'No Glow' Enchanted Items : V

» Thu Aug 19, 2010 1:01 am

I know it's not earth-shattering, I know it's not deal-breaking, I know there are more important things to worry about - but wont you take pity on me and find a more creative method for animating/highlighting enchanted armour and weaponry?

All other frustrations aside, I just can't seem to cope with the strange plastic wrap appearance of enchanted items in Morrowind and Oblivion. What alternatives could there be? Perhaps runic markings or something?

» Thu Aug 19, 2010 1:12 am

There's a Morrowind mod that makes the enchantments a subtle lightning effect. That's cool. But I love the idea of Runes, it probably will not work with mods too easily though

» Wed Aug 18, 2010 2:17 pm

the glow suran wrap was just poorly done. i wouldnt object to enchanted visual effects (like the mods for it) but not those vanilla had

» Wed Aug 18, 2010 11:00 pm

I agree, the glow could completely unimmerse you since it was so salient.

» Wed Aug 18, 2010 11:45 pm

I agree. The glow must go!

The best alternative, to my mind, is to simply create a unique mesh and/or textures for an enchanted version of any base item. This could include runes, glowing sigils, simple design and colour variations, or any combination of the above. Whether or not that's viable (time- and resource-wise) is probably a question only a game developer can answer accurately.

And considering Skyrim's graphical and technical improvements over Oblivion -- not to mention Morrowind -- even a generic "glow wrap" effect might look a good deal better, and more subtle, than it has previously. Less is more in this case, though, for sure.

» Wed Aug 18, 2010 1:54 pm

I agree. The glow must go!

The best alternative, to my mind, is to simply create a unique mesh and/or textures for an enchanted version of any base item. This could include runes, glowing sigils, simple design and colour variations, or any combination of the above. Whether or not that's viable (time- and resource-wise) is probably a question only a game developer can answer accurately.

And considering Skyrim's graphical and technical improvements over Oblivion -- not to mention Morrowind -- even a generic "glow wrap" effect might look a good deal better, and more subtle, than it has previously. Less is more in this case, though, for sure.

Well create an unique mesh and texture is not simple task and definitely will strike down variability of items, developers mostly will ignore time consuming modeling work
More expected if there will be better shaders on enchanted items, developers already take steps in thats way in Oblivion and can improve it better like in this mods for example
Enchantment and Hit Shaders
http://tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=22147
Visual_Enchantments
http://tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=19396
Soolies Better Enchantment Effects
http://tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=30489

» Wed Aug 18, 2010 3:53 pm

Is this like the green/orange filter in fallout which everybody swore was there but I just couldn't see it ?

» Thu Aug 19, 2010 3:04 am

Possibly have a small glowing symbol on an item.

Or have a specific symbol (no glowing effect) that corresponds to the enchantment. So letters in the elder scrolls alphabet (sorry if that is sacrilege to the lore).
Something like that.

» Wed Aug 18, 2010 7:52 pm

We might already know what they look like... or at least we know what one kind of chanted item looks like.. the staff. Unlike ob staves this time dont have that plasticwrap look.

» Thu Aug 19, 2010 1:00 am

Runes on pieces of armour would be a great idea. As for weapons (which will probably be enchanted for agressive purposes) i think you should only see the weapons glow with fire or lightning when you're using it to attack.

» Wed Aug 18, 2010 2:52 pm

All neon-sparkling, epic lighting effects needs to dissapear, atleast in TES. It ruins the all mundane feel and ruins the TES franchise. Leave the glow to the jRPG's. I LOVE that Skyrim is the way it is, and everything looks promosing.

Edit: I meant the armor, lol. The magic can be glowy, gaudy and sparkly

...moderatly.

» Wed Aug 18, 2010 8:11 pm

Possibly have a small glowing symbol on an item.

Or have a specific symbol (no glowing effect) that corresponds to the enchantment. So letters in the elder scrolls alphabet (sorry if that is sacrilege to the lore).
Something like that.

You probably mean the Daedric Alphabet. Or maybe Dwemer, either would suit Skyrim because we know Dwemer ruins are back in.

» Wed Aug 18, 2010 1:23 pm

I think that enchants on weapons should look like in World of Warcraft, where you get a very noticeable enchantment on the item that has a really cool effect.
But, as far as ARMOR goes, the glow must go. It's really annoying. There must be an alternative.

» Thu Aug 19, 2010 1:09 am

Is there any particular reason we should know an item is magical immediately?

Imagine finding what looks to be a crappy old iron shortsword in the skeletal hands of a dead hero during your explorations into some dark dungeon. You pick it up, thinking you could sell it later, but when you use it to lunge at the draugr behind you it bursts into flames and turns out to be one of the most powerful artifacts you had encountered.

» Thu Aug 19, 2010 3:54 am

Is there any particular reason we should know an item is magical immediately?

Imagine finding what looks to be a crappy old iron shortsword in the skeletal hands of a dead hero during your explorations into some dark dungeon. You pick it up, thinking you could sell it later, but when you use it to lunge at the draugr behind you it bursts into flames and turns out to be one of the most powerful artifacts you had encountered.

that story somehow reminded me of Bilbo finding the ring

» Wed Aug 18, 2010 7:02 pm

i agree i would like to be surprised that some is using and enchanted item rather then have them running around wierd and glowy like

» Wed Aug 18, 2010 8:57 pm

Is there any particular reason we should know an item is magical immediately?

Imagine finding what looks to be a crappy old iron shortsword in the skeletal hands of a dead hero during your explorations into some dark dungeon. You pick it up, thinking you could sell it later, but when you use it to lunge at the draugr behind you it bursts into flames and turns out to be one of the most powerful artifacts you had encountered.

I agree that would be great - and the best thing? A system like this is apparently in the game. I'm sure it was in one of the magazine article threads. I'll try to find it.

Edit: Found it.

-There will be some enchanted weapons which don't tell you what they do - so you'll know it's magical in some way but you won't know how exactly, you'd have to find out yourself - (this would most likely apply to the things you find in dungeons, ie people wouldn't know about it so the PC wouldn't either untill it's used)

Source: http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1167518-official-playstation-magazine/

» Wed Aug 18, 2010 2:22 pm

I agree with OP. Morrowind's enchanted items looked awful. I would never enchant my armor just because it looked that bad. Oblivion's wasn't as bad, but definitely can be improved upon.

» Wed Aug 18, 2010 9:41 pm

did ob do anything right for you guys it seems like theres a never ending stream of cmplaints about ob

» Wed Aug 18, 2010 11:37 pm

I found the look of it rather annoying, so yes I can do without.

» Thu Aug 19, 2010 1:55 am

Definitely needs to go and to be replaced with something else, or with nothing.

» Thu Aug 19, 2010 1:59 am

Is there any particular reason we should know an item is magical immediately?

Imagine finding what looks to be a crappy old iron shortsword in the skeletal hands of a dead hero during your explorations into some dark dungeon. You pick it up, thinking you could sell it later, but when you use it to lunge at the draugr behind you it bursts into flames and turns out to be one of the most powerful artifacts you had encountered.

i can think of how this isn;t the best idea.. if you was to hit someting with a reflect damage ro possibly reflect fire (may be introduced) then you find out its extrmemely powerful by being burnt to death by your own crappy little sword

» Wed Aug 18, 2010 12:51 pm

The "saran wrap" effect was quite annoying. Which is why every install of Oblvion I do includes the "Initial Glow" mod - enchanted gear briefly does the shiny thing the instant you equip it, but then it goes away.

Walking around dripping particle effects like WoW doesn't fit the setting. The constant shiny effect was obnoxious. Something a bit more low-key might be nice.....

» Wed Aug 18, 2010 5:16 pm

did ob do anything right for you guys it seems like theres a never ending stream of cmplaints about ob

OB did everything right it just could have done it BETTER but in the transition to Next-gen most series' first next-gen iterations dropped many features.

» Wed Aug 18, 2010 11:23 am

that story somehow reminded me of Bilbo finding the ring

That's a very nice example actually. An apparently mundane item, actually being one of the most powerful artifacts in existence.

did ob do anything right for you guys it seems like theres a never ending stream of cmplaints about ob

We're not complaining, it's constructive criticism. Oblivion was far superior to Morrowind regarding enchanted items. However you would expect a sequel to be an improvement on it's predecessor - I'm merely highlighting areas which I think could be improved upon. Don't get me wrong, I love Oblvion. My favorite game of all time.