Forums » Suggestions

New in-system warp effect suggestions

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Nov 05, 2005 Beolach link
Re: f12x

Up until recently, the effects for in-system jumps and intra-system WH warps were different. The reason the in-system jump animation was changed to the same as the intra-system WH warp animation was because it was decided to make ships vulnerable during the animation, and the previous in-system jump animation didn't facilitate that, because it had the ship accelerating rapidly off into the distance, which would make it pretty much impossible to hit.

My suggestion would be to just edit the previous in-system jump animation so that it had half a second to one second with the engine exhaust glowing like it does during turbo (or even brighter if possible) before the ship started its jump acceleration.
Nov 06, 2005 Cunjo link
>>"My suggestion would be to just edit the previous in-system jump animation so that it had half a second to one second with the engine exhaust glowing like it does during turbo (or even brighter if possible) before the ship started its jump acceleration."<<

Yes, I like that, though instead of a turbo plume, make the glow expand outward rather than behind, and have the ship turbo disengage while it charges the second to make the jump.
Nov 06, 2005 Celkan link
Or we could use that good old CtF aura...

Gather in the blue particles from wormhole warps, the aura starts to appear, when it gets big enough, the ship zips off into the distance.
Nov 06, 2005 Phaserlight link
(Nods at Celkan and points to original post) I think the CtF effect would serve in-system warps well.

The gist of it is there would be 2 steps to an in-system warp... gathering power and then shooting off into the wild blue yonder.

I also think it would be cool if the entry animation were different for an in-system warp; a mirror image of departure... namely the ship comes zooming in from the distance and then violently decellerates with another WHAP. Just a thought.
Nov 06, 2005 Celkan link
So we're basically using a Star Dreck/Star Wars-esque warping style? ^.^

Works for me.
Nov 06, 2005 Harry Seldon link
Star Trek and Star Wars works for me, but it's kinda...cliché. I'll throw something together later on to illustrate my concept of what it should be like.
Nov 07, 2005 Cunjo link
Cliché? just because they got it right...
Feb 22, 2006 roguelazer link
I still vote for a BSG-style effect for in-system warping.
Feb 22, 2006 LeberMac link
I vote with Roguelazer on this. BSG- simple white fuzzy plane of "light", moves from front of ship polygon to back of ship polygon, "erasing" the ship as it goes.
Feb 22, 2006 Phaserlight link
Aww, can't we have even just a little bit of shooting off into the distance? That would look so damn cool when an entire convoy warps together!

I agree the BSG effect is nice. Perhaps that combined with a ghost image of the ship flying away at 500 m/s?
Feb 22, 2006 mgl_mouser link
Technically, and theoretically, a warp jump involves warping space in order to connect two distant point of the universe.

Imagine a torus representing space, where you pinch two opposite inner-rim points to join the void in between.

So, if you can visualize the effect from the inside of that taurus, what you'd see is the stretching of space into a central point until suddenly the points connect where you'd see through a "whole" the other side of the taurus (space).

Add a ripple effect for the coolness factor and you've got a winning visual that no one else has done yet and thus Guild innovates rather than copy ST:TNG/BSG's lame warp effect (admit it: the whiteout thing is cheesy, but that doesn't take anything to the excellent series in question).
Feb 22, 2006 KixKizzle link
Yea.
Gotta go with the mouser.
Feb 24, 2006 Phaserlight link
Technically, and theoretically, a warp jump involves warping space in order to connect two distant point of the universe.

Technically? This has been done before?

;-p j/k

I see your point... but remember when all is said and done this is a game not a physics program. I'm arguing mainly from an artistic standpoint because in a game that's what a jump usually is: a brief artistic cutscene while the next sector loads.

It would be great to see VO do something new in this regard, I think the scene you describe could be acheived in a cool way from a first-person perspective with a FOV distortion... the main thing I'm arguing for is creating a sense of extreme velocity.

Ideally, forming up and jumping into hostile territory on a raid would be akin to taking part in a cavalry charge...
Feb 24, 2006 Cunjo link
Do we even have an indication as to what exactly powers the intra-system jumps? because that would change how you look at it... I really don't know if it qualifies as 'warping' or whatever.

IMO, the intra-system jumps shouldn't be using a drive that powerful... I'm all for giving it a charge time and an expanding engine glow before 'jumping' out with a discharge.
Feb 24, 2006 KixKizzle link
I also think it shouldn't be 100% accurate.
Maybe like 85% accurate....
That'd be fun :)
Oct 21, 2006 roguelazer link
So... I was playing a coupla days ago and one of my suitemates walks in... He's like, "Cool," and I'm explaining stuff to him. Then I warp to another sector. 'Cause, you know, you gotta do that sometimes. And he sees the warp effect and he's like, "Does it do that every time?" And I'm like, "Uhh... Pretty much..." And he's like, "That must get annoying." And I'm like, "Well, it doesn't bother me that much, but, yeah, I guess it is kinda tiresome."

So that's why we need a new warp effect.
Dec 02, 2006 SuperMegaMynt link
I'd like to see a more wave-like effect. As if space itself becomes some sort of liquid your ship can just splash through.

As for charging before you jump, does that imply a new, more real time method of doing things? More like, the reason why you need to have X amount of energy in your battery is so that your can charge up your warp coils, and then make the jump on release. It'd be finicky for certain; once you decide to power up a jump, there's no going back. But you could time it to warp *just* before you hit an asteroid, or something to that measure. I noticed that BSG takes advantage of this timed warping strategy in some of the battles.
Dec 13, 2007 roguelazer link
*dusts off thread*

Why? Because somebody mentioned it, that's why! ;-)
Dec 14, 2007 Lord~spidey link
[Stamp of Approval]™
Dec 15, 2007 Hedgehogs4Me link
Maybe you should just follow the ship into the wormhole, and the loading screen looks like the wormhole between stargates in Stargate Atlantis. Like the camera follows the ship, kind of like in the first view you get after pressing F9, then you see the ship going into the wormhole or jump thingy, and for the loading screen you see a picture of your ship and a similar animation to the wormhole thing in Stargate Atlantis.

I may fail™, but I try.