Can anyone really see through the clutter?
One of the projects we’re working on in preparing the game to release in new regions is trying to make the game easier to learn. While a lot of that work is in the area of better tutorials, better level up messaging guides, and unique tutorials for specific mechanics we’re also evaluating UI complexity (and system complexity) to try and make information easier to see/consume.
Cleaning up the existing UI systems to make them less cluttered, more-stream lined, and better unified is part of this project and absolutely something you’ll see in the west as well, likely around or possibly even before we release the game in our next major world region.
And to get ahead of the next question: No, we have no solid dates! We’re still in beta in China and are testing and developing all of these new systems to make the game is easier to learn. We haven’t announced timelines for development any other major regions other than being in Beta in China at this time.
I don’t think the original poster was talking about UI clutter.
Look, it’s pretty simple Colin,
You guys have streamlined combat in this game essentially to autoattack and dodge/block/go invuln/evade.
What I mean by that is people have done the math, done the parsing, and determined that the best dps rotations in the game are really pretty much just letting your autoattack chain go, with a few exceptions.
Then thanks to invulnerability on dodge, the terrible way interrupts are implemented, making it essentially too much trouble to bother interrupting attacks when you can just dodge them, and the fragileness of characters REQUIRING dodging just about every single attack, has trained your playerbase into a mode of playing the game where they just wear berserker gear, focus on maximizing dps, and avoid every attack that comes their way. The fact that a lot of newer content bosses utilize unreflectable projectiles to stop people from using one of the only interesting mechanics left in your combat… projectile reflection only reinforces this mode of playing. You guys have essentially “streamlined” as you call it, “watered down” as I call it, combat into dodge and dps. It is one dimensional and about as deep as an oil puddle on pavement.
NOW, about that clutter we’re talking about….
You’ve designed a game where you have this one dimensional combat or dps and dodge, dodging based on visual animation cues, since you don’t have enemy cast bars. The boss attacks are strong enough when there’s a lot of players that every single hit, instantly downs, so you MUST dodge EVERYTHING, or you die. The problem with this system is you have dozens to hundreds of players attacking this one target, obscuring it in spell particle effects, making it near impossible to see the visual cues.
So this is what you’ve managed to do to your player base. You have trained them through experience, to expect to just stand at range or risk melee, , dps, and then get one shot by an attack they couldn’t see coming, and then waypoint back and run all the way back, until the boss is dead. You’ve created graveyard zergs. Now in dungeons this isn’t as much of an issue for 2 reasons, one you can’t graveyard zerg, and 2, there’s only 5 players so the particle effects aren’t as big of an issue.
The astounding fact of all this, is that you are well aware that particle effects are an issue in the gameplay, and have tried to remedy it not only by trying to “cull” particle effects but more commonly you try and make the bosses bigger (Aetherblade captains anyone? They’re like 3 times the size of anyone else), but that doesn’t cut it when the particle effects scale to the model size!
Why are you so afraid to add enemy cast bars? They were in GW1 and were a great help, I especially enjoyed them when I played interrupt based mesmers and rangers. Enemy cast bars would instantly solve this charlie foxtrot of particle effects problem by giving players another cue to work with, it might also make interrupting more viable, that is, if you found a way to make defiant not completely prohibitive towards interrupt playstyles.
So, I hope you can address this post, most notably the fact that enemy cast bars would improve quality of life for a lot of people and solve a lot of the issues with particle effect clutter, but also in the long term scheme of things, depth of the combat system needs to be addressed someday, this playstyle of dodge and dps really needs something else.
+1
Yep. I concur with the complaints here.
Rangers are infinitely more effective in melee, but when I’m in open world situations with any more than 10 people, you’ll NEVER see me in there.
Why? Because I can’t see what the hell is going on in that morass of spell effects and particle displays.
custom and resizable UI pls
that huge and unnecessary portrait and enemy hp bar when selected is annoying as hell, it covers up the enemy if large enough or flying
And interferes with ground targeted skills (as do any other opaque UI element).
Makes life hell for any grenade engineer, staff necro or any other build that rely on GT skills.
One of the projects we’re working on in preparing the game to release in new regions is trying to make the game easier to learn. While a lot of that work is in the area of better tutorials, better level up messaging guides, and unique tutorials for specific mechanics we’re also evaluating UI complexity (and system complexity) to try and make information easier to see/consume.
Cleaning up the existing UI systems to make them less cluttered, more-stream lined, and better unified is part of this project and absolutely something you’ll see in the west as well, likely around or possibly even before we release the game in our next major world region.
And to get ahead of the next question: No, we have no solid dates! We’re still in beta in China and are testing and developing all of these new systems to make the game is easier to learn. We haven’t announced timelines for development any other major regions other than being in Beta in China at this time.
Something I am legitimately curious about is why the lack of interface customization, isn’t the best way for everyone here is to allow customization of the UI placement / visibility per player, ala Guild Wars 1?
Supposedly they got quite a few support tickets because someone had managed to hide a vital piece of UI in GW1, and thought the game had bugged out on them.
I think the fx are beautiful when you’re playing solo – the trouble is, they have the same “impressionistic” feel as all the graphics in the game, which, again, is beautiful in and of itself – it has a painterly look. But that “painterly” look makes the ability fx a bit fuzzy.
The whole of PVE seems to be designed around emotional impressions over gameplay engineering, as if the arts department was allowed to run riot while the engineers were busy getting SPVP working.
There is a lot of good art in the game, shame you rarely get to see any of it because of spell effects. It’s like someone went into the art gallery and chucked pots of paint all over the masterpieces; and then don’t see a problem when people point it out. The LOD checkbox would be the same as giving you a small ball of cotton wool to wipe some of the paint off.
Being downed or killed by something you didn’t even see coming, and thus had no chance of avoiding in the first place, is probably the worst thing that could happen in any game. Not just MMOs, not just video games, just games in general. Sadly it happens a lot in GW2.
No surprise that they still haven’t replied to the real issue in this thread.
Probably too busy writing up a PR essay to shove down our throats.
How about another “things to come” post to hype and disappoint. 10/10
Why are you so afraid to add enemy cast bars? They were in GW1 and were a great help, I especially enjoyed them when I played interrupt based mesmers and rangers. Enemy cast bars would instantly solve this charlie foxtrot of particle effects problem by giving players another cue to work with, it might also make interrupting more viable, that is, if you found a way to make defiant not completely prohibitive towards interrupt playstyles.
So, I hope you can address this post, most notably the fact that enemy cast bars would improve quality of life for a lot of people and solve a lot of the issues with particle effect clutter, but also in the long term scheme of things, depth of the combat system needs to be addressed someday, this playstyle of dodge and dps really needs something else.
Good post, particularly this part. It wouldn’t be as bad it there were more consistency in use of the visual cues already in the game. Why do some mob AoE attacks give a red circle indicator while others don’t? During large raids with tons of particle effects and bodies flying around I can usually at least keep my eyes glued to the floor and notice when the red appears (and we’ll ignore that this goes against Anet’s whole ‘watch the action’ philosophy), but there are lots of AoEs (especially in melee range) that never give the red indicator, and instead rely on you watching the mob. Which is fine solo or with very small groups, but once you get a lot of people around you just can’t see what the mobs are doing.
Why doesn’t every charged attack give an indicator showing where the attack is going/targetting? And if Anet doesn’t want to add casting “bars” because players would be watching the bars and not other parts of the screen, why not just use the red AoE indicators the game already has? The Secret World, for example, does this and it works beautifully, a white outline appears on the ground showing where the mob’s affect will target, then lines radiate from the center of the outline to the edges. This acts as the game’s “cast bar,” once the lines reach the edge the mob’s ability will go off. Two important bits of information (when and where) are being conveyed with one visual indicator. Then all you need to do is reduce the visual clutter enough so that the red circles can be seen clearly.
This reminds me of first time doing Teq after the update. all players were standing where Teq is and I thought they were buffing so I went close to them and used my skills to help with buffing and bam I hit something as I saw damage numbers the dragon was there but could not be seen.
Totalbiscuit advice to Arenanet in beta was to reduce the dam thing.
(edited by Assyrian.4827)
You must not have played World of Warcraft
Omg! Are u kidding me? How could u possibly play with all that stuff on ur screen? OMG lol never seen anything like it.
that’s some low resolution screenshot (otherwise the icons would look much smaller) and in wow you don’t need to see too much of the bosses: the addons let you know what to do and when, all the time. I know, I spent most of the time watching when to refresh my dots than anything else.
Also not to mention the impact the particle effect have on fps. Load up fraps and go back and look at it sometime. I dare say the particle effects are the most detrimental issue to performance in the game. For example I was just farming champs with about 3 guild mates and 4-6 other people. I was as holding a steady 90 fps (dunno about my friends baseline fps )and for ALL 3 of the people in my guild we were dropping 10-15 fps when the mob spawned and casting started. This was with less than 10 people on the screen….
I completely agree on the particle-effect-overload.
I’d really love to hear an answer to that and not something about a different topic…
OP complains about clutter due to particle effects.
ANet replies about clutter due to UI.
:D
~
Dear Devs: The UI is fine (although if you insist on improving it further, why not) but it is the particle effects that is the problem.
~ Whips ~ City Minigames ~ City Jumping Puzzles ~
We have to be able to edit particles.
And to mix up the UI. GW1 had that for the love of all that’s holy. Why can’t we have it now?
Every game has the ability to do that now, except GW2. Which is one reason why it’s so frustrating to play. Being able to change keybinds without being able to relocate the skills is a complete unintuitive mess.
This is one of the big dozen or so reasons why, to me, GW2 programming feels cheap and lazy.
snip
Excellent post. You and Kraag have summarized precisely what one of the biggest problems in the game’s combat is:
- Particle effects scale with the size of an enemy
- UI is often in the way, and cannot be moved
- Poor visual cues for insta-kill attacks
- Lack of cast bars
And I would like to add to that list, the fact that your target is automatically deselected when you look the other way. This is a huge problem in the game’s combat. There are several boss encounters that force you to look away from the boss, to see where you are running, and then the target is deselected. Because of this, players go through the game of trying to find the boss in all the clutter, over and over again.
I would suggest the following:
- Turn that auto deselect off, it’s a dumb feature
- When we target the closest enemy, TARGET THE CLOSEST ENEMY! Not the one I’m looking at, not the highest threat, not the one who has the most health. Target the closest one! How hard can that be?
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-On3Ya0_4Y)
OP complains about clutter due to particle effects.
ANet replies about clutter due to UI.
:D
~
Dear Devs: The UI is fine (although if you insist on improving it further, why not) but it is the particle effects that is the problem.
This sums it up, UI is pretty good for me, improvements are always nice. But partical effects are hurting the game.
screen shake is also awesome.
But what I love the most is the accidental click with ground target spell on live story/personal story/target head that cover half of a screen.
so no addressing on spell particle effect clutter at all?
The obscuring of target models by particle effects in this game are the worst I’ve seen. There’s a megadestroyer in there somewhere, you can sort of see his leg. This is with the option selected to make targets more visible.
Well, to be fair~ if a monster like this existed IRL and say everyone was throwing molotov kittentails (seriously?-.-), blasting flamethrowers and throwing bombs at it, there probably would be that much fire consuming the area and monster. Good thing fire doesn’t give off smoke in this game as it would IRL or nothing would be visible period.
The obscuring of target models by particle effects in this game are the worst I’ve seen. There’s a megadestroyer in there somewhere, you can sort of see his leg. This is with the option selected to make targets more visible.
Well, to be fair~ if a monster like this existed IRL and say everyone was throwing molotov kittentails (seriously?-.-), blasting flamethrowers and throwing bombs at it, there probably would be that much fire consuming the area and monster. Good thing fire doesn’t give off smoke in this game as it would IRL or nothing would be visible period.
This is not IRL. If it were, all those player characters would be killed by friendly fire.
snip
Excellent post. You and Kraag have summarized precisely what one of the biggest problems in the game’s combat is:
- Particle effects scale with the size of an enemy
- UI is often in the way, and cannot be moved
- Poor visual cues for insta-kill attacks
- Lack of cast bars
And I would like to add to that list, the fact that your target is automatically deselected when you look the other way. This is a huge problem in the game’s combat. There are several boss encounters that force you to look away from the boss, to see where you are running, and then the target is deselected. Because of this, players go through the game of trying to find the boss in all the clutter, over and over again.
I would suggest the following:
- Turn that auto deselect off, it’s a dumb feature
- When we target the closest enemy, TARGET THE CLOSEST ENEMY! Not the one I’m looking at, not the highest threat, not the one who has the most health. Target the closest one! How hard can that be?
Sounds like you may have “Promote Skill Target” turned off. It makes targets selected by other than mouse/next/nearest drop once they go out of camera view (or nearly so).
The obscuring of target models by particle effects in this game are the worst I’ve seen. There’s a megadestroyer in there somewhere, you can sort of see his leg. This is with the option selected to make targets more visible.
Well, to be fair~ if a monster like this existed IRL and say everyone was throwing molotov kittentails (seriously?-.-), blasting flamethrowers and throwing bombs at it, there probably would be that much fire consuming the area and monster. Good thing fire doesn’t give off smoke in this game as it would IRL or nothing would be visible period.
This is not IRL. If it were, all those player characters would be killed by friendly fire.
Not if it was magical friendly fire.
I can’t see through the clutter because the game is too laggy in WvW. Only the players care about WvW performance.
The obscuring of target models by particle effects in this game are the worst I’ve seen. There’s a megadestroyer in there somewhere, you can sort of see his leg. This is with the option selected to make targets more visible.
I could not agree more, and that photo you posted is a prime example. We’re expected to Dodge when a boss is about to do something, but how can you know when to dodge if you can’t see what he’s doing?
The obscuring of target models by particle effects in this game are the worst I’ve seen. There’s a megadestroyer in there somewhere, you can sort of see his leg. This is with the option selected to make targets more visible.
Well, to be fair~ if a monster like this existed IRL and say everyone was throwing molotov kittentails (seriously?-.-), blasting flamethrowers and throwing bombs at it, there probably would be that much fire consuming the area and monster. Good thing fire doesn’t give off smoke in this game as it would IRL or nothing would be visible period.
This is not IRL. If it were, all those player characters would be killed by friendly fire.
Not if it was magical friendly fire.
“Because magic” is a lame excuse in fantasy, the last resort of the desperate writer. Trying to apply that to an IRL comparison is even worse. 0/10.
You must not have played World of Warcraft
As much as I loathe saying anything positive about that game these days, you cannot compare GW2 to WoW in this matter, not even remotely. During the seven years I played WoW, I had moments with new encounters where I felt overwhelmed, yes, and deaths due to bad positioning, slow reactions or distraction — but never, not once, a death that came from the screen being too cluttered with flashy BS to even see my target, nevermind discern which way it was facing, whom it was targeting or what one-shot ability it was winding up. In GW2, that happens all the bloody time.
What GW2 is doing wrong compared to WoW, IMO:
1) Barely visible enemy AoE indicators. A thin red line on the ground can be quite hard to see if even one person drops their own AoE in the same area, and that’s not even taking color blindness into consideration.
2) No target castbar.
3) No target-of-target indicator.
4) No chat warnings. “Onyxia takes a deep breath”, anyone?
Not all of these were in the game from the start, but the end result was that even with a raid full of people doing their thing all around me, drowning in adds and/or unable to see more than the toes of whatever I was tanking, I always had at least one guaranteed way to tell what was happening.
Plus, the UI there is so much more customizable and moddable. I don’t ever want to play a game again that requires and assumes the use of a DBM-like mod, but that has nothing to do with the abovementioned game features.
I’d prefer not to have cast bars added to the game for one big reason. As it is we can’t usually see the bosses head/shoulders unless we’re waaaaay back at edge of range. If we had to watch a cast bar we’d need to turn our camera nearly straight up to see it, then we’d miss the fields our friends are dropping, or mobs coming up behind, or animations to signal a big attack.
That is definitely not what I’m asking for, and I daresay it’s not what others want either. What I’d like to see is a castbar below my target’s portrait. Sticking it over the head of the in-game model would solve nothing at all, you’re right about that, both because of the size/distance issue and because of the flashy mess of spell effects that obscure everything anyway. (Hell, I can’t see MY castbar as it is. Or my mouse pointer, as others have said.)
Hey Colin,
I would like to see Anet address the insane particle effects.
I can never anticipate when to dodge the statue of dwayna attacks because of this. You can barely make out the enemy model. Particle effects are nice and all, but in gw2 they are overly done. I don’t think I’ve ever seen this issue in any mmorpg I’ve played.
Yeah we’ve done a number of steps already this year to improve it, but we have a long ways to go to get it cleaned up to the point we’re happy with. It’s something we’re continuing to work on for sure, but we’re focusing way more on game performance currently before we turn back to the FX side.
With all due respect, what part of excessive particle spam is NOT effecting my game performance. I guess someone will have to explain that to me.
This was brought up in Beta and TBH, since every single item in game seems to “need” to come with even more effects, it has gotten far worse.
(edited by Teofa Tsavo.9863)
You’ve done a number of steps to improve it, but the improvement is so little that it’s hardly an improvement.
And the fact that people have been asking for a real solution to the problem since Beta means that it’s pretty high up people’s priority lists, so it should be high on yours too.
I’ve come to the point where I simply don’t use my Virtue of Justice on some bosses in the game anymore (like Mossman) because that skills particle effects are so ridiculous that sometimes I even miss tells on Lupicus because of it.
“People wanting content where Berserker sucks should remember that it needs be so hard
that they will cry, not just a river, but a huge ocean.” – Wethospu
Hey Colin,
I would like to see Anet address the insane particle effects.
I can never anticipate when to dodge the statue of dwayna attacks because of this. You can barely make out the enemy model. Particle effects are nice and all, but in gw2 they are overly done. I don’t think I’ve ever seen this issue in any mmorpg I’ve played.
Yeah we’ve done a number of steps already this year to improve it, but we have a long ways to go to get it cleaned up to the point we’re happy with. It’s something we’re continuing to work on for sure, but we’re focusing way more on game performance currently before we turn back to the FX side.
Please consider for WvW to change the color of the effects based on your server color.
And i’m talking about changing the whole effects (from well to marks to feedback) to red blue and green.
At the moment the red circle is pretty invisible with the spam of effects, and this could really change things…
Could be optional.
Hey Colin,
I would like to see Anet address the insane particle effects.
I can never anticipate when to dodge the statue of dwayna attacks because of this. You can barely make out the enemy model. Particle effects are nice and all, but in gw2 they are overly done. I don’t think I’ve ever seen this issue in any mmorpg I’ve played.
Yeah we’ve done a number of steps already this year to improve it, but we have a long ways to go to get it cleaned up to the point we’re happy with. It’s something we’re continuing to work on for sure, but we’re focusing way more on game performance currently before we turn back to the FX side.
Could there be an option to only see my particle effects and disable other players effects? Same way that I can turn off other peoples armors by choosing “best performance”
You’ve done a number of steps to improve it, but the improvement is so little that it’s hardly an improvement.
And the fact that people have been asking for a real solution to the problem since Beta means that it’s pretty high up people’s priority lists, so it should be high on yours too.
I’ve come to the point where I simply don’t use my Virtue of Justice on some bosses in the game anymore (like Mossman) because that skills particle effects are so ridiculous that sometimes I even miss tells on Lupicus because of it.
Worst offenders are, to me, spells that effect no one but me. I don’t need the “amg looks at me” heal effect of my ele transmitted to anyone.. they don’t need to see it, I don’t need to. The animation is more than enough tbh. I don’t need the silly bubbles of my rage signet telegraphed to anyone,.. including me. What is the point of it. All of this junk adds up. Sword blurs, flying unicorns, footprints. why? So much could be turned off, toned down, subdued client side. Just turning off UI particles could help framerate. I don’t need red tinged shooter borders. I don’t need blue flames. So darn much I do not need, do not appreciate, do not want.. and have 0 choice in the matter.
(edited by Teofa Tsavo.9863)
As a new player I have a lot of difficulty seeing the champion that is being mobbed, I hate to use autotarget but have no other options. Marvel Heroes has a feature that reduces the FX from other players to make the boss more visible. Please implement one.
All other issues aside with this game aside…does it just seem to be getting more and more screen cluttered? I know I’m getting old but after having recently been in some other mmo betas I came back to gw2 and was amazed at how messy it felt. I don’t feel like I can ever see whats going on in many circumstances due to the akward ui, spell graphics, bad camera, and just overall clutter. I see people on here talking about looking for cast animations and things like that but I don’t reasonably understand how you can see i minute gesture through all the rest of the mess. Then with the terrible optimization it just seems to make the issues all the worse. Can other people really see these things?
I would love for Anet to add a “Particle density” slider like I have seen in other MMO’s.
Particle density is my only request. I don’t think this is a very serious issue, but it’s one that could be addressed. Legendaries really shouldn’t be changed, but I’d like to see a stream of the effect rather than weird footprint blots on the map.
More disturbing than particle effects are the numbers, especially the crits. I´d appreciate it if these could be turned off.
More disturbing than particle effects are the numbers, especially the crits. I´d appreciate it if these could be turned off.
Yes, this^^. This is especially hurtful in PvP, when you’re trying to figure out what your pint-sized opponent is actually doing.
Hey Colin,
I would like to see Anet address the insane particle effects.
I can never anticipate when to dodge the statue of dwayna attacks because of this. You can barely make out the enemy model. Particle effects are nice and all, but in gw2 they are overly done. I don’t think I’ve ever seen this issue in any mmorpg I’ve played.
Yeah we’ve done a number of steps already this year to improve it, but we have a long ways to go to get it cleaned up to the point we’re happy with. It’s something we’re continuing to work on for sure, but we’re focusing way more on game performance currently before we turn back to the FX side.
If I had the option I would make combo fields and the AoE red rings more visable, set other players spells to 50%, other players avatars (legendaries, radiant skins etc.) to 75% and my personal spells and avatar to 85%~90%. Just as a start.
Sliders for each of these would be fantastic. Even if they only adjusted the opacity.
The ‘number of steps already done this year’ were infintesimal. If you hadn’t specifically said that ‘things’ were done, I never would have known.
If it matters at all I would certainly be greatly appreciative if this moved up in priority.
Thanks.
Yeah we’ve done a number of steps already this year to improve it, but we have a long ways to go to get it cleaned up to the point we’re happy with. It’s something we’re continuing to work on for sure, but we’re focusing way more on game performance currently before we turn back to the FX side.
I’m surprised that they aren’t to some extent linked, with way less effects going on that surely has to improve performance especially in manic events?
Please allow us to move the minimap to the left of the map (so I can have chat and minimap to the left). I am blind on the right and it makes navigating very difficult.
I don’t know how much more I have to ask. T_T The UI was modular in GW1 and that made it one of the most accessible games that I’ve played. All I’m asking for is to move the minimap to the opposite corner.
Quoting because it deserves to be read. The ability to customise game UIs is critical.
It’s odd because you can move the mini map and the chat to the top of the screen, but not to the other side, and resize them
With all due respect, what part of excessive particle spam is NOT effecting my game performance. I guess someone will have to explain that to me..
Apparently I need to be more clear…By performance I’m talking about the work we’re doing to improve server lag when large #‘s of players come together we’ve been updating on lately that has been a major discussion topic lately.
Obviously graphical performance is a type of performance as well, my point is it’s not the part we’re currently as focused on, but are also well aware of and want to improve.
Will we see client side performance improvement? I have a Amd 8350-FX, I seen absolutely no fps difference between my Radeon 6970 and Radeon R9 280×.
Windows 10
Will we see client side performance improvement? I have a Amd 8350-FX, I seen absolutely no fps difference between my Radeon 6970 and Radeon R9 280×.
This is mainly due to graphics being CPU rendered and not GPU, sadly.
Mud Bone – Sylvari Ranger
the ui is fine. the camera angle on the other hand… can we go back to first person if we’re at extreme close range? you know like how it is in gw1
the ui is fine. the camera angle on the other hand… can we go back to first person if we’re at extreme close range? you know like how it is in gw1
What? You mean actually taking some of the best from GW1 and putting it in GW2 as the manifesto proclaimed? Not gonna happen.
Mud Bone – Sylvari Ranger
Hey Colin,
I would like to see Anet address the insane particle effects.
I can never anticipate when to dodge the statue of dwayna attacks because of this. You can barely make out the enemy model. Particle effects are nice and all, but in gw2 they are overly done. I don’t think I’ve ever seen this issue in any mmorpg I’ve played.
Yeah we’ve done a number of steps already this year to improve it, but we have a long ways to go to get it cleaned up to the point we’re happy with. It’s something we’re continuing to work on for sure, but we’re focusing way more on game performance currently before we turn back to the FX side.
The only performance I’d like to see is the game to stop crashing during zergs (out of memory errors), I don’t have the problem personally but some of my friends get a game crash cause of this and as far as I can see, it has never been fixed.