Visual queues aren't really great to me in general and I much prefer textual queues or the rare audio queue. There is often so much going on visually with spell effects while also watching the fight and keeping track of various UI elements as it is, to then also add more layers of visual stimulation seems like it wouldn't be ideal.
Of course it's all personal opinion but I think of things like flashing outlines and warnings of similar nature as poor design. The only purpose they serve is to allow players to pay even less attention to what is going on in a fight. The tunnel vision example showcases part of what I mean here, it removes requiring player knowledge of specific mobs/types and attentiveness to any given situation to having players just learn a color queue that tells them what to do. I put it in the same category as having displayed aggro/threat meters.
Players should have to pay attention to and react to the battle changing at any given moment, including surprise changes in mob target or CC breaking unexpectedly/early.
Correct me if I'm wrong (may have already been addressed), but would not these added effects put more stress on my machine?
Visual things are great, but when they become necessary to play the game, having a low-end machine would cripple you.
Your Root visual, for example. I think the idea is pretty neat. Keep an eye on the roots, when one is left, recast. It's a good way to help me keep that mob firmly rooted in place, and up to me to keep an eye on it. That's my job.
But if I'm forced to turn my settings way down in order to play Pantheon, and can't see the roots as well as the next guy, that makes me, as a player, crippled compared to someone with a higher end computer. Not a huge fan of that.
If it's just for visual appeal, and not used as an indicator for the timer, then that's another story.
Tralyan said:Correct me if I'm wrong (may have already been addressed), but would not these added effects put more stress on my machine?
Visual things are great, but when they become necessary to play the game, having a low-end machine would cripple you.
Your Root visual, for example. I think the idea is pretty neat. Keep an eye on the roots, when one is left, recast. It's a good way to help me keep that mob firmly rooted in place, and up to me to keep an eye on it. That's my job.
But if I'm forced to turn my settings way down in order to play Pantheon, and can't see the roots as well as the next guy, that makes me, as a player, crippled compared to someone with a higher end computer. Not a huge fan of that.
If it's just for visual appeal, and not used as an indicator for the timer, then that's another story.
No, not anymore. The types of effect stress you are referring to is rendering pixels past a distance or blasting the screen with over a million of pixelated images at a close up view. The amount of work load this would add is negligible compared to a lot of the other graphic memory issues that developers come across using the old software that Windows built upon for games. There's newer code that bypasses this, and is being used by countries such as Norway, but unfortunately this game won't be using it.
What about these?
Enchanters are able to step forward and slip into the air - a visual to their invisibility spell
Bards notes are color-coded and symbols are song dependent. For example, battle song would show firey red-orange notes, heal song would be pink & red heart notes, levitation song would be white notes with wings, mana song would be blue water notes, etc following what the song can do.
LordJJ
Iksar said:Hokanu said:I like your idea especially re: the time remaining on a persistant spell being represented by the spells visual effect on screen. The orb slowly diminishing as mez runs out, the chains breaking one by one as root runs out etc etc.. would be cool and would allow us to over time as we learn the effects to be able to focus on the action instead of on the debuff icon counters on the target / hp.
Not sure this works so well/it would be unreliable making it somewhat useless to pay attention to. It assumes that CC/Mez/Root will last a certain duration when they very likely roll a saving throw each tick so they could break at any second.
Iksar said:Players should have to pay attention to and react to the battle changing at any given moment, including surprise changes in mob target or CC breaking unexpectedly/early.
Thats true and I also get what your saying in the later post about players should be paying attention without timers all together and just reacting to the situation... damn nerve racking as a CC'er too responsible for everyones life in a big messy pull, remembering the mez rotation... but lotsa fun :)
But I think that the current icon duration timers below "your target" health bar seem to already be in play, those timers count down irrespective of an early break. My examples, which were (to his credit on a great idea) the re iteration of LordJJ's examples were only meant to be a more interesting way to display the already existing timers. And give you that information while watching the action instead of the "your target" health bar.
I would have thought a more subtle version of a timer (ie the spell graphic itself deteriorating over time) may actually be a nice middle ground between a completely artifical timer (as it exists now under the target box) and no timer at all.