They just add more visual spam and excuses: 'you need to track and respond to the 200 things going on all at once by the seizure-inducing acid trip, it's informative.'
Since the borg revamp, almost every ship blowing up creates a full screen flash. This is their response to endless such topics on here and reddit. I bet shrinking the beam effects was simply to make shuttles look less ridiculous.
Options to tone things down even a little are rejected, even if some low end computers struggle as a result of the sheer amount of excessive effects.
Well, Neverwinter (Cryptic don't you know) still has a Calendar and lays out upcoming Events well. Methinks this crowd likes to play things very close to the vest and wants the freedom to modify things on the fly to fit in another important Infinity Promotion Supporting Event.
As far as turning things off for others please have a frank discussion with the Loot Critter. He seems to know how to show or not show something to you or others.
I think that they like the effects, otherwise why would they keep inventing new party-type effect toys. Ship Emotes, really???
You know that if the reduction of effects is not ubiquitous that you will never be rid of them. Some Chucklehead will inevitably have it on just to make your life miserable. Tonight I played the Transdimensional Tactics TFO for the Universal Endeavor. We just got out of the Cave and this guy stops, looks to his right at the acid pool and goes out of his way to step in it.
'But to be logical is not to be right', and 'nothing' on God's earth could ever 'make it' right!'
Judge Dan Haywood
'As l speak now, the words are forming in my head.
l don't know.
l really don't know what l'm about to say, except l have a feeling about it.
That l must repeat the words that come without my knowledge.'
Have to agree. Having some sort of "Limit Player FX" toggle-option would be handy. Whether that's a reduction in size and intensity, or a reduction in the number of FX's from other players that are shown, whatever. Anything to reduce the visual cluster**** of combat when more than one player is around.
I think they could resolve a lot of it by just reducing effect duration. Not really sure why the flashy effects need to last half a minute each.. if they had a shorter duration it would be mostly a quick flash of stuff and then you could see again. The real problem is that by the time your visual effects expire, the abilities are off cooldown and you just apply a fresh coat of spam.
Have to agree. Having some sort of "Limit Player FX" toggle-option would be handy. Whether that's a reduction in size and intensity, or a reduction in the number of FX's from other players that are shown, whatever. Anything to reduce the visual cluster**** of combat when more than one player is around.
I think they could resolve a lot of it by just reducing effect duration. Not really sure why the flashy effects need to last half a minute each.. if they had a shorter duration it would be mostly a quick flash of stuff and then you could see again. The real problem is that by the time your visual effects expire, the abilities are off cooldown and you just apply a fresh coat of spam.
This is also true.
A Maquis plasma storm will not go away before it normally expires. If it's been activated, it's going to be active for an x amount of seconds. That doesn't mean that we need to see it until x amount of time has passed.
Still, I think the overarching issue here is that it is rarely relevant anyway to other players that a plasma storm is damaging the enemy... many things will likely be damaging it, does it really matter what weapons and abilities other players are using on it?
For a player's own abilities, I'd say that it should be clear anyway what is being used. The OP mentioned attack pattern beta, which is a good example of stuff covering your entire ship without purpose (even if it's there for a short amount of time). Same with passives, I don't need to be reminded that my ship has constant cooldown reducers active or that a hull repair effect from the MW spec tree kicked in - the only info I need, is my current cooldowns and current hull status. Which can be read from the small, much more efficiently designed stuff like the skill bars and other UI elements.
I know these passive boosters and active boosts are there because I had to select or even activate them. And the effects are merely to increase some stat that's hidden deep inside my ship anyway. Unless we have players who are actively crunching and checking the numbers of their passive regeneration, resistance, defense and so on while playing, all the information relayed through visual spam is not relevant to anyone I think.
Thank you all for your replies on this specific subject. It seems there are a lot of players who are extremely unsatisfied with the current state and quantity of visual effects (inability to modify, deactivate those options and simply enjoy the looks of your ship, phasers, torpedos... wishful thinking I guess ).
It would be nice to see a dev comment on this issue, though.
I'd add my voice to the mix. Yes please give us an off switch. Effects are getting worse and worse. Between all the subspace edies, plasma storms and group buffs I find it very hard to still enjoy TFOs.
+1 for a toggle or a "limit player FX" option, or +1 for a reasonable global reduction in the intensity of effects. But getting rid of them for everyone is a no go for me.
I do have to say though, whatever effect that makes the screen go completely white, needs to be dealt with.
That would be the Beacon of Kahless, may it rot for all enternity for being brought into the game.
OK... this is a beautiful image, worthy of Star Trek:
This also:
But THIS... this is nothing like StarTrek:
I wonder... why don't you use images similar to the last one as a game promotion or a new patch? Hmm... I wonder... hmm... ah, it's because it is UGLY!! But the last image is the real representation of your game, not the ones on the top (which you use).
It has become impossible to force myself to enjoy the game because you are unwilling to allow a simple "OFF" switch in the visual options menu. Your game is ugly and cluttered with various unnecessary visual effects which do not relay any vital information. Why do I need a huge, red "beta" hovering over my ship in order to know that I am using an attack pattern??!
PLEASE... make an "off" switch, people have been asking for years...
Welcome to MMOs...they have lots of spell effects so you know your powers are active or not
Or did Starfleet also go around slaughtering hundreds of people in the name of obtaining that shiny new torpedo launcher?
MMO's aren't realistic...they need mechanics...sure the devs could tone it down in some ways but this is a MMO...it's how they work
Can't have a honest conversation because of a white knight with power
Everything they have removed has been due to a lack of enough manpower to maintain. They've said so themselves. If they did not have the manpower for those things, then they don't have it for getting into the rendering code to isolate and make modifiable the particle effects.
Give what a rest? Pointing out that you habitually misrepresent things? Hell, you did it again this very post.
Everything that has been removed has been done so because it was fundamentally broken, to a point basic maintenance would not have fixed it, or kept it working well. And THAT is what they have said so themselves.
Exploration was removed because it was fundamentally not exploration by any means, and procedurally generated content can only ever be limited to "scan five things" type missions, meaning no amount of tinkering could give it depth. Not to mention, the system was originally designed just to be filler content when the game launched, and they never intended for it to be around forever.
The Foundry was removed because the system itself was fundamentally flawed, as such content always breaks when the base game is updated, which is what led to the constant need to fix it, and no amount of manpower would change that.
The calendar was removed because it was fundamentally poorly designed, and required the devs to have to udpate the game to update it, which resulted in it being wrong often. It was never a "manpower" issue, the calendar worked exactly like it was originally designed it was just poorly designed from the get go, and the only way to fix it would be to make a completely different calendar system
So no, literally not one thing they have removed was due to manpower issues, all of them were removed to fundamental design issues that would require scrapping and rebuilding it from the ground up to fix. You can scream and stomp all you want, that wont change basic facts.
Once again believing everything you're told because you're the forum's local Borg drone...starting to wonder if any independent thought you could have would cause you pain
Can't have a honest conversation because of a white knight with power
OK... this is a beautiful image, worthy of Star Trek:
This also:
But THIS... this is nothing like StarTrek:
I wonder... why don't you use images similar to the last one as a game promotion or a new patch? Hmm... I wonder... hmm... ah, it's because it is UGLY!! But the last image is the real representation of your game, not the ones on the top (which you use).
It has become impossible to force myself to enjoy the game because you are unwilling to allow a simple "OFF" switch in the visual options menu. Your game is ugly and cluttered with various unnecessary visual effects which do not relay any vital information. Why do I need a huge, red "beta" hovering over my ship in order to know that I am using an attack pattern??!
PLEASE... make an "off" switch, people have been asking for years...
Welcome to MMOs...they have lots of spell effects so you know your powers are active or not
Or did Starfleet also go around slaughtering hundreds of people in the name of obtaining that shiny new torpedo launcher?
MMO's aren't realistic...they need mechanics...sure the devs could tone it down in some ways but this is a MMO...it's how they work
It's how oversensationalization has CAUSED MMOs to wor, especially within the last fifteen years. Drvs/publishers tend to have this idea that the more flashy the game is, the better it looks, when the general perception from MANY players is the exact opposite. SOME players have even left games over it, because the overspamming ov visual FX makes it harder for them to see what's going on. As I mentioned, YEARS ago when SOE dumped the NGE on the Star Wars Galaxies community, excessive use of flashy FX was among the many dealbreakers for players.
People have been complaining about overuse of visual FX in MMOs for years. Saying it's just how MMOs work does not mean that MMO players like it. It just shows how closed-off many developers are in terms of what matters to the players.
I have never seen anyone anywhere asking for MORE pixel vomit.
Yeah...and I suppose it's just a coincidence that some of the flashiest MMOs are at the top? How most bare bones MMOs die?
Just a coincidence...
Can't have a honest conversation because of a white knight with power
OK... this is a beautiful image, worthy of Star Trek:
This also:
But THIS... this is nothing like StarTrek:
I wonder... why don't you use images similar to the last one as a game promotion or a new patch? Hmm... I wonder... hmm... ah, it's because it is UGLY!! But the last image is the real representation of your game, not the ones on the top (which you use).
It has become impossible to force myself to enjoy the game because you are unwilling to allow a simple "OFF" switch in the visual options menu. Your game is ugly and cluttered with various unnecessary visual effects which do not relay any vital information. Why do I need a huge, red "beta" hovering over my ship in order to know that I am using an attack pattern??!
PLEASE... make an "off" switch, people have been asking for years...
Welcome to MMOs...they have lots of spell effects so you know your powers are active or not
Or did Starfleet also go around slaughtering hundreds of people in the name of obtaining that shiny new torpedo launcher?
MMO's aren't realistic...they need mechanics...sure the devs could tone it down in some ways but this is a MMO...it's how they work
It's how oversensationalization has CAUSED MMOs to wor, especially within the last fifteen years. Drvs/publishers tend to have this idea that the more flashy the game is, the better it looks, when the general perception from MANY players is the exact opposite. SOME players have even left games over it, because the overspamming ov visual FX makes it harder for them to see what's going on. As I mentioned, YEARS ago when SOE dumped the NGE on the Star Wars Galaxies community, excessive use of flashy FX was among the many dealbreakers for players.
People have been complaining about overuse of visual FX in MMOs for years. Saying it's just how MMOs work does not mean that MMO players like it. It just shows how closed-off many developers are in terms of what matters to the players.
I have never seen anyone anywhere asking for MORE pixel vomit.
Agreed with much of what you said.
It's not just MMO's though.
Just watch the constant lens flares, adding of blue filters and steep Dutch (no, not my fault! ) angles in the new series and Kelvin timeline movies to see the same thing on tv.
Granted, it's worse here, but the same thing is happening across all media. For some reason directors either wrongly think their products become more watchable the more such effects are used - or they want to hide something and they don't want things to be watchable.
Welcome to MMOs...they have lots of spell effects so you know your powers are active or not
Or did Starfleet also go around slaughtering hundreds of people in the name of obtaining that shiny new torpedo launcher?
MMO's aren't realistic...they need mechanics...sure the devs could tone it down in some ways but this is a MMO...it's how they work
I've been playing MMOs for a couple of decades now, it's not like I started a week ago. I can name several examples where "flashy and unrealistic" mechanics isn't present and the game is still thriving after 17 years (won't name it, you know what I'm referring to).
STO's case isn't exactly "flashy and unrealistic"... more like "fugly, cluttered and unnecessary". It is not how MMOs work, if it were, I wouldn't be writing this. I don't require realism in order to enjoy a game, this is not even an issue here.
STO looked much cleaner 5 years ago, but even then it was already flooded with excess visual effects. Google it... you'll find topics from 2012 where people ask if there is a way to tone down/turn off the flashy stuff.
Welcome to MMOs...they have lots of spell effects so you know your powers are active or not
Or did Starfleet also go around slaughtering hundreds of people in the name of obtaining that shiny new torpedo launcher?
MMO's aren't realistic...they need mechanics...sure the devs could tone it down in some ways but this is a MMO...it's how they work
I've been playing MMOs for a couple of decades now, it's not like I started a week ago. I can name several examples where "flashy and unrealistic" mechanics isn't present and the game is still thriving after 17 years (won't name it, you know what I'm referring to).
STO's case isn't exactly "flashy and unrealistic"... more like "fugly, cluttered and unnecessary". It is not how MMOs work, if it were, I wouldn't be writing this. I don't require realism in order to enjoy a game, this is not even an issue here.
STO looked much cleaner 5 years ago, but even then it was already flooded with excess visual effects. Google it... you'll find topics from 2012 where people ask if there is a way to tone down/turn off the flashy stuff.
Yeah and how much are they "thriving"? Just because a game survives doesn't mean it thrives...only really two MMO's that truly thrive and even one of them has problems these days.
WoW and FF XIV are the only two MMORPGs out there that have the going power to still remain sub based even though it's kinda a archaic system...both can be rather flashy...
Can't have a honest conversation because of a white knight with power
WoW and FF XIV are the only two MMORPGs out there that have the going power to still remain sub based even though it's kinda a archaic system...both can be rather flashy...
The truth? They're losing more subs than they gain. When a new expansion launches some frozen subs get renewed for a while, and then it goes back into decline. It doesn't help that WoW in particular has so much stuff in it that can't be obtained by new players nowadays because Blizzard keeps removing stuff whenever a new expansion is coming up.
Despite that, both games will probably not go away for quite some time.
I wouldn't call it thriving per se, it's just that these games are still massively popular compared to pretty much any other MMORPG out there.
So no, literally not one thing they have removed was due to manpower issues, all of them were removed to fundamental design issues that would require scrapping and rebuilding it from the ground up to fix. You can scream and stomp all you want, that wont change basic facts.
I'm pretty sure these two things are not mutually exclusive.
__________________________________
STO Forum member since before February 2010. STO Academy's excellent skill planner here: Link I actually avoid success entirely. It doesn't get me what I want, and the consequences for failure are slim. -- markhawman
Comments
Since the borg revamp, almost every ship blowing up creates a full screen flash. This is their response to endless such topics on here and reddit. I bet shrinking the beam effects was simply to make shuttles look less ridiculous.
Options to tone things down even a little are rejected, even if some low end computers struggle as a result of the sheer amount of excessive effects.
As far as turning things off for others please have a frank discussion with the Loot Critter. He seems to know how to show or not show something to you or others.
I think that they like the effects, otherwise why would they keep inventing new party-type effect toys. Ship Emotes, really???
You know that if the reduction of effects is not ubiquitous that you will never be rid of them. Some Chucklehead will inevitably have it on just to make your life miserable. Tonight I played the Transdimensional Tactics TFO for the Universal Endeavor. We just got out of the Cave and this guy stops, looks to his right at the acid pool and goes out of his way to step in it.
l don't know.
l really don't know what l'm about to say, except l have a feeling about it.
That l must repeat the words that come without my knowledge.'
I think they could resolve a lot of it by just reducing effect duration. Not really sure why the flashy effects need to last half a minute each.. if they had a shorter duration it would be mostly a quick flash of stuff and then you could see again. The real problem is that by the time your visual effects expire, the abilities are off cooldown and you just apply a fresh coat of spam.
This is also true.
A Maquis plasma storm will not go away before it normally expires. If it's been activated, it's going to be active for an x amount of seconds. That doesn't mean that we need to see it until x amount of time has passed.
Still, I think the overarching issue here is that it is rarely relevant anyway to other players that a plasma storm is damaging the enemy... many things will likely be damaging it, does it really matter what weapons and abilities other players are using on it?
For a player's own abilities, I'd say that it should be clear anyway what is being used. The OP mentioned attack pattern beta, which is a good example of stuff covering your entire ship without purpose (even if it's there for a short amount of time). Same with passives, I don't need to be reminded that my ship has constant cooldown reducers active or that a hull repair effect from the MW spec tree kicked in - the only info I need, is my current cooldowns and current hull status. Which can be read from the small, much more efficiently designed stuff like the skill bars and other UI elements.
I know these passive boosters and active boosts are there because I had to select or even activate them. And the effects are merely to increase some stat that's hidden deep inside my ship anyway. Unless we have players who are actively crunching and checking the numbers of their passive regeneration, resistance, defense and so on while playing, all the information relayed through visual spam is not relevant to anyone I think.
It would be nice to see a dev comment on this issue, though.
That would be the Beacon of Kahless, may it rot for all enternity for being brought into the game.
Welcome to MMOs...they have lots of spell effects so you know your powers are active or not
Or did Starfleet also go around slaughtering hundreds of people in the name of obtaining that shiny new torpedo launcher?
MMO's aren't realistic...they need mechanics...sure the devs could tone it down in some ways but this is a MMO...it's how they work
Once again believing everything you're told because you're the forum's local Borg drone...starting to wonder if any independent thought you could have would cause you pain
Yeah...and I suppose it's just a coincidence that some of the flashiest MMOs are at the top? How most bare bones MMOs die?
Just a coincidence...
Agreed with much of what you said.
It's not just MMO's though.
Just watch the constant lens flares, adding of blue filters and steep Dutch (no, not my fault!
Granted, it's worse here, but the same thing is happening across all media. For some reason directors either wrongly think their products become more watchable the more such effects are used - or they want to hide something and they don't want things to be watchable.
I've been playing MMOs for a couple of decades now, it's not like I started a week ago. I can name several examples where "flashy and unrealistic" mechanics isn't present and the game is still thriving after 17 years (won't name it, you know what I'm referring to).
STO's case isn't exactly "flashy and unrealistic"... more like "fugly, cluttered and unnecessary". It is not how MMOs work, if it were, I wouldn't be writing this. I don't require realism in order to enjoy a game, this is not even an issue here.
STO looked much cleaner 5 years ago, but even then it was already flooded with excess visual effects. Google it... you'll find topics from 2012 where people ask if there is a way to tone down/turn off the flashy stuff.
Yeah and how much are they "thriving"? Just because a game survives doesn't mean it thrives...only really two MMO's that truly thrive and even one of them has problems these days.
WoW and FF XIV are the only two MMORPGs out there that have the going power to still remain sub based even though it's kinda a archaic system...both can be rather flashy...
The truth? They're losing more subs than they gain. When a new expansion launches some frozen subs get renewed for a while, and then it goes back into decline. It doesn't help that WoW in particular has so much stuff in it that can't be obtained by new players nowadays because Blizzard keeps removing stuff whenever a new expansion is coming up.
Despite that, both games will probably not go away for quite some time.
I wouldn't call it thriving per se, it's just that these games are still massively popular compared to pretty much any other MMORPG out there.
I'm pretty sure these two things are not mutually exclusive.
STO Forum member since before February 2010.
STO Academy's excellent skill planner here: Link
I actually avoid success entirely. It doesn't get me what I want, and the consequences for failure are slim. -- markhawman