Just up to my old tricks, working on some better pfx for two skills… Been doing a lot of skill work this week. Will let you know how it turns out once I figure out whether I’m happy with the new skills.
Trying to get a better texture library for making pfx this time around because I’ve learned that so much of what enables you to make good pfx is the textures. It is a frustrating process though as I find things that seem like they should make awesome pfx texture often look like total fail when you get them in the editor. I’ve gotten a little better at guessing what will work but it is still a lot of trial and error.
Once I have a good foundation of textures, making the actual effects should go much faster.
Just remember to go easy on the buff effects! Especially for buffs you can keep up nonstop, I always get turned off from using it a bit if it has an elaborate effect.
A lot of arpg’s are guilty of this, and especially Torchlight. Some of the shields makes it literally hard to see what’s going in melee range.
Woot! That was something that kinda bugged me about TQ’s PFX editor. There were really only a few textures that could be utilized well for spells. The lightning, the smoke, and the various orbs. Everything else just kinda … looked weird.
I’m fine with it if it’s for a short duration or powerful spell or something, but I’m not fond of it when it’s stuff that you will always have going, almost like a passive. It feels a bit pointless to get cool looking gear when your character is basically a walking bubble anyway.
It feels a bit pointless to get cool looking gear when your character is basically a walking bubble anyway.
This.
Preferably, the PFX will be noticeable, but not distracting or glaring – special attention to detail should be taken where effects may overlap each other. If you have, for example, two buffs/auras which have a graphic centered around the PC (player character, toon, hero – pick your poison) they should each be noticeable individually without too much overlap. This gets pretty tricky when you’re high level and/or playing with friends; you may have half a dozen or more PFX going on at once. I agree with suggestions of powerful spells having more visually striking effects, since they are normally of shorter duration and less frequently used. A constant-effect aura, for example, could be a subtle set of light blue rings around the torso, or a small object orbiting the head, whereas an invulnerability shield could be a reflective/silvery bubble which only lasts several seconds.
