Again, its not about getting rid of some visuals. Its about doing em in the right way.
As I've said, looking at the list of buffs / debuffs is informative enough for me. For me, there is no "right way" of doing the visuals except to have the option of removing them. I don't want to see a giant crosshair on a ship, or ships glowing green / blue / purple for one reason or another, all that does is overwhelm me when I can get the information in a much easier way.
If you like the overly busy light show that's fine, no one has asked for a blanket removal of the effects, we just want to be able to go into settings and turn all that ugliness off.
If I could I would deactivate all special effects except for weapons and shield visuals. I can hardly tell what is what when it comes to visualizations of buffs and abilities anyways. During battles it all turns into one single fx spam that only distracts from the real action.
To clarify, an option will not impact anyone who enjoys the effects.
I like the effects, a lot, most of them I find superbly done, but I just don't want them on all the time. Star Trek does not look like that on screen, at all.
For informational value, my suggestion is a radial menu (again, like other menus, it can be hidden) where each ability has a fixed point which may only shift like clockwork when new abilities are added.
Such radial menu would help see them when they light up, build memory for which effect is where (Ex. feedback pulse on target ship always shows up in the same place), mouse-over would indicate what the effect is, without having to chase it as it is now in a line that shifts nearly constantly.
Devs: Provide the option to Turn OFF full screen flashes from enemy ship explosions
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I still think that pic was with the bloom way up.
I've got a decent system with a GTX 1060. The way my settings are... I don't see that lightshow in the pic that was provided. Yea I see effects but nowhere near that. I can tell when they're hit with AP Beta. I can tell when they're using Hazard Emitters. But it doesn't create that glowy ghost aura.
The ONLY time I see something REMOTELY close to that is if someone used Aceton Beam, but even then... its not like a neon sign.
So I seriously doubt that its a locked in thing to be all glowy. Try playing with your settings a bit. Drop a couple down. Experiment.
There are a large number of folks who play this game who seem to put a top priority on putting on a light show, using toy consoles, doing fancy maneuvers, and stringing visual effects together in ways they feel are compelling enough to share with their space friends as epic space stories about epic space captainry. That is their immersion, that is their "fun". Who are we to tell them they're wrong?
Let them have their visual FX, I say.
No one is telling them they are wrong, we are requesting an option to turn it off on our screens only. Just like they did with the disco balls that the trolls spam.
And what would be the qualifying criterion for effects that need to be invisible? It's not like you can turn them all off. Cannon Scatter Volley greates a special cannon animation to show that you're covering an area. Gravity Well or Warp Plasma needs to be visible. Plasma Fires are probably very important to know about.
The qualifying criterion would be whether the player want to see them or not, of course.
Ironically, plasma fires were severely toned down some time ago (they used to make the ship look like a pot smokers' convention) and as a result they can't really be seen at all anymore under the mess of useless buff flashes.
Anybody ever try to use Protomatter Field in the Azure Nebula? That, right there, demonstrates plain as day why I regard the visual spam as having gotten way out of hand.
On a more minor note: things like my ship turning bright neon green when I activate Hazard Emitters to clear the inevitable plasma fires. I often have very specific visual setups for my ship, and I hardly ever get to see them in combat because of disco displays like that.
There is nothing wrong with seeing one or 2 effects that are covering for instance your ship or the enemie's ship, but literally 20 effects at the same time, in every direction is what is bothering me, and apparently many other people.
The early game pretty much is perfect visually...and for me even gameplay wise. Fights aren't boring, but much more engaging since you need to use your abilities more carefully...less enemy numbers...less effects...less beams fireing at the same time...
The VAST majority of the effects are completely pointless and actually a pretty poor and lazy way to convey info to the player.
Activating APA or Ep2W for example should highlight something on the HUD, or add an easily readable icon, it certainly doesn't need to have a huge swirly graphic overlay on the whole ship as they currently do.
Add to these sorts of things all the passive effects (traits like Battle Ready is a good one) and a bazillion other affects like DOT, AOE, debuffs, buffs, holds, AND all the actual weapon's fire AND all the explosions......well you know how it looks.
Low level gameplay in STO is pretty decent, a few ships here and there, a small amount of proportionate weapon's fire and only a few graphics to get in the way. It feels Trek like in a way that end game lacks.
By the time you get to Lvl 60 it's more like some seizure inducing Japanese anime than an actual space or ground combat game. Put simply it often looks utterly hideous and extremely tacky.
Just too many powers you can do making the effects. They'd have to really revamp everything to make buffs/debuff visuals useful to the average player. I can't even tell what most of the buffs under my/my target's frame are they are so small on the screen. Especially if someone has 20 buffs flashing on and off.
Maybe turn off other players visual effects? Save me a few FPS I can tell you.
I don't care what they're doing,
I was in Breach last night and I thought I was at a rave at one point. By the time the voth, the other players and I finished doing the buff fantastic I was planted in a wall.
Exactly the unexplained amount of colored **** flying around my ship and other ships is what turns me away from actively playing this game every time i try again.
This is Star trek... all I wanna see is my ship, weapons fire and a subtle amount of RELEVANT effects. If I can't see my ship and the ship I'm attacking, I can't enjoy this game, not really. I can only pretend.
I think I even started a similar thread at least once before asking a solution, an option to at least tone down the clutter if not disable it... seems it always falls on deaf ears... sad story.
I am going to ask once more... devs... please, please consider what we ask, it is a part of most mmos out there and I am sure it's not hard to implement.
Comments
As I've said, looking at the list of buffs / debuffs is informative enough for me. For me, there is no "right way" of doing the visuals except to have the option of removing them. I don't want to see a giant crosshair on a ship, or ships glowing green / blue / purple for one reason or another, all that does is overwhelm me when I can get the information in a much easier way.
If you like the overly busy light show that's fine, no one has asked for a blanket removal of the effects, we just want to be able to go into settings and turn all that ugliness off.
I like the effects, a lot, most of them I find superbly done, but I just don't want them on all the time. Star Trek does not look like that on screen, at all.
For informational value, my suggestion is a radial menu (again, like other menus, it can be hidden) where each ability has a fixed point which may only shift like clockwork when new abilities are added.
Such radial menu would help see them when they light up, build memory for which effect is where (Ex. feedback pulse on target ship always shows up in the same place), mouse-over would indicate what the effect is, without having to chase it as it is now in a line that shifts nearly constantly.
I've got a decent system with a GTX 1060. The way my settings are... I don't see that lightshow in the pic that was provided. Yea I see effects but nowhere near that. I can tell when they're hit with AP Beta. I can tell when they're using Hazard Emitters. But it doesn't create that glowy ghost aura.
The ONLY time I see something REMOTELY close to that is if someone used Aceton Beam, but even then... its not like a neon sign.
So I seriously doubt that its a locked in thing to be all glowy. Try playing with your settings a bit. Drop a couple down. Experiment.
Ironically, plasma fires were severely toned down some time ago (they used to make the ship look like a pot smokers' convention) and as a result they can't really be seen at all anymore under the mess of useless buff flashes.
On a more minor note: things like my ship turning bright neon green when I activate Hazard Emitters to clear the inevitable plasma fires. I often have very specific visual setups for my ship, and I hardly ever get to see them in combat because of disco displays like that.
The early game pretty much is perfect visually...and for me even gameplay wise. Fights aren't boring, but much more engaging since you need to use your abilities more carefully...less enemy numbers...less effects...less beams fireing at the same time...
Activating APA or Ep2W for example should highlight something on the HUD, or add an easily readable icon, it certainly doesn't need to have a huge swirly graphic overlay on the whole ship as they currently do.
Add to these sorts of things all the passive effects (traits like Battle Ready is a good one) and a bazillion other affects like DOT, AOE, debuffs, buffs, holds, AND all the actual weapon's fire AND all the explosions......well you know how it looks.
Low level gameplay in STO is pretty decent, a few ships here and there, a small amount of proportionate weapon's fire and only a few graphics to get in the way. It feels Trek like in a way that end game lacks.
By the time you get to Lvl 60 it's more like some seizure inducing Japanese anime than an actual space or ground combat game. Put simply it often looks utterly hideous and extremely tacky.
I don't care what they're doing,
I was in Breach last night and I thought I was at a rave at one point. By the time the voth, the other players and I finished doing the buff fantastic I was planted in a wall.
lol. Yes this ^
This is Star trek... all I wanna see is my ship, weapons fire and a subtle amount of RELEVANT effects. If I can't see my ship and the ship I'm attacking, I can't enjoy this game, not really. I can only pretend.
I think I even started a similar thread at least once before asking a solution, an option to at least tone down the clutter if not disable it... seems it always falls on deaf ears... sad story.
I am going to ask once more... devs... please, please consider what we ask, it is a part of most mmos out there and I am sure it's not hard to implement.