Sqix sucks at MMORPG UI

[Don]

I saw my brother play the FF14 beta, and also looking at FF11, it's pretty clear Sqix doesn't know how to do a MMORPG UI. Obviously the interface is setup so that you can navigate it using a controller, which is like trying to put a square peg in a round hole. Now I realize you can't just ignore the guys who play this with a controller but it seems like Sqix goes out of their way to penalize the guys who play with a keyboard and a mouse. I see no shortcuts to the screens you'd normally want to see (character stats, inventory, etc). The standard 1-10 hotkey isn't even onscreen by default. I realize it's still in alpha but missing a hotkey bar or command access to basic window is rather important and makes me think they actually don't plan on give you a hotkey to access the basic screens.

I really don't understand why they'd go out of their way to hamstring keyboard/mouse users. It's like they purposely removed a lot of the advantages you'd normally get for a keyboard/mouse because the game is designed to be playable with only 10 buttons (those on a controller).

[Eric]

Is it at all different from FFXI? Or is it basically the same engine with a few updates here and there?

[Don]

My brother never got out of the tutorial since they only allow you to play 4 hours at a time. I heard the combat engine is still being worked on and he didn't even get to fight anything yet so not much point to comment on that yet.

I also find it annoying the quests bascially dumps a WoW like block of text but there isn't a summary so you got to actually read it. For example if you're supposed to go south to the XYZ guild and talk to Zoe the Wise, that text will just be randomly in the block of text somewhere (usually toward the end) and yet it's not labeled in any specific way. I mean I know they want to tell a story but a lot of time you just want something like: "Talk to Zoe the Wise, south of the inn" rather than reading a page or two of text to find this out. With the limited playtest time there probably isn't much I can observe until they make beta servers available full time. The quests given out by the crystal stuff seems interesting, but you don't get any of those in the tutorial yet. It's also just about the worst tutorial I've seen. For example one part they make you go through like 6 different emotes before you can even continue, and remember there are no keyboard shortcuts to those, so you got to scroll through this list of stuff to use them. You can't just say /bow, /laugh, or whatever the game wants you to do. You got to go through like menu -> actions -> emotes -> scroll to the right one. I don't know if that was just specific to the Archer, but it's almost like they're trying to highlight all the worst possible things in the game.

And again I understand you want to design a game that's playable with a controller but would it really kill the game if you can do /bow instead of going through 3 layers of menu to /bow? I suppose it could be added later, but you'd think something like /bow = the emote to bow is pretty basic that it should be in the game at the start...

[SineSwiper]

Hey, give them credit for trying. Nobody has really pushed for console-based MMORPGs like Square has, or even the international model (Japanese and English together in one server) they have also been promoting. If they can successfully pull off a good interface for both, it would break new ground for MMORPGs on the console market, similar to how FPSs are now common on consoles.

[Don]

I don't mind trying but there's really no reason to pretend most people won't have a keyboard. I know if you use a controller you got no way to do an emote besides picking from a list, but that doesn't stop you from having keyboard alternatives. Likewise maybe there isn't enough keys on a controller to have one key mapped to any basic function, but there sure is on a keyboard. Having say 'c' mapped to your character stats doesn't prevent you from accessing it from a controller. I suppose it's possible that they will add them later since this is alpha but it seems like a pretty big oversight to forget that you got a keyboard.

I mean this would be like making a FPS for both the console and PC that doesn't use the mouse. I've seen a lot of attempt to try to create a MMORPG UI without a mouse and keyboard and it just doesn't work well, and there's certainly no reason to pretend you don't have a mouse or a keyboard for those who do have one.

[Shrinweck]

If it's still in beta it's still too early to cast judgments on the mouse+keyboard control scheme - they ideally have plenty of time to revisit things like this.

[Eric]

Err if they're having combat issues, it shouldn't be in beta, it should be in alpha.

[Don]

I'd think you can sort out the engine and content later but the UI should be ready at start. We'll see. I don't know how the combat engine plays and it doesn't look like people got very far given you can only play 4 hours at a time. It's hard to imagine doing this especially bad so if the guildleve system works out it can't be too horrible.

[SineSwiper]

Err if they're having combat issues, it shouldn't be in beta, it should be in alpha.

It IS in alpha. And the industry has a fucked up concept of "beta". Beta shouldn't mean "PR campaign", but that's almost always what it is.