Hey TL, I wanted to get everyone's opinion on this. I've been playing a lot of HOTS, and watching GSTL, but one thing about HOTS that really bugs me is the art assets for blinding cloud. Which look out of place, and uncharacteristic of blizzards high quality of graphics.
Compare for this the following clips of dark swarm and blinding cloud Dark swarm -
Blinding cloud -
Notice how dark swarm has multiple layers to the cloud. It spreads from all corners of the cloud, and looks natural. Now compare that to blinding cloud, which spreads from a singular location (the center) and moves outward. It looks to be visually represented by 1 flat plane instead of multiple as seen in dark swarm.
I would guess that this is the result of trying to make blinding cloud more spectator and player friendly, but it loses that feel and appeal of dark swarm. Dark swarm on the other hand is almost the extreme opposite. Its very concealing and blocks you from seeing nearly anything under the cloud, whereas blinding cloud hangs around the halfway up point on traditional units such as marines, zealots and such, and is a flat plane allowing u to see the units in the cloud.
It feels like there has to be some kind of middle ground between bland and indistinguishable.
I doubt at this late in development anything would get changed. But what does everyone feel of blinding clouds graphics? Is it fine? Is it bad? Do you like it? Tell me what you think, as I'm really curious if its just me or if anyone else shares similar feelings.
How about you compare Disruption web effect to the Blinding Cloud. Because Disruption web is basically the same then Blinding Cloud. While Dark swarm is something different.
I personally like the effect, because you can see which units are affected. (units that are hit have their own effect) That gives the effect a look as if its a living cloud covering the ground and enveloping everything inside of it.
On February 24 2013 06:39 FeyFey wrote: How about you compare Disruption web effect to the Blinding Cloud. Because Disruption web is basically the same then Blinding Cloud. While Dark swarm is something different.
This isn't about balance but rather how easy it is to identify if it is actually on the field.
IMO it's not that noticeable. IMO a spell that can be game changing needs to have high visability to the point of if you see a screenshot of the battle in progress, the first thing / most distinct quality of the picture should be the AoE effect
storm, fungal, dark swarm all satisfy this requirement, but blinding cloud doesn't.
On February 24 2013 06:49 Hokay wrote: I think it looks muddy, especially on a streams. I prefer a more profound color & presence when I see this spell spammed.
Never thought of it that way. It really does look muddy. Its sort of just like a flowing ooze of green from the epicenter. Not very graphically appealing or easy to pickout.
On February 24 2013 06:39 FeyFey wrote: How about you compare Disruption web effect to the Blinding Cloud. Because Disruption web is basically the same then Blinding Cloud. While Dark swarm is something different.
I personally like the effect, because you can see which units are affected. (units that are hit have their own effect) That gives the effect a look as if its a living cloud covering the ground and enveloping everything inside of it.
As Nomyx said Storm, fungal, dark swarm are all very visible, but blinding cloud is not. I agree with you that its easy to pick out which units are affected, unlike dark swarm, but the spell itself is very difficult to pick out. As hokay said its very muddy. It just looks like a flowing ooze of green, which is not easy to pick out out at all. When storm of fungal is cast your eye is sort of drawn towards it. Its very profound and noteworthy, whereas blinding cloud is just kind of there. It blends itself in to well.
Agreed fully. Spell itself is fine but art wise it simply doesn't stand out in any way, which is bad. Maybe change the color to orange, for old times sake! :D
I've seen vids where I didn't immediately notice when blinding cloud was thrown down. For such an important spell, I agree that some more visibility would be nice.
They probably can just change the colour of it into something with more visibility, like orange or yellow, if they don't want to change the art itself.
I've said this before, but zerg has way too many green-ish spells that are very hard to see on the screen. Switching the colours on one or two would be much better visually. The visibility is pretty terrible particularly on dark maps/ grass terrain. I have the same problem with the hydra and muta attack animation.
On February 24 2013 07:36 Falling wrote: I've said this before, but zerg has way too many green-ish spells that are very hard to see on the screen. Switching the colours on one or two would be much better visually. The visibility is pretty terrible particularly on dark maps/ grass terrain. I have the same problem with the hydra and muta attack animation.
true story, 3 years later and i still can't fully tell where fungals are. rely on which units are moving, which aren't, and hp bars
I always thought dark swarm had pretty bad art for visibility... Too hard to see what was underneath.
The way the blinding cloud works on the other hand is pretty clear. The circle itself it pretty clear and then each unit affected will also have a bit of cloud attached to it. I like it.
But maybe the color is a bit dull... Fungal is a nice bright green, at least. Kinda seems like there's too much green in general, though, so maybe it should be purple or orange or yellow or something.
I'll agree that its way to difficult to see. When you are in a large battle often times you are quick glancing around and you don't notice that your units have been rendered effectively useless.
I agree. As a spectator you can instantly see FF, storm, EMP, PDD, vortex, fungal and transfuse but it is hard to see blinding cloud especially on jungle/green maps. I don't think it should be orange but maybe a vibrant green or purple? They are the colour that Blizz seems to want us to associate with Zerg.