Forums » Suggestions
Mining Beam Redux
Okay, this will be a couple of ideas, none of which are new really.
First let me start with a note to the devs as to what I consider to be a bug. It seems that some recent change now makes asteroids measure proximity from the center instead of the surface. This makes mining a guessing game with the range. Ramming an asteroid that my system says is 400m away still is kind of an immersion spoiler. Can we get this regressed?
Now, onto the main ideas. Mining isn't the choicest of professions in a PvP game, but it's a comfortable passtime and revenue stream for some. I do it as mood takes me, but it really lacks immersion factors.
Firstly, can we get an improved effect on the beams? The current straight line to target is kinda bland. My suggestion would be to add some kind of "tornado in a bottle" effect where the beam appears to swirl a bit and dance across a confined area of the surface. By all means, keep the particles though.
Second, sounds! I am desperate for this feature. My throat hurts now from doing this vocally. If we keep the staight beam, a solid hum would be nice with the sound of tumbling rocks. If my above suggestion is implemented, then a whirling sound (with tumbling rocks) would probably be more appropriate.
How difficult would these be to implement and silence the miners on the matter?
First let me start with a note to the devs as to what I consider to be a bug. It seems that some recent change now makes asteroids measure proximity from the center instead of the surface. This makes mining a guessing game with the range. Ramming an asteroid that my system says is 400m away still is kind of an immersion spoiler. Can we get this regressed?
Now, onto the main ideas. Mining isn't the choicest of professions in a PvP game, but it's a comfortable passtime and revenue stream for some. I do it as mood takes me, but it really lacks immersion factors.
Firstly, can we get an improved effect on the beams? The current straight line to target is kinda bland. My suggestion would be to add some kind of "tornado in a bottle" effect where the beam appears to swirl a bit and dance across a confined area of the surface. By all means, keep the particles though.
Second, sounds! I am desperate for this feature. My throat hurts now from doing this vocally. If we keep the staight beam, a solid hum would be nice with the sound of tumbling rocks. If my above suggestion is implemented, then a whirling sound (with tumbling rocks) would probably be more appropriate.
How difficult would these be to implement and silence the miners on the matter?
Hmm, I don't know about the rock sounds.. You could have a beam sound, but the vacuum of space isn't dense enough for sound to propagate from the crumbling rocks..
Not that this game really follows the no sound in space rule..
But I like to think of the sounds you do hear, like weapons fire and engine noise as simulated by the ships computer to give you better battle awareness..
Not that this game really follows the no sound in space rule..
But I like to think of the sounds you do hear, like weapons fire and engine noise as simulated by the ships computer to give you better battle awareness..
netherby, Zyl said tumbling rocks -- when the rock bits travel up the beam to your ship, they are assumed to hit something. Adding a new effect would probably be moderately time consuming (new art almost always is), but simply adding a looping sound ought to be easy enough. I do not know what caused the change in asteroid distance accuracy, so I do not know how hard it would be to fix.
I'd also like that the brightness of the beams be reduced a it. When playing n a dark room the beam appearing on your screen can be a bit blinding, especially if you zoom at that moment.
Quick little note for all of you no sound in space people.
Fun > Reality
Fun > Reality
Sound and new effects would be nice, but being eye-candy, it can wait for a bit. If there's eye candy in urgent need to be fixed, is the inter-system (Sector to sector) jump animation.