It would be nice (very nice) to have a system that gave us some control over which battle effects we see. A simple on/off doesn't work for me. As someone mentioned before, some of the effects provide important feedback.
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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
Visual spam has been an increasing problem for years now. Newer traits and modules have to be MORE FLASHY and MORE EXCITING than those that came before, because reasons. I echo what one user posted about early game space battles feeling more appropriate and I tend to agree. I deliberately use "non-meta" builds in my ships just to keep to a theme and actually make it FEEL like I'm playing a Star Trek game instead of some LSD induced visual sepctacle. I can't even get started in most advanced queues because one guy who's doing 400k DPS literally clears to the field single handedly within a minute. Like let's not even bother clearing the generators on Infected I'll just alpha strike the goddamn node itself regardless. Crazy!
Looking for a dedicated Star Trek community? Visit www.ufplanets.com for details.
they could limit all the flashy by either compressing it into a beam or narrow cone, and/or have a "torpedo" the size of a HY Plasma with the effect inside go to the target and hit it.
I've been advocating for a way to turn the visual spam off for years now. Right now STO is basically...
"Welcome to Star Trek Online. Exploration doesn't exist. But we love our space raves."
With the amount of visual barf on screen in the multiplayer zones it actually gives some relief when someone pops off the sector wide flash that summons the klinks, even though its an effect that should never be seen by the player going by the description of blinding enemies.
The amount of overly flashy bright visual junk bombarding the player is a symptom of the jarjar abrams infection that franchise is suffering from.
If you can't see what killed you or what you're trying to kill due to a screen full of technicolour vomit then its plain and simple just bad design and implementation that should never get close to the QA side and if it does the QA folk should care enough to say its being taken too far.
Dat third image is why most people don't get a disco ball from the latinum vendor when you can just go in to an STF and have a seizure inducing experience that'd make most people who did drugs during the mid/late 1900's jealous of all the colors you are getting to see at once.
'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.'
I am not sure they can or even would think about doing this.... They cannot even fix the bugged out mission for Romulan's when you go to get a special duty officer... But to be honest I dont care much what they do any more... I might buy one more ship from them and then not buy anything again until they answer my ticket i sent to support in a positive manner... lol
I think they were trying to fix screen garbage in a wrong way a while ago when they reduced the thickness of beams. Its all the (mainly sci and console exotic damage ones) abilities that create all chaos
FEEL like I'm playing a Star Trek game instead of some LSD induced visual sepctacle.
I never did acid, but I did plenty of magic mushrooms, and even peyote a few times back in the 1970's and 80's, but I never saw anything to compare to the flashing lights in this game.
I think they were trying to fix screen garbage in a wrong way a while ago when they reduced the thickness of beams. Its all the (mainly sci and console exotic damage ones) abilities that create all chaos
I don't think that had much to do with it to be honest.
Cause it would be a rather odd way of addressing the issue.
I absolutely agree. Have been saying this for years to no avail. The visual clutter in the game is overwhelming, especially at end game and on more detailed and prominent builds. It's actually overwhelming to a degree that it not only deteriorates the gameplay experience, but in some instances it makes the game borderline unplayable, as in one's having no idea what the hell is going on at a given time.
Not sure how possible it would be for them, but it would be rather awesome if we can get an individual option to either tone down or right out disable the effects on some abilities in order to reduce the clutter and improve our gaming experience.
From a game design standpoint I understand that an effect is helpful to convey information to the player.
It was always on the heavier and quite frankly meaningless side in STO however it got out of hand. It IMO started to get really bad with Plasma Storm console.
Another issue is that getting information from effects is fine however you also need to know what you are seeing.
In STO a lot of abilities are bound to consoles which are obtained via ultra rare ships. Anything lobi, promo or even lockbox related.
Meaning most players never get their hands on this TRIBBLE. They never get to learn what looks like what unless they ask.
So let me ask: What the TRIBBLE is the purple storm cloud thing which pollutes space as of late and which ability causes these circle like explosions that tend to be everywhere these days?
From a game design standpoint I understand that an effect is helpful to convey information to the player.
It was always on the heavier and quite frankly meaningless side in STO however it got out of hand. It IMO started to get really bad with Plasma Storm console.
Another issue is that getting information from effects is fine however you also need to know what you are seeing.
In STO a lot of abilities are bound to consoles which are obtained via ultra rare ships. Anything lobi, promo or even lockbox related.
Meaning most players never get their hands on this TRIBBLE. They never get to learn what looks like what unless they ask.
So let me ask: What the TRIBBLE is the purple storm cloud thing which pollutes space as of late and which ability causes these circle like explosions that tend to be everywhere these days?
The new Risa ship has a purple ability. It's called Neutronic eddy generator.
Not sure what circle like explosions you are referring to, that could be many things. A circular thing that has become popular lately, is the Spore-infused anomalies trait from the T6 Somerville.
Trying to capture the excessive visual spam, only to be denied by the strobe spam.
OUR SENSORS ARE FULLY LIT IN BRIGHT WHITE LIGHT THIS IS VERY INFORMATIVE
Trying to capture the excessive visual spam, only to be denied by the strobe spam.
OUR SENSORS ARE FULLY LIT IN BRIGHT WHITE LIGHT THIS IS VERY INFORMATIVE
Siezure-enducing particle effects are another thing this game has that the shows were not about. Yet some white knights with brown stuff all around their noses and mouths say we don't need exploration because that's not what the shows were about.
someone has never seen the original motion picture on luc.... ' i must try to mind meld with it...' god my life was changed forever....
The new Risa ship has a purple ability. It's called Neutronic eddy generator.
Not sure what circle like explosions you are referring to, that could be many things. A circular thing that has become popular lately, is the Spore-infused anomalies trait from the T6 Somerville.
Thank you.
Funny I got both of those ships but in both cases I haven’t had the motivation to look or master either of them.
Edit: I just mastered the Sommerville and you were correct in assuming the Spore-infused anomalies trait.
I would like an option to turn off other players' effects (like most other MMO's I've played), if only to make it so that the PlayStation doesn't start skipping, pausing, and slowing down all over the place.
I agree too. This game is getting out of control with these tricks. This is also why PvP doesn't work in this game. All these control abilities are ruining this game. I now only login just to complete Endeavors, events and refine Dill. Please stop this.
The new Risa ship has a purple ability. It's called Neutronic eddy generator.
Not sure what circle like explosions you are referring to, that could be many things. A circular thing that has become popular lately, is the Spore-infused anomalies trait from the T6 Somerville.
Thank you.
Funny I got both of those ships but in both cases I haven’t had the motivation to look or master either of them.
Edit: I just mastered the Sommerville and you were correct in assuming the Spore-infused anomalies trait.
I didn't know about it for a while, then I got it through a special promotion. Getting that trait was the most useful addition I' had made to my main Sci in a while
I agree too. This game is getting out of control with these tricks. This is also why PvP doesn't work in this game. All these control abilities are ruining this game. I now only login just to complete Endeavors, events and refine Dill. Please stop this.
The problem is that in order to have the kind of mass-wave battles CBS is so fond of with only five player ships facing them all those crowd control abilities are critical to the success of the newer TFOs (and much of the other newer stuff as well).
Toning down the visual effects somehow, perhaps by making some of them some sort of 'wireframe tactical overlays' or whatever (which could probably be done by retexturing the hazard models directly with some sort of grid on a completely transparent or at least a lot more transparent background than the current effects), is sorely needed however.
It doesn't really matter how they do it imo. It's up to them to figure it out.
It's pretty ridiculous that some of this TRIBBLE was added the way it has been in the first place. Whoever thought that 'MoRe vIsUaL sPaM!' was a good idea, obviously has never even played a mission where this stuff is used. Certainly not when some of this stuff literally turns the entire screen into one big plasma storm. Or a snow storm. Or whatever.
Most importantly:
It makes the game less enjoyable and the overdoing also makes any kind of visual effect pointless anyway. What's the point of seeing special effects - like any at all - if they're all competing in the most annoying ways for the players' attention? Resulting in players not being able to distinguish anything in the end?
The fact that this even needs to be pointed out, shows how little they experience their own game or how little they understand what is going on in it. Or it's just to stimulate attention seeking by some players to increase sales. Or maybe there's some weird competition going on between devs, who are challenging each other to come up with the most ridiculous and annoying thing they can think of.
Either way, I'd argue that the problem is a result of deliberate dev action. It's not some bug or an accident. Limited man power to redo stuff is therefore just an excuse. If they had even the slightest sense of how the game is viewed by a regular player, they would've done it right while designing this stuff - and they'd have chosen not to design some of it at all. Instead of thinking it'd be funny to add screen-wide blinding effects.
Comments
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
Looking for a dedicated Star Trek community? Visit www.ufplanets.com for details.
"Welcome to Star Trek Online. Exploration doesn't exist. But we love our space raves."
The amount of overly flashy bright visual junk bombarding the player is a symptom of the jarjar abrams infection that franchise is suffering from.
If you can't see what killed you or what you're trying to kill due to a screen full of technicolour vomit then its plain and simple just bad design and implementation that should never get close to the QA side and if it does the QA folk should care enough to say its being taken too far.
aut vincere aut mori pro imperio
either to conquer or to die for the Empire
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 never did acid, but I did plenty of magic mushrooms, and even peyote a few times back in the 1970's and 80's, but I never saw anything to compare to the flashing lights in this game.
I don't think that had much to do with it to be honest.
Cause it would be a rather odd way of addressing the issue.
Not sure how possible it would be for them, but it would be rather awesome if we can get an individual option to either tone down or right out disable the effects on some abilities in order to reduce the clutter and improve our gaming experience.
From a game design standpoint I understand that an effect is helpful to convey information to the player.
It was always on the heavier and quite frankly meaningless side in STO however it got out of hand. It IMO started to get really bad with Plasma Storm console.
Another issue is that getting information from effects is fine however you also need to know what you are seeing.
In STO a lot of abilities are bound to consoles which are obtained via ultra rare ships. Anything lobi, promo or even lockbox related.
Meaning most players never get their hands on this TRIBBLE. They never get to learn what looks like what unless they ask.
So let me ask: What the TRIBBLE is the purple storm cloud thing which pollutes space as of late and which ability causes these circle like explosions that tend to be everywhere these days?
The new Risa ship has a purple ability. It's called Neutronic eddy generator.
Not sure what circle like explosions you are referring to, that could be many things. A circular thing that has become popular lately, is the Spore-infused anomalies trait from the T6 Somerville.
OUR SENSORS ARE FULLY LIT IN BRIGHT WHITE LIGHT THIS IS VERY INFORMATIVE
TRIBBLE TRIBBLE TRIBBLE TRIBBLE TRIBBLE TRIBBLE TRIBBLEing motherTRIBBLE !!
https://www.arcgames.com/en/forums/startrekonline/#/discussion/1256101/i-think-we-ripped-a-hole-in-space-time
-back in mid-June. Unlike alcyoneserene I was too busy staring at the screen and wincing to take a screenshot. Kudos to alcyoneserene for being more alert than I was.
someone has never seen the original motion picture on luc.... ' i must try to mind meld with it...' god my life was changed forever....
Thank you.
Funny I got both of those ships but in both cases I haven’t had the motivation to look or master either of them.
Edit: I just mastered the Sommerville and you were correct in assuming the Spore-infused anomalies trait.
I didn't know about it for a while, then I got it through a special promotion. Getting that trait was the most useful addition I' had made to my main Sci in a while
The problem is that in order to have the kind of mass-wave battles CBS is so fond of with only five player ships facing them all those crowd control abilities are critical to the success of the newer TFOs (and much of the other newer stuff as well).
Toning down the visual effects somehow, perhaps by making some of them some sort of 'wireframe tactical overlays' or whatever (which could probably be done by retexturing the hazard models directly with some sort of grid on a completely transparent or at least a lot more transparent background than the current effects), is sorely needed however.
It's pretty ridiculous that some of this TRIBBLE was added the way it has been in the first place. Whoever thought that 'MoRe vIsUaL sPaM!' was a good idea, obviously has never even played a mission where this stuff is used. Certainly not when some of this stuff literally turns the entire screen into one big plasma storm. Or a snow storm. Or whatever.
Most importantly:
It makes the game less enjoyable and the overdoing also makes any kind of visual effect pointless anyway. What's the point of seeing special effects - like any at all - if they're all competing in the most annoying ways for the players' attention? Resulting in players not being able to distinguish anything in the end?
The fact that this even needs to be pointed out, shows how little they experience their own game or how little they understand what is going on in it. Or it's just to stimulate attention seeking by some players to increase sales. Or maybe there's some weird competition going on between devs, who are challenging each other to come up with the most ridiculous and annoying thing they can think of.
Either way, I'd argue that the problem is a result of deliberate dev action. It's not some bug or an accident. Limited man power to redo stuff is therefore just an excuse. If they had even the slightest sense of how the game is viewed by a regular player, they would've done it right while designing this stuff - and they'd have chosen not to design some of it at all. Instead of thinking it'd be funny to add screen-wide blinding effects.