Who has issues with Incarnate graphics?

Sorry for the not very descriptive title.

What I'm trying to get a feel for here is how widespread issues with the Incarnate buff graphics are, and how easily (or not) it is to mitigate or remove the effects.

(Edit: There are some other graphics as well getting brought up - may as well bring them all to the attention of the devs.)

A ways back (ancient forum history,) I (and others) had to fight for a good year and a half about power graphics. Not from an aesthetic standpoint - we weren't arguing for power customization (though it was an option brought up on occasion.) More from a medical one. The old Sonic graphics were causing physical pain to some of the playerbase. I was "fortunate," if I could use that word, that I didn't suffer from migraines - but the old sonic graphics still caused me problems enough that I'd have to log off and just go curl up somewhere after not very long.

At the cost of a great number of headaches (and as I recall, a bit of nausea,) I went through and tried to isolate it as *anything else* in the game for me. Definitely isolated it to Sonic. Put up with (well, no, didn't put up with - got into some nasty fights with) people calling those who suffered from these issues "liars" and "hypochondriacs." And yes, was a thorn in the devs side for a while - I don't believe a video game should cause the player pain, after all.

After a year and a half of fighting, the graphics were changed.

Now, not only am I hearing complaints from friends who have to reach for their migraine meds again, but I'm getting contacted privately by people who are having problems with a new set of graphics. The Barrier graphics seem to be the most commonly pointed out to me.

Fortunately for me, I'm not affected. Unfortunately, I do know of some people (including a good friend) who are. Part of me shakes my head and wonders if the devs didn't learn their lesson before - and part of me suspects the devs who *did* learn, finally, that this was an issue to watch for are no longer around. (And before anyone gets snippy at that, I have nothing against new devs and art folks - but if they're not aware of issues like this, they need to have them brought up.)

In any case, a few questions:

- Are you affected by any of the new Incarnate graphics? Which ones? (This is not someplace to say "Yes, I think they're ugly." I'm talking physically affected. Migraine triggers and the like.)
- If it's not you, do you know of someone who is?
- What problems (if you don't mind, I know this one can be a bit personal - but it helps to know "It triggers my migraine" versus "I get an uncontrollable urge to Samba.")
- Does anything (such as recoloring) help you deal with it?


For me:
- No. Possibly because they're short term or obscured.
- Yes. One personally, a few secondhand (by PM or other conversation.)
- Migraines seem to be the most commonly mentioned.
- Unknown.


Edit:
The thread's already barely three hours old and we have a "If you have these problems, don't play video games" post. Since if/when that's modded, the post and my reply will disappear, I'm going to make this clear here.

If you post that sort of thing, I *will* ask the mods to remove it. After what happened during the fight to change Sonic graphics, I have *zero* tolerance for it, and will do my best to keep you from turning this into a flame war. Nasty, hurtful and inconsiderate comments WILL be reported. While I may not have the power to change the posts, I will report them. I *can* most certainly be a PITA to the mods if that starts.

If you're posting about your issues with powers and see those posts, please don't respond to them. Ignore them or /ignore them. Falling for flamebait like that does nothing to help and only obscures the problem.

See my Guides and Tutorials

No, I haven't had any issues with the graphics, but then I didn't have issues with the old sonic shields either. On the other hand if they are causing players problems with headaches and sundry then they definitely need to be changed.

If Barrier is causing the same problems that the old sonic shields did then it needs to be corrected.

No issues, but I tend not to have issues with that sort of stuff. Barrier does seem like it could be problematic to people with sensibilities to that sort of stuff, especially if you customize it. I turned mine orange/yellow and there's a bright, seizure inducing flash when it goes off.

Sounds to me like they might just need to increase their ambient lighting. If i dont have the lights on when i play i get nauseous because of all the bright flashes.

Wondering if the issue has to do with the way the Barrier shields "flicker" into existence.

I'm somewhat lucky that it isn't giving me migraines, but that may just be from lack of prolonged exposure too.

The flicker is definitely noticeable.

Clicking on the linked image above will take you off the City of Heroes site. However, the guides will be linked back here.

Some colors of Barrier kind of affect me, especially if the secondary color is bright (The color of the lightning bolts that shoot out in all directions very rapidly, it's very dark on the default and I didn't even notice it until I recolored it).

I never had a problem with old sonics myself, so this surprised me.

Barrier does look similar to how I remember the old sonic graphics. I don't have any problems with it, nor did I have problems with Sonic, nor do I know anyone having problems now or back them.

This does need to be further explored by the devs and the community, and should be changed if it's an issue. I've looked, albeit briefly, for images of the old sonic powers, but didn't have any success. If someone does have screens, or better yet video, of them, perhaps a comparison can and should be made.

I have friends that are having issues with some color combos of barrier.
I personally have issues with some color combos of disperision bubbles(ff and sonic)

I personally don't have any problems with the Barrier power, but several of our SG members do, along with other powers. It's to the extent many of our SG members have at least one costume slot dedicated to coloring certain powers so as to not induce migraines, and in several cases seizures. With Barrier in particular, it has nothing to do with ambient lighting; folks have had problems playing in the presence of that power in a sunlit room.

Another non-incarnate culprit is Electrical Control's Static Field. This has been known to give several of us severe migraines when colored at even "standard" brightness. Again, ambient lighting isn't a factor, or at least is not the solution. The intensity at the center of the ground effect, along with it's rate of pulsation, seems to be the core issue. I've had to drop off teams that have "abused" this power too extensively.

While these effects annoy me to no end, I've only suffered migraines from them a few times in six years.

For me, it's not the actual effects that bother me, it's the speed at which they shift. The quick, frenetic flashing gets me. If they were slower, I think they'd actually look better and would incidentally cause fewer problems.

It's probably too late for this, but if the game had an option that controlled the speed at which shifting graphics displayed, this problem could be dealt with by each player as needed. The truly sensitive could then turn them down to zero.

However, it still wouldn't completely solve the problem because there are a lot of big flash effects which cause migraines in certain people, and those are initiated by players and mobs such as Malta. I hate Malta more for those obnoxious blinding flashes and smoke than for sappers.

I sometimes feel especially after a few trials that my eyes are just tired, and I have on a few times felt headaches starting to form.

I do suffer from severe headaches but that is due to audio issues rather then graphic ones. I can simply turn down my volume. However those people, a really good friend and SG mate does not have that option.

Lowering the particle count to minimum, using /suppressclosefxdist 200 and adjusting the graphics down, DOES NOT alleviate the issue. In some instances it actually makes it worse.

The simple solution is to have the option of a client side setting to turn all SFX down to a level at which they could handle. That way other players are not effected by the lack of sfx.

I am not sure how easy it would be to program or implement. However, much like the change to the XP bar for those are color blind, this would be a huge QoL improvement for those that suffer from this.

I know, people like big flashy powers, but for some how the game plays is more important then how it looks.

my 2 inf.

[EDIT] removed previous edit for reasons stated by op

The graphics for Barrier, just like the old sonic graphics cause me to have a severe and almost instant migraine, along with rather bad nausea (though that is mostly due to the migraine).

I have been on several teams where someone has it, and the colour variations don't seem to do much to change the trigger.

The other power set that still causes me problems is Willpower. That so called "heart beating" effect that's on "Mind over Body" and "Indomitable Will" cause me grief after about 10-15 minutes worth of play time. Which sucks because I'd love to actually play my Willpower scrapper.

[Response to a removed post. See yellow section in OP.]

See my Guides and Tutorials

City of Heroes is the ONLY video game I have ever played that has had a graphic/graphics that cause this sort of issue for me, and they could just stop using graphics that are known for causing such a problem.

Not sure how good of an answer this is, but I've noticed when you turn down your graphics settings, the barrier graphics go from the static-flashy-flickery bubble to a much more steady almost striped bubble. That may help some people with issues with the graphics.

As an avid user of the Sonic Resonance powerset, I just want to say that you folks having these problems all have my sympathy and support.

Back when Sonic first was released, in all it's stroby impossible to look at glory, and the forum upheaval over the effects it's graphics have on people was going on, I was put in a very uncomfortable position as a lover of the set:

Do I shelve the character?
Do I run without dispersion on and only buff on teams that all say they have no problems?

More than once I was on a TF team, had asked if anyone needed me to not play my Sonic shielder, no one said anything, then about mid way through had a player drop out due to "not feeling well" "migraines" "headaches" "needing a rest for some reason". Now I can't personally verify that their problems were caused by my powers, but it planted a seed of fear in the back of my mind. "Who am I inflicting problems upon simply by my choice of powerset?" I thought. "What right to I have to even play this character knowing what I know about it?" the voice of my conscience chided me. Despite my best precautions, it appeared I was still causing some people issues, wether due to their ignorance or due to their unwillingness to "inconvenience" me.

When the changes to Sonic's graphics finally went through, it was a weight off my shoulders. No more worrying. No more hesitating to log my character on. No more stress. I could even drive-by buff street sweepers who were in over their heads, as I am wont to do!

I don't want to deal with this again. It was enough stress and worry the first time. I've had my fill. Luckily for me, Barrier is overrated in my opinion, so I'm unlikely to have to have these worries on any of my characters. But the fact stands that I'd like my build choices to be dictated by Potency and Concept, not by "Which powers don't cause headaches".

I'm afraid test rat is kind of right.

If you have diabetes dont eat the cake.


But i really guess just i dont understand it. Most of the time i don't even notice if barrier is or isn't on. Must suck getting sick from it. Maybe its the sound effects too that do it? Because i run with mine off.

The only Incarnate power I've seen so far has been Ionic Barrier, I think. (A sort of shimmery, spark-like spherical shield, in any case.) I'm not having exactly the difficulty you describe, but I *DO* find the FX strangely difficult to look at, and highly distracting. I think it's largely due to the nearly stroboscopic way the shield FX displays on my system. I have a similar reaction to the pulses from Disruption Arrow and the Longbow Disruption Grenade, but the impulse really *not* wanting to look at the FX is much stronger for the Barrier FX.

I don't have a similar reaction to any other FX in the game that I've noticed. (Although I've seen FX that I strongly dislike, especially with color customization.) I'm sorry if this isn't quite the information you need.