Any chance the eye graphics could be removed from Ultravision, See invisibility, True seeing and Clairvoyance?

These are in my opinoin spells where the effect gives them away. I Know UV still has it and my guess is the others do too but don't quote me.

Easy enough to do. Sounds reasonable to me.

If metagaming the spell effects is our concern, then I suggest to remove the elemental protection effect (wall of golden/white sparks) too; while you can see the effect of see invisibility and true seeing in the character description window, the elemental protection gives away only as "damage resistance" and the sparks make it really easy for anyone to know what DR exactly there is and modify their actions accordingly.

IC-wise, it is a pity you cannot reasonably make the spell effects optional, to show or not to show; I can imagine a spellguard patrolling with circling eyes would be more intimidating than without them, while on the covert missions / stealthy investigations the absence of the outward effect will be indeed much more useful.

Done and done. Any others?

Also, metagaming isn't the only concern. Duration VFXs cause a bit of lag, and can slow down scene rendering substantially.

frame rate wise, the elemental protections carry the heaviest hit on the computer. Other than that I feel the rest of the spell effects should stay, since there's no detect magic and so on to be able to tell if someone has spells on them. I'd have preferred to see the /elements spells changed to a simpler graphic but kept it so you can tell if someone is buffed to the sky or not but it doesn't matter.

If doable, SF and GSF in divination allowing you to see all the buff graphics while the non-diviner PCs. would not see them, that would be nice and useful. :wink: Diviners are more than likely to have the detect magic capabilities rather well developed. From reading the FR magic-heavy novels, magical shields and mantles too are supposed to be invisible, but yeah what-is-not-canon-does-not-count.

I think it would be good for any spells that don't logically provide any appearance change as an essential feature of the spell (e.g. Stoneskin), had their Durational VFX removed.

And Eraamion, that's quite a nice suggestion, however, there is always the examine command anyway, so the metagaming and IC side of this suggestion is sort of null and void.

You only stand to gain a reduction in lag from this change, because metagamers will just use the examine command if they see no visual buffs.

It's a one way thing though, removing All spell graphics, since there's no way to detect them

Ultravision and Clairvoyance/Clairaudience visuals removed, belatedly. See Invisibility and True Seeing visuals should already be out.

Could we remove the spell visuals on the protection from alignment spells also? That's the only one I use that I have noticed, and little sparkly dots flying above one's head are pretty annoying.

Sassy Storm Could we remove the spell visuals on the protection from alignment spells also? That's the only one I use that I have noticed, and little sparkly dots flying above one's head are pretty annoying.

I agree, at least with pro. from evil. Looks kinda irritating.

Pro. from good, on the other hand, looks wicked.

Little bubbles still float over my PC's head when I cast "Shield of Faith".

wcsherry Little bubbles still float over my PC's head when I cast "Shield of Faith".

Fixed.

Any others?

I don't think "Sheild" has been changed. That annoying bubble should probally go.

Annoying? I think it looks cool, and I'd think twice before attacking someone with his own force field.

The "force bubble" created by the Shield spell has been removed.

Aww that one looked good :(

leave some of the higher level spell effects on, may as well as less people will be casting them anyway.

Is there a way to give you a message when a spell has run out? It's difficult to watch the icons in the upper-right section of your HUD. And it is even more so annoying to cast a Gate spell when your Protection from Evil has run out.

(I know, what an example, but it's a goal I'm aiming at ^_^)

So in conclusion, is it doable to put a message in your combat log so you can see what spell effects have run out?

Magic Circle of Protection versus Good. I haven't check of Magic Circle of Protection versus Evil, but the former still has a visual effect, and the latter probably as well.

Good, for once, I think it should, you need to know roughly where the area is, and it looks nice. The spells that need them removing have been delt with. More powerful spells should Look powerful (and need dispelling by angry spellguard accordingly)

Magic circle of protection might be one that could be left in, if only the circle part can be. It increases RP a bit becuase the one who has it tends to obviously be a leader. Players both IC and OOC tend to want that bonus effect so they stay close and are more apt to follow instructions.

And as of yesterday, the effect was still in for circle vs. evil.

I hate the magic circle vs. evil effect. That said, if it stays is it possible to at least remove the sound effect from walking into the circle? In a large group shifting in and out of the circle, it becomes all you can hear until the spell ends.

Compromise, make the magic circles uses the white circle instead from the no sound spell. That will then not be biased to any allignment visually. Maybe change the sparkles from sparkles to something else equally unbiased such as the effect used from Mind Blank, which is like an ioun stone around the head.

The magic circle gfx effect also disappears at transition, although the spell effect continues to work. Maybe that could be fixed.

I am so sorry Wiggyboy.

Freedom of Movement has a visual effect, still.

Do we really have to remove Every spellgraphic going?

The ones that are Common and create frame rate lag are gone - Elemental resistances. Sometimes it is nice to have a little "lookgood" factor when visually, alot of things are limited.

on the magic circle thing, I still vote "white" for both circle types.

If that's your call, fish, but wouldn't you be annoyed when someone decides against using Hold Person on you now, and goes for Blindness/ Deafness instead? Normally, you don't see a graphic effect at all, and with all the metagame-info from examing character gone, I'd like to do this completely.

Let's get rid of everything you normally wouldn't see.

Freedom of Movement visual effect will only last for one round now.

Thank you.