Like a lot of folks, I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with particle effects. On my superhero toons, I love them; they’re part of my costume and my spells. And yet, in some other MMOs I play, they can become an annoying eyesore, particularly anything with a distracting pulse effect. Gather enough pulsating toons together in one spot – say, at a banker – and I get a serious headache, even though I would happily preside over and eight-person dungeon crawl with dozens of effects shooting off and demand more.
Well, Ship of Heroes is trying to appeal to the “more” part of my brain, as this week it parted the curtain on Heroic Games’ revamp of costume auras in the current test build.
“The number of auras available has just increased by 500%, going from the original 5 to 30,” the studio says. “There are auras to satisfy every taste. Some are subtle with a gentle movement; others surround the character in a fast moving and wide reaching whirlwind. Combining the aura with a cleverly selected costume can enhance its visual impact and help you tell your character story visually. Characters can look good with and without auras. It all depends on what story you want to tell with each avatar you create. But having a hero that can appear to be constantly giving fiery bursts, or one that is surrounded by swirling energy particles moving in multiple different patterns can enhance your visual storytelling, or really help your roleplay.”
As in Ship of Heroes’ inspiration-MMO City of Heroes, auras are applied in the character creation toolset and can indeed be customized by color. Sparkly!
