Official Feedback Thread for Ship Visuals Tab

coldsnapped · March 2016

Please use this thread for feedback and issues found with the new Ship Visuals Tab.

Ship Visuals Slots:

Captains will now be able to equip Deflectors, Impulse Engines and Shields in the new Visuals tab to modify the visual appearance of the ship.
Equipping these items in the Visuals tab will not add any of their stats to the ship.
Any items equipped in these slots will override the visual appearance of the ship and cannot be changed until the item itself is taken out of the Visual slot.
The Visuals tab can be found on the Ship Status window next to the Loadouts tab.
The items equipped in the Visuals tab can also be saved in Loadouts.
For more details, please visit the New Visuals Slots blog at: http://www.arcgames.com/en/games/star-trek-online/news/detail/9888133-star-trek-online:-new-visual-slots

birzark · March 2016

when clicking the item to load in a ship part not all of them will display in the screen compared to what is shown in the equip side( these are the ones that i own)
Deflectors that don't show up are: Koboli, Quantum Phase, Solanae, Jem Hadar, Sol Defense + common ones from new ships
Engines that don't show up are: Koboli, Quantum Phase, Solanae + common ones from new ships
Shields that don't show up are: Kobali, Soloanae, Hyper Capacitor Shield, Sol Defender + common ones from new ships

I am missing some of the parts of the sets but of the ones i own these didn't show up in the selector.

primar13 · March 2016

birzark wrote: »

when clicking the item to load in a ship part not all of them will display in the screen compared to what is shown in the equip side( these are the ones that i own)
Deflectors that don't show up are: Koboli, Quantum Phase, Solanae, Jem Hadar, Sol Defense + common ones from new ships
Engines that don't show up are: Koboli, Quantum Phase, Solanae + common ones from new ships
Shields that don't show up are: Kobali, Soloanae, Hyper Capacitor Shield, Sol Defender + common ones from new ships

I am missing some of the parts of the sets but of the ones i own these didn't show up in the selector.

None of the Items you listed have Special Visuals.

Only items that have Special Visuals will load into these slots.

The Jemhadar Set, only has 2 Pieces with Special Visuals. (Engines/Shields) the Deflector has no Special Visuals.

rmy1081 · March 2016

Solanae Hyper-Efficient Impulse Engines disable the engine visuals from the visuals tab when the Solanae engines are activated by enemy fire.

Tested Aegis Hyper-Impulse Engines visuals with Solanae Hyper-Efficient Impulse Engines equipped.

I have not tested with any other setup.

crypticarmsman · March 2016

I REALLY wish if I put another Impulse Engine in the Visuals tab - it would also remove the MOST ANNOYING visual effect in the game - the 'Asynchronous Warp Field' graphic effect the MACO Impulse Engine shows at Warp in Sector Space.
^^^
I was REALLY hoping putting a different Impulse Engine in that Tab (which I did) would cause the above effect to NOT DISPLAY. That the new 'Visuals' system doesn't do that is very disappointing. I REALLY wish Cryptic would give players who want it, a way to disable the 'Asynchronous Warp Field' graphic effect of the MACO Engine without having to unequip it. (I really dislike the effect but suffer through it because I still like to use the MACO ship equipment set.)

banatine · March 2016

crypticarmsman wrote: »

I REALLY wish if I put another Impulse Engine in the Visuals tab - it would also remove the MOST ANNOYING visual effect in the game - the 'Asynchronous Warp Field' graphic effect the MACO Impulse Engine shows at Warp in Sector Space.
^^^
I was REALLY hoping putting a different Impulse Engine in that Tab (which I did) would cause the above effect to NOT DISPLAY. That the new 'Visuals' system doesn't do that is very disappointing. I REALLY wish Cryptic would give players who want it, a way to disable the 'Asynchronous Warp Field' graphic effect of the MACO Engine without having to unequip it. (I really dislike the effect but suffer through it because I still like to use the MACO ship equipment set.)

I suspect the two things are not directly connected. The 'skin' on your ship can be changed, the the warp field is a separate ability that the engine grants, not tied to that.

But hey, at least you dont have to comprimise your build to get faster sector travel

nikeix · March 2016

I am a bit disappointed that the shields that give you a new hull material lay it over our paint job choices instead of under them.

borticuscryptic · March 2016

nikeix wrote: »

I am a bit disappointed that the shields that give you a new hull material lay it over our paint job choices instead of under them.

Is this different behavior at all, then how it currently performs? Or are you just offering general feedback on shield materials, and not on the actual new feature?

samt1996 · March 2016

It has always worked that way bort... Dyson, Reman etc. Override everything else on the ship, which they should.

nikeix · March 2016

I have a Tholian Tarantula in Tholian hull material with blue paint over it as seen in my sig image. I also have the Nukara shields which has a cosmetic effect that applies Tholian hull material... and erases my paint when turned on from in the Shields slot

.

Placing the Nukara shields in the cosmetic slots strips my paint. I know that paint can be applied over Tholian hull material, so I'm disappointed the cosmetic hull effects are layered over, rather than under the paint. To me the effects appear to be being applied in the wrong order because despite samt1996's lofty declaration that no one should be able to paint a Tholian hull I can and I have and I like it.

If this is a hard and fast technical limitation of those items/effects/slots then PLEASE consider making the more hull materials available at the Ship Appearance vendor. They could be new rep projects, they could be free when you get the piece of gear, they could be put in the lobi store. But with such a large and wonderful pool of assets already done and in game, it would be a shame not to utilize them somehow.

The cosmetic slots are a great little QoL feature. But they are also shining a light on a flaw in the existing feature.

borticuscryptic · March 2016

Wait... if you have a Tholian ship, why would you put the Tholian/Nukara shield into your visual slot? Stop doing that. You get literally zero benefit, and (as you've stated) lose any customization you've made to the decals/materials underneath the overlay.

Shield Overlay FX associated with those items are not the same as a Ship Material. Materials are applied directly to the mesh of the model, which paint jobs and other 'decals' append on top of. Shield Overlays apply on top of all that. It's always been this way, and always will.

ensignfreekill · March 2016

Dr. Dr. Help.. it hurts when I do that.......

borticuscryptic wrote: »

Stop doing that.

All time classic!

nikeix · March 2016

Technical limitation then. The engine can't slip the shield overlay FX under the decals. My example was meant to demonstrate that Tholian Ship Material can have decals laid over it without making the universe implode (thank you, nice to have the Dev terms). The limitation is not intrinsic to the Ship Material, its a problem with the cosmetic gear implementation and the cosmetic slots have inherited that limitation.

The dream (for me) is maybe one day having the Solonae-style aged white ceramic with circles Ship Material with decals without it having to be the lobi store ship which has that Ship Material built-in. Because the complete white ceramic skin file already exists for every playable ship in the game, it's just not accessible via the Ship Appearance vendors where it could be applied under the decals.

All good. I suspect a couple of my ships will get Aegis gear in their cosmetic slots and I can run other sets in the gear slot. That's a worthy step forward. The new system has value. It just can't do what I was hoping for in regards to Ship Materials. So it's back to lobbying for Ship Material unlocks as a reputation project

.

borticuscryptic · March 2016

nikeix wrote: »

So it's back to lobbying for Ship Material unlocks as a reputation project .

Lobby all you like if it makes you happy, but I'm not exaggerating when I say that this was literally the only way this feature was going to happen.

nikeix · March 2016

New Ship Material options at the Ship Appearance vendors was always Plan A because we know that tech works. It just looked like the cosmetic slots might deliver that effect in a matter of days. Which would be awesome. They won't do that one thing, but the glass is still at least 4/5ths full and I'm looking forward to seeing more customized ships out there as I'm prowling around the quadrant.

borticuscryptic · March 2016

nikeix wrote: »

New Ship Material options at the Ship Appearance vendors was always Plan A because we know that tech works.

Just because a 'tech works' doesn't mean it is timely, easy, or convenient to update how the data is set up. Adding a single new Material to every existing ship in the game (all ... what, 500 or so?) requires each ship to be updated with the correct settings and data to support the new Material, which must also be set up in a very specific way in order to work with all of those previous ships.

Additionally, Shield Overlays have been specifically crafted over the years to be anywhere from slightly translucent, to having completely transparent sections (such as the Iconian Resistance shield overlay). These don't work as Materials because they would leave see-thru sections or empty holes in the ship geo. They only work as Overlays.

samt1996 · March 2016

Yeah that works fine for me. Some of us thought it would be cool to unlock new ship materials of the enemies in each reputation but this would be different then the shield overlays. For example, completing the Romulan reputation would give access to a romulan themed ship skin etc.

nikeix · March 2016

borticuscyptic wrote:

Just because a 'tech works' doesn't mean it is timely, easy, or convenient to update how the data is set up. Adding a single new Material to every existing ship in the game (all ... what, 500 or so?) requires each ship to be updated with the correct settings and data to support the new Material, which must also be set up in a very specific way in order to work with all of those previous ships.

Understood. The engine is powerful but that also means it's complicated. You have to admit from a player's perspective the fact that the Nukara shields will apply a correctly aligned Tholian-style skin to all 500 ships suggests a lot of the player-facing work is done already.

Additionally, Shield Overlays have been specifically crafted over the years to be anywhere from slightly translucent, to having completely transparent sections (such as the Iconian Resistance shield overlay). These don't work as Materials because they would leave see-thru sections or empty holes in the ship geo. They only work as Overlays.

Interesting... so the Iconian FX would be better suited as a decal... I kid, I kid

. (please don't hurt me)

Some of those difference weren't immediately obvious from this side of the screen. Thank you for the peek behind the curtain. I always appreciate information that will help me craft better requests/suggestions in the future.

dragonsbrethren · April 2016

Hey, if we're lobbying, now that we have this feature, could we get some cosmetic-only Shields, Engines, and Deflectors in the future? I'm not saying to do that with the existing rep visuals, but maybe some new ship appearance options sold in the Lobi store...

(I really want to buy the new Terran hull pattern for my Federation ships)

ensignfreekill · April 2016

Random question but, what about the consoles with texture visuals. (borg console) I stopped running it a while ago but would be cool to be able to get that fully assimilated look again.

casidien · April 2016

I tried the new visual system, and I absolutely love it!!!

I applied the Aegis set onto my Fleet Intel Phantom Escort, and wow, did it look great!

Thanks for all of your hard work Cryptic!

battykoda0 · April 2016

Romulan Advanced Prototype Deflector won't slot. Then again, it may not have a visual. I think the shield does all the work for that set.

nikeix · April 2016

So I laid hands on a few more of the shields with FX and have a better understanding of the issue. While I still wish decals were applied over them, I see now why you're farther from having full skins available for the Ship Appearance Vendor than I realized form my smaller sample.

While I'd originally hoped new ship materials could be added to the Reputation Rewards, possibly as a way to sink enormous quantities of dilithium out of the system, maybe Ship Material Packs would work better as zeni-store items considering the effort involved? I'm not against Cryptic collecting fair value on their labor. Also considering the way uniform items are placed in the lobi store, maybe Ship Material packs/unlocks could go there?

storules · April 2016

coldsnapped wrote: »

Please use this thread for feedback and issues found with the new Ship Visuals Tab.

Ship Visuals Slots:
Captains will now be able to equip Deflectors, Impulse Engines and Shields in the new Visuals tab to modify the visual appearance of the ship.

Equipping these items in the Visuals tab will not add any of their stats to the ship.

Any items equipped in these slots will override the visual appearance of the ship and cannot be changed until the item itself is taken out of the Visual slot.

The Visuals tab can be found on the Ship Status window next to the Loadouts tab.

The items equipped in the Visuals tab can also be saved in Loadouts.

For more details, please visit the New Visuals Slots blog at: http://www.arcgames.com/en/games/star-trek-online/news/detail/9888133-star-trek-online:-new-visual-slots

Can you do this for ground armor as well? A bit biased toward space but ground got the cold shoulder? Come on might as well do the whole system. I wish I can use the visual of the Dyson Mark set but really would like the stats of the Borg armor instead. Possible..it has been done. I'm willing to pay extra for slots and sure perhaps others as well.

dragonsbrethren · April 2016

Umm...ground armor hasn't been tied to items for a long time now. Since Season 9. You just go into the tailor and, if you own the full reputation set, either select it from the costume-type category pulldown (in the case of most armors) or find its pieces in the Jacket/Pants Tight category (for the stock armors and Terran Task Force).

knightnblu · April 2016

While it's nice that you can run one set of equipment and have the look of another set, I find it odd that if you don't have anything defined in those boxes you don't get the default graphics. Even if you buy common, everyday gear, you cannot use them in those boxes to override your gear setting. No, you have to go to each individual piece and turn off visuals EVERY SINGLE TIME you switch to that ship.

I don't know about the rest of you, but I happen to like the stock graphics on the vast majority of my ships. So if the devs had of worked it that way, I would be a very happy camper. While true this is only a minor annoyance, it is still an annoyance. The fact that they had the hood open and didn't consider this aspect during coding is disappointing.

Just my .02.

aeternusdoleo · April 2016

I'm loving this feature. The Breen engines may be TRIBBLE statwise, but I love their blue-white emission trail. Now I can get both the good stats I want from either the Borg engine for zipping around sector, or the Iconian one for combat, but have the neato exhaust at the same time! The Borg engine especially was kind of sucky on some models that didn't have a nacelle for them to clamp onto.

cyphextheking · July 2016

I also wish a "weapon-energy-color-slot" in the visuals.
For example:
My Fleet Avenger flys antiproton, so its dark red lighting, but i using borg stuff in visuals.
Now, the nakuhl weapons have a nice dark-green color, and i would love to use a nakuhl weapon to put in a visual-slot that overwrites the red AP color.

On My Tholian Tarantula, i allready fly with disruptors, but it contains a coalition one, and the terran taskforce beam. all together looks bit like "rainbow". In the visuals i also added the borg-stuff, because i really like its effects and colors.
Here the same; i would love to add a nakuhl beam to overwrite the weapon colors..

I remember in past, there was a chatcommand, "/powerhue" or so. But this was removed, sadly

I really wish, that there will be added a weapon-style slot too

Official Feedback Thread for Ship Visuals Tab

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