Annoyingly Vulgar Spell Effects

[Twisted-Indoctrine]

Right so I'm playing around killing dudes and stuff and then the area transition nearby explodes into a disco hall of of strobelights and terrible DJ transition sounds at the end of which some dude with like eight bubbles, a halo, stone skin, a half transparent look, a tree growing out his arse, and a giant ball floating above his head right above a stream of symbols and I think to myself - where is any of this nonsensical crap mentioned in the spell descriptions?

Is there anyway we could maybe tone down the freaking spell effects? Or just make them not have so many persistant graphics like a bubble surrounding you at all times for example? While it doesn't effect my computers performance I can think of a few who it does, but as I said while my technical ends aren't bothered by it my immersion is a bit. I find it hard to believe that magic and the powers of the gods lack any subtlety at all and instead make you stand out like a neon technicolour fruit loop with surround sound.

Also I just think its damned ugly to look at half the time.

[Root]

It's their punishment for playing an easy class.

Mock them.

>=D

[caterpillar]

I would like to put in a word for the reduction of the spell efects too. I personally like the Dragon Age spells, they're sooo decent, so if it would be possible to do something like that I would welcome it. I especially dislike the odd "balls" surrounding the casters and some of the fire effects. Actually did anybody consider the possibility of setting on fire the woods, when walking through them in the dry summer? If I would be some poor villager or some crazy forest dweller I would be very unfriendly towards such a person . Aaaand in the middle of the town? Wheee .. I can see the crowds of furious citizens chasing such an individual in an effort to stone her to death!

Spells like stone skin look good. And now I spilled my coffee. It buuurns!

[Kajae]

I always sort of wondered why the spell effects weren't more remarked upon. After all, who's going to hang around a guy wearing more flashing lights than an Ecksmas tree? The inherent danger in having all that magic floating around is never spoken of.

[Root]

Actually did anybody consider the possibility of setting on fire the woods, when walking through them in the dry summer?

I did. And spent a while shouting at a wizard who suggested it.

Also, I'm actually for getting rid of some of the more obnoxious ones, particularly the Hamster Bubble ones. Though it's always nice to be able to mock the silly ones.

However, the Shield spell should cause the bubble effect, just for old times sakes.

[Dragor]

I'm all for this...the less persistant spell effects, the less people can tell in char that I am buffed out the ass :P :P the sword has two edges

[Fezzik]

True Drag, but it's also more likely that casters in your party might not bother buffing you because they think someone else already did it -- in a small party, it's easy to figure out who got buffed by what, but in a party of 4 or 5, without some effect, it'll be a lot harder. Now you may say, well, coordinate then! My response as a buffer would be "Screw it, I'll just buff myself and screw all of you, at least I'll live." -- keep in mind there are a lot of casters that do this already leaving those poor fighters all to their own devices and resources... if you think fighters complain now, just wait

I like hamster Bubbles... I doubt that it can be linked to spellcraft due to engine constraints, and if it could, I'd imagine that the coding would be terrible.

[caterpillar]

... it's easy to figure out who got buffed by what, but in a party of 4 or 5, without some effect, it'll be a lot harder ...

I do not think so, you have got the icons by the party bar, but I personally do not wish to fully remove these effects just make them more decent, like those used in Dragon Age.

[Quoth The Raven]

Psst, you can edit your files client side and no one will know, while you won't see them anymore.

:P

[Cornuto]

http://nwvault.ign.com/View.php?view...s.detail&id=12

Something like this?

... or this?

http://nwvault.ign.com/View.php?view...s.Detail&id=63

[caterpillar]

http://nwvault.ign.com/View.php?view...s.detail&id=12

Something like this?

... or this?

http://nwvault.ign.com/View.php?view...s.Detail&id=63

Yep, that looks much more better. When can I expect it that here?

[chupacabra]

The toned down buff effects are great--I used them from the time I got NWN2, and miss the less obtrusive buffs. Apart from a better aesthetic, they also make multiplayer less laggy for many players.

There as been more than one thread about this already. Firstly, client side overrides no longer work on Sundren, so sneaky overriding will not work. More importantly, GBX said it was a pain to implement server-wise because the new effects would have to be tweaked each time there was an update to avoid conflicting files (hope I remembered that part correctly--could not find it when I searched for that most recent thread). Before that, GBX had this well-thought post to a similar thread:

Part of the reason I am reluctant to remove ALL spell effects is,

1) People will get confused by the sudden DR and no effect with it and I'll get messages like "OMG WHY AM I NOT DAMAGING THIS GUY?!"

2) Without magic detecting spells that you would have in P&P, sometimes wizards HAVE to look at people and see what they have on them for RP.

3) Magic becomes boring without some effects. Auras of shadow and flame can be cool. Giant globes of flashing global grids is ugly and distracting.

Personally, I would love to have the globes removed or toned down. The 'skin' effects would be second most annoying on my list (the pnp descriptions of these spells do not come close to the ugly monotonous NWN2 effects). However, I understand that we as players tend to not agree on which effects to keep or whatever, and I'm afraid this will become a lot of discussion leading to a lot of work for our lovely dev team, who are already in it up to their conkers.

My 2 coppers. . .

[MadSeer]

Personally, I'd settle with the pnp descriptions. I don't want to know what the other dude has for protections. I want to be surprised when Raman will try to kill his first red wizard!

[TheBlankStare]

I always sort of wondered why the spell effects weren't more remarked upon. After all, who's going to hang around a guy wearing more flashing lights than an Ecksmas tree? The inherent danger in having all that magic floating around is never spoken of.

Well, Kajae, they are remarked upon (and mocked by some). I think most people just don't bother with it at all because it's so commonplace. Also, there isn't anything inherently any more dangerous about a fully buffed caster out for a stroll than there is about a fully armored warrior doing the same thing.

On to the OP stuff!

A better question for the staff though might be, "Does magic actually make all of those effects that we see on our screens?" The note from GBX seems to indicate that it does. I kind of hope so because without the visual effects there would really be no clue that they were there . . . which is just silly. At least we don't have to see the Protection from Evil effect. That one is absolutely the worst.

I don't really don't even want the staff spending time on trying to "fix" the effects at all. It would be a pretty big undertaking and honestly I'd rather have more content to enjoy and more DM presence rather than minor tweaks.

[Fezzik]

If I understand those two that Cornuto posted, I think you can stick them into your own files and not affect anything else (they're .sef files, and currently the only ones I have on my computer are actually in my Sundren folder (documents/nwn2/modules/sundren). I imagine though since it isn't custom content made by Sundren staff, you won't be seeing it as is folks.