Less particle effects and more gameplay

[TheMightyMollusk]

The overdone flashiness isn't new. I've had to wear sunglasses for certain fights and instances since Cruise Chaser, and I've been complaining about summoners and red mage LB3 for years now. But it feels like with every expac, the visual clutter just gets worse and worse and worse. I've never felt like I had to turn other player effects down until I got into a trial with three pictomancers and couldn't see anything. (I've also been getting a lot of lag spikes in instances lately, but that's a separate problem.)

[Sekundessounet]

I have and was told that some people are simply more sensitive to sudden changes in brightness. For example, my eyes adjust quickly to darkness but slowly to sudden light, some others are the opposite, not an issue IRL or in other games (WoW & BG3, for example, are fine despite often flashy combat). During EW I could handle it mostly, it was unpleasant and I accepted that extended combat sessions in this game just wasn't for me but the graphics update changed something and made it far worse. Now each fight is painful and impossible to see what is happening to avoid kissing the floor. :/

A simple setting for boss and arena effects, even one similar to what we have for player effects, would be a very welcome and helpful addition.

If they do add that, an option to remove / move other clutter (Boss chatter banner and the new red warning text bar in the centre of the screen etc.) would also be helpful for players struggling with those blocking their view of what's happening.

Yeah I get that, a family member of mine has similar issues (so she plays with glasses that adapts to levels of light, it helps a lot).

I don't know if they actually can make a setting, I think each animation is handcrafted, and its particle effects too ? I do agree about the red warning text tho

[GreenLeafy]

Sometime I wonder if they do it on purpose, and the visual overload is part of the challenge.

For example look at M2S, in my experience beat 1 is where people tend to mess up the most despite mechanically it should be the easiest ... why? Because we have that big visual cue on top of our head that actually blocked our view of the very things we're supposed to avoid. Especially the end of phase mechanic where 3-4 people converse for the stack ... yeah, given how obnoxiously and unnecessary big the icons are, I always tell myself "this gotta be on purpose".

And holy crap I pretty much fail every stacking mechanic in EX2 because I can't literally see ****

I really think that's actually the case. Mechanically the things they're introducing aren't much more difficult than they have been in the past. But oh my GOD the visual vomit this expansion is Eulogia on steroids for every basic mechanic. They seem to just have doubled down on this approach since 7.0.

[gllt]

It's extremely off-putting to say the least. I quit other games from my favorite genres because they've become nightmares to look at.

I want my games to be pretty and cool looking but not at the expense of gameplay and never as a means to increase difficulty of an interaction. That's just gross design.

[Rueby]

I quit GW2 because visual clarity/visual integrety went to shit. It seems like this is the fate of every game....More immersion breaking 'glam', more particles, more effects.
I understand that maybe certain raidwides might hide arena transitions....but this isn't it. I don't know who's designing the graphical part of fights and skills, but they need to hire someone else. Picto and Viper suffer from an oversaturation of the color white in their skills, and the flashy nature of both jobs makes it like a mini WHM holy to me. It's tiring. I want to look at the cool skills of at least my character, but now I feel like I must turn to other 'means' or turn them off completely.

It's even worse for encounters, has been so since EW for me. SMN is really bad especially with titan's attack which is a flashbang.

[UkcsAlias]

Yes tried that, both with in-game graphics settings and computer settings, still causes pain sadly.

Most of the time its not the brightness itself being the issue, its the relative brightness. Yes eyes can increase/reduce the amount of light they receive (thats why at night you can still see). Some people have a lower acceptable range between these upper and lower limit. And there is nothing you can do against it without facing problems elsewhere.

Reducing brightness is 1 thing, but that is just the same as increasing brightness of the area around you. It will make it harder to spot diffirences in darker colors, this can equaly disrupt. However, the monitor often still only covers a portion of your vision (im guessing 30%), so increasing room brightness might help, especialy if you also reduced ingame brightness. And all you might need is have some light behind your monitors to brighten up your wall.

But in the end, there are limits you cant get around. If these things dont help, its very likely nothing will, and any game dev should be aware of this. Flashing effects do normaly give a warning for a reason, its not just epilepsy.

[WeakestZenosEnjoyer]

SMN is really bad especially with titan's attack which is a flashbang.

It's kinda impressive how the hardest part of SMN is actually seeing the boss through the VFXs

[Inputnamehere]

The game's antique engine cannot handle better visual hit reaction/model interaction, so they have to use cheap flashy effects to tell you that you're "doing something."
Then the bosses need to be flashy as well because that will assumedly help you see what they're doing.
But at some point, this will no longer be helpful.

[HighlanderClone]

Sometime I wonder if they do it on purpose, and the visual overload is part of the challenge.

Funny how all the WoWfugees praised FF14's "clean mechanical language". In normal content where a tankbuster is highlighted, sure. But the moment they try to obfuscate it, things become a problem. It's just gotten worse and worse.







Now just look at how clean O8S was:

[Kalocin]

I've found myself fiddling with the colour blind settings for this expansion, they're pretty obsessed with having a lack of contrast with a lot of effects all being the same colour, blending in with the arena etc. I usually need to take a break more frequently due to eyestrain