Guild Wars 2

Mil.3562:

About the fireball visual nerf (absent for about two years and still hearing Anet is nerfing this, nerfing that…), the solution is simple :

Just rename the skill to ’ fire ping pong ball ’.

There’s literally video options to turn down spell effects, why exactly is this FORCED onto us?

I don’t get it, give me my fireball and auras back if my computer can handle it.

Swiggity Swooty, I’m coming for the bumpity bump bump. Seriously, give me my old fireball back. Less peanuts more fireball

Shiyo.3578:

There’s literally video options to turn down spell effects, why exactly is this FORCED onto us?

I don’t get it, give me my fireball and auras back if my computer can handle it.

Because they need to save visuals for things like legendary weapon effects, armor effects (batwings, snow, bees, chak egg stuff) random stuff dropping off various purchasable gliders, pvp tags view-able out in open world content, etc. Makes perfect sense.

Arkanthor.2307:

Today´s guild chat had a special effect dev as a guest but they only hyped the -coming soon- first raid boss and talked nothing about this issue. Sad .

Interesting that they picked one of the seven deadly sins, Sloth.

Hirosama Nadasaki.6792:

Zoltar MacRoth.7146:

Siobhan.5273:

Zoltar MacRoth.7146:

This debacle and the mention of skins in other posts got me thinking about the possibility of skill skins. Imagine if you could apply a skin to your fireball..

No, please, no. They’ll gut our graphics and then charge us to get something decent back..

I had that thought as I was writing it.. but I think (or hope) that community pressure would protect against that kind of blatant money grubbing. It seems a shame not to mention ideas for fear of them being misused.

Community pressure? This thread has 900 posts in it divided in 18 pages, if this ain’t community pressure I don’t know what is, and yet there is absolutely no response from Anet.

It is community pressure but I think now it’s a case of force without leverage. There’s a lot of force being applied but where it’s applied isn’t having much effect, as opposed to that recent example with the Compact option where a much lesser force (one player’s opinion) was inadvertently applied to exactly the right spot to achieve an effect, which was essentially due to the medium it happened in.

This thread is about some visual nerfs that, while annoying, still only affect a subset of the player base and the effect is within some realm of “acceptable damage” to anet. By comparison, a wholesale gutting of graphics and making players buy them back would (just my opinion) affect sufficiently more players and cause enough uproar to exceed the level of acceptability. But hopefully we’ll never be in a situation to test that theory.

The Greyhawk.9107:

I say, that whenever we see a red tag ingame, we let them know our displeasure. Make it so no Anet employee can play their own game without hearing about how angry we all are. Don’t do or say anything that can get you suspended or banned, but let them know how furious you are. I also encourage that you tell them you won’t spend another dime on this game until we get our visuals back.

I like it. I saw a red tag with all the latest bat-shoulder and bee-aura “Noise” the other day. It’s a shame that they can remove visual effects that were used to sell copies of the game and yet add all kinds of knick-knacks with high price tags on materials designed as a “gold sink”.

Since Anet still has not done what needs to be done, here is a post to let them know.

Bump this thread is you would like a on/off button or slide bar to disable/lower the graphics attack animations of other players.

Yes, I know they have reduced some spell animations/changed them but that has not been what the community is asking for.

So to start.

BUMP!

still no red tag on this? sigh ):

There is a problem with many skills/attacks/effects becoming non-visible once particle efefcts get turned down. Currently for example in any larger fight DH bow 5 creates invisible walls that block your movement. I think it is pretty difficult to turn down only “useless” effects and keep meaningful effects always on. If you get rid of everything your probably end up in most battles thinking “I am taking damage but I have no idea why” and “I am dead but I don’t know who killed me”.

Also I am fairly sure there was large part of “community” who have invested in high end PCs asking for more effects.

FogLeg.9354:

If you get rid of everything your probably end up in most battles thinking “I am taking damage but I have no idea why” and “I am dead but I don’t know who killed me”.

Relax, this is this is already a fact.

They need to do what nearly every other game has done. Add a box that lets you turn off the effects of other players (which affects particle effects of friendly players). You could leave yours on, still see everything coming at you (enemy effects are still visible) and everything you do, but it would remove the graphic blur that is most boss fights in this game.

FogLeg.9354: What I am trying to get them to lower/turn off is the end of the animation on players. Like Ubi.4136 said, there are lots of games out there that,for example, have 2 sliders that allow you to lower both yours and other players spell animation.

Some pics about the problem.

-https://dviw3bl0enbyw.cloudfront.net/uploads/forum_attachment/file/203888/Gw2_2015_09_06_14_55_56_524.jpg
-https://dviw3bl0enbyw.cloudfront.net/uploads/forum_attachment/file/203875/gw133.jpg
-https://dviw3bl0enbyw.cloudfront.net/uploads/forum_attachment/file/203874/gw031.jpg
-https://dviw3bl0enbyw.cloudfront.net/uploads/forum_attachment/file/203871/gw391.jpg
-https://dviw3bl0enbyw.cloudfront.net/uploads/forum_attachment/file/203856/gw263.jpg

The point is the game required you to manually dodge stuff you see, but you can’t do that.

What a lovely pictures

Yeah, I am still not sure they CAN reduce this effect overload without also impacting the fights. All the dev posts describing troubles with animation frames at 0.3 sec accuracy make me suspect GW2 is not just any other game where you turn effects on and off.

Sorry, I have trouble explaining this properly.

Been complained about a lot, ANet don’t care. I have no idea what most of the bosses in this game look like, just select and watch the red bar.

And some people think GW2 has ground breaking graphics. It may have, but what use are they when the scribble all over the screen? Useless.

Maybe it’s my insanity talking but I wonder if we could buy a response on the gem store?

Zoltar MacRoth.7146:

Maybe it’s my insanity talking but I wonder if we could buy a response on the gem store?

Buy a response? KITTEN that kitten.

The Greyhawk.9107:

Zoltar MacRoth.7146:

Maybe it’s my insanity talking but I wonder if we could buy a response on the gem store?

Buy a response? KITTEN that kitten.

heh, Zoltar was kidding ( I feel it was said in jest and more just desperate plea for a response to this thread), but the filter on this forum does illicit some funny thoughts on the response (meant to lighten things up!):

Just wanted to pass along an update from Colin, which, yet again, can be found only on Reddit:

Just wanted to quickly pass along we asked the skills team to hold off on making any more FX changes until a system was in place to allow people to toggle them on/off as a selection. They’ve been continuing to work on the project of making combat less visually noisy, while also ensuring there will be options for players to pick from.
More info on this with the spring update but I did want to say you’ll see the old FX restored soon along with some visibility options for those who want to use them

And, as I mentioned there as well, it’s nice that they listened, but the speed at which they responded was unsatisfactory to say the least. On the other hand, we have a relatively well-defined ETA, which was probably what he wanted to give us before saying anything at all.

So, confirmed! The old fireball, mesmer wells etc are coming back this Spring!

Andulias.9516:

Just wanted to pass along an update from Colin, which, yet again, can be found only on Reddit:

Just wanted to quickly pass along we asked the skills team to hold off on making any more FX changes until a system was in place to allow people to toggle them on/off as a selection. They’ve been continuing to work on the project of making combat less visually noisy, while also ensuring there will be options for players to pick from.
More info on this with the spring update but I did want to say you’ll see the old FX restored soon along with some visibility options for those who want to use them

And, as I mentioned there as well, it’s nice that they listened, but the speed at which they responded was unsatisfactory to say the least. On the other hand, we have a relatively well-defined ETA, which was probably what he wanted to give us before saying anything at all.

So, confirmed! The old fireball, mesmer wells etc are coming back this Spring!

Thanks for sharing this! I really hope they keep their word on this, and that every visual will be restored to its former glory, not just fireball and aura’s

Erik the Dauntless.4063:

Andulias.9516:

Just wanted to pass along an update from Colin, which, yet again, can be found only on Reddit:

Just wanted to quickly pass along we asked the skills team to hold off on making any more FX changes until a system was in place to allow people to toggle them on/off as a selection. They’ve been continuing to work on the project of making combat less visually noisy, while also ensuring there will be options for players to pick from.
More info on this with the spring update but I did want to say you’ll see the old FX restored soon along with some visibility options for those who want to use them

And, as I mentioned there as well, it’s nice that they listened, but the speed at which they responded was unsatisfactory to say the least. On the other hand, we have a relatively well-defined ETA, which was probably what he wanted to give us before saying anything at all.

So, confirmed! The old fireball, mesmer wells etc are coming back this Spring!

Thanks for sharing this! I really hope they keep their word on this, and that every visual will be restored to its former glory, not just fireball and aura’s

Yep, I’m grateful that they listened. Here’s hoping we get Overload Air et al restored to their former graphical glory, and not just Fireball.

Andulias.9516:

Just wanted to pass along an update from Colin, which, yet again, can be found only on Reddit:

Just wanted to quickly pass along we asked the skills team to hold off on making any more FX changes until a system was in place to allow people to toggle them on/off as a selection. They’ve been continuing to work on the project of making combat less visually noisy, while also ensuring there will be options for players to pick from.
More info on this with the spring update but I did want to say you’ll see the old FX restored soon along with some visibility options for those who want to use them

And, as I mentioned there as well, it’s nice that they listened, but the speed at which they responded was unsatisfactory to say the least. On the other hand, we have a relatively well-defined ETA, which was probably what he wanted to give us before saying anything at all.

So, confirmed! The old fireball, mesmer wells etc are coming back this Spring!

VICTOOOOOORYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Still a bit stingy that he kept this bad habit of posting things on reddit and not on their own forums, BUT YES! AND RIGHT BEFORE 1000 REPLIES TOO!

THANK YOU EVERYONE, THANK YOU!

That’s nice but I’d still criticize that Reddit is used to spread this info instead of their official forums in the thread that was asking for this specifically.

Yay Collin answered ^^. This raises my faith on them even if they responded on reddit instead of here.

(Dear fx team please remember chaos strom, null field and black powder please)

Siobhan.5273:

The Greyhawk.9107:

Zoltar MacRoth.7146:

Maybe it’s my insanity talking but I wonder if we could buy a response on the gem store?

Buy a response? KITTEN that kitten.

heh, Zoltar was kidding ( I feel it was said in jest and more just desperate plea for a response to this thread), but the filter on this forum does illicit some funny thoughts on the response (meant to lighten things up!):

Thank you for the kind words, Siobhan. Yes, it was a little black humour and a means to keep the thread visible. But hey, no need for that anymore, it seems. Coming soon: great balls of fire!

Zoltar MacRoth.7146:

Thank you for the kind words, Siobhan. Yes, it was a little black humour and a means to keep the thread visible. But hey, no need for that anymore, it seems. Coming soon: great balls of fire!

No problem.

Thank you for hearing us, Anet.

My Elementalist will soon feel like this:

• edit- Gave credit and “thanks” too soon. They only kinda heard us.

In regards to the latest reddit post (GRRRRRRR) by Colin…I’ll believe it when I see it. I’ve been burnt too many times….

I guess these changes show Anet’s focus and priorities .. they dumb down the effect of things like ‘fireball’ to the point of laughability and thne inflict utterly moronic effects such as the rainbow horseshoe prints of the My Little Pony bow.

Truly a victory of fluff over substance.

The Greyhawk.9107:

In regards to the latest reddit post (GRRRRRRR) by Colin…I’ll believe it when I see it. I’ve been burnt too many times….

If anyone at Anet is reading this: If you do not deliver on Colin’s words, you are going to get SOOO many refund requests, starting with me.

Wait, am I reading this right? Did ANet just promise to bring back our spells effects (i.e. fireball) this spring, with options to reduce visual clutter for those who need it??! If I’m reading this right, then WOO HOO! A big THANK YOU ANet!

Huzzah! I am back baby!!! :-) ~happy dance~

So of we can’t turn off some effects, maybe we can have something else.
Here are my suggestions:
1-Silhowette overlay of the mobs
Not so pretty to see but I would live with that. What I mean is that there could be a strong outline around the targeted enemy that is rendered over all the effects, so that you can still read what the movements of the enemy are in the blob of light that is created from the effects.
2- Skill activation bar under the healthbar like in gw1. Just for the Pve would be enough, Maybe Wvw too. It could help to have a more tactical combat based even more on what the enemy is doing.
3-Turn off all the skill effects or turn off every effects exept for your own
4- Similar to the 1st, option to render the characters on top of the effects.

Any other suggestion would be appreciated.

The recent news that the effects are coming back – and will be optional – makes me ..cautiously optimistic. It certainly seems to have placated this thread into silence.

And yet.. I can’t help feeling like this thread really deserves two things before it feels like there’s closure:

i) we need to see the proof of the pudding, so to speak. We need to see what the effects look like once they’re “restored” and we need to see what options are available. There have been no end of rational, useful ideas presented here. Will the visual options be comprehensive, or merely a check box that toggles between “original” and “nerfed” states? This will say a lot about whether real future-planning has gone into the visual effects system, or if this is a knee-jerk reaction to placate the playerbase.

ii) there needs to be an official response here. It needs to be here. And it needs to confirm anet’s commitment to Colin’s statement: that any future visual adjustments will be provided as options via this new visual options system they’re developing, rather than globally enforced. There needs to be some indication that a lesson has been learned here, that progress has been made, that a thread like this will never ever have to happen again, at least on the subject of visual adjustments. There will always be areas of the game where developers and players butt heads, have lengthy discussions and come to some middle-ground. The game will continue to evolve and there will be hiccups. That’s normal. But let it not be on this one subject. Let this particular subject be concluded here. Let this be an achievement we’ve all reached after a long journey. That would be closure.

Zoltar MacRoth.7146:

The recent news that the effects are coming back – and will be optional – makes me ..cautiously optimistic. It certainly seems to have placated this thread into silence.

And yet.. I can’t help feeling like this thread really deserves two things before it feels like there’s closure:

i) we need to see the proof of the pudding, so to speak. We need to see what the effects look like once they’re “restored” and we need to see what options are available. There have been no end of rational, useful ideas presented here. Will the visual options be comprehensive, or merely a check box that toggles between “original” and “nerfed” states? This will say a lot about whether real future-planning has gone into the visual effects system, or if this is a knee-jerk reaction to placate the playerbase.

ii) there needs to be an official response here. It needs to be here. And it needs to confirm anet’s commitment to Colin’s statement: that any future visual adjustments will be provided as options via this new visual options system they’re developing, rather than globally enforced. There needs to be some indication that a lesson has been learned here, that progress has been made, that a thread like this will never ever have to happen again, at least on the subject of visual adjustments. There will always be areas of the game where developers and players butt heads, have lengthy discussions and come to some middle-ground. The game will continue to evolve and there will be hiccups. That’s normal. But let it not be on this one subject. Let this particular subject be concluded here. Let this be an achievement we’ve all reached after a long journey. That would be closure.

I agree wholeheartedly.

Bring back the Orbital Strikes! The Grenade Shrapnel! Wooooo!

I just read the AMA by Mike O’Brien and nobody asked about the visuals? or did i miss something? I think i’ll remain sceptic just like Zoltar, i’m hoping for an ETA from A-net

Erik the Dauntless.4063:

I just read the AMA by Mike O’Brien and nobody asked about the visuals? or did i miss something? I think i’ll remain sceptic just like Zoltar, i’m hoping for an ETA from A-net

Nobody asked about the Visual Nerfs…

Strange forum issues this morning. My reply to another post was put here. Maybe I just had a crazy moment. Deleted that one and replaced with what I was trying to say:

So Colin is apparently leaving? All the best to him …..but I can’t help wondering how this will affect the visual nerfs issue. Who’s going to ensure that what he said gets carried through?

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Colin-leaves-Anet-Merged

Zoltar MacRoth.7146 wrote

I sort of brought up the same concern in the Mike O’Brien AMA now on Reddit! thread Gaile Gray, ArenaNet Forum Communications Team Lead started a few days back after hearing news that Colin was leaving via the Reddit/GW2 AMA.

This “revert”, for lack of a better word, is fairly big news. Like others, I have to wonder why this wasn’t addressed via the AMA (regardless if the question was asked, it’s a hot topic so to speak) and of course, why can’t we get some word from someone here? Please don’t misunderstand, I am glad the changes are being reverted, and an option for the player to adjust their graphics on their own for such things being addressed (so has been said on Reddit), rather than being forced on those of us who don’t require it, or want it, but why are important issues seemingly so hard to communicate, even when the “cat is out of the bag” apparently?

So, we have this thread, Comments about Communications that has been opened for us to post communication concerns in. I posted there a few times, you, Zoltar, I believe you did too. I put a good amount of time into this post there as matter of fact… and then I just started using Reddit and found that as much as I want to post here, where it makes sense (this is the home forum of the game, right? I’d think this is where I should be posting), it takes so much, I guess, hand sitting, or typing, reading, re-typing responses so as to watch my “P’s” and "Q’s so I don’t get my hand smacked for voicing my displeasure over issues with the lack of communications (lets call a spade a spade, using the words “lack of communication”is very kind), or sometimes, the outright rude responses I’ve seen uttered to customers- gah, if, I could respond in kind here.. but.. I understand the rules, and I will play by them. It is disheartening that it feels unless people are cheering and screaming, “go AnEt!” their posts often don’t even merit a nod, let alone a response, or if they get one, it’s got a not-so-nice feel to it (like this one) a burn factor, if you will… and there are alot of those around.

If the forum software is so antiquated or broken that even the GW2 staff and president of ArenaNet prefers to do business (and that AMA was indeed business, make no mistakes about that) elsewhere, someone needs to seriously look into fixing more than just WvW or dungeons and fractals, because their home for communications either needs to be moved, or this place needs an overhaul. Either way, we need communication, and though we understand it can’t happen overnight, some of us have been waiting a long time, and we’d be happy to wait a little longer, so long as we have an understanding that there is an issue that needs resolving.

Siobhan, that’s an excellent post imo, and one that merrits a response i’d think… to bad thats just my opinion.
Also i understood that “AMA” was a Reddit specific thing?

Erik the Dauntless.4063:

Siobhan, that’s an excellent post imo, and one that merrits a response i’d think… to bad thats just my opinion.
Also i understood that “AMA” was a Reddit specific thing?

Thank you, Erik.

AMA is a “Reddit” thing however, it is usually because it is done for celebrity interviews and there is a moderation element involved in the Q&A process. Since that was pretty much a non-issue here, I’m not really sure why these forums couldn’t be utilized, other than their personal preference for Reddit as has been voiced before. Also, of further concern, is the fact that there was virtually no “heads up” about this Q&A:

Andulias.9516:

I would like to quickly point out my dissatisfaction with the way the AMA was announced. Why the flying kitten didn’t you guys announce it at least a day prior? We all have things going on in our lives and and many of us missed the entire thing because we didn’t even know it was going to happen at all! I get it was to a large extent as an answer to Colin’s departure, but that’s an excuse, not a valid reason.

Andulis is correct on this issue. We get plenty of notice about something like Creature Design Guild Chat, but not something of this caliber? That doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. The only people who really knew were the frequenters of the GW2 Reddit. For what it’s worth, for the crumbs of communication we do get, something like this was launcher notice worthy.

I love this game. I wouldn’t be here, or voice my concerns if I didn’t. I’d move on quietly, like I did with UO, LotRO, WoW, Rift, ESO.. but I’m here and I’m supporting the game with purchases via the gem shop and with the expansion, but there is a limit to my tolerance of being patient, especially when communication is so sparingly given.

We’d just like to know if we can rely on what Colin stated over on Reddit regarding the visuals being reverted- actually being implemented this spring now that he is leaving. It’s a really easy questions to answer in the scheme of things and goes a long way in the warm/fuzzy department!

Siobhan.5273:

So, we have this thread, Comments about Communications that has been opened for us to post communication concerns in.

Oh, I forgot about that thread. Looks like it hasn’t had muchactivity lately.

Maybe we should ask in that thread if colin’s statement will be upheld? We might be more likely to get an answer than here.

Zoltar MacRoth.7146:

Siobhan.5273:

So, we have this thread, Comments about Communications that has been opened for us to post communication concerns in.

Oh, I forgot about that thread. Looks like it hasn’t had muchactivity lately.

Maybe we should ask in that thread if colin’s statement will be upheld? We might be more likely to get an answer than here.

Asked about that, among other things.

We’ll see how it goes.

Just pointing out my discomfort at the lack of visual change reversals in the march 8 update. I really hope they uphold Colin’s words.

Hirosama Nadasaki.6792:

Just pointing out my discomfort at the lack of visual change reversals in the march 8 update. I really hope they uphold Colin’s words.

I’m a small hint worried that it will be forgotten with Colin’s leave but I think we’ll be fine.

The promise was that the news of it will show up on the april update, so it might not even be introduced on april yet.

Sold Out.7625:

Hirosama Nadasaki.6792:

Just pointing out my discomfort at the lack of visual change reversals in the march 8 update. I really hope they uphold Colin’s words.

I’m a small hint worried that it will be forgotten with Colin’s leave but I think we’ll be fine.

The promise was that the news of it will show up on the april update, so it might not even be introduced on april yet.

I don’t know jack kitten about developing/coding but that seems line an unnecessarily long time…

Hirosama Nadasaki.6792:

Sold Out.7625:

Hirosama Nadasaki.6792:

Just pointing out my discomfort at the lack of visual change reversals in the march 8 update. I really hope they uphold Colin’s words.

I’m a small hint worried that it will be forgotten with Colin’s leave but I think we’ll be fine.

The promise was that the news of it will show up on the april update, so it might not even be introduced on april yet.

I don’t know jack kitten about developing/coding but that seems line an unnecessarily long time…

It’s not even about coding. It seems an unnecessarily long time to wait for news – or a confirmation that despite Colin’s leaving it will be upheld.

I’ve heard little bugs fart before Colin. Just leave already.

Here’s hoping we hear something about it in the next AMA.

Anet, please give us back our auras! I heard that it is possible that we will get our auras back by April 2016. Any truth to this or just rumor?

Any news on who is replacing Colin and that person’s design ideologies?

Zephyron.7081:

Anet, please give us back our auras! I heard that it is possible that we will get our auras back by April 2016. Any truth to this or just rumor?

Any news on who is replacing Colin and that person’s design ideologies?

Yeah I’m with you on this. I’m getting annoyed with the visual nerfs =(

Still no word on the impact of Colin’s leave in the visual nerf matter. Anet I’m begging you, I truly, honestly can’t play my elementalist in this situation, it’s pathetically lackluster without the original effects!