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So....does anyone else hate the beam aesthetics?
lordkhorak
Member Posts: 0 Arc User
Ok, this sounds ranty, but I'm not going for rabblerousing mob raising here. I'm curious how other people see this. It's just I'm rather florid and forthright in the way I present my 'argument'. Oh, and sorry if the YouTube videos don't embed, I'm used to the latest VBulletin which just takes the link and sorts it out itself.
So, going with the most iconic weapons, in terms of aesthetics the phasers in this game....aren't really very good phasers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d734afLFPds
There's phasers. The only time they're even vaguely like the ones in this game, it's the really early TNG ones. The ones we get are fatter than a kid who found the Twinky warehouse, with a gigantic bloom around them, which is WAY worse at the point of origin.
It gets even worse, because the only shots vaguely like the ones in this game are the single ones. You know, when they fire a shot once in a blue moon, when the phaser bank does its dramatic charging all the way around. That way, it isn't weird to have the protracted beam duration and noise.
....but in this game you're throwing out beams non-stop. The long beam duration, fatness, and noise all blobs together into a horrible mess. The Cryptic version in the game works great if you've got one beam bank. Three shots, it all looks and sounds like a lot of the actual series. Very dramatic, oh yes. But we never have one beam bank. I've got eight. It's carnage.
Know what it looked like when Star Trek went absolutely balls to the wall with phasers? Like we do absolutely non-stop in this game? Like this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXK2vzHOEoI
Why didn't we get THAT!?
Reduce the beam durations big time, with the sounds to match, put the beams on a damned diet and let our ships go ape**** the same way the Enterprise-E did eight years before this game came out.
Oh and make all the other beams to match. :P Ner. Do my will Cryptic! Obey! Obey!
YOU MAY NOW SHOUT ANGRILY AT ME.
So, going with the most iconic weapons, in terms of aesthetics the phasers in this game....aren't really very good phasers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d734afLFPds
There's phasers. The only time they're even vaguely like the ones in this game, it's the really early TNG ones. The ones we get are fatter than a kid who found the Twinky warehouse, with a gigantic bloom around them, which is WAY worse at the point of origin.
It gets even worse, because the only shots vaguely like the ones in this game are the single ones. You know, when they fire a shot once in a blue moon, when the phaser bank does its dramatic charging all the way around. That way, it isn't weird to have the protracted beam duration and noise.
....but in this game you're throwing out beams non-stop. The long beam duration, fatness, and noise all blobs together into a horrible mess. The Cryptic version in the game works great if you've got one beam bank. Three shots, it all looks and sounds like a lot of the actual series. Very dramatic, oh yes. But we never have one beam bank. I've got eight. It's carnage.
Know what it looked like when Star Trek went absolutely balls to the wall with phasers? Like we do absolutely non-stop in this game? Like this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXK2vzHOEoI
Why didn't we get THAT!?
Reduce the beam durations big time, with the sounds to match, put the beams on a damned diet and let our ships go ape**** the same way the Enterprise-E did eight years before this game came out.Oh and make all the other beams to match. :P Ner. Do my will Cryptic! Obey! Obey!
YOU MAY NOW SHOUT ANGRILY AT ME.
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
Post edited by lordkhorak on
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Comments
I agree would be cool to see that in STO. Im just wondering whether the new type of fire might strain the game engine though.... last i heard they updated the Physx engine just to make sure we see all our outgoing damage and shields in crowded instances and so on.
It's pretty much this hard to keep just one timeline intact. ♪
Honestly though, that second one is effectively exactly what we have. FAW in action right there. You can also TRIBBLE with your graphics settings to alter the bloom and whatnot.
If the game engine or coding was more flexible, I'd suggest that the beam length and duration be tied Weapon power levels. Strong, long beams at maximum power with improved damage potential, down to short, weak, but faster firing beams (that we see in the Galaxy and Nemesis clips) meant to take out smaller ships. Alternatively, tie them into new beam-oriented abilities.
I do not suggest altering FaW I to represent the short beam multi-target attack we see the Galaxy do though, on the grounds that it would be too similar to Cannon Spread Fire (what with having a single emitter firing at multiple targets one after the other rather than at the same time). Instead, they can just cut beam length of FaW I to match the shorter beam length and it's lower attack bonus compared to FaW II (with beam lengths halfway between the short beam and the current long beam) and FaW III. All without changing the existing values beyond the visual.
The stealth-discovering attack in the second video would be interesting to implement, though realistically it'd be impossible since rarely do players or NPCs attack on the same level as the player's ship, unless Cryptic embellishes it to firing a vertical zigzag firing pattern of 3 rapid fire shots within a narrow 15-25 degree vertical arc. And even then, it'd really only be useful against the Borg Scimitar in Khitomer Vortex.
Some of the attacks like the Galaxy delivering a Double Beam attack using an Array could serve as an alternative to Beam Overload; fire two beams from an Array at once at one target, dealing 75% of the damage x2, with the rare possibility of either or both beams to activating their proc, but possibly extending the recharge duration of that one Array.
Not sure if there's a way to finagle their width values with that kind of interaction.
:cool:
I Was A Trekkie Before It Was Cool ... Sept. 8th, 1966 ... Not To Mention Before Most Folks Around Here Were Born!
Forever a STO Veteran-Minion
...because he will find an easy way to do it.
-Bill Gates
I never thought so. Since the beam duration is noticeably longer in the game you end up with each bank in FAW looking like you've just become attached to the enemy ship by a pole.
.....you have got to be kidding me. Say you're just playing around.
No? Because they're not? Everything else would have to move in slow motion for that to be the case.
So! We meet at last for the first time for the last time! Before you die there is something you should know about us onerats. I am your father's, brother's, nephew's, cousin's room mate! :mad:
Actually the second one is firing a full 360 degree spread to try to find a cloaked ship, not Fire at Will.
He isn't, they are actually drawn target to you.
Commander Science, Lieutenant Commander Engineering, Lieutenant Commander Universal, Lieutenant Tactical, Ensign Science
You fly a ship that banks in space as if there were air, and that is OK.
Your weapons make sounds in space, and that is ok.
Shockwaves propagate in space, and that is OK.
Space is effectively 2-d, and even THAT is OK.
Laser bolts track the target, curving in space, and that is OK.
But the beams are no good, and that is just over the top?
1. *shrugs*
2. Well, that's classic sci-fi by now. Besides, handwave it away with some kind of sound simulator for the benefit of the crew.
3. *shrugs*
4. Regrettably, can't be helped right now.
5. The engine's fault. Also can't be helped.
Besides, I agree that weapons in general need some working on. And by 'some', I mean 'a lot of'.
Infinite possibilities have implications that could not be completely understood if you turned this entire universe into a giant supercomputer.
One other thing Lasers =/= Phasers, Particle weapons function differently to Lasers
STO Beta Test and Launch Veteran
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It is a peculiar phenomenon that we can imagine events that defy the laws of the universe.
Which wouldn't work in this game.