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Distances in FFXIV

PunishedPineapple edited this page Aug 1, 2024 · 6 revisions

General Information

FFXIV measures distances in yalms* (y), which is the basic unit of the game's internal coordinate system. By default, this plugin measures distances from the player's center to the ring of the target in two dimensions (height is ignored).

*Note: The Japanese-language client presents distances in meters, with meters and yalms being considered equal in length.

Skill Range and Radius

The game uses a few different metrics when determining the distances at which skills can be used and hit entities, so please consider the following when taking or using distance measurements:

Player to Enemy/Ally

tl;dr: With default plugin settings, you will be able to hit enemies with single-target skills 0.5y further away than your tooltips say, and will have to be 0.5y closer than your tooltips say to AoE heal or buff a party member.

  • For all targeted skills, the skill's range is from the edge of the character's hitring (0.5y from character center) to the edge of the enemy's/ally's hitring. This means that, for example, max melee range from an enemy's hitring is actually 3.5y as measured by this plugin, not the 3y stated on the tooltip. The reason that distances reported by the plugin do not automatically take this into account is because it would then incorrectly report distances in terms of AoE skills.

  • For AoE skills that have a radius, the radius is measured from the center of the target. The target can be yourself (skills like Standard Step, Medica, etc.), an enemy (Flare, Akh Morn, etc.), or another player (Cure III). For an AoE skill to hit an enemy, the edge of their hitring must be within the specific skill's radius of the skill target's center. This is the distance that the plugin measures by default (player center to target hitring).

  • For a beneficial AoE skill to hit another player, their center must be within the specific skill's radius of the target's center. This means that, for example, a party member must be within 14.5y as measured by this plugin to be hit by medica, not the 15y stated on the tooltip.

  • Accordingly, depending on your usage of the plugin, you may or may not wish to apply an offset to measured distances in the plugin settings; however, remember that offsetting to make targeted skill ranges match tooltips will make AoE skill radius off by another half yalm, and vise versa if offsetting for AoE healing skills. This can also be partially alleviated by creating multiple widgets with different filters and ring settings, but there will always be some degree of compromise.

Enemy to Player

  • For AoE attacks with a specific radius, the player's center must be within the radius of the attack (the well known, "your hitbox is a pixel").
  • Targeted attacks have not been thoroughly tested, but are most likely from edge of enemy hitring to edge of player hitring.

PvP

  • This remains untested, but is most likely calculated in the same way as player to ally ranges/radii.

Height Effects

While height differentials are rarely encountered during combat in this game, and this plugin does not consider distance in the vertical axis by default, the below information is provided for completeness.

tl;dr: You can hit enemies within your skill's range above or below you, but for AoE skills, you can generally only hit enemies 5y above or below you. If you have a targeted skill with a range of 10y, you can be 10.5y away horizontally, 10y above it, and still hit the enemy, even though you are technically slightly more than 14y away in three dimensions. In general, you can view being within range as being within a cylinder.

  • Unlike for some horizontal distances, there is no consideration of hitbox radius; all distances are point to point.
  • For all targeted skills, you can hit from within the skill's listed range above or below the target.
  • For AoE skills with a radius and no target (Standard Step, Holy, Unleash, etc.), enemies within 5y above and below you can be hit.
  • For targeted AoE skills that originate from you (Spread Shot, Doom Spike, Fuga, etc.), the targeted enemy will be hit within the skill's range above or below you, but all other enemies within the AoE horizontally must also be within 5y of you vertically to be hit at the same time.
  • For AoE skills that target and originate at an entity other than yourself (Flare, Scatter, etc.), the targeted enemy must be within the skill's range of you vertically. Any other entities within the horizontal radius of the skill from the target must be within 5y of the target vertically to be hit.
  • Healing skills appear to follow the same rules for height differences as the offensive skills described above, but has not been as thoroughly tested (most notably targeted AoE such as Cure III).
  • Overworld enemies are not able to detect or hit you with more than five yalms vertical distance in most cases. Boss/instanced enemies most likely follow the same rules as well, but are almost impossible to test due to fight, arena, and skill design.

Miscellaneous

The player's hitring appears to always be 0.5y for the purposes of distance measurement. It may vary in size when mounted or transformed, but a fixed 0.5y radius appears to be used for all range calculations. The one pseudo-exception to this seems to be when interacting with gathering nodes while mounted, in which case you can interact an additional 0.5y further away than while on foot.

Auto attacks appear to have an additional 0.1y range horizontally, such that melee auto attacks have a range of 3.1y, and ranged auto attacks have a range of 25.1y (3.6y and 25.6y on the readout, respectively). Auto attack vertical ranges are precisely 3y and 25y.

In rare cases, some enemies appear to have hitrings that are different for targeted and AoE attacks. The only one I know of for sure is the level 50 Striking Dummy (BNpc ID 541). In this case, targeted skills use the visible ring, but AoE skills and auto attacks are computed using a ring of 0.5y. This has not been tested in depth.