Please Add Some Subtle (er) Relic Weapon Effects

[Shougun]

First an aside (not main point of thread), every stage of the relic once unlocked should immediately be available for glamour - imo. Personally I think it should be put into your glamour log automatically and you can withdraw/apply them from there (they're still unique untradeable and unsellable, withdrawing doesn't remove it from the glamour log). Something like when you go to your glamour dresser there is a relic tab and when you click that it'll load your latest status of your relics and populate it with each stage that you've completed and below (can break it down by relic + job to further reduce server calls if that's a concern). They wont be convertible either, so there is no way to earn gil from them (they can help your retainers or you level but they themselves wont become gil, can't be sold, desynthesized, seal traded, or converted).

Now main point of the thread:

Was just hoping/wondering if anyone else wanted to see a relic series with less radiating light effects. I don't hate them but a lot of times I look at the final tier and I think.. "that's too much, like here is too much.. and then.. way over there is the relic weapon too much" lol. (Just my opinion).

Not suggesting to change any past Relic weapon or to never make them crazy radiating effects again, just thought it could be nice to have something a bit more classic OP rpg weapon / classic OP FF weapon (where they may have effects but their own design speak through them rather than get shouted out by them, which I feel the final stage relics almost always have their effects shout over their own designs rather than "with" them).

So I was hoping for less big effects and more detailed closer to the weapon/theme effects (that often let the item's own designs shine in combination with the special effects it has). I have a few examples and would love to hear of other people's if they're interested.

First easiest example I think is Tidus's Brotherhood sword from FFX:


Here we could imagine the sword sometimes dripping water and rippling as if the surface of the sword was actually water with bubbles gently traveling through it. A subtle yet very neat effect.

May consider different shapes and strength of the effect, can picture another Tidus sword for something semi-similar to the above:


I don't have a particular image in mind but a few other more "smaller size" ideas:

Space effect, in that in the weapon or parts of the weapon you can see stars and space. Use an effect that makes it look like they're actually in there and not painted on, like in heroes of the storm the space unicorn has the stars move through it's body "its not painted". When slashing or on impacts (depending on weapon type) it'll actually cut open short lasting pockets of space (as part of the cutting animation, perhaps only on default attacks).

Think some of the Astrologian visual theme. Some other effects can be thought of like rotating planets/rocks and twinkling but it shouldn't be done that it's too "much".

Plant effect, here you would find animated plant matter. Some weapons might have undulating vines, other opening flower petals, leaves dropping, etc. Being drawn from sheathe being a sort of growing animation (Paladin sword could be drawn out and snapped to length like a wip). May consider mystical nature things like blue (morpher like) butterflies or fairies (fluttering around the weapon or occasionally emitting, avoid endless emissions/loops that make it appear like a swarm of bees ).

Ghost/Phased, have a few directions but you could go haunted like and so it sucks out some of the color where it's drawn and fades and bends a bit. Or you could go Doctor Strange Mirror Dimension shattering (the weapons fracture and unfracture as if coming in and out of dimension, just don't make it too busy.. that effect has the potential to be obnoxious if abused lol).

Above ghosted/cursed blood weapon, sort of that classic cursed katana is going to eat you if it doesn't eat something else idea. A lot of the above ghost concept. A fun animation might be say for example on the Samurai the sheathe rattles sometimes and little dark hands try to get out of the blade when sheathed (like the blade is trying to lift itself out of the sheathe and escape). Paladin shield could have an eye on it, and keeping in mind just because cursed doesn't mean it has to be blood/dark so the Paladin eye could be blue (fitting that color theme) but still give you that sort of creepy (something isn't right) feeling. Definitely make sure to animate the eye on the shield so it blinks .

Holy, strong golds and other holy inspired colors - sword twinkles and gently emanates light. Occasionally light god rays will appear near the character (more towards the weapon) when drawn. Highest tier might even have light solar flares coming off of it (not at a crazy rate and not all over all the time, keeping that subtle but powerful look).




Counter there could be moon weapons. (Dark Souls refrence). Although moonlight could be taken as the space effect idea above.



Note that while it's a bit of a strong effect that it fits the theme perfectly and isn't too massive of an aura. While, at least imo (lol), when I see most of the final stage relic effects its just like "all I am is a big nebulous effect and if you look really carefully there is a weapon in there" (I don't mean to be rude the FFXIV graphic team is clearly very talented, I'm just trying to put to words how I see the last stage relic effects).

Void effect, a bit like how FFXIV GM gear burns (void like) except focused onto the weapon and not so large (so that you can still see it too) and perhaps add a bit of the shifting heat effect from the FFXI GMs. Can picture it a bit like an ifrit primal weapon except corrupted. Maybe even that could be the theme of the relic weapon, or if you wanted to take that idea further each job has a corrupted variant of one weapon from each primal (dev team picks which primal fits the job best, and then modifies it to be more relic like). A lot of primal weapons have a nice more subtle effect than the Relics we have, some of them are a bit wild though lol. Again careful that the effects don't "erase" the weapon though, so rates/strength of effect should at least give the weapon time to speak for itself (or speak with the effect itself).

Anyway, feel free to post ideas and images if you'd like.

Thanks for reading

tl;dr: I don't want to change old weapons or never do styles like the old ones (if people like them) but I would like to see some relics that effects are not necessarily so big and out there, something a bit more toned down and to the theme of the weapon. Something like how primal weapon effects almost always speak to their designs, except perhaps more detailed/unique themed as these are relic weapons (some primal weapons I feel are a bit too outspoken but many are doing very well). So to let the weapon and theme talk to each other more, than over/on top of each other which is how I tend to feel about the last stage relics at the moment.

[Raldo]

Hoo boy, that's a lot of text. Not going to read all that, but I will say that I'd definitely like to see less WHOOSH GLOW EVERYWHERE and more stylized glows/effects. Compared to the final ARR/HW relics (usually a glow focused around the contours of the pointy end), the glows on the final SB relics seem very uninspired (every weapon's effect looks like every other weapon's effect).

Careful that the effects don't "erase" the weapon though, so rates/strength of effect should at least give the weapon time to speak for itself (or speak with the effect itself).

This. Absolutely.

[Shougun]

Hoo boy, that's a lot of text. Not going to read all that, but I will say that I'd definitely like to see less WHOOSH GLOW EVERYWHERE and more stylized glows/effects. Compared to the final ARR/HW relics (usually a glow focused around the contours of the pointy end), the glows on the final SB relics seem very uninspired (every weapon's effect looks like every other weapon's effect).

I always put a tl;dr (almost always at least? lol) on the longer walls . I don't want people to have to read everything to know if they care to read more lol.

But yeah we want a very similar thing ~! Hopefully not only just an effect but also fitting the theme of the task/weapon itself even. Such that the effects may be different or at least tell you something about them just by looking, I can't really tell anything about SB relics except for its huge lol.

An in game example would be pretty much all the primal weapons give you a bit of info on them even if you weren't familiar with the primal, you could describe their character/theme.

[ElazulHP]

I'd like to see better relic design overall. The finished Hydatos relics are by and large pretty ugly. The glow reminds me of the glow on enchanted weapons in Oblivion/Morrowind. Some of the base models are kinda cool, but ruined by the glow effect.

[Duskane]

/[relicname]fx off

All i wish it would be
i really like the Anima SCH book but not a fan of the three quils floating above it

And all anemos weapons force to glow to dye

[Shougun]

/[relicname]fx off

All i wish it would be
i really like the Anima SCH book but not a fan of the three quils floating above it

And all anemos weapons force to glow to dye

I mean we could have that too of course but wouldn't it be nice if the effect spoke with the weapon rather than all over the top of it? Then you might not turn the effect off because you like the design of the weapon and the effect meets the design of the weapon as well .

[Haxaan]

I do agree with this. I love to see what new and unique particle effects and glows we get with each Relic Tier, but by the gods by the end of the Relic it's just so much! I may be in the minority here, but I really like the designs of the Relic Weapons themselves and would like to see an effect that accentuates the design of the Weapon instead of completely blinding the user to the point that we can't even see the design of the weapon anymore.

[Derio]

Honestly I think HW was the best versions.

If anything they should allow a glow options. I personally like the glow on the weapons. If I wanted a non-glowing weapon I would choose a crafted weapon.

I wonder what design they will go with this go round.

[van_arn]

The entire point of relic weapons is to be as obnoxious as possible.

[Shougun]

The entire point of relic weapons is to be as obnoxious as possible.

Okay, so I'd like it not to be the entire point then.. lol. I obviously know what they have looked like in the past. Like any thread asking for something different/change. Relics wouldn't lose identity if they were something different than one large emanation of light (like other games that have "epic weapons", like other FF games even (FFX Tidus relic is second image, although I did suggest light effects in-addition to the unique body shape)).

Honestly I think HW was the best versions.

If anything they should allow a glow options. I personally like the glow on the weapons. If I wanted a non-glowing weapon I would choose a crafted weapon.

I wonder what design they will go with this go round.

They might glow, but I'd rather there is more purpose and identity than just "a glow is added". Like the sun flare suggestion on the holy weapon, or moonlight effect, or shadows trying to escape the cursed katana.

So I haven't suggested to remove effects, but wish they weren't always "just a glow, one big glow or sometimes many big glows".