Thread: Disable Weapons Glow

Originally Posted by Galahadur

Perfection would come with allowing the client to choose between no efects, the gentle effects found in non-LI weapons and the neon light sabers we have right now. :-)

P.S. Thanks for listening!

quoting for emphasis and support!

I am also squarely in the camp of people who actually LOVED the subtle glow, lightning and fire effects found on "special" lvl 50 and lower weapons.
The "can not even see my LI because it is wrapped in neon plastic" is clearly not playing in the same league

If I may borrow this screenshot posted by Jadzi..

Originally Posted by Jadzi

I don't dislike 'near enemy' glow, but the lines of energy running up and down the blade is what I don't like.

LMAO @ THEIR coming in here calling the request for weapon glow removal a "Nitpick".

ROFL!

THEY BLOODY WELL ADDED WEAPON GLOW AFTER WE PLAYED THE GAME FOR NEARLY A YEAR WITHOUT IT.

Welcome to the Post-SoA LoTRO... money grubbing > gameplay coding.

Originally Posted by Vastin

Ah, I see now. Should have read more carefully. So for the most part it's not the 'glow' part that concerns people, so much as the 'My weapon is completely cocooned in blazing electric arcs at all times' that's making it an issue.

That's a more interesting challenge. For the most part, subtle effects and detailed textures only show up in screenshots, such as you folks trade on the boards. In game, with things moving around very quickly and against much noisier backgrounds, subtlety and detail have an annoying tendency to disappear altogether.

Alas, I'm no artist, and hold little sway in that area, though I'll see if I can poke around for ideas on this end. We have a lot of stuff going on right now with Rohan underway, so don't hold your breath or anything.

Thanks for digging deeper into what some of us want, Vastin.

Also, please realize that some of us actually look at our equipment a lot while standing still. We can be shopping/checking quest rewards for new cosmetic looks. Or we can be engaged in roleplay conversations. I know I regularly take time to savour the artwork in this game. Just standing still in a nice spot out in the world and going 360° round my character is also something I just love to do for immersion.

Like others have said, a slider for this particular saran-wrap LI-effect that goes as far as a toggle (total off), would work. An entirely different effect might also work, but then you get the eye of the beholder issue.

Originally Posted by Vastin

In game, with things moving around very quickly and against much noisier backgrounds, subtlety and detail have an annoying tendency to disappear altogether.

I beg to differ.. these effects stick out like a sore thumb! ..and there are threads dating way back requesting this be addressed, we have already been holding our breaths too long!

I agree with doing away with the perpetual LI glow. I would also not mind seeing more variety in LI weapon designs.

The glow effects are the most jarring when you're just walking around in cities or the landscape. They stick out like a sore thumb contrasting with the generally muted colours around you. It's actually worse in motion than in screenshots due to animations.

While I wouldn't miss them if they were gone entirely, I'd also be happy if they only turned on in combat. That'd be a good compromise.

When I first started my Lore-master, I used to love getting new staffs (staves?), because each one's design was so unique, and just flat-out cool. My LM's now level 75, and he hasn't had a non-legendary staff since level 46 or so, which would be about 2 months ago. Honestly, until I stumbled upon this thread, I had forgotten that LM staffs had different appearances... It's making me kind of sad to think about it, honestly, because of all the potential awesomeness that I've missed by having a giant glowing lollipop for weapon for the past 2 months/25 levels. I don't have LOTRO installed on the computer I'm on at the moment, but as soon as I log in later, I'm going to check out all my legendary staffs and see if I can maybe play with the graphics settings and try to figure out what each looks like under all that bubble wrap... Do legendary staffs even have unique appearances? Or are they all the same? Okay, now I'm excited to check them out. Perhaps if I squint hard enough at the blurriness...

Oh, I've only been playing for a year or so, so I didn't know that Turbine actually had implemented weapons that glow near their favored enemies or whatever, a la Sting. That sounds so amazing. Gahhh!!! Removing that damned translucent force bubble just made the top of my wish list; please, Turbine, make it happen!

Originally Posted by Vastin

Please forgive my ironometer sort of going off in this thread.

Of all the ways in which we end up having to fudge and twist the lore to fit around the needs of a game (which are at times considerable), this is probably the least deserving nit to pick.

Please bear in mind that Tolkien all but invented the glowing sword, and certainly was the foremost popularizer of the concept in modern fiction, given that a great many of the weapons and doodads in his books give off some kind of glow or palpable aura, and some are even described as having flashy effects when they strike. Taking a cursory glance at the notable weapons we come across in the books, I'd say the majority of them appear to have VFX of some sort.

I don't mind people being sticklers about the lore - I do a fair bit of it myself - but I'd at least stick to the parts that deserve it.

"Oh, its just a small ketchup stain on the shirt. It's barely the size of a dime, what's the big deal?"

"Trust me, I'm an expert. You're just being silly."

Originally Posted by Faithknight

"Oh, its just a small ketchup stain on the shirt. It's barely the size of a dime, what's the big deal?"

"Trust me, I'm an expert. You're just being silly."

Talk about arriving late to the party... Vastin was misinformed on that post, he thought we were talking about the slayer glow when our weapons came close to certains types of enemies. Later we informed him that we were unhappy about the glow-ooze that covers LI's and that slayer glow is just fine.

Originally Posted by Theophilos

When I first started my Lore-master, I used to love getting new staffs (staves?), because each one's design was so unique, and just flat-out cool. My LM's now level 75, and he hasn't had a non-legendary staff since level 46 or so, which would be about 2 months ago. Honestly, until I stumbled upon this thread, I had forgotten that LM staffs had different appearances... It's making me kind of sad to think about it, honestly, because of all the potential awesomeness that I've missed by having a giant glowing lollipop for weapon for the past 2 months/25 levels. I don't have LOTRO installed on the computer I'm on at the moment, but as soon as I log in later, I'm going to check out all my legendary staffs and see if I can maybe play with the graphics settings and try to figure out what each looks like under all that bubble wrap... Do legendary staffs even have unique appearances? Or are they all the same? Okay, now I'm excited to check them out. Perhaps if I squint hard enough at the blurriness...

Oh, I've only been playing for a year or so, so I didn't know that Turbine actually had implemented weapons that glow near their favored enemies or whatever, a la Sting. That sounds so amazing. Gahhh!!! Removing that damned translucent force bubble just made the top of my wish list; please, Turbine, make it happen!

Don't bother looking, after 65 all other legendary staves have the same look till you craft a 3rd, 2nd or 1st ager. One of the reasons I don't want to decon my 65 2nd age staff is I like the butterfly look better than te generic 65-75 3rd age look. Hopefully Turbine has heard us and is working on something(cosmetic looks for LIs).

For a 'legendary' weapon (I could get into the game mechanics there but that's not the point), I agree that I love the slayer glow. And I also agree with the others that the ooze/plastic wrap/goop covering the weapons is just over the top and annoying.

Also, some of the legendary weapons are awful in cosmetic appearance if you can make them out despite the goop. I will eternally hate the Filikul weapons, but even some others grind on my nerves like the butterfly LM staff (I felt like the Monarch from Venture Bros.), or some of the golden warhammers that looked bigger than the character.

The thing to remember (and this cat may no longer reside in the bag) is that this is MIDDLE EARTH. Magic in this world is SUBTLE, even in the case of mighty legendary weapons. Even the One Ring just looked like a simple gold ring until it was exposed to fire (and even then, it didn't glow with electric currents, it just had some glowing lettering on it), and it was possibly the most powerful thing in the world.

Subtle. This isn't WoW, EQ or DDO.

Originally Posted by Faithknight

"Oh, its just a small ketchup stain on the shirt. It's barely the size of a dime, what's the big deal?"

"Trust me, I'm an expert. You're just being silly."

This is it ^^^ and it's a white shirt to boot.

Something that was mentioned in another thread that would fix this: Cosmetic weapons (and shields).

I could cope with cosmetic weapon slots as an alternative! But I would prefer they actually realise how ugly these weapons look and how damaging they are to the immersion of the game, and for once... prioritise updating/fixing some old content. Some people would prefer revamped current content than more bugged new content.

Just to add another voice of support to this thread, what I can see of my third age guardian hammer looks beautiful but I can only (sort of) make it out under the saran wrap glow if I go into the dressing room and zoom in as much as possible...and squint. In-game it looks ridiculous. It's a crime to cover such a beautiful hammer in a bright white bubble of suck.

edit: oh, and as for cosmetic weapons/shields - yes please!

Sadly, nothing of note regarding this issue in the latest patch notes. Sad face.


Still not giving up hope though!

VERY /signed. I'd love to see the "forcefield" glittering gone. Some swords look like thin, radioactive lollipops or icicles. Sure, a flash of flame on striking, or even the slayer glow is nice, but ALL the time full-on crackling and glowing? Pretty please, let me at least toggle it off if I want! :X

"Radioactive lollipops".

Yepp that about sums it up. There should at least be a client option to display out-of-combat radiation.

Originally Posted by Tiamo

The thing to remember (and this cat may no longer reside in the bag) is that this is MIDDLE EARTH. Magic in this world is SUBTLE, even in the case of mighty legendary weapons. Even the One Ring just looked like a simple gold ring until it was exposed to fire (and even then, it didn't glow with electric currents, it just had some glowing lettering on it), and it was possibly the most powerful thing in the world.

Subtle. This isn't WoW, EQ or DDO.

I agree completely with this. Subtle things are in most cases the best. When something sticks out so that everybody notices it, it's just a gimmick to get attention to the game. The best in-game design desicions are subtle, that you actually have to be looking for them to notice. things that stick out get old very fast.

If nothing else, please make a toggle for the effect. Even an .ini tweak would do perfectly fine. Then it wouldn't need excessive testing and would be on the responsibility of the users themselves.

/sarcasm on
People are leaving SW to return to their "old" games because they are fed up with lightsabers... They return to LotRO to play with their old lightsabers instead... ;-P
/sarcasm off

I feel sorry for the artists having their work covered up. With the latest weapon-bouncing bug I've actually seen it for the first time.

It's funny, in the early days of the game, many were crying for more effects and visual 'wow'. This is also when everybody was wearing sienna-, umber-, green-, olive-, or gold-dyed clothing.

I don't mind the pretty lights in the game currently, but I would like an option to toggle them off if desired.

I'll agree on this. At least give us the option to disable them at will. I don't really notice them but I would much rather see them on mystical weapons such as Staffs instead of a wooden spear. He he.

I rather like the glow of the minstrel starter LI sword, it's very subtle and you have to look closely to notice it. Some of them though are very outlandish. Even worse is when the glow and the weapon don't move together right. Or sometimes the glow is longer than the weapon.

Some kind of update on this would be really nice. It's the single most annoying thing about Lotro, and I truly hate it.

Soon in the Lotro store! The option to reduce weapon glow effects with a nifty slider! Only 1995 TP! Yes it's this expansive because it's not a consumable, but permanently on your account!

Why? It is gone now.

What's gone now?

Every Legendary Weapon still look like radioactive lollipops.

My captains 75 2H sword no longer glows. My hunter's 1H axe still does.

My Hunter's bow looks like a 90s candyravers electric glowstick.

It seems to be partly fixed only. My two-handed sword has stopped glowing out of combat (I'd prefer it taken off completely and not be forced to watch the horror in combat too), although I have no idea how higher-level weapons looks since I won't reach the new cap for quite a while. But every other weapon on every other player still glows like a plasma ball, which means it still smacks down the immersion

I will probably keep using a generic weapon that's not a LI for a while longer. It doesnt deal as much damage or give as much extra stats, but I couldn't care less if it takes a few seconds longer to kill something as long as the sword actually looks like a sword. Hopefully this gets fixed for real some time, or even better: cosmetic weapons becomes a reality at the same time.

Originally Posted by Nakiami

My captains 75 2H sword no longer glows. My hunter's 1H axe still does.

Then I suspect that the Captain's Sword not glowing is just a bug, and not a feature change.

However, it's a long shot but maybe they're testing the waters for removing the effect for all weapons? Seeing how the community responds to one weapon changed before changing them all?

Yeah, pretty unlikely. Otherwise the glow effect would have been added the same way.

I already made 3 threads about it, no one ever gave attention (maybe because I posted on the 'suggestion' forum?)

BUT /signed

It would be aewsome to see it happen!

I said it before and I'll say it again:

its UGLY, please give us an option to turn it off.

/signed

Please remove this ugly plastic glow veneer on our LIs.
The damage glow, and the proximity glow are fine (although they would also benefit from toning down), but the plastic veneer really should go

Originally Posted by Gaeralagos

It seems to be partly fixed only. My two-handed sword has stopped glowing out of combat (I'd prefer it taken off completely and not be forced to watch the horror in combat too), although I have no idea how higher-level weapons looks since I won't reach the new cap for quite a while. But every other weapon on every other player still glows like a plasma ball, which means it still smacks down the immersion

I will probably keep using a generic weapon that's not a LI for a while longer. It doesnt deal as much damage or give as much extra stats, but I couldn't care less if it takes a few seconds longer to kill something as long as the sword actually looks like a sword. Hopefully this gets fixed for real some time, or even better: cosmetic weapons becomes a reality at the same time.

This is completely the route I'm going to start going down. And not using a legendary weapon just because it's really that hideous.

Or I might just unsub until they fix it.

is ther a switch for it somewhere?

The 2H swords of my guardian and champion don't glow anymore, but the 1H sword of my guardian still does.

There is no switch, that's mostly what people are asking for.

The electric neon radioactive lollipop look seems to have disappeared off certain two handed weapons. We're guessing this is a bug rather than being by design.

It seems that the glow effect is very sticky and does not leave some weapons easily.

My Lore-Master has a beautiful wooden staff on which I can see all details, no glowing.
My husband's Lore Master has a staff of unidentified nature and it is still glowing.

Both staffs are lvl75 2nd ages.

(My captain's sword has no glowing now. I will check the 1h/2h guardian weapons later today.)