"No Color" Color?

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Also, can you imagine hitting someone with invisible [bananas]? PvPers would sure [lactate] it.

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we were playing madlibs, right?

This would be a great option. Not all of us want the glowiness. Those that do can keep it.

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Allowing everyone to run around with actual invisible powers is...a very bad idea, game design-wise.

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Why?

Does Wolverine glow green when he heals?

Does Professor Xavier shoot pink rays when he dominate's someone's mind?

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Because, unlike a comic book or cartoon, a game (especially multiplayer) requires a certain amount of visual indication as a shorthand for being able to understand what's going on. Multiplayer games require substantial cues for quick reaction times, as well as to be able to understand what's going on around your character while not even looking at your character (like when you're looking at your tray for recharging powers).

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There are other MMOs where characters can have 20-30+ buffs on at once (you can get close to that here). The visual cues are all but useless in those situations. And some games don't have them. Only the buff icons.

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Because gaming isn't a passive activity, cueing takes precedence over visual realism in terms of good gameplay, especially team (or adversarial) gameplay. For example, can you imagine PvP with no colours? Can you imagine trying to heal the Bubbler who hit PFF and it not working because you can't see their power active?

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Yes, I can imagine a PvP where you don't instantly know that you're fighting a Regen and so have to think through the encounter with limited information. Sounds kinda fun personally.

As for PFF, having played a bubbler for 4 years, people don't have the slightest idea when I'm in PFF, especially when, as stated above, I have other buffs on. I've had people try to heal/buff/etc. while I was in PFF.

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I'm fine with making powers more subtle--I'll probably do that on a number of characters--but on heavily team dependant characters, I may change colours, but wouldn't want to make things invisible. After all, I don't want my Rad 'fender being yelled at for not using AM just because no one saw it.

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I check for buff icons. More reliable and quicker. And I still would if I wasn't glowing green.

At this point it's "ask a Dev's opinion and (probably) get no response" time.

Me, I'd err on the side of providing various types of feedback, and not just relying on tiny little icons that not everyone has memorised or can read well.

Basically, I have no problem if you want to hide your effects on your screen, especially if it's just your character in particular, but you can already do that with a simple macro or bind. The visual effects are far more for other people than they are for you, really, and forcing everyone to use power icons out of "reliability" is a dubious design decision at best.

You're definitely speaking from a Vet's perspective, in which case taking some of the "ease of use" out of the game makes things interesting. But I don't think that's a design goal of the Devs, to be quite honest, nor of any MMO that considers itself open to casual play.

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Basically, I have no problem if you want to hide your effects on your screen, especially if it's just your character in particular, but you can already do that with a simple macro or bind. The visual effects are far more for other people than they are for you, really, and forcing everyone to use power icons out of "reliability" is a dubious design decision at best.


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But what's the basis for the statement that this would be a "dubious" design decision?

I can think of a couple MMOs off the top of my head that don't have obscuring visual cues for all (or even most): WoW, EQ2. WoW, of course, has, and always has had superior sub numbers than City of Heroes.

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I was thinking about this the other day. I think adding an opacity slider or something would be really cool.

White energy blast with a really low opacity could be like blasts of wind or something.

Wild Streak - Lv. 50(+3) Beast Mastery/Sonic Resonance Mastermind, Amnesty - Lv. 50 Staff Fighting/Dark Armor Stalker

I think all powers should have the option of being invisible...It would be like stealth-farting.

Stealthfartingftw