Things sure do look AWESOME.. .. Please check out this quick video, and note how much better the game looks without combat shield arcs.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvkHc_REZjs
a few points about this
- shield arcs look silly
- you are already presenting us this information in the lower HUD for ourselves, and the conning window for our targetted enemy
- on that note, they should give us the option to turn these off
- the comment a dev made about 'needing to develop new technology for this' is bogus, since somebody obviously cracked out a MOD of some sort in a matter of days,
without reverse engineering any code.
I did not create this video, I'm merely reposting something that was buried in a thread as I felt it deserved a 'shot' at the front page.. Yes I know how they did it, no I will not tell you how, here or in a PM -- unless you work for cryptic and ask me in a PM (sorry, but to do so I risk violating the TOS/EULA and getting banned)
If this thread is somehow against the TOS/EULA, please feel free to lock it/delete it, and I'll gladly accept a warning.. However there's no intent to encourage haxx here, just to showcase how much cleaner the game looks without these goofy arcs .. I mean.. You remove them from your OWN marketing videos!! That should tell you something!
Hope to see 'option to turn off shield arcs' in a patch notes post in the near future

(one can dream)
Comments
Al
Personal prefrences that 'nerf' game mechanics are really kinda selfish.....imo...
The information is already presented to you along the bottom of the UI pane.. or perhaps you missed the big ship diagram with shield arcs around it
You will also note I am not asking Cryptic to remove the feature, I am asking them to give us a UI option to turn it of, IF WE WANT TO. .. It's a very simply fix.. likely not much work to integrate it into the ui options.
oh, nm, carry on.
The option to turn these off would be awesome.
In Jui-jit-su you look an opponent in the center of their chest, not their face that way you can see any movement.. That's where I prefer my eyes to spend the most amount of time. on the center of the screen on my ship.
An on/off button would be nice for those who do not share my preferences.
Viewing the video I kept trying to figure out an option on how this was done and I think this could not have been done without using a hidden or undocumented command and/or changing internal-engine-variables or client-files.
Either of these constitutes reverse engineering since the user is not supposed to "explore" client-software to modify the game experience in any way that is not authorized by the game developer. The /powerhue incident displays for example where Cryptic draws their borders about unsupported customizations!
Al
Me discussing how it was done is against the EULA, so I won't
About whether or not Cryptic decides to expose this functionality, that's naturally up to them, but I as a programmer, can definitely say that things that seem easy and simple to the uninitiated, may actually be more trouble than they're worth investing in.
And I would use it, too.
Signed, i HATE this. I have a gaming PC so things can look more realistic, not so my shiny ship should suddenly gain this weird blue ring around it during combat that shows me WHAT I CAN ALREADY SEE from the UI.