Arelith

Fully warded players en-masse are known to impact server performance, so lets play the devil's advocate and identify the most visually important wards (strictly spells that have permanent visual effects on a character for its duration) to, in theory, make performance smoother.

Visual effects to keep:
+Concealment (Imp. Invis, Ghostly Visage) - so you know why you keep missing and a little bit of WYSIWYG.
+Freedom of Movement - so players don't waste an action on a spell another entity is immune to.
+Aura Shields (Acid Sheath, Aura VS Alignment, etc) - so we know why we're hitting ourselves.
+Spell Mantle - visual feedback for spellcasters that indicates why their spell failed.
+Shadow Shield - 5 spells in one, important to keep track of.
+Divine Favour - important cleric spell which indicates when they're likely going to be doing high damage (also not a spell that lasts real-life hours).
+See Invis/True Seeing - important to know for stealthers.
+Lesser Mind Blank - so players don't waste an action on a spell another entity is immune to.

Visual effects to remove:
+Energy Buffer - good to know for spellcasters but I'm economising and this ward would be destroyed by end-game spellcasters pretty quick.
+Stoneskin - most don't use this because it looks hideous and is almost always quickly removed. There is also a sound effect that indicates when your hitting someone with Stoneskin.
+Protection Against Alignment - a ward everyone can assume has active at all times, redundant (also plays a wind-chime sound effect).
+Shield - scourge of outfits and everyone has this active, redundant.
+Epic Mage Armour - don't think this is dispellable so no reason why this wouldn't be active at all times, redundant.
+Good Hope - I think this has a vfx, not needed if it does.
+Spell Resist - at end-game I feel like everyone has access to spell resistance either through this spell or an item, redundant.
+Whatever that blue ward that appears on the floor like FoM, that can go.

If I missed a ward it's probably redundant.

I agree or am neutral on most but I think it would be a mistake to take away stoneskin/greater stoneskin and energy buffer. In end game they’re gone quickly, yeah, but when leveling they can be life and death for some characters. Maybe stoneskin could be changed to be less ugly somehow instead.

Protection from alignment also has some RP use… if someone has protection from good up when toting a celestial summon you know they are probably evil. Whether that’s ideal or intended, I don’t know.

My only take is that premo should be removed or made a lot less noisy and flashy. Knowing it's there is important, sure, but uh. It's very in your face, which is great when you got a meeting and six people have premo cast.

Please keep epic mage armor and shield visual effects. And spell resistance.

SR spell is important to identify and remove. If anything, protection from spells could lose the vfx. 39/42 SR is no small value.

Shield is an important ward to keep an eye on if you use igms. Bc if you don't see it and it's there, boom your igms does nothing and you don't know why.

Epic mage armor is used less in a fight but more before it, to identify your opponent. There's a few wards that if kept on 24/7 by your target can easily be used to distinguish between the person's class.

But yea, prot from alignment is inconclusive and unbreachable, so it can go.

Stoneskin is... Stoneskin. 10/- or 20/- is also important to identify. But then, it was mentioned many times that in lore, ppl were surprised by stoneskin. So maybe making it invisible would be more lore-accurate.

Paradoxically i can see buffer losing the vfx but mostly because the 2nd best version of it, protection from elements, already doesn't have the vfx. So 40/- has a massive vfx but 30/- doesn't. It's elemental tho.

Given that the same UI icon for Damage Reduction from spells is the same for like seven different abilities, I'd really hate to see their actually useful visual aids go, especially while levelling or playing a human squishmallow.

Energy buffer could probably stand to be toned down, but I don't think removed.

Good Hope has no VFX.

Shield suffers the same issue as DR - all it falls under is AC bonus in the UI, so if it's gone and you have no visual method to tell, you'll be hurting.

I'd be wary of removing too many useful feedback indicators - your criticism of them seems to come from an offensive (ie knowing what your enemies have, and therefore their vulnerabilities) angle, whereas I'd also approach it from the defensive side (ie being aware of what I actually have up!).

I have two big peeves with spell VFX:

Spells that turn you into an ugly cluster of pixels (stone skin) and spells that destroy your color scheme. Stoneskin is pretty self explanatory but I'll elaborate on the colors thing using freedom of movement as an example.

Freedom of movement is an absolutely essential spell for PvP that will see a lot of use everywhere from highway robbery attempts to raids on cities. While I'm not a good PvPer I'd assume that everyone who knows what they're doing casts it all the time. And it is very, very green.

This means that every in-game "Luke, I am your father" or "Hasta la vista, baby" moment is doused with this often obnoxious green glow. If you're going for any look other than "guy who glows green", it is an absolute eye sore that makes everything look silly.

I had a suggestion with the title "Color Streams for Wards" in which I suggested that players should be able to pick a color for spells like this, which would serve to make things look less ridiculous. The suggestion was rejected on the grounds that it would create "VFX bloat", a concept that was not explained.

If the colors aren't going to be selectable, why can't we just remove them and replace them with something less noticeable or colored?

I love that you started this thread. There are too many must-use spells that almost spit on the customization system's face. We have all these compelling outfit options but it comes to nothing when you're a poorly pixelated stone man surrounded by glowy green lines.

Premonition - the spell's supposed to allow the caster see into the future, NOT surround them in a large cotton candy airbag.
Furthermore, it's basically an hr/lvl duration extra hp buff - gameplay wise it makes sense for players to cast it immediately after rest and have it on 24/7 the moment their character gains access to it.

Shadow shield - death ward doesn't have a VFX, NE proection doesn't have one either = I can already access these immunities without signalling them.
Additionally, shadow shield's VFX is ugly and messes up outfits. It should go.

Hi

My own experience with the game makes me appreciate the op a lot, and would push me to answer this: there is nothing that can excuse the devil ...

I'll explain very simply: this very devil is litterally guarding the gate of Arelith, saying "you shall not pass!" to most players when they group ... like more than 6/7 PC in an area can mean the end of the game if they use vfx buffs.

How many times have I looked at the Player Portal page and thought "I'm not playing on this or that server now, way too many people" ? Sometimes just looking at the hour and the day means I put away the game thinking "won't work" ... That's because of some very traumatising experiences.
I believe on some not really conscious level I get away from vfx chars as quick as I can very often. It's almost an allergic reaction if you see what I mean
It's to the point I have avoided to use these buffs on my chars as much as possible, too ... I won't even start about all the other problems that buffs generate than just visual and crashes

I can easily imagine many players advocating many vfx got to stay for many reasons.

But from where I stand at this point, it sounds to me as "let's shoot our own feet or we won't be able to walk!!" ... I accuse them to be one of the reasons so many people want to solo adventure the game.

No pity for these devils. Set us free from as many as possible, as soon as possible!

False Life: It's a fairly minor, but long-lasting HP buff. I would not be distraught to see it lose the sparkly red effect.

Honestly I hate Stoneskin with a passion and literally won't apply it unless I absolutely have to. It looks hideous and worst of all it messes up colouring on your outfit after it expires. Granted, Shadowshield does as well but at least Shadowshield looks cool when it's on, stoneskin is just really ugly.

I have no issue with any other vfx's except for Stoneskin.

All of them.