Improved 'Check' System

I'm not saying colours should be the defining attribute of what mobs do what but the OP is suggesting something better than /check'ing a mob.

FFXI is not a text based adventure. I think /check is a tacky process.

I'd disagree it's very text oriented you could techinqually play the game almost as well with only seeing the text. And only using text

Maybe I should reword to say FFXI should not be a text based adventure then :P
I do know what you mean

But that is what sets it apart from most other MMOs and in a good way. If you want a color coordinated overly simplistic MMO theres several to chose from.

I agree, there are probably better things to use than colours but I personally can't think of anything else at the moment. I do think that the /check system is outdated and insufficient though.

If you want to go into the learning curve of mobs, why not take away the /check system completely? To me there's no difference in looking at a mob and knowing how hard it is compared to /check'ing the mob, it's 2 seconds difference.

Why not the consideration of how previous FF games have taken the checking of mobs through Libra:
"Libra (ライブラ, Raibura), also known as Scan, Peep, or Sense, is a recurring White Magic spell in the series. It displays an enemy's stats, strengths, and weaknesses. In the later 3D installments in the series, one could move a scanned enemy around to see it from all sides."
Taken from http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Libra_(Spell)

Well the check system doesnt really do everything for you you still gotta know exactly what it means. Also provides a great testing tool to see how much acc or att something adds

It's not even two seconds.

Ctrl+C.

Wow.

Also, I thought about Libra; I'd say just keep /check for general estimates, and then Libra could give details about level, elemental resistances, etc. This could work on NMs that are ITG with /check, but it'd give a clearer idea whether or not to /poke said NM for people with Libra.

I dunno I was thinking along the line of like a poke~dex w/o you spell

and when you check it some sort of gadget pops up and says

*Mob;
LvL 75
family Amorph

aggro : Sound

weakness : ICE

something like that and you could probably get more info on the mob when you kill it and then your poke~dex thing updates and fills in some blanks

This would be a cool idea for jobs that have a Scan ability, much like other final fantasies that do have this incorporated, being a RNG, BST, THF or maybe higher level WAR. For other jobs, it would make sense to keep it as normal. Player knowledge is going to win out eventually anyway, in that most anyone knows that Valkurm Dunes Lizzies aren't ***after so long, that you can run through Xarcabard at a certain point, etc.

so..you are saying we should have the whm spell scan again? :B

I'm saying there should be another solution. Think outside the box.

I say if it aint broke don't fix it

And I say I want to play FFXIV, not FFXI.

Then do it when it comes out

seriously stop comparing this game to lolwow. like ive seen way to many damn posts today about "ffxi so do this like lolwow does". if you want that go play lolwow seriously

Edit: sorry if i came off rude, but really, theres been like 15+ posts today about how stuff should change like lolwow

Exactly. If you like another game so much you play that. Trying to turn one game into another is self defeating.

I plan on it but comments like "If it aint broke dont fix it" implies that you want the existing component of FFXI in FFXIV. If I wanted to play something from FFXI I'd be playing FFXI (at the point in time when FFXIV is out), I'm saying I want a new experience with new functionality.

As an experienced player you have an understanding of what the check system means and how you use it in your gaming life. Seven years in to a game there is little information that is gained from the check system for most experienced players. Considering this will be a new game with new mobs/areas, you're not going to know anything. Eventually it'll be figured out by why not a more logical system to do so.

As one of my friends said, "Just tell me what level it is, and let me judge my ability to kill it."

But you like how it is, I think it's stupid. That's the good thing about opinions they're allowed to be different.

Also I don't think anyone other than people that have disagree'd have compared or even mentioned WoW in this thread. People do need to stop comparing WoW or other MMO's though. Not that it will stop.

Meh I don't even use check most the time except to maybe help figure out which one is higher for more xp. Never use it to determine weather I should take a mob on ever. Mob lvl is way way too deceptive.

Which is the root cause of the problem, now come up with a solution as the OP is trying to do.

Compare it to WoW because thats the only other mmo that pops out of my head with color.
red=aggro

Knowledge... really I don't think a system could be implement that took into account the mobs strength abilities and how your gear skill lvls and ja/spells would interact with theres to accurately determine what you could do if you played it well... especially since theres like a billion different ways for most jobs to fight it.

I think in a way we both agree Dasva but we're looking at it different ways.

I'm saying the /check system itself needs to either be redeveloped or scrapped. To me you're saying you don't really use /check anyway and the only way you determine how you go up against a mob is through experience.

So why not some sort of solution whereby the more you fight a mob the more information about that mob is exposed, a kind of learning curve if you will. Say there are 20 traits to a mob, to record (in game) the understanding of that trait you need to say... fight that mob 20 times (keeping it simple). After 20 fights you can tell the level of the mob, its hp, mp, stats and maybe you know what moves it does after it does its moves.

Just trying to bounce ideas.

Meh I kinda like actually not having all the info right on the screen waiting for me.

how about a little monster notebook?
kill more of that kind of mob more info is added to the book which you can go to in the menu and look up.
"Bunny"
Drops: Carrot, lettuce, hide, ???
Steal: ???
def 17
blah blah

Libra or Scan seems like a reasonable ability to me. It would keep the game within the FF line while still adding functionality comparable to other similar games. Would be even nicer to have the ability show the HP, MP, and weaknesses of most non-NM mobs like it does in other FF's, but I wouldn't want to ask too much :p

You'll find that if you talk around Vana'diel today, there are a great deal many players who now play FFXI that previously played lolwow. These same people are the also the ones who usually complain about the price of things, the lack of their income, the difficulty of missions/quests, and how hard it is leveling. Any FFXI player who has been with the game since before CoP will be the ones who will firmly put these FFXI lolwow posers in their place. They know, as they let these lolwow players know, that FFXI was and is much different from other MMOs, and that its current state is easier than it used to be.

To end with a /endrant, I fully agree that people who don't want to play FFXI in favor of wow, eq2, etc (and this means peeps who want FFXI to be more like said games) gtfo the game.

bring in the poke~dex gogo o.o!

im just saying some stuff should be know not 1000 trial and error :3

In PW the red names come in pretty handy because well, I havent played it for years like FF and im still pretty new. I think something simular to this would be very helpful to newer players. But then again, in FFXI unlike PW, you dont run outside a city beside a bunch of lv 6 things then run smack dead into ones that are 50+

wiki.ffxiclopedia.org
There is your notebook.

As far as colour is concerned, I think the only thing that really needs to change (using FFXI as our reference) is the colouring of claimed mobs. I like that I can tell from name colour the difference between pc's, npc's, pets, mobs and claimed mobs, but the difference between a mob claimed by you and someone else isn't enough, and having an alliance claimed mob showing up purple instead of red is just silly.

The reason I mention this slightly off topic subject, is because we currently have 7 (pc, npc, party/pet, mob, claimed by you, claimed by else, help, and I feel like I'm missing one) different colours for names, and it's a system that works well. Adding 5 shades of red to that makes it more confusing, not less.

Adding more info in any fashion to the name above a mob makes it look cluttered and ugly (as seen in many other MMO's). Having said all this, I do think the OP has a point. Needing to ctrl+c (way easier than menu select check or /c <t>) a mob to find its level, as easy as it is, seems to me like unneeded input. Perhaps a reasonable half-way point to both of these arguments is to show the information only when the mob is targeted, maybe the orange targeting arrow can be in 7 colour shades to determine level range.

I also like the idea of Libra, and/or the pokedex that fills its information the more you fight. Some things I think would be good for it to tell you:
Mob DEF: After attacking the mob a certain amount of times.
Mob MDEF: After using magic on the mob a certain amount of times.
Drops and percentage: Based on the drops you've acquired from that mob type.
Elemental Resistance: For each element only after using that element on that mob.
Detects by: After agroing the mob a few times.
Links: After pulling from around other mobs a few times.
HP/MP: After killing the mob several times. Estimated # is fine.
Movement Speed Adjustments: A few kills, or making the mob travel a certain distance via pulling or kiting.
Special Notes: Has regen/refresh/regain/sleeps at night or day/tracks by scent (can be discovered after losing agro in water or with deodorise) Immune to bind/sleep/etc.

All of this information we know about most mobs in the game by examining all of these actions manually, and there's probably more I can't think of. The pokedex (for lack of a better name), isn't giving us any real information we shouldn't already know by the time it's in there, but just helping our memory if we haven't killed that mob in a while.

I also think it would be great if this pokedex could fill with incorrect information given the right circumstances. Like if the mob spams attack down, you could get the wrong DEF reading, or if your enfeebling gear sucks, it could tell you it's immune to certain stats when really you just suck.