remove the universal particle effects

You know what I'm talking about. Whenever someone says something, those little white cloudy particle effect thingies go around em. It happens when objects say something too. I know this is a very small deal, but is there a need for it? I even think i notice a bit of a stutter(frameratewise) whenever this happens. I could be imagining things though. Regardless, I would like to see those effects and the default collision effects go away too. You know those yellow/orangish sparks that fly when ever anything bumps something else. Scripters can easily add effects of their own if they choose to, So take out the default ones, they're annoying.

i second this

Atleast make this a toggable option, some people may want it in so they can tell who just typed. I find it is also annoying at times, but it can help me find who was just typing.

Fourthed

Togglable preferable

My frames love to jump after I've been in game a while, and the particles make them jump around much much worse.

Fifthed, anything the users can toggle to improve performance is a plus in my book.

Yes place a toggle on that. You shouldn't just remove it. But on my PC it's causing lag. If you turn avatar names always on you can also see who typed it (Mark Busch: When I type something my name also shows)
I'll have a new PC soon and if it doesn't cause a lag then I will probably want to turn it on again, but for now definitly off

Yah I've alwasy considered that to be far heavier than it needs to be to indicate somebody is speaking or flying. in AO they just do a brief glow on the avatar's head and it seems pretty effective. Same for the focus beam sparkles, we could use some particles high/low/off setting possibleh.

I think that having some indicator of who just said something is good, but I've never been a fan of the swirling particles. EVER. I like the AO methodology. Also, having objects swirl when they talk is just not useful. Having them glow (like when they are selected) would be much more useful. A glow that starts out brightly and then fades quickly. That would be better for framerate as well as a visual aide.

And toggles for all of that, I think that's a very cool idea too. Definitely voting for that one.

One thing to poing out on the "scripters can do the effect themselves if they want" topic that you all have to keep in mind. It will always be smoother and faster when the server app does the animation/effect than when a scripter does it. So yes, scripters can do the same basic effect, but from what I have seen even the best-intended and best-written script is subject to lag and performance degredations that the server-side effects are not (or at least not as much). File that under "Be Careful of what you ask for--you may get it".

In light of that, I would rather see the server do it and have a series of checkboxes for the client to turn them off, than to have scripters responsible for adding lesser-quality-lower-performance-effects when desired. Now, if a script could generate the exact same effect at the same frame rate and quality, then that is the time that it could, in theory, be time to hand that over to the scripters instead.