All Things Art - FX Edition

I really love the upcomming auras, and costume change emotes from 20.5.

Costume Change emote: I'd really love to see an costume change, that many of the /Storm Summoning users have used in the past.

The activation sequence of Steamy Mist would make a great costume changer. The character lifts his hand and is engulfed by a cloud of Mist. The Mist disspates and the character wears his new outfit.

Another FX heavy powerset suggestion for you. (yes, powers people would need to invent it, but FX dept would obviously play a big roll in realizing the awesomeness to make this set worth it):

Vermin Corruptors and Dominators Flies, bees, mosquitoes, bats, ravens, sparrows, jays, beetles, etc. All these creatures have distinct and unique enough swarming patterns. Obviously, character customization would need to be limited down to maybe a half dozen types of creatures, first for unique body types (bats vs. birds vs. bees). But it would be important that when someone selects bats for a particular swarming power, that the bats fly in and feel like bats, and that the birds feel not like bird models flying in the same path as the bats but instead flocking like birds would, etc. etc.

I've stuck to flying creatures for my suggestion.

Not sure how ants, roaches or rats would be made to work in terms of "believability" (if that even matters any more in a game like this!), but perhaps someone on your team could work out a way to make them work as well.

Similarly, I *guess* there might be room in a set like this if building from scratch to include a weird left field option of something like the pixels from the new pixel aura as another customization option.

One thing I would like to see that I think would be a nice use of the new Victorian/Ascension aura technology is stylistic representations of various art types/visuals

Kinda hard to explain but moving(and path, and combat) auras based on

Brush Strokes

Vector arrows(Squiggly lines are seen there as well on Black*Star(the blue-haired kid)

Graffiti Lines

Paint blotches

and other examples of symbolism and drawing expressed through auras.

You may have to get with the Art team on this for the whole enchilada.

Introduce (actual) Cycloptic and Tri-Eye faces, with corresponding eye pieces and eye aura options. [or just the applicable auras; sans other eye parts]

=========================================

Hair patterns/art (stripes, bolts, flames, spots, etc); with their own color palette and 'glow' options

Allowing eye color changes

Ethereal mini-pets (mini-pet color customization)

=========================================

Addendum to moving trees request: currently, they move in sync with each other and the entire top half of the tree moves all at once... more subtle and individualized movements plz?

Collision coding for moving cars

=========================================

More cross-collab stuff here.

Random occurrence/type of emoting for NPCs when chatted to or followed for extended periods of time (and more convo/convo trees). The chance of a non-combat/-contact NPC (pedestrian) to morph into a spawn (reverse Cure Wand type stuff) by interaction, proximity and/or Event.

For such a secular/seedy place, the Rogue Isles at night is fairly dull and uninteresting. Where's the nightlife in this den of sin? Neon glows of nightclub/dive bar signage, a redlight district, or even more overhead patrols? (outside of Martial)

I quickly glanced through the posts and didn't see this mentioned - there's a few powers on which /suppressclosefx doesn't work. Indomitable Will from widow teamwork (the WP version suppresses fine!), and the elec resistance toggles from elec armor.

Actually.. I'd say maybe the Ghost Aura is a good place for new Eye Aura that behaved like Thunderhead or Sparks sans the lightning and sparks. It has a Head Aura already but nothing really going on for the Eyes. Perhaps make it a little more flickering like say.. a Jack O'Lantern? /dreams

Also a bit of feedback on the new Path Auras - I love them, but they do make the case stronger for dual color auras. In particular the Cloud with Lightning aura, much like the Thunderhead aura does. Just one more request for that tech one day!

I'd like to see Fireworks CC Aura have more Fireworks involved.

I'd like to see the Rainbow Path Aura be made into a set of normal Auras too. Even with the restriction of not being able to recolor it, I'd really enjoy that for my light spectrum/rainbow based concepts. So maybe having it in as many categories as the normal, older Glow Aura?

I reallllly love the binary Aura. Looks like what I and others requested with that Data Stream aura. I think it'd be nice to add as a CC aura as well - a big flash of the Binary data stream and the costume is changed. One day if we get travel power customization I'd like to see that for Teleport as well!

Hey Tunnel Rat, does your work as an FX artist cover things like the effects from weapon-using powersets? (Might be a silly question, but hey.) If so, I've got a few suggestions!

Allow players to select alternate effects for weapons, where applicable; especially if it's a weapon that has different effects than what the player has when it's used by an enemy group.

For example, Council/Fifth Column marksmen, when they snipe you, have a "laser bolt" effect rather than the sniper rifle shot Assault Rifle characters have. Since we can get a Council Assault Weapon in-game, why not give the option for characters to use the "laser bolt" effect for the Sniper Rifle power?

Also, Nemesis rifles. When Nemesis soldiers use them, they have that exploding musket thing going on. It'd be cool if those effects were available for Assault Rifle characters for Slug, or somesuch.

My suggestion does bleed into sound effects territory since a lot of these effects have their own sounds too, and I *would* like to see the Tommy Gun assault rifle use the actual tommy gun noises that Family gunners have ... but yeah!

The other suggestion I have; while it's related to this, I haven't seen a more appropriate All Things Art thread for it yet, so I'll pitch the idea here:

Add Praetorian Resistance weapons to Assault Rifle and Dual Pistols!

(And I'd love to see Praetorian Resistance effects added to Assault Rifle and Dual Pistols customization. You could use the Clockwork Plasma Spray for the Flamethrower! And maybe the Resistance Heavy Barrel shot for the Sniper Rifle ... )

Something that really bugs me on my elec Dominator: when I use Jolting Chain, the chained lightning effects are obviously originating from the invisible pseudopets, not the enemies I target. Could the FX be changed to shoot out from the enemies themselves?

Here's a screenshot. You can clearly see the first jump originated a good two to three feet below my primary target.

Here's something for you Tunnel Rat ... although you might need an assist from Programming.

Sprint and the Prestige Sprints create "puffs of dirt" on all kinds of ground, but not on (most) streets (the Rogue Isles being something of an exception). What's "weird" is that these puffs of dirt still animate when your character (Stalker or other AT) goes into Hidden status. Here I am ... Hidden ... and I still kick up a rooster tail of dirt when Sprinting.

Would it be possible to omit the "puffs of dirt" from the Sprint Powers when the character is Hidden?

It's the end. But the moment has been prepared for ...

I can already hear the Crazy 88s lining up to get a companion emote where they throw bags of cash into the air, and the fluttering down spilled greenbacks go up in flames and smoke when they touch the ground ... much like what happens to the tossed cards do with /em magictrick ...

Then the Crazy 88s are going to want to get an alternate animation for the Snowball temp power, where they throw a Sack Fulla Cash at other players ... which explodes on impact into billions of INF "dollahs" that the target can't pick up fast enough before they all fall to the ground (and burn) ...



Hmmm ... maybe the use of these emotes and temp powers should be limited to the vicinity of the Auction Houses or inside Instances (like Bases) ...

It's the end. But the moment has been prepared for ...

Late to the party here but that’s mostly because I have never really had much of an issue with any of the visual FX in game. With power customisation, I can pretty much retool most sets to look close to whatever I have imagined. However, over the weekend, while looking at softcapping my Blaster, I realised there was one effect that really grates on my eyes. As this thread is rather long now, I apologise if this has come up before but hopefully my suggestion will still be useful.

So. Ice Armour.

I really dislike the ‘Ice Cube Man’ effect that this power has. It has, subconsciously, prevented me from rolling an Ice Tank, a Cold Domination user or using the Cold Mastery epic. I dislike the way it obscures my costume (although, admittedly, that’s not exclusive to this power) but also how it sort of looks like Pre-Vis SFX for the film industry. If I could make it opaque and grey, I could roll Pre-Vis Man.

Anyway, I didn’t have a solution in mind until I drew some inspiration from the excellent Steampunk Pack (gender-gated coats aside, but that’s another issue). Namely, the Victorian Décor Aura. This aura sits nicely above a costume but doesn’t obscure it. Whether that is because of its ‘partial’ nature or because it pulses occasionally, allowing the costume to show through, I’m not sure. But I thought that if the décor could be switched out and replaced with a ‘frost’ type texture, it would still be within the theme of ‘coating a character in ice’ but would not be as obtrusive or dominating as the current Ice Cube effect is.

If it is within your remit, you could perhaps offer a few different ice themed textures such as frost, slabs of ice or even just a hazy effect like ice as it sublimes into steam. If they could all be positioned in the same way that the Victorian Décor ‘hovers’ over the costume, I think it might make for a nice change to the huge, blocky nature of the current FX.

While we’re on the subject of Ancillary shields, there’s a couple more suggestions I’d like to make. Firstly is to offer the option to remove the Patron symbol from armours in the PPPs. Some people pick these as they’re great sets not because they hold any loyalty to the Patron. Secondly it would be nice to update Psychic Mastery’s Mind over Body effect to match the one from the Willpower set. Strength of mind doesn’t always look like pink bubbly circles.

Thanks for reading.

I think this may technically be a bug but the magma variant of Stone Cages has a large sort of afterimage of the lava color whenever it hits a target. This is generally pretty obscuring of the screen:



Speaking of obscuring, a large number of attacks seem to produce a bright flash of light on hit. This also has a habit of blocking the screen if AOE attacks are used but I think it's only really noticeable on slower computers.

Not sure if this would be the best place to suggest it, but would it be possible to get costume auras broken up into sections ?

For example:

You select Aura, and it lists each part of the body:

Head
Eyes
Chest
Torso
Arms (possibly an option for left and right)
Legs (possibly an option for left and right)
Path

This way we can choose a particular aura for each part ?

For example, I want a flaming head, starburst eyes, alpha chest, electricity hands (arms), tendril legs, and a rainbow path aura. I know that would look hideous, but it's just an example. It would also allow people to make certain parts normal auras, and other parts combat only. I have an emp that has a glowing chest from the Alpha aura, but I want the hands to have an aura while in combat only.

I recall someone in-game bringing up an interesting point:

They claim they can't let us use multiple costume auras because of performance issues, yet they force us to run upwards of four auras just from our powersets?

I'm a fan of being able to use miltiple auras of multiple types. I would, if I could, have constant Wisps circling around my character, combined with a basic Eye Glow which triggers only when the character enters combat.

Quote:

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.

Well, I have a feeling that those four powerset auras are the reason why we don't get multiple other aurs.

What sort of bugs me about current auras is that they continue to be single color, despite the fact that the A.C.C.U.H.U.D. has accepted both for a while. There's a lot of auras like Thunderhead that would be drastically improved by a dual color setup.

I also think it would be good for Ghosts and Runes to have a "Chest" option. Drastically surprised Runes lacks it since you'd figure Banished Pantheon would be the main inspiration and their chests glow.