alternate ability appearances

jamesterj14

This is something i've seen tossed around a lot and just wondered if anyone else felt the same and how it could (in theory) work. A way of changing certain abilities appearances to be more "thematic" with the character someone is playing, like making certain fire abilities have blue "deadric" fire instead of usual red/yellow/whatever colour fire is .

Radiance

Yes although PVPeeps will give you a whole slew of reasons why not...

jamesterj14

Radiance wrote: »

Yes although PVPeeps will give you a whole slew of reasons why not...

yeah, i imagine it would need to be PVE only as otherwise it would make it nearly impossible for PVP to see what people have used

mayasunrising

It could be kinda fun.

Radiance wrote: »

Yes although PVPeeps will give you a whole slew of reasons why not...

In Cyro they really need to be able to identify effects so i can understand why pvpers (myself included) would be against something like this. But they could just treat the custom visuals like momentos. They would just be disabled and the vanilla effects would fire.

SshadowSscale

Another option is to change the visuel effect only for the person using it... So for example lets say the warden besr gets a wolf skin... For the person using it it will apear as a wolf but for other people it will still be a bear

Iccotak

SshadowSscale wrote: »

Another option is to change the visuel effect only for the person using it... So for example lets say the warden besr gets a wolf skin... For the person using it it will apear as a wolf but for other people it will still be a bear

that'd be a fine solution for PvP

In PvE I would like to see other people's visual choices

noblecron

I would love something like that. A few friends of mine would probably roll a templar just to say their spear was a red, green or blue lightsaber

LinearParadox

SshadowSscale wrote: »

Another option is to change the visuel effect only for the person using it... So for example lets say the warden besr gets a wolf skin... For the person using it it will apear as a wolf but for other people it will still be a bear

Exactly what I was going to say. Could make it client-side even, to reduce server load.

Would be a neat option since I like to "theme" my characters around elements or color schemes etc.

In PvP it would create issues sadly. As much as I'd like to see more diversity, a lot of PvP is about counterplay and strategic use of skills and resources, and anything that interferes with that, or makes skills/dangers harder to see or identify would be a problem. There have already been issues in the past where certain costumes interfered with animations playing properly and such, giving unfair advantage since their opponent couldn't see things like heavy attacks or Dizzy Swing ramping up, or a potentially bashable cast-time skill being used, etc.
I could easily see those similarly inclined choosing black, or whatever color made their ground-placed effects hardest to see, or toning skills to look like another class's colors just to gain that split-second edge of confusion in their opponent's brain

MistyRonin

SshadowSscale wrote: »

Another option is to change the visuel effect only for the person using it... So for example lets say the warden besr gets a wolf skin... For the person using it it will apear as a wolf but for other people it will still be a bear

I agree completely.

Although I understand the PvP concerns, the solution is simple, any customization would not be seen by other players while in PvP areas.