Bug: Integration on Women (at least) is missing its visual effect.
Character: Female Electric Melee/Regeneration Scrapper
Relevant powers: Integration
Bug Description:
This one is simple. Integration, as used by a female Scrapper, lacks its old visual effects. Last time I used it, it had an effect that looked like a glowy cross with a glowy circle behind it, with dots swirling outwards (if memory serves). Right now, it has NOTHING. It's as if I have the No FX option turned on, only I don't.
I tried all themes: Original, Bright Regeneration, Dark Regeneration and FX in PvP Only. None of them show a graphical effect, but clearly there is supposed to be one, otherwise this power would only have an Original option like Fast Healing and Quick Recovery. The options are there, but the effects they're supposed to represent are not showing.
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Originally Posted by Arcanaville
Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.
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The Katana powers do not animate if the sword is not drawn. The first power used merely draws and readies the weapon. The next power animates properly as long as the sword is still drawn.
Also noticed in costume creator/editor screens, only Soaring Dragon plays attack animation, all others just pull the sword out.
Stone Pharoah:Tanker Lvl 50 Stone/SS
Robospike:Mastermind Lvl 50 Robotics/FF/Mu
Static Burn:Blaster Lvl 50 Fire/Electric/Munitions
Hidden Burn:Tanker Lvl 50 Fire/Dark
More on the way...
Issue 17 Visual Effect Bug: Slow Field Generators
I originally reported this in a Petition over 3 months ago when Issue 17 went live. The GMs recently advised me to also list this issue here when I sent a follow-up inquiry.
Slow Fields, like all Defensive base items, are supposed to be "off" when no Base Raid was in progress, and only "activate" during a Base Raid. However some people reported seeing a shimmery effect on the 4 floor tiles around them all the time, and if Slow Field Generators were "floated", it became even more visible. In fact, some non-Base-Raid interested (i.e., "decorative") Base designers would use that shimmery field effect (now fully revealed in the open air) as a pseudo-water effect for fountains, etc. The shimmer became a full-out water effect when floated atop a "Dirty" style floor tile surface.
With the advent of "Ultra Mode" graphics in Issue 17, that "always on" effect became vastly more pronounced. What was before a mild shimmer on the floor tiles around "unfloated" Slow Fields now became a full-out water effect, making it look like the base floor was covered in large shimmery puddles. Even when Ultra Mode is turned completely off, the base floor tiles surrounding Slow Field Generators are covered with a moving, smoky texture.
Not only is this extremely unappealing, visually-speaking (our base looks flooded), but it significantly lags all users whose graphic cards need to draw all of these overlapping Ultra Mode water effects of the Slow Fields. Furthermore, when Base Raids return to the game, this water effect will plainly reveal the presence of the Slow Fields -- they were always meant to be a sort of hard-to-spot trap, much like Repulsion Fields and Gas Traps.
The water effect around Slow Field Generators should be removed -- it should not display any such effect, whether "active" or "inactive".
Screenshot showing one of many areas with "Flooded" Water Effect (Lagging my game client down to 2 FPS)
Screenshot showing moving smoky texture with all "Ultra Mode" options turned off
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Since it's against the forum rules to invoke the name of a popular poster / meme on this boards (hint: rhymes with kdanger), I'll just say: No. Do not want.|
Originally Posted by Doctor Vivian
The water effect around Slow Field Generators should be removed -- it should not display any such effect, whether "active" or "inactive".
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Not until we get a freestanding water tile as a decorative base item.
More accurately: The slow fields need to either be fixed to reflect correctly (they're massively distorted right now), or reverted back to the pre-I17 look.
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| Slow Fields, like all Defensive base items, are supposed to be "off" when no Base Raid was in progress, and only "activate" during a Base Raid. |
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Reverting them back to Pre-Issue-17 would be fine, as although there was still an improper effect that seemed to have water on the floor with some users' graphics cards, it did not lag the game client. Ideally the water effect should be removed entirely -- I really think it is a Visual Effects Bug.|
Originally Posted by MTS
More accurately: The slow fields need to either be fixed to reflect correctly (they're massively distorted right now), or reverted back to the pre-I17 look.
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However, I strongly suspect the fact that many decorative Base Designers have been using Slow Fields to generate water effects in lieu of water tiles will postpone any changes being made until the long-awaited "Base Love" Issue where we will get more objects, tilesets, textures and elements like water, swimming pools, etc., for Bases. Otherwise, all of the decorative base designers will complain about their base's water effects suddenly being shut off.
After all, with Base Raids currently turned off, the only purpose for Base Defense Items is to be decorative.
So a full fix seems unlikely anytime soon, but relief from the lagging and "flooded" appearance would really be a good thing.
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Originally Posted by MTS
This is not true. Force field defensive items are always "on", as are Stealth Suppression fields. Some of these items would "break" due to a bug after being moved a few times and appear to be off when not in a raid, but it's clear that the intent was for them to always be "on".
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I maintain an extremely Raid-ready base. I have deployed and experimented with every weapon system in the game, in actual Raids.
While items such as Force Fields, Stealth Strippers, etc., activate in the fashion they should during a Base Raid when they are first "placed" in the Base Editor, they immediately turn off -- and remain off -- the moment the base is unloaded from the Base Server's memory (i.e., when all heroes have left it and it is empty for a short period of time).
It's not that they break when being moved around, but rather that some Base Defense items are broken from the get-go -- a fact I have repeatedly submitted bug reports on to no avail. I.e., while they turn "on" when placed, many items don't activate when they're supposed to -- during an actual Base Raid.
Weapon Shield Generators do not turn on when placed, but they turn on and show an effect around their linked weapon to demonstrate they are working during actual Raids -- although their effect is only "visible" on normal-sized, non-Elite-class weapons, such as Sappers. Elite-class weapon systems do not show the Shield effect during raids. With the shield effect not showing, who knows if they're shielded or not?
Force Fields and Stealth Strippers, on the other hand, don't turn on in a Base Raid. They just don't activate. They have no apparent effect and generate no animation or display during a Base Raid. They are broken, and take up Power and Control to no purpose. I have submitted quite a few bug reports on these -- and even many inquiries, asking "are these items working even though they are not generating an effect?" -- but no one in Customer Support (at any level) had a clue whether they were or not, and nothing in regards to Bases has been fixed that I'm aware of since the Cathedral of Pain was taken offline.
On a slightly different topic, something that's important to remember is that Repulsors, Gas Traps and Slow Fields all are in the same category -- hard-to-spot traps -- and none of them should be active when a Base Raid is not in progress. To put it simply, even when active, they should not be generating a huge water effect on the surrounding floor tiles. It doesn't exactly make them hard to spot. Even a Gas Trap only sprays gas and has a visible effect when an enemy comes into its trigger area. It would make no more sense for a Slow Field to be "always on" than a Gas Trap to be constantly spraying gas.
This error (and I really believe it is an error, given the nature of all the other trap systems in the game) -- i.e., this water effect -- has remained in place so long, despite many bug reports, that it has become incorporated into many bases as a substitute water effect (since no water tiles were provided in the editor), and I would speculate that even if fixing it was on the agenda of the Dev Team (with all the other work they have had on their plate between Issue 17 and Going Rogue), this kind of prevalent use across all the servers would actually now be hindering it being fixed.
Indeed, I would speculate that it may well be the reason for the extra-strong water effect that appeared with the advent of Issue 17's Ultra Mode -- so many people are using Slow Fields for water effects, the Devs may have said "well, let's just make it look even more watery in Ultra Mode". Alternately, it could be a completely incidental and unplanned effect, unrelated to Slow Fields or their use as a decorative item -- Issue 17's Ultra Mode affects all water surfaces, and if one surrounds Slow Fields, Ultra Mode would simply treat it like any other water surface in the game.
-- Vivian
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I'm not sure how you're seeing graphics slowdown from the slow fields. If it's the bad in the base, surely it would be far worse in Independence Port or any of the Rogue Isles.|
Originally Posted by Doctor Vivian
Reverting them back to Pre-Issue-17 would be fine, as although there was still an improper effect that seemed to have water on the floor with some users' graphics cards, it did not lag the game client. Ideally the water effect should be removed entirely -- I really think it is a Visual Effects Bug.
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The only thing I can think of is perhaps you have many overlapping slow fields, but wouldn't the pre-I13 raid pathing rules have prohibited that arrangement in an actual raid?
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| However, I strongly suspect the fact that many decorative Base Designers have been using Slow Fields to generate water effects in lieu of water tiles will postpone any changes being made until the long-awaited "Base Love" Issue where we will get more objects, tilesets, textures and elements like water, swimming pools, etc., for Bases. Otherwise, all of the decorative base designers will complain about their base's water effects suddenly being shut off. |
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| While items such as Force Fields, Stealth Strippers, etc., activate in the fashion they should during a Base Raid when they are first "placed" in the Base Editor, they immediately turn off -- and remain off -- the moment the base is unloaded from the Base Server's memory (i.e., when all heroes have left it and it is empty for a short period of time). |
Honestly some of those items are so buggy and have never worked right, that it's difficult to say what the intended behavior really is.
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| On a slightly different topic, something that's important to remember is that Repulsors, Gas Traps and Slow Fields all are in the same category -- hard-to-spot traps -- and none of them should be active when a Base Raid is not in progress. To put it simply, even when active, they should not be generating a huge water effect on the surrounding floor tiles. It doesn't exactly make them hard to spot. Even a Gas Trap only sprays gas and has a visible effect when an enemy comes into its trigger area. It would make no more sense for a Slow Field to be "always on" than a Gas Trap to be constantly spraying gas. |
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| This error (and I really believe it is an error, given the nature of all the other trap systems in the game) -- i.e., this water effect -- has remained in place so long, despite many bug reports, that it has become incorporated into many bases as a substitute water effect (since no water tiles were provided in the editor), and I would speculate that even if fixing it was on the agenda of the Dev Team (with all the other work they have had on their plate between Issue 17 and Going Rogue), this kind of prevalent use across all the servers would actually now be hindering it being fixed. |
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| Indeed, I would speculate that it may well be the reason for the extra-strong water effect that appeared with the advent of Issue 17's Ultra Mode -- so many people are using Slow Fields for water effects, the Devs may have said "well, let's just make it look even more watery in Ultra Mode". Alternately, it could be a completely incidental and unplanned effect, unrelated to Slow Fields or their use as a decorative item -- Issue 17's Ultra Mode affects all water surfaces, and if one surrounds Slow Fields, Ultra Mode would simply treat it like any other water surface in the game. |
I also believe that to be the case simply because the devs haven't done any base-related work in a long time, so why would they bother doing it in I17 for an admittedly edge-case item?
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I can't say without experimenting (removing or spacing out Slow Field Generators) what is specifically causing the lag, but I can say that Pre-Issue-13 we did not have as many Slow Fields in the Base as we did after the Base Re-Pricing went into effect.|
Originally Posted by MTS
The only thing I can think of is perhaps you have many overlapping slow fields, but wouldn't the pre-I13 raid pathing rules have prohibited that arrangement in an actual raid?
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Now we have quite a few overlapping Slow Fields, which could be contributing to the lag. Or, just as possibly, it could be something specific to the unique nature of the Slow Field water effect, as it certainly differs from water effects seen elsewhere in the game -- as a result, it may be requiring more CPU or GPU overhead to draw. After all, the overlapping Slow Fields were not causing any lag issues in Issues 13-16 (i.e., before Issue 17's Ultra Mode came about).
Regardless of how Base Designers may feel about it from the standpoint of inconvenience, I honestly feel that the water effect around the Slow Field Generators is a Visual Effect Bug, which is why I listed it here.
But I think we are both on the same page when I say that I hope -- indeed, I think it necessary -- that the same Issue to fix the effect problem will also add better alternatives for putting water -- real water, that you can swim and splash in -- into people's bases.
-- Vivian
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Repulsion Field Generators are also Fields, but they are off when a Base Raid is not in progress. As are Force Field Generators.|
Originally Posted by MTS
I'm not so certain that we can assume that slow fields are intended to be hidden. Certainly not as visible as a reflective surface, but the distortion effect from pre-I17 was subtle, but still visible to a keen eye. Since it's a "field" rather than a "trap", it makes perfect logical sense to me to be always on.
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Slow Field Generators are just like Gas Generators, Repulsion Field Generators or High Explosive Land Mines.
I.e., you can see the item if you look, you can target it and you can attack it. They're not hidden, just hard to spot when you're in the middle of a fight and running around an enemy Base, getting attacked.
And all the other traps have no visible effect until an enemy enters the trigger zone. When they do -- bang, the effect triggers.
Even Weapon Shield Generators and Generator Energy Curtains are off when a Base Raid is not taking place.
Why would Slow Fields differ from Repulsion Fields and every other Base Item in that they would need to be "always on", even when the Base was not under attack?
-- Vivian
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It may have been that it was placed just before the party, and the Base in question was never empty of people until after the party (i.e., it was never unloaded from the memory of the Base Server until the event was over).|
Originally Posted by MTS
I know I've seen the Stealth Suppression defense item used decoratively as a "disco light". I'll have to see if I can find anyone who currently is and what they had to do to avoid it shutting off.
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In such an instance it would have remained "on" until that happened, just like Force Field Generators would have shown their field effect operating.
-- Vivian
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Even assuming that the Devs intended for there to be a visible field effect around an operating Slow Field, and even if they intended for Slow Field Generators to be operating all the time (even when a Base Raid was not in progress, and even though no other Base Defense Item operates that way), I am fairly sure they did not initially intend for that effect to be used as a substitute for water when those Slow Field Generators are floated... since floating items wasn't planned for at all. The ability to float items is itself a bug that has been continually exploited to such an extent by Base Builders that it has become accepted practice -- and impossible to "fix".|
Originally Posted by MTS
I still believe that the old "water effect" was intended and not a bug, as it only sort of looked like water. It was very slow moving, and distorted the area around it in much the way I would expect a time-and-space altering field to do.
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I agree with your earlier post that decorative Base Builders would need a substitute water effect system before any changes can be made to Slow Fields -- and it would have to be a better water system than the effect around the current Slow Fields generates; so much better, in fact, that everyone would want to use the new system. That way no one would feel bad about them being changed. I would say real water, that you could splash around and swim in, would be the ideal solution.
-- Vivian
Although I do enjoy this discussion, we are misusing this Bug Reporting thread.
I reported in detail what I feel is a Visual Effect Bug, we should stop there.
We can continue a fuller discussion of Field Generators in a different thread. 
-- Vivian
Almost certainly drivers, but I get weird pixellated outlines on far away things using an ATI HD5870. (Running something around Catalyst 9.12, because anything newer than that causes fatal crashes on this model of laptop, or so they say.)
Clipping issue on female toons with the "Jeweled" belt (and probably others) and maximum hip and waist sizes; just a little bit right on the left and right sides, turning the waist slider down about 15% made it disappear.
not sure if this is the right place for this.....but regarding the AE mission holopads....can we get the green glow of these turned off or turned waaaaaay down?
It sucks to put in the time to make a detailed custom contact and have all of the detail drowned out and completely negated by the horrible green holopad glows!
thanks!
There's benches in Nova Praetoria what disappears if looking different angles.
Prunejuice is warriors drink.
Not sure that this is the right place for this, but it needs to be in a thread that the devs see.
Was on a team with a member of my SG that does not use the forums much, and doesn't want to out himself as having epilepsy.
For the first time he teamed with the electric control set (customised to a sort of bright royal blue colour). It gave his epilepsy HUGE problems. He has no trouble with any other powers in the game, but is wondering if he can ever team with this set again.
I know sonics got changed a while ago because of this sort of thing, I think you need to look at electric control.
Edit - we think static field was the main culprit
It's true. This game is NOT rocket surgery. - BillZBubba
Don't know if this thread is checked anymore but one visual graphics bug has been bothering me.
Dark Miasma's darkest night and shadowfall used to create smoke effects on affected enemies/allies within the influence of the power. A few issues ago, they were removed with only the anchor or in the case of shadowfall the player receiving the smoke effects.
With i17, defender's shadowfall got the smokey effect back and all allies benefiting from shadow fall got the smoke around their feet. Still nothing for Dark Miasma on the mastermind, corruptor. Would be great if the old visual effects returned for those ATs as well. Would make playing DM more fun.
Running Shadow Maps with Shaders set to High. I was outside the front door to the Talos Island Vault Reserve building when I noticed that the shadows for the monorail train tracks and the cars moving on them don't move and lengthen with the sun. They simply stay as if the sun were directly overhead.
This is especially glaring and noticeable in the "afternoon" when the building's shadow starts lengthening towards the track but the track's shadow stays put.
Maybe I just haven't paid enough attention to it. Is it just this stretch of track or do all train tracks cast static shadows?