New Null the Gull Setting: Minimal Fx Buffs

[RadiantPhoenix]

Some buffs (e.g.: Ice Shield in Cold Domination) have very intrusive visual effects.

I would like to be able to force those buffs into Minimal Fx mode (or complete invisibility) on my character.

This seems like something that Null the Gull should be able to do for us.

[Psyonico]

If its possible/relatively easy? Sure, but I'm not certain that player A can alter the effects of a power cast by player B.

 

Now, what you *could* do is mod the client side data so that cold shields always show minimal effects *for you*

[Ukase]

One of the few times a player was a jerk to me without any kind of interaction between me and them previously was when I buffed them with my two cold shields on a cold/ice defender, about 4 years ago. I stopped buffing the league, because they're AoE buffs. If anyone had complained about a lack of buffs, I'd have outed them publicly, you betcha. I still haven't seen the tailor because they had the nerve to insist I go out of my way to a tailor and change how my buffs looked so as to not obscure the costume they had that I never saw before or after the buff in question. (As if I was so familiar with the tailor that I'd have known how to do that, lol) So yeah, anything a player can do to keep from pissing on my leg about their costume and my buffs is a good thing. 

Now, fast forward a few years later, I'm a bit more sensitive to people's love of costumes. I don't think I'll ever be any good at making them. But lately, I'll use the RNG to make the costume, and then make a character specifically to fit the costume. Or at least try to. But I am not going to visit a tailor to specifically minimize the fx. An ice shield isn't going to kill you, but it might save you. 
 

[lyra]

that is is only thing i really wish would be possible.to turn off ice optics or minimal fx.

sure we have other strong fx firing but iceshields..i hate those things sorry.

 

[Uun]

There are already Minimal FX options for Ice Shield and Glacial Shield. It's up to the caster to select that option at character creation or at the tailor. I'm normally not one to tell people how to play their character, but the standard shields are really fugly. If you play Cold Domination, be considerate and change them.

[Renatos1023]

I had made this suggestion a while back - make Cold's Ice Shields the minimal FX version by default. That way someone actually has to change it to the bulky ones (which I highly doubt many, if any, would).

 

Or, new idea, simply remove the bulky ones as an option from Cold and have the minimal FX ones as the only option - nobody needs to give out the bulky shields. Everybody wants the +defense but not the ugly graphics. (if someone with Ice Armor wants to run the bulky shields on their char that is totally fine, but you shouldn't be able to put that on someone else IMO.)

 

Edit: adding link to my post from 2024 asking for the same thing.

Edited yesterday at 02:00 AM by Renatos1023

[srmalloy]

5 hours ago, Uun said:

If you play Cold Domination, be considerate and change them.

I see... it's perfectly acceptable to ask characters with friendly-buff Ice defense powers to go out of their way to change the visuals on their powers because you don't like them, but it's just a horrible ебаный imposition to ask someone to not run Group Fly, telling you that it's your responsibility to go out of your way to have Null the Null disable your being affected by it if you don't like it. Having an option with Null to apply minimal FX to buffs on you in your client puts the same onus on you to address your issues. But I suppose that right-clicking the icon for the buff and selecting "cancel" is too much to handle. 

[Triumphant]

18 hours ago, RadiantPhoenix said:

Some buffs (e.g.: Ice Shield in Cold Domination) have very intrusive visual effects.

I would like to be able to force those buffs into Minimal Fx mode (or complete invisibility) on my character.

This seems like something that Null the Gull should be able to do for us.

 

No idea if it's a thing that could be done, but I'm totally here for it!  Those giant ice blocks are some of the goofiest looking effects in the game.  Hate it when I have to look at them on my character.

[Uun]

50 minutes ago, srmalloy said:

I see... it's perfectly acceptable to ask characters with friendly-buff Ice defense powers to go out of their way to change the visuals on their powers because you don't like them, but it's just a horrible ебаный imposition to ask someone to not run Group Fly, telling you that it's your responsibility to go out of your way to have Null the Null disable your being affected by it if you don't like it. Having an option with Null to apply minimal FX to buffs on you in your client puts the same onus on you to address your issues. But I suppose that right-clicking the icon for the buff and selecting "cancel" is too much to handle. 

I have no objection to creating this option with Null, but I don't consider it to be analogous to Group Fly (nor have I ever asked someone not to run Group Fly). 

[TransButterfly]

1 hour ago, srmalloy said:

I see... it's perfectly acceptable to ask characters with friendly-buff Ice defense powers to go out of their way to change the visuals on their powers because you don't like them, but it's just a horrible ебаный imposition to ask someone to not run Group Fly, telling you that it's your responsibility to go out of your way to have Null the Null disable your being affected by it if you don't like it. Having an option with Null to apply minimal FX to buffs on you in your client puts the same onus on you to address your issues. But I suppose that right-clicking the icon for the buff and selecting "cancel" is too much to handle. 

 

False equivalency.

 

You are comparing something that players can block if they do not want it if other players use it to something cannot block if they do not want it when other players use it.

 

I'd be thrilled if I "had to" go to Null the Gull with each of my characters to block those hideous visuals.

 

Also in something like a raid, or an iTrial you often have an insane amount of buff icons at once. There is a lot going on, and tracking down the icons of the visuals you do not want (or in some cases literally causes headaches) is time consuming and not fair to the team.

 

More often than not, they are set to auto-fire and it only grants a few moments of peace anyway.

 

I am of the same mind as RadiantPhoenix. Please give us the option to block it on our side. That way those that enjoy the visuals can enjoy them, and those of us who don't can avoid them.

Edited Friday at 08:00 PM by TransButterfly

[srmalloy]

56 minutes ago, TransButterfly said:

Also in something like a raid, or an iTrial you often have an insane amount of buff icons at once. There is a lot going on, and tracking down the icons of the visuals you do not want (or in some cases literally causes headaches) is time consuming and not fair to the team.

Because in a raid or iTrial, the visuals of the buffs on your character are clearly your primary focus? In the MSRs, iTrials, and events like the Rikti and Nemesis incursions I've been part of, the only time I even notice that my character has an Ice buff on them is if the action slows down enough for my attention to not be occupied by the opponents we're facing; there are enough other special effects going off that the Ice armors are buried under everything else going off. 

 

And I'm supporting adding the ability of Null to have your client display minimal FX to you. Also, Uun's observation that this is not analogous to Group Fly is quite true; it's not possible to cast the Ice armors on another character and disable some of their powers, the way Group Fly can with powers that require the character to be on the ground. 

[RadiantPhoenix]

Just to clarify what I am asking for:

Ingredients:

• 1x Me, playing my character
• 1x Friendly Cold Domination support, played by somebody else, with default customization settings

Steps to reproduce:

• Have the Cold Dom player cast Ice Shield on me

What happens:

• My character is visually completely encased in a glowing block of ice

What I would like to happen:

• My character experiences less visual changes

[Snarky]

On 8/14/2025 at 8:56 PM, Ukase said:

One of the few times a player was a jerk to me without any kind of interaction between me and them previously was when I buffed them with my two cold shields on a cold/ice defender, about 4 years ago. I stopped buffing the league, because they're AoE buffs. If anyone had complained about a lack of buffs, I'd have outed them publicly, you betcha. I still haven't seen the tailor because they had the nerve to insist I go out of my way to a tailor and change how my buffs looked so as to not obscure the costume they had that I never saw before or after the buff in question. (As if I was so familiar with the tailor that I'd have known how to do that, lol) So yeah, anything a player can do to keep from pissing on my leg about their costume and my buffs is a good thing. 

Now, fast forward a few years later, I'm a bit more sensitive to people's love of costumes. I don't think I'll ever be any good at making them. But lately, I'll use the RNG to make the costume, and then make a character specifically to fit the costume. Or at least try to. But I am not going to visit a tailor to specifically minimize the fx. An ice shield isn't going to kill you, but it might save you. 
 

[Ukase]

8 hours ago, RadiantPhoenix said:

What I would like to happen:

• My character experiences less visual changes

Despite my objections to visiting the tailor, it occurred to me this would be some way to use the countless tailor tokens I have - which I would love to give away, but cannot - so I minimized the two shields and frostwork - which can't be minimized, but I made them white, which is the only thing I could think of to do. 

So, I laboriously logged in the 11 characters I have and burned through 11 tailor tokens. I only have another 200 or so to go. This took me more than a half hour because the tailor is a sloppy mess to deal with for me, and there's nothing intuitive about it. I would prefer never to encounter the tailor after creation. That's what the nifty prismatics and monstrous aethers are for. To hide my complete inability to make a suitable costume. 

[ThatGuyCDude]

On 8/14/2025 at 7:43 PM, RadiantPhoenix said:

Some buffs (e.g.: Ice Shield in Cold Domination) have very intrusive visual effects.

I would like to be able to force those buffs into Minimal Fx mode (or complete invisibility) on my character.

This seems like something that Null the Gull should be able to do for us.

Null the Gull is overworked (Null's text tree is overfilled).  We need a new ridiculously overpowered incarnate animal NPC for new settings.

I recommend a new Pocket D character Naught the Ocelot, and this can be her first setting!
 

"Can you tone down buff graphics on me?"
"Can you reset buff graphics to default on me?"

[Snarky]

11 hours ago, ThatGuyCDude said:

Null the Gull is overworked (Null's text tree is overfilled).  We need a new ridiculously overpowered incarnate animal NPC for new settings.

I recommend a new Pocket D character Naught the Ocelot, and this can be her first setting!
 

"Can you tone down buff graphics on me?"
"Can you reset buff graphics to default on me?"

I like this idea. Many buffs (most!) are annoying to me.  Including build ups, inspirations, and Domination power.  

[Skyhawke]

On 8/16/2025 at 6:09 AM, Snarky said:

 

That's a water Blaster, not an ice Defender.