This may seem like a strange request, as we all love having our shinies from time to time. A guy that's wreathed in shadows, or has the blazing power of the sun coming off him, or a wellspring of arcane power, or the martial artist who has electricity crackling between their fingers as they strike, right? I'm fine with that. Some relatively limited, directed aura stuff can and will really bring out a character's abilities. I've got at least a few of those I'd love to see myself, and I don't think auras should be prohibited at all, because they simply add too much.
But... there's a point where there's too much going on. In the past few years, Guild Wars 2 has become a perfect example of that with some of its higher-end playerbase. Here's a look at what I mean:
[img]https://image.ibb.co/msSbeG/2018_01_28_16_39_23.gif[/img]
I think we can all agree that something like this is a bit much. Should there be some sort of limit on how many particle effects you can have floating around your character? At the very least, keeping visual noise to a relatively reasonable point so people can see what they're doing and the AoE markers on the ground are important.
An infinite number of tries doesn't mean that any one of those tries will succeed. I could flip an infinite number of pennies an infinite number of times and, barring genuine randomness, they will never come up "Waffles".
I think my eyes are bleeding....
not my video just one I lke ===> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6-SdIN0hsM
[CENTER][URL=http://www.nodiatis.com/personality.htm][IMG]http://www.nodiatis.com/pub/24.jpg[/IMG][/URL][/CENTER]
Im more interested in the tiny human leg/foot next to his left foot and why it's there lol
-----------
[color=#FF0000]Graphic Designer[/color]
I definitely agree with this, but at the same time I feel like it is up to the character to decide if they want to look foolish or not. I feel like it might be cool to mix and match auras. For example, you can have one hand be an icy aura and the other hand be a fiery aura. This is just one example, we could probably come up with a million ways to mix and match
The Carnival of Light in the Phoenix Rising
"We never lose our demons, we only learn to live above them." - The Ancient One
Avatar by lilshironeko
I'm fine with mixing and matching; the problem is when the visual noise of what you're looking at begins causing problems for other players. See the thing sticking off of that character's back in the gif? when drawn, a character with that bow pulses out rainbows. When they shoot arrows, it's unicorns with neighs you can't turn off, and you can shoot VERY fast with the right build. A character like that literally blocks line of sight in a wide radius, with a tone of repeating sound effects blasting in your ears as well.
I'm not saying aura mixing shouldn't be a thing at all, but that if it is there should be some limits, either in how wide the area of the aura is, or how many effects you can stack.
An infinite number of tries doesn't mean that any one of those tries will succeed. I could flip an infinite number of pennies an infinite number of times and, barring genuine randomness, they will never come up "Waffles".
GW2 has vanity pets and some of them are humanoid. That might be the 'Tarzan' version of one of the more annoying NPCs.
Be Well!
Fireheart
Ah ok. Thanks!
I was afraid I wouldn't get an answer tonight and I'd be wondering what that was all night long lol
-----------
[color=#FF0000]Graphic Designer[/color]
I'm honestly hesitant to ask for any sorts of limitation, because I just know that I'll end up with some concept or another that just one aura slot short of being fully realized and will resent such limitation from that day forth.
For me this really just falls into the "Can't stand their costume/power customization? Don't group with them." area.
And good lordy is that character a crime against videogame kind.
I beg to differ, I'd say that character is a testament to videogame kind. That is exactly what we have been asking/longing for in these forums for years now, OPTIONS, yes he is using every one of them, but the fact that he has the option to make that kind of creation is amazing. I would love to be that free in my ability to create a character. I wouldn't choose to put every costume on at the same time, but I like that I'm not told that I can't :3
The Carnival of Light in the Phoenix Rising
"We never lose our demons, we only learn to live above them." - The Ancient One
Avatar by lilshironeko
In all honesty, I just don't understand how his game isn't constantly lagging due to all those auras going off at once...
not my video just one I lke ===> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6-SdIN0hsM
[CENTER][URL=http://www.nodiatis.com/personality.htm][IMG]http://www.nodiatis.com/pub/24.jpg[/IMG][/URL][/CENTER]
Oh yeah, no, I'm firmly with you there.
Options.
All the Options.
Give them to me.
I'm not saying that the ability to make the character is a negative. The desire to make such a character though...
Being fair here, as long as the mass of options isn't keeping me from seeing what needs to be seen, I can live with the rare hideous monstrosity.
An infinite number of tries doesn't mean that any one of those tries will succeed. I could flip an infinite number of pennies an infinite number of times and, barring genuine randomness, they will never come up "Waffles".
I'd think the solution would be to let each player set his/her own limit to suit his/her taste. So a character with a zillion auras could look ultra-busy to one player yet toned down to another, depending on their display settings and PC capabilities.
One thing I wouldn't want is for the game to decide the limit for me if displaying all auras is within the engine's technical capabilities. In the old game, at one point they made a decision to turn off persistent sounds for certain toggles because some players didn't like them, and it bothered me that they didn't give us a choice. I actually loved the persistent sounds of my ice tanker's powers and was sad to see them go.
Spurn all ye kindle.
Being able to adjust the PhysX (or comparable, I guess) is nice. I've done that in Borderlands 2, for example, because having it set at high made things too busy for my tastes. I believe such things are also fairly CPU intensive, so I imagine that MWM has already thought about this.
PhysX example: http://international.download.nvidia.com/geforce-com/international/comparisons/borderlands-2-physx/nvidia-geforce-borderlands-2-physx-comparison.html
- - - - -
[font=Pristina][size=18][b]Hail Beard![/b][/size][/font]
Support [url=http://cityoftitans.com/comment/52149#comment-52149]trap clowns[/url] for CoT!
Worst case of self inflicted aura overload in City of Heroes was ... Dark Armor. You'd make the most incredible costume ever ... turn on your Dark Armor Powers ... and watch your costume disappear into a puffball of blackness that obscured EVERYTHING about your costume. And that's before even counting in the NOISE that Dark Armor made, before the Devs allowed it to fade out over time so you could HEAR something besides your avatar humming like an overloaded electrical transformer.
[center][img=44x100]https://i.imgur.com/sMUQ928.gif[/img]
[i]Verbogeny is one of many pleasurettes afforded a creatific thinkerizer.[/i][/center]
Perhaps a Setting for Maximum Displayed Auras Per Character, or perhaps Per Character Body Region. Go ahead, have fifty auras on your character. I'll just see the first two...
Foradain, Mage of Phoenix Rising.
[url=https://cityoftitans.com/forum/foradains-character-conclave]Foradain's Character Conclave[/url]
.
Avatar courtesy of [s]Satellite9[/s] [url=https://www.instagram.com/irezoomie/]Irezoomie[/url]
Yeah I think this is a great way to handle it. That way you can see all of the auras on your costume, but if your machine can't handle them, or you don't want to see them, you can limit them for others. Although maybe instead of limiting the number of auras you can see, just limit the number of particle effects you display for a single character. That way if a character has multiple auras that are limited to specific areas of their body, like fire on the right hand, ice on the left, a halo over the head, and lighting on the feet, you would see all five because the total particle effects would be the same, or at least close to it, of someone using a full body aura.
I actually did this intentionally with my Warshade. His primary costume was just Shadow Cloak + the Sparkles aura. He was like a living galaxy in humanoid form. But yes, I agree that sometimes power effects could be completely overbearing (for me Stone Armor was the biggest offender).
Another example of aura overload was in the earth armor set, and I loved it all. Bring on being covered by rock, ice, magma, character aura, and more :)
The Carnival of Light in the Phoenix Rising
"We never lose our demons, we only learn to live above them." - The Ancient One
Avatar by lilshironeko
[i]* takes notes for April 1.[/i]
[i]Has anyone seen my mind? It was right here...[/i]
I think it ought to be up to the individual to be able to adjust/filter/limit what they see on their [b]own[/b] screens based on what they want or can tolerate in terms of other people's visual effects. The game shouldn't arbitrarily limit things based on the "vague potential" of annoying other people with these effects.
Yeah having a dozen auras might end up being "visually disturbing" in most cases but for all we know someone might figure out a very cool combo of a bunch of auras that would look wonderful. I'd hate for the game to, by design, prevent me from exploring that possibility.
CoH player from April 25, 2004 to November 30, 2012
[IMG=400x225]https://i.imgur.com/NHUthWM.jpeg[/IMG]
Ouch, my eyes hurt just via looking at that.
One of the problems is that you will never be able to make everyone happy as there is going to be those with either very little fashion sense that will add everything that looks cool to them regardless of if it matches or not... and then you have those that will combine lime green and hot pink to purposely make as much of an eyesore as possible. And no level of aura limitation (Or even eye/brain bleech) will save us from these people. So putting on limiters would only affect those that would be able to put together interesting and visually appealing aura combinations.
Exactly. There's always going to be someone who'll strive to make something annoying on purpose out of whatever tools they've been given. So an arbitrary limit on how many auras we'll be allowed to have would only hurt the creative people who may only by -accident- create something that ends up being annoying but just as equally might end up being cool.
Having filters/settings for our clients will allow us to judge for ourselves how much we want to tolerate.
CoH player from April 25, 2004 to November 30, 2012
[IMG=400x225]https://i.imgur.com/NHUthWM.jpeg[/IMG]
GOOD taste will always be a smaller subset than BAD taste ... meaning that in order to have Nice Things™ it will be necessary for Not Nice Things™ to be possible ... a rather LARGE quantity of Not So Nice Things™ actually.
[center][img=44x100]https://i.imgur.com/sMUQ928.gif[/img]
[i]Verbogeny is one of many pleasurettes afforded a creatific thinkerizer.[/i][/center]
The of course there's also the simple fact that "Taste" as a whole is subjective.
Players at large might think that a lime green, orange and lavender polka dot tutu wearing dragon with zebra striped scales is hideous, but it's entirely possible that the person playing it genuinely thinks that it looks cool.
A somewhat less hyperbolic example: I personally hate costumes items covered in pointless chains, spikes and skulls everywhere; armor pieces with giant blades that realistically would cut into your own body; exaggerated proportions; etc., but I also realize that these very things are in fact [i]very popular[/i]. I simply can't wrap my brain around [i][b][u]WHY[/i][/b][/u], but they are.
*loads up thread*
[youtube]Qn977W9HjWM[/youtube]
Technical Director
Read enough Facebook and you have to make Sanity Checks. I guess FB is the Great Old One of the interent these days... - Beamrider
Nice.
"Let the past die. Kill it if you have to."
Imho it should, by following some good sense.
Some example that were listed here weren't exactly the perfect ones (a rock armor is a rock armor and there is nothing wrong with it nor it creates any chaos, it simply shows the power correctly).
Invulnerability instead was a walking Christmas-tree for no reason, the power didn't need that at all and the final effect was the result of more auras at once.
I so loved when they gave me the possibility to deactivate it (and if I remember correctly the effects of my powers were disabled for all players, not just me, so I wasn't a walking light anymore for anyone), but even that we could say is acceptable (barely).
Just the common sense should make the devs avoid putting 4 auras in the same set that involve the whole body, that would just create chaos and reach the break point.
The final result must be artistic in some way, not a child-sketch. There is no need for rules, common sense and artistic sense should be enough on devs part imho.
*looks in again*
*runs away screaming*
Technical Director
Read enough Facebook and you have to make Sanity Checks. I guess FB is the Great Old One of the interent these days... - Beamrider
Whereas I had an Inv/EM tanker who was a pixie/faerie, so the base appearance of the set worked perfectly from the get go.
This isn't likely to be an issue because of aesthetic decoupling. Don't want multiple full body power effects? Don't use them.
Options, not limitations. IMO
Options don't solve everything, sometime it's the limits that prevent problems.
I'm all for options like you, but there will be limits and it's better to think about those sooner than later.
One reason is that the players will never stop themselves for the greater good of the game/community, that's the developers job to ensure the whole machine works and all pieces are where they're supposed to, and they will do that putting limits to players freedom, to ensure the freedom of a few players doesn't hurt the freedom of the many.
I feel you need an example now, here it is: You won't see porn animations/images in City of Titans, you know why? Common sense and limits ("my freedom ends where your freedom starts").
Now think about that and maybe you'll stop thinking that limits are all bad/useless, it's utopian imho.
The medium itself forces limits. Aesthetic Decoupling comes with it's own limits, ones which would prevent such.... overload.
*sees the OP again, and runs away screaming*
Technical Director
Read enough Facebook and you have to make Sanity Checks. I guess FB is the Great Old One of the interent these days... - Beamrider
[img]https://i.imgur.com/Ratsclo.jpg[/img]
Champs gets even worse with the potential for 8 auras up during combat. This is one of the tamer versions I encountered.
[B]Revenge is motivation enough. At least it's honest...[/B]
Roleplayer; Esteemed Villain
[img]http://www.nodiatis.com/pub/5.jpg[/img]
I hope we can at least layer a few auras.
[img]http://images6.fanpop.com/image/photos/34500000/SSJ2-Gohan-Gif-rileyferguson-34521952-853-480.gif[/img]
"Let the past die. Kill it if you have to."
Could you reduce the effect on the user side? Like turning down reflections or other 'high end' graphic items I did to run games on an older PC.
Did you actually try to draw an equivalence between the number of active auras we're going to be allowed to display and porn? Do you seriously think that some arbitrary number of aruas is potentially as offensive as porn? Please...
Obviously the Devs will need to impose some "limits" on certain graphical things for reasons that may involve objective processing or bandwidth thresholds. I also suspect they will prevent players from running around nude because most people still tend to object to that sort of thing. But the idea of wanting the Devs limit/restrict things just because SOME people might not like someone else's "artistic vision" is absolutely abhorrent and runs completely counter to providing players as many options as possible.
Sure someone running around with an "annoying" aura display might be... annoying. But your attempt to equate that kind of thing to something as serious as porn/nudity is laughable at best. Get over your self with that kind of nonsense.
CoH player from April 25, 2004 to November 30, 2012
[IMG=400x225]https://i.imgur.com/NHUthWM.jpeg[/IMG]
I wouldn't mind the option of layering auras, as long as I have the option to limit what I personally see. The base animations and auras in CoH didn't super bother me, especially once we were able to change the colors at least. Most of Invul's auras didn't seem overtly noticeable, while Stone and Dark either overwhelmed the character with auras or replaced it entirely. I had some problems with Fire and Electric armor sets as well, though I never did roll a /Stone IIRC.
There's a time and a place for everything. My invuln tank was a tiny ball of light lost in her power auras. And Char Cat was an 8 foot tall walking flame. Certainly some will choose less tasteful combinations. If there is a technical reason to limit auras then let that set the limit. Otherwise, let others be whatever they want to be.
Second Chance: https://store.missingworldsmedia.com/CityOfTitans/SecondChance/
Dev Tracker: http://cityoftitans.com/forum/fixing-dev-digest
Dev Comments: https://cityoftitans.com/forum/dev-comments