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Weapon Aesthetics

foxrockssocksfoxrockssocks Member Posts: 2,482 Arc User
This is one of the biggest things bothering me in the game, how awful weapon aesthetics are. Over the weekend I was messing around with some build ideas on the Vor'ral (T6 vor'cha). I ended up putting a pair of disruptor DCs forward with the resonant disruptor DHCs and a torpedo. Then I pressed the spacebar on some hapless alien and oh!

It looked so much better than the typical full DHC frontal loadout. Not only was the staggered shots of DCs/DHCs more interesting, they also had different hardpoints on the model. The DHCs were shooting from the nacelles/wingtip cannons while the DCs fired from closer to the root of the wings. It is a sadly underused feature, the different hardpoints, because you're either equipping all DHCs or Dual beams, so they all fire from the same hardpoints and it just looks like a jumbled mess.

The other thing I noticed was that this different hardpoints for the very different visuals of DCs and resonant DHC was strikingly more attractive and interesting to look at than when they all vomit from the same hardpoint as in a full DHC build. For contrast I need only look at my character running polaron DHCs each of a different set. It isn't a stretch to imagine the visuals of that being used in a Skittles commercial. It is ugly as hell, but it's not limited to polarons, as phasers are also especially bad with the variant types.

As we know the most important facet of endgame is space barbie I think its overdue to get some better customization options for weapons. Selecting which weapons fire from which hardpoint would be great, and being able to homogenize their visuals or select the visuals for each hardpoint would also be awesome. Yeah some ships don't have much in the way of hardpoints, but cannon boats usually do seem to have DC and DHC separated hardpoints with the DHC point also firing dual beams.

Consider running a phaser DBB build. Do you like seeing the wide angle phasers coming from the same place as your more standard DBBs? I don't, I'd rather see them come from a separate hardpoint. And for that polaron DHC build, it would be great to not only split them up to have one with its own visuals firing from the DC hardpoint and the rest homogonized in their color firing from the DHC point.

With the shield/engine/deflector visuals added whenever, I've been hoping weapon customization was around the corner, but it would obviously be more involved to do it right.
Post edited by baddmoonrizin on

Comments

  • chipg7chipg7 Member Posts: 1,577 Arc User
    I don't think they'll be adding specific space barbie options for weapons anytime soon. We have so many weapon varieties already.

    Yeah, it'd be cool to have your fav phaser with your fav proc loaded, and then customize it somehow to fit your desired look. But doing so would probably break the game economy.
  • davefenestratordavefenestrator Member Posts: 10,865 Arc User
    edited October 2019
    The devs have said no to weapon visual slots, which would keep people buying the lock box weapons. No to "dye packs" which would let you consume a weapon to give another weapon the visual you want. No to "unify beams / cannons" to stop us from Tasting The Rainbow. No to free puppies.

    Space Barbie is the real endgame, but no pretty space visuals for us (and no Dream House, per the F.C.T.) :(

  • phoenixc#0738 phoenixc Member Posts: 6,085 Arc User
    edited October 2019
    The various colors do not bother me at all, in fact TOS phasers actually fired all three primary colors at different times (though you see the blue more often, then the red a little less often in space, and the only time the green shows up is that two-block wide stun in "A Piece of the Action" which did not show the ship firing. I never liked the boring sameness of the orange TNG phasers anyway. They even lampooned the TOS multiple colors in Galaxy Quest with the "red beams" and "blue beams".

    And the color shifts of the "wide spectrum" hand phaser modification in VOY supports the idea of phasers changing color depending on phase settings.

    On the other hand, the disrupter cannons were always green (in TOS) but they were so rarely shown being fired that any color variance is no big thing, easily waved as just not having been show yet.

    Romulan plasma torpedoes were originally red for the big bombardment one in "Balance of Terror" but more often green in ship-to-ship fire (possibly because the green ones were from the stock D7 shot from "Errand of Mercy" and were a spot-tinted version of the magnetic pulse weapon effect which represented magnetic lensing and did not have a lot of "glow" to work with (though as usual the Remastered version seems to have missed that fact and turned it into a bright white glow) so the red would have gotten lost on black-and-white TVs.
  • rattler2rattler2 Member, Star Trek Online Moderator Posts: 59,174 Community Moderator
    There actually is an instance of TNG phasers firing beams that aren't orange. In Best of Both Worlds, the Enterprise actually rapid fires her primary dorsal array in a desperate attempt to break the Borg tractor beam, rotating through various frequencies until they actually land a hit.

    While it is a little hard due to going through the tractor beam, you can catch a bit of green and blue in the phaser barrage.
    db80k0m-89201ed8-eadb-45d3-830f-bb2f0d4c0fe7.png?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJ1cm46YXBwOjdlMGQxODg5ODIyNjQzNzNhNWYwZDQxNWVhMGQyNmUwIiwiaXNzIjoidXJuOmFwcDo3ZTBkMTg4OTgyMjY0MzczYTVmMGQ0MTVlYTBkMjZlMCIsIm9iaiI6W1t7InBhdGgiOiJcL2ZcL2ExOGQ4ZWM2LTUyZjQtNDdiMS05YTI1LTVlYmZkYmJkOGM3N1wvZGI4MGswbS04OTIwMWVkOC1lYWRiLTQ1ZDMtODMwZi1iYjJmMGQ0YzBmZTcucG5nIn1dXSwiYXVkIjpbInVybjpzZXJ2aWNlOmZpbGUuZG93bmxvYWQiXX0.8G-Pg35Qi8qxiKLjAofaKRH6fmNH3qAAEI628gW0eXc
    I can't take it anymore! Could everyone just chill out for two seconds before something CRAZY happens again?!
    The nut who actually ground out many packs. The resident forum voice of reason (I HAZ FORUM REP! YAY!)
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  • legendarylycan#5411 legendarylycan Member Posts: 37,284 Arc User
    and apparently that wasn't an SFX error, because it carried through to the remastered version of BoBW​​
    Like special weapons from other Star Trek games? Wondering if they can be replicated in STO even a little bit? Check this out: https://forum.arcgames.com/startrekonline/discussion/1262277/a-mostly-comprehensive-guide-to-star-trek-videogame-special-weapons-and-their-sto-equivalents

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  • rattler2rattler2 Member, Star Trek Online Moderator Posts: 59,174 Community Moderator
    Think it was supposed to visually represent Enterprise using different frequencies.
    db80k0m-89201ed8-eadb-45d3-830f-bb2f0d4c0fe7.png?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJ1cm46YXBwOjdlMGQxODg5ODIyNjQzNzNhNWYwZDQxNWVhMGQyNmUwIiwiaXNzIjoidXJuOmFwcDo3ZTBkMTg4OTgyMjY0MzczYTVmMGQ0MTVlYTBkMjZlMCIsIm9iaiI6W1t7InBhdGgiOiJcL2ZcL2ExOGQ4ZWM2LTUyZjQtNDdiMS05YTI1LTVlYmZkYmJkOGM3N1wvZGI4MGswbS04OTIwMWVkOC1lYWRiLTQ1ZDMtODMwZi1iYjJmMGQ0YzBmZTcucG5nIn1dXSwiYXVkIjpbInVybjpzZXJ2aWNlOmZpbGUuZG93bmxvYWQiXX0.8G-Pg35Qi8qxiKLjAofaKRH6fmNH3qAAEI628gW0eXc
    I can't take it anymore! Could everyone just chill out for two seconds before something CRAZY happens again?!
    The nut who actually ground out many packs. The resident forum voice of reason (I HAZ FORUM REP! YAY!)
    normal text = me speaking as fellow formite
    colored text = mod mode
  • foxrockssocksfoxrockssocks Member Posts: 2,482 Arc User
    I'm not sure how being able to pick your weapon aesthetic would in any way impact boxes. I really don't follow that logic. They are pretty cheap on the exchange to the point I don't think anyone actually cares about weapons from loot boxes. However if you could pick one you like the visual of to standardize your weapons, that would only increase demand because you can simultaneously use a different set for weapons you like the actual procs from.

    I also don't understand people arguing that weapons weren't different colors in the shows. That isn't even relevant. The Enterprise fired phasers. Whatever color they came out as, they didn't change unless that was represented in some part of the episode, and all the phaser arrays fired the same colors, it wasn't shooting rainbows and skittles. Maybe they were blue, but they were all blue, or they were orange, but they were all orange.

    If its not clear, I want my ship to all fire blue beams. Or orange. Or red. Whichever I would choose. Maybe they will be pulse phasers, maybe standard beams, but I will make them all the same. What I don't want is to fire rainbows at enemies because I have several different weapons from a few sets and maybe one or two from a lockbox too. That is awfully ugly and contributes heavily to visual clutter.
  • borg0vermindborg0vermind Member Posts: 498 Arc User
    The game should have bindable hard-points so you can put any weapon in the correct visually-good position but that would be not too viable to implement given the existing number of ships.
  • davefenestratordavefenestrator Member Posts: 10,865 Arc User
    edited October 2019
    I'm not sure how being able to pick your weapon aesthetic would in any way impact boxes. I really don't follow that logic. They are pretty cheap on the exchange to the point I don't think anyone actually cares about weapons from loot boxes. However if you could pick one you like the visual of to standardize your weapons, that would only increase demand because you can simultaneously use a different set for weapons you like the actual procs from.

    Many lock box weapons have unique visual effects. If you could buy just 1 and then use "unify beam visuals" or a single "beam visual slot" that applies to all beams then Cryptic loses 4-7 more lock box key sales.

    It's not the credits price on the exchange, it's the zen price of a lock box key that they lose.

    Ignoring that, the devs have said the game engine does not currently support any of the anti-rainbow options that players have suggested, so rainbows it is.
  • echattyechatty Member Posts: 5,924 Arc User
    Firing a rainbow of different color phasers, disruptors, AP, etc, doesn't bother me.

    I just go around firing rainbows and skittles ;)
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  • claudiusdkclaudiusdk Member Posts: 561 Arc User
    edited October 2019
    I wouldn't mind getting back the option to color our weapons fire again!
    We had it once before as an unintended feature with leftover code from something used in Champions Online, where people could change the colors of their weapons in STO with the same code. Then it got disabled.

    So they could easy give us a Weapons Visual Slot, or a menu like in Champions Online where you select from a chart of colors... the tech is already there!
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  • rattler2rattler2 Member, Star Trek Online Moderator Posts: 59,174 Community Moderator
    I think they gave us the different weapons because CBS said No to customizing the color of our weapons. Don't forget that, unlike Champions Online, Cryptic has to go through CBS for some things. If CBS says No... Cryptic's hands are tied. And I believe that CBS veto'd customizing weapon colors at will like what was suggested.
    db80k0m-89201ed8-eadb-45d3-830f-bb2f0d4c0fe7.png?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJ1cm46YXBwOjdlMGQxODg5ODIyNjQzNzNhNWYwZDQxNWVhMGQyNmUwIiwiaXNzIjoidXJuOmFwcDo3ZTBkMTg4OTgyMjY0MzczYTVmMGQ0MTVlYTBkMjZlMCIsIm9iaiI6W1t7InBhdGgiOiJcL2ZcL2ExOGQ4ZWM2LTUyZjQtNDdiMS05YTI1LTVlYmZkYmJkOGM3N1wvZGI4MGswbS04OTIwMWVkOC1lYWRiLTQ1ZDMtODMwZi1iYjJmMGQ0YzBmZTcucG5nIn1dXSwiYXVkIjpbInVybjpzZXJ2aWNlOmZpbGUuZG93bmxvYWQiXX0.8G-Pg35Qi8qxiKLjAofaKRH6fmNH3qAAEI628gW0eXc
    I can't take it anymore! Could everyone just chill out for two seconds before something CRAZY happens again?!
    The nut who actually ground out many packs. The resident forum voice of reason (I HAZ FORUM REP! YAY!)
    normal text = me speaking as fellow formite
    colored text = mod mode
  • foxrockssocksfoxrockssocks Member Posts: 2,482 Arc User
    I'm not sure how being able to pick your weapon aesthetic would in any way impact boxes. I really don't follow that logic. They are pretty cheap on the exchange to the point I don't think anyone actually cares about weapons from loot boxes. However if you could pick one you like the visual of to standardize your weapons, that would only increase demand because you can simultaneously use a different set for weapons you like the actual procs from.

    Many lock box weapons have unique visual effects. If you could buy just 1 and then use "unify beam visuals" or a single "beam visual slot" that applies to all beams then Cryptic loses 4-7 more lock box key sales.

    It's not the credits price on the exchange, it's the zen price of a lock box key that they lose.

    Ignoring that, the devs have said the game engine does not currently support any of the anti-rainbow options that players have suggested, so rainbows it is.

    Except right now because I can't do anything about visuals I just go with what is best and totally ignore lockbox weapons in most cases, and with the visual diarrhea that space combat is, I rarely notice a weapon has interesting visuals in the first place. I only stumbled upon my little discovery with the disruptors through chance. Had I gone with 1 DC and 1 DHC instead of 2 DCs + the resonant DHCs, I would have seen nothing special.

    There's no reason it can't change though. Technical limitations can be altered with more coding. CBS doesn't seem to actually care what color phasers are these days as we have weapons of nearly every color as it is.
  • phoenixc#0738 phoenixc Member Posts: 6,085 Arc User
    I'm not sure how being able to pick your weapon aesthetic would in any way impact boxes. I really don't follow that logic. They are pretty cheap on the exchange to the point I don't think anyone actually cares about weapons from loot boxes. However if you could pick one you like the visual of to standardize your weapons, that would only increase demand because you can simultaneously use a different set for weapons you like the actual procs from.

    Many lock box weapons have unique visual effects. If you could buy just 1 and then use "unify beam visuals" or a single "beam visual slot" that applies to all beams then Cryptic loses 4-7 more lock box key sales.

    It's not the credits price on the exchange, it's the zen price of a lock box key that they lose.

    Ignoring that, the devs have said the game engine does not currently support any of the anti-rainbow options that players have suggested, so rainbows it is.

    Except right now because I can't do anything about visuals I just go with what is best and totally ignore lockbox weapons in most cases, and with the visual diarrhea that space combat is, I rarely notice a weapon has interesting visuals in the first place. I only stumbled upon my little discovery with the disruptors through chance. Had I gone with 1 DC and 1 DHC instead of 2 DCs + the resonant DHCs, I would have seen nothing special.

    There's no reason it can't change though. Technical limitations can be altered with more coding. CBS doesn't seem to actually care what color phasers are these days as we have weapons of nearly every color as it is.

    That cannon visual really looks good with the Elachi crescent cannons.

    I actually find the different colors handy sometimes, when the DBBs are a different color it makes it easier to see if they are actually firing on the target and not just the arrays and omnis when shooting at somethin near the edge of the arcs.

    Most of the time the reason the weapons fire the same color in a fight on the shows (besides being easier to do the SFX) was often due to the fact that they usually only fired one or two weapons at a time in a surgical strike. It was not until some of the Paramount executives wanted to "spice up the combat" Star Wars style that they started the multiple guns thing.

    Really, what determines weight of fire in Trek is not how many guns you have, it is how much power the ship can generate, and whether it is all fired in one beam, two, or a dozen it all adds up to the same amount. In Star Wars piling up guns makes a difference because they are self powered with gas or plasma cartridge's (or sometimes plumbing apparently) while Star Trek guns are just projectors all plugged into and splitting the output of the same power source.
  • rattler2rattler2 Member, Star Trek Online Moderator Posts: 59,174 Community Moderator
    In the 24th Century phasers were set up in emitter strips which allowed for more control. Before that, they were in banks that had more limited firing arcs. Its a bit more obvious on the Connie Refit and Kelvin Connie than it is on the TOS. We also never really saw any TOS or TMP era ship go full out.

    We saw a Galaxy class do that against the Borg at least once.
    db80k0m-89201ed8-eadb-45d3-830f-bb2f0d4c0fe7.png?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJ1cm46YXBwOjdlMGQxODg5ODIyNjQzNzNhNWYwZDQxNWVhMGQyNmUwIiwiaXNzIjoidXJuOmFwcDo3ZTBkMTg4OTgyMjY0MzczYTVmMGQ0MTVlYTBkMjZlMCIsIm9iaiI6W1t7InBhdGgiOiJcL2ZcL2ExOGQ4ZWM2LTUyZjQtNDdiMS05YTI1LTVlYmZkYmJkOGM3N1wvZGI4MGswbS04OTIwMWVkOC1lYWRiLTQ1ZDMtODMwZi1iYjJmMGQ0YzBmZTcucG5nIn1dXSwiYXVkIjpbInVybjpzZXJ2aWNlOmZpbGUuZG93bmxvYWQiXX0.8G-Pg35Qi8qxiKLjAofaKRH6fmNH3qAAEI628gW0eXc
    I can't take it anymore! Could everyone just chill out for two seconds before something CRAZY happens again?!
    The nut who actually ground out many packs. The resident forum voice of reason (I HAZ FORUM REP! YAY!)
    normal text = me speaking as fellow formite
    colored text = mod mode
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