I was thinking about how some other games do buffs,
- Just a symbol, no text
- No timer, symbol loses/changes color/shade
- - Or timer is under just a symbol
- Buff stacks placing extra arrows above/below symbols to show each stack (could just have x2 next to it as well)
To my point though, I noticed the Harmonic Resonance buff in one of the examples you guys had and realized that a buff like that would be good as just a symbol, since it's active at all times, gains stacks only from having guns equipped, and has a pretty long name.
Using it in-game a fair bit lately I've noticed how constant and cumbersome it is, so maybe(even as a toggleable option in the settings) buffs like that could just have a symbol, I don't remember what buffs are similar(always on w/ few stacks) atm, but placing those just below the radar, with arrows above/below them could be enough.
The only potential issue I can think of with only symbols is recognizing them, Harmonic R's case, it could just be the origin trait symbol.
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Symbols could get a little messy with multiple debuffs and buffs applied to you. Like what if applied restoration to myself, but then my Hunter buddy used acrobat dodge and now I'm radiant too? Both symbols, under the current symbol looks, would be the same. Could have a lot of slightly different symbols for each one but then not everyone is great with symbols. I would personally prefer it to be toggled - have symbols for those who want it, just text for those who want it, and both. I'd have it so the text size and/or opacity could be changed for accessibility too, as well as the colour of the text (symbol colour would fall under colour blindness settings, like engram and radar colour settings, for example, already do).
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I would like to see a setting to toggle the text. I could see the text being visible helpful for new players, but would be nice to just have the symbol once we know what each one means.
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I prefer to read since I read very fast, but it takes me a second to process symbols. That's why I didn't really dig Vow of the Disciple.