spawning" but the way it's displayed on screen make it so so much harder.
What do you guys think about this? Do you think having visuals like this is a problem or not?
Now, idk about you guys but this whole thing seems like artificially raising the difficulty of the fight just from messy visuals. The mechanics of this fight are not that hard - for the most part it's your basic "stand here to avoid the big aoe", and "stand in this puddle to stop an add spawning" but the way it's displayed on screen make it so so much harder.
What do you guys think about this? Do you think having visuals like this is a problem or not?
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Comments
Thanks for asking.
100%
Steven has said that in the bigger fights will have default armors and lessened effects so we can concentrate on the fight
I tend not to mind the over-the-top combat sparklies the devs seem to love.
In the OP images, there's way to much going on in the middle of the screen and I would much prefer to actually see the characters in battle rather than all the symbols on top of them.
I am fine with that as long as your own model retains its appearance
These kinds of visuals are really bad and all decent players will turn them off if given the option.
Like I appreciate that everyone loves a more realistic approach (and to be clear I agree with that), but its not always possible (especially when we lack a good information method for determining some of the more technical boss mechanics, visual has to be relied on more). Now obviously FF takes this to a whole other level bc of its anime style though.
a big red circle on the ground won't feel immersive, but it does make understanding the fight a lot more clear.
I'm not saying I want that, just pointing out that there's sometimes a balance when it comes to raid design.
To me, it is just another form of attempting to make content harder through obfuscation of information.
As many would know, this is something I am not keen on - players should have easy access to all information and developers should back themselves to still be able to make difficult content.
However, Steven has demonstrated a willingness to obfuscate information for no real gain in the past.
If you are in a raid of 40, you dont - not all of them at least.
Let alone PvP with hundreds on each side.
I personally have spell effects off except my own because I like seeing myself. However, there is a girl in our Free Company who can't watch flashing lights, but she has her settings set so that she doesn't have a problem for 90% of the game (flashy cutscenes are what get her the most and sometimes those are mid battle).
So if this was just an example about how visuals could artificially inflate difficulty, I can agree to that as I've played plenty of games that have diarrea christmas lights (I've died so many times without realizing it because I'm just inside the chaos). But, otherwise it's up to the player to adjust their own settings and preferences, in this specific case. If the visuals cause unnecessary difficulty and the player can change it, that's just on them.
I see nothing wrong with having visuals like that so long as you can adjust it. I've said this on most UI/graphics threads, but as long as we can customize our preferred visual playstyle they can add in whatever they like.
Personally, I do play with all the visual effects on. The only thing in FFXIV that has ever annoyed me as far as too many visualizations is the awful Bahamut summon the summoner gets. That dumb thing just hovers right where any DPS would be looking. It is like a cat in the kitchen when you are trying to prepare dinner for guests that are on the way... you, get used to it, though.
That aside, this fights visuals never bugged me. What bugged me most about Titania EX was people not doing the knock back correctly and wiping the party 4-5mins into a pull like clockwork. Outside that, the fight is pretty brain-dead. As long as you have the DPS and don't mess up the simple mechanics.
Maybe I am just used to all the glowing, though. I don't think the visuals add or subtract any difficulty at all in that fight or any fight in FFXIV. If anything the visuals make it easier.
If I had more time, I would write a shorter post.
On regular raids, it's perfectly fine to keep them, I've never missed anything, nor has it ever made it any harder.
Also people like Preach acting so overwhelmed is utterly hilarious to me. With all the visuals in FFXIV, I alway know what's going on and who is doing what. In WoW I have no idea what any effect is, why I'm suddenly bigger, or smaller etc.
So no. Visuals do not raise the difficulty unless you have absolutely no idea what you're doing. No matter how much people may meme on the Red Mage LB3
Solo content.
I do the same in WoW where my graphics are maxed out while out in the world but I lower them as much as possible while in raids.
Well based on the various answers given on this thread alone it seems that people play with different levels of visuals turned on. So I don't think everyone is getting rid of them, and it's situational at best when others chose to turn them off.
Basically, isn't it better to have options?
I rarely turn effects off, they are part of the visual immersion for me. If they confuse me, I consider that confusion part of the immersion. Turning that off for clarity is a form of soft cheating in my mind, a standard I imposed on myself but don't expect of anyone.
What I would like for effect is them being on a scale depending on their success.
0 no effect, a miss or resisted spell
1 small radius or aura on the target, normal tick of a dot
2 small radius, spell/attack connected on the target
3 medium radius or burst, a critical hit!
4 medium-large, target has died from this hit!
5 large, target has died from this critical hit!
6
7
8 huge effect, the ground shakes, Raid boss was killed!
So, minimal effects unless something died.