Updated Skill Effects

[GM-Ciar]

Hello heroes!

Recently, some ingame effects received updates. This was done with intent to update some skill effects which were pixelated, went on for too long, used the same image files for several other skills, were outdated even for RO, or had already been updated by gravity to begin with.

We would like to know your opinion on these. Are you enjoying all of them so far? Only some? Not many? None at all? Why? We'd appreciate being as specific as possible.

For purposes of posterity, only discussions and feedback within in this thread will be taken into consideration. We can always go back and read this thread for reference, but occasional ingame and discord discussions aren't as easy to remember.

One of the reasons I am listening to feedback is because I planned to update more skill effects, such as priest skills, and (for example) remove the huge "angels", switching it up with something else.

Links to all effect updates:
http://www.pandoraonline.net/forum/showt...#pid304270
http://www.pandoraonline.net/forum/showt...#pid303894

[The Roger]

Ok so im gonna re-list the links here from the discord announcement for quick access :D
and under each i will write my personal impressions. Those missing will be updated when i have the chance to experience them.

"Fire Hit" https://i.imgur.com/x9KLukC.jpg
uhm i dont think i have seen it yet.

Critical Wounds https://i.imgur.com/51D9orz.jpg
uhm the old one wasnt bad, the new one isnt much different, ok.
ok i like the new one.

Dragon Fear https://i.imgur.com/4GYT4KX.jpg
new one is awesome. goodbye forever to those generic white circles.

Wide Confuse https://i.imgur.com/eOG5T9z.jpg
i dont think i have seen it yet.

Fire Wall https://i.imgur.com/Z7s05DM.jpg
I like the new flame bu i totally dislike the fact the flame disappear visually at the end of the cycle animation.

Lightning Crash https://i.imgur.com/S7LBaXp.jpg
i dont remember the old-old one, the old-new one was cool but was bit uhm, too much covering of the landing point, the new one is cool.

Fire Endow https://i.imgur.com/wocGUCM.jpg
its nice

Earth Endow https://imgur.com/7SrI7bp
its nice

Ice Endow https://i.imgur.com/fISwLuF.jpg
its nice

Wind Endow https://i.imgur.com/H8NMxbe.jpg
its nice

Meteor Storm https://i.imgur.com/6QrmzHb.jpg
ok so: i love the new mini nuclear shrooms explosions but the meteors falling from the sky are too static. The original meteors had rings of shockwaves animated around them while they were falling, it would be nice if the new meteors also get those for completion.

Auto Counter https://i.imgur.com/oDImUGT.jpg
i havent seen it yet, but from the preview seems cool.

Brandish Spear Cast https://i.imgur.com/G7GwwXd.jpg
i havent seen it yet.
ok i saw it and, uhm, its meh like the previous one.

Brandish Spear Hit https://i.imgur.com/7xvk91f.jpg
i havent seen it yet.
ok i saw it and, uhm, its meh like the previous one.

Spear Quicken https://i.imgur.com/8WNRdjd.jpg
i havent seen it yet.

One/Two Hand Quicken https://i.imgur.com/SNKCM0v.jpg
i havent seen it yet.

LK Concentration https://i.imgur.com/wGK4mZA.jpg
its cool.

Pierce https://i.imgur.com/VBxKLum.jpg
i havent seen it yet.

Hammer Fall https://i.imgur.com/677845Y.jpg
is a lot cool.

Weapon Perfection https://i.imgur.com/bQqLQWr.jpg
kinda nice. the original one wasnt bad but maybe too long of an animation.
i dont dislike the new one tho.

LoV
Uhm yeah less epic than before but those are nice lightnings.

Quagmire
i didnt dislike the original one, this new one is uhm... has bubbles too big and too round.

Mammonite
uhm less visual clutter i think? ok. Coins are still there soooo i guess its fine.

[The Legendary Joe]

The only skill change I absolutely dislike is mammonite. It coulda kept the bag of zenny, even if you didn't want to keep the god of money, mammon who showed up behind it.

Firewall, yea, pretty much what roger said. It's kinda disconcerting seeing the flames that are protecting you constantly flickering in and out of existance while it's going.

Brandish, I was on the fence at first as I think the green fart that comes out kinda made it look evil and fit mobs like Abyss knight, but for player use, I kinda like it. If there was a way monsters could use different animations for the same skill, that would be dope.

Auto counter, I do not notice the difference.

Poem of Bragi, the intent was to make the song more visible, yes? Have a harder time seeing the multi-color runes than the original effect

The changes to the status effects I do enjoy a lot, and definitely is more visible.

I liked the ninja lightning in all incarnations of it. Wonder if it'd be possible to cycle between the 3 to make the electricity little less predictable?

Overall, a lot of the rest of the cosmetic changes are either positive indifference or thinking the change was unnecessary overall.

[GM-Ciar]

Thanks for the feedback guys, keep them coming~

The only skill change I absolutely dislike is mammonite. It coulda kept the bag of zenny, even if you didn't want to keep the god of money, mammon who showed up behind it.

The moneybag is, IIRC, on the same image as Mammon (he's holding the bag), so I would have to use the mineffect version if possible/not jarring. The mammonite change was somewhat of a test to see how effective it is to swap out all the animations using "people" or faces.

Compared to the new level-up angel, some of RO's older effects aren't exactly of the same quality. Impositio Manus uses a separate image for the wings, the angel, and also the angel's hair (the angel is bald, the hair is superimposed on it), so my idea was to replace skills like that with just particle effects.

Firewall, yea, pretty much what roger said. It's kinda disconcerting seeing the flames that are protecting you constantly flickering in and out of existence while it's going.

It's pretty much just a copy paste of the new Dragon Breath animation (We can't easily update dragon breath), but I'll see what I can do to fix it in future patches.

Poem of Bragi, the intent was to make the song more visible, yes? Have a harder time seeing the multi-color runes than the original effect

I'll look into making them a bit more noticeable. They were only meant to not be pixelated scribblings.

Overall, a lot of the rest of the cosmetic changes are either positive indifference or thinking the change was unnecessary overall.

Can you name any unnecessary ones specifically?

[Attila]

I haven't checked a lot of the new effects out, but a few stood out to me as less functional (even if more pretty) than the original. The two worse in this regard are Quagmire and Firewall. New Quag looks beautiful, but it has some major issues: 1, the animation stops before the effect does. It is true that it restarts, loops till it needs to, but for a small period of time the effect is simply not visible at all. The exact same problem is present in firewall as well. 2, the effect is less messy since there's only one stack of bubbles, but these bubbles kinda go up and only up and by the end of the animation the entire effect is roughly one cell off from the actual position of the skill. Firewall also has the disappearing problem, but when the effect is actually there it's not transparent at all. This way it can fully cover the mob(s). See here. The coverup issue is also a problem within firewall's individual cells. In ceration camea angles you might have a broken wall, eg the middle section is missing, but you can't see it because another part is covering it up. Some status effects by mobs are also harder to spot, like poison and stone curse. It's worth mentioning that some effects are actually better in this sense, eg LoV animation actually covering the area of the skill is glorious.

As for the looks of the effects... It's a mixed bag really. New SG looks great, New thunderstorm and lightning bolt are awesome. Meteor Storm, Bragi and Idun look terrible. Mammonite feels less weighty and not seeing the coinpurse is just sad. New LoV is... I donno less exciting than the old one, but since it covers up it's area well, it's fine. The changes in priest skills felt kinda unnecessary to me, but those are neither really better or worse. Oh... And new Quag is pretty, it's just rather difficult to comprehend compared to the old one, but I've already written about that.

A lot of the changes are fine I just probably need to get used to them. For example, I am not even sure what changed in occult impact's effect, but something if different. Not bad just feels odd until I get used to it. I think that's all, but I'll write my opinion down on the remaining changes if/when I see them.

[GM-Ciar]

For example, I am not even sure what changed in occult impact's effect, but something if different.

That skill uses hardcoded effects and therefore was not changed. My first post contains a link to the changelogs listing what was changed.

Keep the feedback coming guys. I've heard opinions ingame and on discord from more than just the three players that posted above, so don't complain later if what you didn't like remains unchanged. :P

[Attila]

For example, I am not even sure what changed in occult impact's effect, but something if different.

That skill uses hardcoded effects and therefore was not changed. My first post contains a link to the changelogs listing what was changed.

I somehow missed the white bubbly stuff from Occult Impact for literally over a decade... And since a there are a few skills that use a mix of other effects (eg bolt and respective elemental attack animations) I somehow assumed something else must have had an effect on it.

[Yookie]

Most of the updated effects look good, but I really can't stand the new meteors.
They look cheap and I prefer the old impact-effect too.
I also feel like their visuals are a bit misleading as to where they're hitting, but the same can be said about the old MS and I'm probably just not used to them. Not that I want to get used to the new effect.

I was a bit iffy on new LoV at first, but it does look nice.
It doesn't look better than old LoV but I do like it.
Classic LoV had this charming effect of being so garish and bright that you simply couldn't see anything and I sorta miss that. It was just a big nuke and didn't look like a wind spell at all, which really doesn't make it sound good at all and it's just nostalgia speaking.

Not sure on new Fire Wall, I think I prefer the old one but then I also never used Fire Wall so I'm not that invested in it.

The spear skill updates look nice, I really like new Brandish.

[GM-Ciar]

Bump!