[SteveManly]

While I was translating yesterday's Connect!On article, FF14-FAN, a great Japanese news site for FFXIV, was posting his analysis of the alpha screenshot based on released information from Dengeki and Connect!On. Aya and I translated the analysis with FF14-FAN's permission (received through twitter, yay!).

Ok, Aya translated it. I was reading comics. I just edited it.

I added placeholders for the pictures because I can't get them into the article from where I am right now. A fellow staff member should be in later to put them up for you. I didn't want to link directly to FF14-FAN's pictures and sap his bandwidth.

Enjoy!

What is Final Fantasy XIV’s battle like? Analysis of the alpha version’s screenshot

• 1. Action menu icons
• 2. Selective icons
• 3. Character or enemy’s name
• 4. Log window
• 5. Mini map

Action menu icons

• 1. Mode button
  
  This switches between passive mode, which is the default mode, and active mode, the mode where the adventurer readies her weapon.
  
  During passive mode, you can change your weapon, which means you can do a class change. You can switch modes even when you are in cities. According to the Connect!On vol.41, which was issued on March 27th, while you are in passive mode, something will recover. Since it is declared that MP would not recover, it is possible that HP will be automatically healed up.
• 2. Battle regimen/ button
  
  This is the button you use to activate a battle mode which involves skills with multiple players.
  
  It seems like skillchain-type skills in FFXIV are done with this button. In other words, members of the party who want to take part in the skill chain must press this button.
• 3. The mystery switch button
  
  Does this button switch through action menu pages?
  
  According to the appearance of the screen, it looks like it shows the number of the page. Developers say that at this moment, you can set up to ten skills or abilities. So if it is the switch button, maybe you will be able to set more than ten skills as your character grows.
• 4. Action menu palette
  
  Actions, abilities, weapon skills and magic set by the user will be shown here.
  
  FFXIV employs command battle style where you choose each action from this palette and fight. Each icon has gauge below it, and I think this is the active time gauge. This would mean there is a time limit set for each ability, and you can use it when the gauge is full.
• 5. TP (tactical point) gauge
  
  The TP gauge is divided into six parts. From the look of the shot, it seems like the full TP is around 3,000 points or so. You can save it up by doing various actions such as attacking the enemy. Seems like there are special magic which uses TP. The article in Connect!On vol.41, predicts that skills will consume only one section out of the six.
• 6. Item list button
  
  This button opens the list of the items you have.
  
  It is not known yet on what situation you can use item during the battle, but it seems like items such as potions to recover HP or items which make monsters weak can be used by selecting them by opening the list of your possessions.
• 7. Emote list button
  
  This button opens the list of emotional expressions
  
  There must be a number of emotes in FFXIV. I hope they put in class-specific emotes.
• 8. Main menu button
  
  This button shows the main menu, which includes things like the equipment menu
  
  Like bags and emotes, there are so many user interfaces that it’s convenient that everything is fit nicely into a small area. Also, it is said that you can adjust user interfaces such as icons and windows freely, but things may be fixed in place in the PS3 version.
• 9. Character’s name and HP/ MP gauge
  
  This is your character’s name and the HP and MP gauge.
  
  On the screen, Katayama is soloing, but party members’ status would probably be shown here if you are in a party.

Selective icons

• 1. Selected activity or skill icon
  
  The selected WS and abilities are shown here
  
  The gauge below the icon is the active time gauge and you perform the action when this gauge is full. Also, the curved gauge at the top left of the icon is power gauge. Power gauge manages the power of the skill. The higher the gauge is, the stronger the attack. Seismic Shock on the screen is a weapon skill (WS). It is not clear if this power gauge is used only for WS or if other abilities use it, too. It seems like we have to save up the power gauge to give more effective attacks.
• 2. Target
  
  The status of the monsters you are targetting at are shown here
  
  The targeted monster’s name is shown here in Japanese. Peiste appeared in FFXI, too. The gauge below the monster’s name is his HP. Also, the circular icon on the left of the name shows the strength of the enemy’s party as said in Dengeki games vol.7. I think they are strong when this gauge is red and weak when it is blue. In FFXIV, most battls will be against multiple enemies, so this icon indicates the strength of the enemy party.

Name of characters and monsters

• 1. Enemy’s name
  Name of the monster
  
  In FFXI, the monster names were only shown in Roman letters, but they are shown in several languages in FFXIV. This should reduce confusion for players who play in other languages. I hope that not just enemy names, but target object names will also be in Japanese.
• 2. Character’s name
  
  Your character’s name
  
  It looks like it is clear that you can give characters first and last names. According to the interview with Mr. Tanaka, users who move from different servers on FFXI may end up on the same servers in FFXIV, so they needed a way to manage names.

4. Log window




1. Log window
“General” shows general logs and “Battle” shows logs while the battle.

In FFXI, there was only one log window, but this time it is divided by tabs. As you can see from the log, the character is hit from the behind, so attacks’ direction and distance will be important in FFXIV. You can check this out by logs. Plus, WS has limited area and you can’t activate it if the enemy is out of that range, as in the screenshot.

(TL Note: The log says, “Ajattara hits Destiny Katayama from behind. But Destiny Katayama saw through the attack.
“Peiste is out of range, so seismic strike could not be used.
“Destiny Katayama parried an attack.” –Manly)

5. Mini map

• 1. Your position
  
  You character’s position is shown in the center of the minimap.
  
  This mini map didn’t exist in FFXI. It also shows you your heading, so it can save you from getting lost. I think party members’ positions are also shown here.
• 2. Other dots
  
  Enemies are red and NPCs are in green.
  
  According to the screenshot, there are solo monsters, but it seems that more monsters are in parties. Personally, I would prefer a rectangular transparent mini map to a window that fades out on the edges.

Servers’ connectivity




Packets sent to and received from the server.

Information is sent and received back and forth with the server in online games. Bigger numbers mean that more information is being sent. When the number is zero, the connection with the server is shut down.

This screenshot is for alpha version, so there is a high possibility that the final version will look different.



Again, the original article can be found on FF14-FAN's site!

[Eldan]

Most of these things seem fairly intuitive. The exception maybe being the weapon skill thingy. My guess with the "mystery switch" is that it just goes to different pages like most other MMOs or loosely like macro pages in FFXI. If "Developers say that at this moment, you can set up to ten skills or abilities" then either it isn't implemented or you can have multiple pages to change to for when you enable different skills [much like macro pages I guess].

Also, thanks a ton Aya for translating these things! And Steve for reading those comics :3

This post has been edited by Eldan: 28 March 2010 - 09:55 PM

[Cerulean Shaman]

Quote

2. Battle regimen/ button

This is the button you use to activate a battle mode which involves skills with multiple players.

It seems like skillchain-type skills in FFXIV are done with this button. In other words, members of the party who want to take part in the skill chain must press this button.

Hmm...since weapon skills are basically just abilities/spells more or less so far and will be used far more often than in FFXI no doubt, I wonder..

[Eldan]

Cerulean Shaman, on 28 March 2010 - 09:56 PM, said:

Hmm...since weapon skills are basically just abilities/spells more or less so far and will be used far more often than in FFXI no doubt, I wonder..

Definitely the most interesting part of the article.

To me at least.

[Requiem]

<3 dissection mode

I wonder what they have in mind for skill chains if they've dedicated an entire BUTTON (ZOMG) to it!

This post has been edited by Requiem: 28 March 2010 - 10:04 PM

[Gummy Devalis]

First, many thanks Aya and Steve for bringing us another fantastic translation to satisfy our information addictions.

Something tells me that since you have to select a button to join into a skill-chain, there may be situations where skill-chains aren't a good idea, or may actually prove to be detrimental to your party.

I wonder if the player can choose the power-level of a weaponskill they use, and have better control over their DPS as a result of it. If that's the case, that is a very handy tool for curbing agro in sensitive situations.

I hope the minimap will have a solid background (or a border) to it instead of the translucent one shown. I don't know why, but it throws me off.

The main theme I see with the interface though, is being able to control your character down to a T - something not done in other MMOs.

Only time will tell if anything I've said actually comes to pass!

[DybbuK]

awesome write up, thanks for the work.. editing it <3

if skill chains prove to be situational with the possibility of fatality.. it could get a whole lot more interesting being in groups! cant wait to find out more info.

[Inuisonu]

Thanks for translating again Steve and Aya! Thanks FF14-FAN site too =]

Neat info..and what's with the idea that the PS3 won't be able to move the interface around? Never read that anywhere, and I hope that's not true.

[Varun]

Thanks for this, clears up a few questions. The UI, even at this stage looks pretty slick in my opinion, the mini-map is somewhat different to what I am used to though!

[Burai]

Thanks for the translation, again, Manly.

[Mooga]

Thanks Steve and Aya! :D

Thats great stuff! :D

This post has been edited by Mooga: 29 March 2010 - 05:18 AM

[Tonks]

Thanks for the translation - Now I really wanna know what they're planning in regards to weaponskills...
And isn't he right about the minimap? Guess they still have time to change it if they get alot of feedback on it in the alpha/beta :P

[Apricoth]

I am soooooo happy to hear they will have different tabs assigned to different things in the game. Having that battle spam in the same window as your other chat. Even with the chat filter they provide in FFXI was just not quite enough.

[liondude]

maybe in passive mode you can recover a section of the TP bar that way you can start the fight with some abilities and maybe by doing those abilites they even give you some tp for another section

[SteveManly]

Requiem, on 28 March 2010 - 10:04 PM, said:

I wonder what they have in mind for skill chains if they've dedicated an entire BUTTON (ZOMG) to it!

I saw a lot of people talking about this skillchain button, and it reminded me of the other night when I was in an FFXI party. Two of us in the party were set to do a certain skillchain, but sometimes the warrior or monk accidentally cut into the middle of it.

My thinking: only those with this button toggled onto skillchain mode will be able to activate skillchains, and those breaking into the skillchain accidentally with weapon skills won't actually interrupt the skillchain. A class like samurai, who builds TP more quickly than other jobs, would benifit greatly from this button if their role in their current party is just to "spam WSs." That way they could toss out WSs as soon as they are ready without having to worry about the timing of other members' skillchains.

[Requiem]

SteveManly, on 29 March 2010 - 08:46 AM, said:

I saw a lot of people talking about this skillchain button, and it reminded me of the other night when I was in an FFXI party. Two of us in the party were set to do a certain skillchain, but sometimes the warrior or monk accidentally cut into the middle of it.

My thinking: only those with this button toggled onto skillchain mode will be able to activate skillchains, and those breaking into the skillchain accidentally with weapon skills won't actually interrupt the skillchain. A class like samurai, who builds TP more quickly than other jobs, would benifit greatly from this button if their role in their current party is just to "spam WSs." That way they could toss out WSs as soon as they are ready without having to worry about the timing of other members' skillchains.

oh yeah! good thinking. but I still hope the idea doesn't stop there ;)

This post has been edited by Requiem: 29 March 2010 - 08:51 AM

[Thaigare]

awesome article! thanks for translation! explains alot more about it

[_pops]

I think I'm the only one who feels the UI is a bit... clunky.

I hope we can REALLY move and resize windows because right now it looks like too much is going on;;






















I liked FFXI's better...

This post has been edited by -shuu-: 29 March 2010 - 11:17 AM

[sidion]

Great analysis and thx for the translations. I'm glad they said you can move parts of the UI around. I really want to see more gameplay and just how the UI works in motion.

[mmmKeiki]

Just a little note from me on this Peiste business. The monster's name looks more like ベイスト, which is "Beisuto", or "Beast." (Looks a bit like ペイスト, "Peisuto", too, hard to tell what's modifying the 'he', the first symbol).

Anyway, great dissection. :>