so ive been contemplating mmos, specifically of the tab targeting kind, and considering what my hypothetical ideal tab targeting mmo would look like mechanically. so far it seems mostly “what if ff14 were simpler”, and at least one point is applicable to rpgs as a whole for me. i felt like here was a good place to share my points so far, get input, and share my potential future ramblings
mmorpg theory crafting
no quest markers, in universe directions, with quest log writing those directions down
single ff14 style cross bar, no more than 12 combat abilities at maximum, leaving at least 4 slots free for other things
cycle enemies with r shoulder, allies with l shoulder
if abilities are supposed to cycle into each other, highlight follow up abilites
basic mobs should be soloable within 2 abilities (basic mobs could be single enemies primarily)
no abilities that should just be passives
no abilities with cooldowns over 2 minutes
(last 2 were added after partner informed me that wow has classes with buffs you are supposed to be casting once an hour)
Have you played Rabbit and Steel? I know it doesn’t necessarily address all of your ideas, but it has a few of them and the game has often been briefly described to me as a “roguelike ffxiv”. They have a demo if you just want to check it out, would be interested to hear what you think.
i have been meaning to try that one, but im pretty sure its like some of the parts of ff14 i very much don’t want, or want to be less extreme, ff14 bosses are often too much for me to actually enjoy the fights and are just pure stress, and rabbit and steel looks very much to be concentrated ff14 bosses
having thought a bit more, another aspect id want to take from ff14 would be how ability rotations work, so many other mmos give a ton of abilities and some that are definitely supposed to lead into another, but they don’t make it clear, but with ff14 when an ability leads into another it gets highlighted and its really nice
i would also want instead of abilities just filling whatever free space is on the crossbars id want to set things up so they fill it in an intended pattern, maybe have it so if you do edit your crossbar then abilities won’t get auto added to it at all since you are moving things where prefer already
more time and thought and recently trying ff11, i think ive changed my mind on some things, i really prefer the more thought and toolbox? approach of ff11
abilities aren’t rotations set in stone with an objectively correct order to use them in, but are tools where its as important to think about when not to use them as it is for when to use them
plus having fights against mobs be more auto attack based adds a level of chill for world exploring combat that i like
i really need to try out more pre wow mmos to better analyze things before wows hotbar approach changed things so much
just started getting into ff14 since the holidays personally!
i think its interesting how the PVP mode completely reworks all the classes, and streamlines a lot of the abilities into a simplified state compared to their PVE counterparts
for example, instead of occupying multiple ability slots, combo moves instead are combined into a single button, and just cycle through the combo on activation. this isnt anything revolutionary… but i do think there is a lot to see in how they compress the existing classes into less buttons for PVP’s sake.
if you wanted to mess around with it for whatever reason, you should be able to beat up a bunch of training dummies in the PVP area even though it doesnt let you do any matches. when i was f2p, i messed around for like 20 minutes before realizing i wasnt even allowed to queue lol
