please revert holy (and others) graphic

[Coldin]

Then I'd tell you about my Sword of Shadows, Chain Lightning, Blade Barrier, and Wounding Rapier of Puncturing, and show you exactly what happens when I kill monsters with them: they fall down and stay down, and keep laying there until enough time has passed that the group has probably moved on to out-of-sight.

The idea that DDO's fire, holy, and PK deaths need to vaporize corpses to maintain framerate is transparently false.


That's a reasonably-sounding explanation which is correct for some games, but which is completely and demonstrably false for DDO.

Thing is A_D, I'm sure it is a concern for performance. Why else would corpses vaporize after a set amount of time to begin with?

If the corpses are going to vanish anyway, why not add a little flair to it while the players are there.

[Angelus_dead]

The death effects from special weapons and spells are rather cool to see in my opinion. Sure, they aren't necessarily fitting with how the spell is supposed to work, but then they aren't really making the game less enjoyable.

Wrong. They're not cool- they are ugly and cheap-looking animations that are almost objectively worse than the alternative.

It's not so much a question of D&D rules accuracy as a matter of artwork and verisimilitude. For the victim of some damaging attack to be immediately and totally erased from the world does not make sense unless the attack was something of exceptional power which could be expected to turn stone walls into powder.

It was lame in 1960 when Kirk's phaser evaporated a klingon, and it's lame in 2008 when DDO's +1 flame sword evaporates a hobgoblin.

For a little +1d6 fire damage to completely annihilate a 13-ton stone giant so that 2 seconds later we don't have any clue it even existed is just bad art design.

[Angelus_dead]

If the corpses are going to vanish anyway, why not add a little flair to it while the players are there.

Because it looks bad.

Look, have you seen a fantasy movie like Lord of the Rings, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, or Star Wars? Characters in all those movies carry swords that are holy or magical in some way. But do enemies vaporize when killed with them?

No, not unless the creature was some kind of ghost, robot, or creation held together by magic. A mundane enemy killed with a magic weapon leaves as much of the corpse behind as it consistent with the demonstrated power of that weapon, and why? Because it looks good.

[Coldin]

Wrong. They're not cool- they are ugly and cheap-looking animations that are almost objectively worse than the alternative.

It's not so much a question of D&D rules accuracy as a matter of artwork and verisimilitude. For the victim of some damaging attack to be immediately and totally erased from the world does not make sense unless the attack was something of exceptional power which could be expected to turn stone walls into powder.

It was lame in 1960 when Kirk's phaser evaporated a klingon, and it's lame in 2008 when DDO's +1 flame sword evaporates a hobgoblin.

For a little +1d6 fire damage to completely annihilate a 13-ton stone giant so that 2 seconds later we don't have any clue it even existed is just bad art design.

That's purely difference of opinion. I think the special death animations look cool, you don't.

Though, I will admit, the holy/pure good deaths look a little odd (and could be improved). But Chaos, Law, Fire, Acid, Lightning, Ice, ect are all a satisfying end to a monster.

[Dracolich]

Because it looks bad.

Look, have you seen a fantasy movie like Lord of the Rings, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, or Star Wars? Characters in all those movies carry swords that are holy or magical in some way. But do enemies vaporize when killed with them?
[/b].

I could have sworn Obi Wan vaporized when Vader cut him in two almost instantly in fact

Ok aside from it not being in the D&D core rules. Do you think anyone actually joining the game now knows those old rules? Everyone who was a fan of D&D and liked MMOs has either played this game and is still here or has moved on. Things vaporizing in twinkling dust isnt a game breaker for many people I am sure.

[Arkat]

In my opinion, I think the vapoization death effects (from fire, cold, acid, or whatever) look cool. I like them. I think they add flavor to the game.

[TreknaQudane]

i Could Have Sworn Obi Wan Vaporized When Vader Cut Him In Two Almost Instantly In Fact :d.

Lmfao

[Angelus_dead]

I could have sworn Obi Wan vaporized when Vader cut him in two almost instantly in fact

Yes, of course. That was one of my points: it wasn't a mundane death, because his destruction in that way was to demonstrate that he wasn't fully dead at all, and instead was continuing on as a blue energy ghost.

[parvo]

You may notice in Module 8 that the effect animations on weapons are much more random then they currently are on live, and that they play very similar to how you remember them to.

That will be nice.

[salmag]

I could have sworn Obi Wan vaporized when Vader cut him in two almost instantly in fact

Ok aside from it not being in the D&D core rules. Do you think anyone actually joining the game now knows those old rules? Everyone who was a fan of D&D and liked MMOs has either played this game and is still here or has moved on. Things vaporizing in twinkling dust isnt a game breaker for many people I am sure.

Obi-Wan did NOT vaporize. He merged with 'the Force.'

[RTN]

I still think giving us the option of turning off the cloud effects on just weapons would be nice. I think the way weapons look when you're swimming (effects are only on the blade itself) is the best.

[Kaish]

It was lame in 1960 when Kirk's phaser evaporated a klingon, and it's lame in 2008 when DDO's +1 flame sword evaporates a hobgoblin.

For a little +1d6 fire damage to completely annihilate a 13-ton stone giant so that 2 seconds later we don't have any clue it even existed is just bad art design.

I agree with you on the fact that death in DDO is poorly done. Sadly, I think they did it that way to make it less bloody because we have children playing the game. (They are not supposed to be there, but they are), so to make it ok with their parents, who are, after all, paying the bill, the make them disappear.. no arm done.

It is really sad.

[Solmage]

[nom]

It's possible the death effects do not fit the D&D rules perfectly. However, if you imagine the holy damage to be pure divine energy, then that consuming the body makes some sense, as it was that divine energy that robbed it of existence.

Of course PK should leave a body. Technically, so should finger of death. But frankly, it looks cool to see stuff SNUFFED out of existance, and the spell does say it SNUFFS the LIFE out of something, so it's not that great of a stretch.

Now, for my actual point: Whether the graphic death effects are nice or not is strictly a matter of taste. I love finger deaths, love PK deaths (except I want a body there), strongly dislike slay living/destruction (because they look to me too similar to each other) like holy deaths, love light deaths, etc.

However, would I love it even more if the game were more shall we say, graphical? Flying vorpal'd heads, etc? YES!! But I can live without it.

[MissErres]

mmmmmm.....popcorn!

*steals a handful of Doc's popcorn...

*hands her a glass of wine...

[Josh]

[quote=Angelus_dead;1872018]It was lame in 1960 when Kirk's phaser evaporated a klingon[/quote]

Totally off topic, but how about how they "explained" how the 1960's era Klingons look so different from the later versions? Augment virus FTW!

On topic, I have to agree. For me it does kill some of the immersion of the game. I'd like to see roasted corpses from fire myself.

[Garth_of_Sarlona]

Holy Hijack Batman!

...but thanks for the good news Thoon!

Garth

[Lillitheris]

Angelus_dead... I'm not even gonna say anything.

Okay maybe this: you might wanna work on your social skills a bit. Responding 'Wrong.' to someone's opinion?

ummm.... ummmm....

Match.com FTW if the game avatars are sexy to you ya might want to look in the personal columns for some RL fun

just a joke not meant to be an attack

Dark

I didn't mean 'sexy' as in 'I get sexual pleasure from watching a pixelated figure on a lcd screen'. Sexy, just because that's the word that describes the old human female stance best

And thanks for the tip, if the night clubs around here run out of women, I'll go check that site out!

[Angelus_dead]

Okay maybe this: you might wanna work on your social skills a bit. Responding 'Wrong.' to someone's opinion?

The idea that there's no such thing as an incorrect artistic evaluation is a dangerous myth. If you don't know that...

Here, let me demonstrate a little:
"Jar Jar Bink's goofy adventurism really saved Episode 1 from being a wasteful rehash of the original trilogy"
Do you or do you not understand how it is possible for some artistic evaluations to be incorrect?

[Redcoil]

And the anarchic and its burst affects from the circling polkadots was awesome.

[krud]

Though, I will admit, the holy/pure good deaths look a little odd (and could be improved). But Chaos, Law, Fire, Acid, Lightning, Ice, ect are all a satisfying end to a monster.

agreed, I especially like the ice animation. I thought that was so cool when I first started playing. I looked forever for a frost weapon after seeing that. Lawful/chaotic animations are pretty good too, but with the fire and acid animation, the only time I can tell they go off is by the crackling/sizzling sound. i don't seem to notice the animation.

As far as the creatutres vaporizing, ...meh. kinda low on my list of concerns.