Grim Focus Permaglow

Erickson9610 · November 7

Jaraal wrote: »

Erickson9610 wrote: »

Artem_gig wrote: »

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

Just wanted to follow up here. Thanks for the feedback so far. The Grim Focus glow is working as intended currently. However, we are monitoring player feedback on this. In feedback, please make sure to note why you like or dislike the glow, as we have seen player feedback regarding both.

Just add a skill style so that players can choose whether they want to play with a red glow or not.

If anything, you'll be able to change the color of the glow. There is no Skill Style which completely removes VFX.

But they have the coding already in place to make things invisible on demand (like Gloambound weapons).

I'd prefer if the glow only happened when you reached 5 stacks. That would serve the original purpose of telegraphing when that ability is ready to fire.

Telegraphs are important in PvP, which is why "invisible" Skill Styles shouldn't happen.

Jaraal · November 7

Erickson9610 wrote: »

Jaraal wrote: »

Erickson9610 wrote: »

Artem_gig wrote: »

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

Just wanted to follow up here. Thanks for the feedback so far. The Grim Focus glow is working as intended currently. However, we are monitoring player feedback on this. In feedback, please make sure to note why you like or dislike the glow, as we have seen player feedback regarding both.

Just add a skill style so that players can choose whether they want to play with a red glow or not.

If anything, you'll be able to change the color of the glow. There is no Skill Style which completely removes VFX.

But they have the coding already in place to make things invisible on demand (like Gloambound weapons).

I'd prefer if the glow only happened when you reached 5 stacks. That would serve the original purpose of telegraphing when that ability is ready to fire.

Telegraphs are important in PvP, which is why "invisible" Skill Styles shouldn't happen.

With the change they made, you're always at five stacks. They just no longer drop off like they used to, and like they modified crux to do. Crux originally were permanent, but ZOS put them on a timer because people complained about having to look at them all the time. They simply did the exact opposite with Grim Focus.

Who knows why? Only they do. But they say it's "working as intended."

Erickson9610 · November 7

Jaraal wrote: »

Erickson9610 wrote: »

Jaraal wrote: »

Erickson9610 wrote: »

Artem_gig wrote: »

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

Just wanted to follow up here. Thanks for the feedback so far. The Grim Focus glow is working as intended currently. However, we are monitoring player feedback on this. In feedback, please make sure to note why you like or dislike the glow, as we have seen player feedback regarding both.

Just add a skill style so that players can choose whether they want to play with a red glow or not.

If anything, you'll be able to change the color of the glow. There is no Skill Style which completely removes VFX.

But they have the coding already in place to make things invisible on demand (like Gloambound weapons).

I'd prefer if the glow only happened when you reached 5 stacks. That would serve the original purpose of telegraphing when that ability is ready to fire.

Telegraphs are important in PvP, which is why "invisible" Skill Styles shouldn't happen.

With the change they made, you're always at five stacks. They just no longer drop off like they used to, and like they modified crux to do. Crux originally were permanent, but ZOS put them on a timer because people complained about having to look at them all the time. They simply did the exact opposite with Grim Focus.

Who knows why? Only they do. But they say it's "working as intended."

It'd probably be better if the stacks themselves had a timer, like nearly every other stack-based ability or item set in the game has.

But the problem is that even if you fire Grim Focus (using all 5 of your stacks) your weapons still glow. How are you and your enemies supposed to know when you've got 5 stacks and are ready to fire it again if you don't look at your buffs or ability bar?

The stacks should fall off over time unless refreshed, and your weapons should only glow when you have 5 stacks and are ready to fire Grim Focus.

fizzylu · November 7

Erickson9610 wrote: »

Telegraphs are important in PvP, which is why "invisible" Skill Styles shouldn't happen.

While that logic makes sense it also doesn't really apply since in the case of the red permaglow, it only shows for the player and not those around them (at least last time I checked, that's how it was). Which makes Zenimax insisting on keeping it the way it is even more odd, imo.

And I don't see any other skills getting requests to have the option to entirely remove the VFX so.... yeah.

vsrs_au · November 7

It's not just the permanent glow, it's the fact that the glow doesn't even match the shape of some weapons. Players have paid money (real money, not game money) for some weapon packs, only to find that if they have skill points allocated to grim focus, then the glow is (a) permanent and (b) doesn't match the shape of that pack's weapon.

In other words, they paid money for a product that is NOT working as intended (despite the statement by ZOS earlier in this thread). This is not acceptable.

Erickson9610 · November 7

vsrs_au wrote: »

It's not just the permanent glow, it's the fact that the glow doesn't even match the shape of some weapons. Players have paid money (real money, not game money) for some weapon packs, only to find that if they have skill points allocated to grim focus, then the glow is (a) permanent and (b) doesn't match the shape of that pack's weapon.

In other words, they paid money for a product that is NOT working as intended (despite the statement by ZOS earlier in this thread). This is not acceptable.

The problem would be slightly mitigated if the glow was temporary. As in, you're likely to not notice the issue if the weapons would only glow when the ability is ready to fire and you actually fired the ability in your rotation/combo. Plus if the stacks fell off, then you could just not light or heavy attack for 4 seconds or so and the glow would go away.

But I agree, something ought to be done to make the glow match the shape of your equipped weapon styles better. I imagine the shape of the glow is meant to fit the generic weapon shape, generalizing to any equipped styles. Some exceptions to the standard shape were bound to happen, but maybe there's a clever way to better adjust the shape of the glow without making a bunch of edge cases for specific weapon styles.

Jaraal · November 7

Erickson9610 wrote: »

How are you and your enemies supposed to know when you've got 5 stacks and are ready to fire it again if you don't look at your buffs or ability bar?

Well for one thing, your enemies can't see the Grim Focus glow. And I have personally tested this in-game, by slotting Grim Focus, verifying that the glow is active, and asking others if they can see any red glow. And the answer has always been no. Doesn't matter if friend, foe, grouped, or just in close proximity. The only person who can see the glow is you!

So if anyone thinks they look really cool to other people with this unremovable visual effect.... sorry to burst your bubble. The only look this interferes with or accentuates in what you alone see on your computer screen. If you see a nightblade with a cool red glow, that's the Soulcleaver set. Everybody can see that glow, however, the NB can remove that set (and glow) whenever they wish. I mean, sure, NB can just not slot Grim Focus.... but why would they want to give up one of their best offensive skills?

Erickson9610 · November 7

Jaraal wrote: »

Erickson9610 wrote: »

How are you and your enemies supposed to know when you've got 5 stacks and are ready to fire it again if you don't look at your buffs or ability bar?

Well for one thing, your enemies can't see the Grim Focus glow. And I have personally tested this in-game, by slotting Grim Focus, verifying that the glow is active, and asking others if they can see any red glow. And the answer has always been no. Doesn't matter if friend, foe, grouped, or just in close proximity. The only person who can see the glow is you!

So if anyone thinks they look really cool to other people with this unremovable visual effect.... sorry to burst your bubble. The only look this interferes with or accentuates in what you alone see on your computer screen. If you see a nightblade with a cool red glow, that's the Soulcleaver set. Everybody can see that glow, however, the NB can remove that set (and glow) whenever they wish. I mean, sure, NB can just not slot Grim Focus.... but why would they want to give up one of their best offensive skills?

It seems really silly to have the VFX at all if it's not a telegraph for anything meaningful, to you or your enemies. Since it's only visible to you, it's redundant because you can already see the skill slotted on one of your bars. At least the way it functioned before (only glowing when at max stacks) helped you to know when you could proc Grim Focus.

The glow needs to be more functional. Why should a skill change your appearance for merely slotting it?

Jaraal · November 7

Erickson9610 wrote: »

The glow needs to be more functional. Why should a skill change your appearance for merely slotting it?

When they removed the timer and made the skill active all the time, they either (a) didn't know how to separate the visual effect from the skill itself, or (b) thought nightblades would like to glow red all the time, and left it in. And until they actually tell us which one it is, we will never know.

fizzylu · November 7

@Jaraal
I find it hard to believe they didn't know how to do something like that considering C-frags have a visual proc. It really just seems to come down to their own style choice, even if it doesn't align with the opinion of the playerbase. Which is sad.

vsrs_au · November 7

Jaraal wrote: »

Erickson9610 wrote: »

How are you and your enemies supposed to know when you've got 5 stacks and are ready to fire it again if you don't look at your buffs or ability bar?

Well for one thing, your enemies can't see the Grim Focus glow. And I have personally tested this in-game, by slotting Grim Focus, verifying that the glow is active, and asking others if they can see any red glow. And the answer has always been no. Doesn't matter if friend, foe, grouped, or just in close proximity. The only person who can see the glow is you!

So if anyone thinks they look really cool to other people with this unremovable visual effect.... sorry to burst your bubble. The only look this interferes with or accentuates in what you alone see on your computer screen. If you see a nightblade with a cool red glow, that's the Soulcleaver set. Everybody can see that glow, however, the NB can remove that set (and glow) whenever they wish. I mean, sure, NB can just not slot Grim Focus.... but why would they want to give up one of their best offensive skills?

Actually, you have to do more than unslot grim focus to remove the glow, you have to deallocate the skill points from that skill. I wanted to remove the glow from a nightblade character, and found I had to do this. So it's very inconvenient.

heaven13 · November 7

meekmiko wrote: »

heaven13 wrote: »

onyxorb wrote: »

I just don't understand why we can't have 'Clear/No Glow' for a skill style and slap it in as a freebie style somewhere, and call it done.

They are going on about 'style options', and not letting us have options.
I really feel bad for people who paid crowns for styles from the store, and have them messed up by the glow.

Arms packs were one of the few things I’d actually purchase with my crowns and I’ve seriously reconsidered because of this change. If my purchased content is not usable because it’s overridden by something else, why should you get my money? And if they can change the visual of a skill at any time (despite their promise not to do so) why would I trust that you won’t do it to one of my non-NB characters and their class skills?

*looks at Templars and the forced change to not only the appearance but also to the animation of jabs from two years ago*

They don't care. If they want something changed it'll be changed regardless of player feedback.

Oh I know, I definitely know. (Signed, a templar main, lol)

kind_hero · November 7

I have paid crowns for the bound (invisible) weapons pack, exactly to have my char free of weapons while I role play in towns and in general, to remove the hassle of un-equipping every time I wanted to take a screenshot.

I have also paid crowns for various weapon packs and outfit styles that I like, which have gold or green VFX. The grim focus glow interferes with these VFX.

So, that being said, there should be a way to disable this glow, which is only visible for the player. To me, it would be fine if the glow would go away after 30 - 45 seconds, maybe even the whole buff.

I don't really care about a new scribing effect that would make the glow purple or other color... It should go away somehow, it is annoying. I hope that 43 pages of feedback are enough.

joseayalac · November 10

Should this be reported as a bug in-game? I feel like it's an issue that got passed the quality tests and made it into the game somehow.

So maybe it's better if we reported it as a bug with the in-game assistant instead of tying to reach the devs through the forums?

Because I believe we're shouting into an empty wall when talking in this forum.

Elvenheart · November 10

It’s been said by a representative of ZOS that the glow is working as intended, so one would assume that would be the results we would get for reporting it as a bug too.

Muizer · November 10

When they say the glow is working as intended, they mean it is working as expected. They did not make changes to the visuals of the activated ability. So it is indeed conforming expectation that the glow is now there as long as the skill is slotted. So what is actually going on is that we users have 'suddenly' started complaining about a visual effect that was always there. So yeah, it's our fault

Elvenheart · November 11

Sadly, that’s not how I take their meaning. By saying it’s working as INTENDED after the change to the skill, it means that for some strange inexplicable reason the developers INTEND (not expect) for our Nightblades to glow bright red like a break light and have all our graphics (like the scrying tool) and weapon styles (like gloambound weapons) messed up, but only in a way WE can see since other players don’t see the glow. This was their INTENTION.

fizzylu · November 11

Elvenheart wrote: »

By saying it’s working as INTENDED after the change to the skill, it means that for some strange inexplicable reason the developers INTEND (not expect) for our Nightblades to glow bright red like a break light and have all our graphics (like the scrying tool) and weapon styles (like gloambound weapons) messed up, but only in a way WE can see since other players don’t see the glow..

My first guess is some dev that mains nightblade wanted their weapon to always glow red so they quickly threw together a way to make it so.

Jaraal · November 11

Elvenheart wrote: »

Sadly, that’s not how I take their meaning. By saying it’s working as INTENDED after the change to the skill, it means that for some strange inexplicable reason the developers INTEND (not expect) for our Nightblades to glow bright red like a break light and have all our graphics (like the scrying tool) and weapon styles (like gloambound weapons) messed up, but only in a way WE can see since other players don’t see the glow. This was their INTENTION.

Yeah, since the new Ayleid plans from antiquities dropped, I've been farming them on my max antiquity skill guy, who also happens to be a nightblade. And the annoying, unwanted red glow bleeding all over the scrying tool is keeping dissatisfaction with the forced change in the forefront of my consciousness.

Kikazaru · November 11

The previous iteration was fine the way it was, and they thought it was a good idea to make it glow red 24/7 and now I have to accept the change since it is their intention all along.

This thread has amazing feedback for some adjustments. Shame it’ll never see the light of day at this point.

Muizer · November 11

fizzylu wrote: »

My first guess is some dev that mains nightblade wanted their weapon to always glow red so they quickly threw together a way to make it so.

I think it's the exact opposite. They changed the functionality of the skill while allotting 0 time to address the visuals because 'they would be the same they always were and therefore OK'.

Juomuuri · November 11

What use does the glow even have if other players can't even see it??? I want it GONE it's so annoying but the skill is too good to not slot.

Jaraal · November 11

Juomuuri wrote: »

What use does the glow even have if other players can't even see it???

That's the 64,000 dollar question. And the one ZOS has yet to answer. They could probably ease a lot of the tension surrounding this issue if they would just come forward and tell us why they want it to be like this. Because it's clearly an unpopular decision.

KapiteinBoterham · November 12

How is everyone doing? It's been a while!

Since christmas is coming up I thought it would be fun to post some things we wanted from santa but will never actually get (kinda on the theme of this thread):

- 1.000.000 crowns
- ESO+ for life
- a jetsky

opaj · November 12

Juomuuri wrote: »

What use does the glow even have if other players can't even see it??? I want it GONE it's so annoying but the skill is too good to not slot.

Like some others in the thread, I've stopped running the skill because of the glow.

I was recently stunned when I realized how weak my Nightblade is now. It sure would be nice if I could use this skill again without it completely torpedoing my aesthetics.

Elvenheart · November 13

Maybe every time they try to take the permanent red off of Grim Focus the color of the Mauve Drape furnishing changes.

disky · November 13

I think it should be made clear that if there is ever a "fix" for this, it should either be made accessible and free to everyone as part of the skill styles system, or just resolved as any other issue would be through the game code. Monetizing a fix for a problem intentionally created is a time-honored tradition in online games but doing it for something like this would be egregious.

NotaDaedraWorshipper · November 13

I feel like repeating something I've already said before on this thread. Because it deserves repeating and more people have been against changing this visual/giving option to hide it, because reasons like it needs visuals for enemies (which doesn't make any sense since it's not visible to enemies in the first place).

Which is, there was a another buff skill that got changed at the same time as Grim Focus. The exact same change. That buff was Bound Armor, a buff skill that was building stacks which was then used again for extra damage, now just like Grim Focus so is it a passive you don't need to keep up, it's always on if it's on your bar.

What is not like Grim Focus is its visuals. Bound Armor is not turned into a purple hazard light, no, instead its visuals was removed. It used to have some swirly purple wispy tendrils coming out of you when the buff was active, but now the only time you can see the old visuals is if you have the Bound Aegis morph and use its 5 sec activated extra buff.

So 2 buffs. Both worked the same way and had visuals.
Both went through the same change of making them passive buffs.
1 had its visuals turned permanently on. The other 1 had its visuals removed.

Are both of them working as "intended"? If so, why was one chosen to be permanently on, while the other off? The one that got turned off even had better looking and designed visuals.

Kyip · November 13

I recommend everyone unhappy with the Grim Focus permaglow bug comment here:
https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/668158/banner-bearer-player-entering-ring-noise-makes-it-unplayable#latest

Because they are responding to complaints about the Banner noise issue. I know I would like them to do something about Grim Focus too.

disky · November 13

Let's be honest, there are a lot of effects that need to become temporary or toggleable, including armor effects like Ebon Armory. I actively avoid these sets because I hate the visuals and if they weren't there, I might actually consider using them in my builds. Whatever the justification for this might be, it's wrongheaded. A set like Ebon Armory doesn't need to be easily spotted in a crowd, the effect is just always on for...some reason.