Maybe change swarms from a mess of missiles with pretty trails to a proximity-fused cluster munition with a single trail until it gets within a pre-determined distance when it releases its sub-missiles with or without pretty trails. The initial carrier missile could have a longer range but slower speed and be less maneuverable and thus more susceptible to being shot down. For balance, the sub-missiles should be extremely maneuverable and fast and almost impossible to avoid to provide a nice incentive to either shoot down the carrier before it releases them or run far far away screaming like a little girly man.

I do not think that would help lag, since it (to my knowledge) the lagwas caused not by the gfx (it was there before swarms had trails) but by the number of objects that had to suddenly also be tracked with position and movement vector.

Hence the single missile for most of the munitions life time. Sorry, guess I didn't explain that part clearly enough. Also, had in the back of my mind using the travel time of the main munition before it arms to load the sub-munitions into the computer's memory (even though they aren't active until the cluster bursts).

swarms will not affect your frames noticebly if you have a video card built after 2005

and the right video settings to go with it.

Well, whatever causes the lag, this may help alleviate the problem if it's technically feasible.

Also, an alternate use for a cluster munition would be to lay down a small mine field. Just thinking out loud here.

Except this would change swarm mechanics... which goes beyond simply fixing lag.

It's worth reiterating that not everyone is penalized by swarms.

@ Lord~Spidey
Far out, my computer was built in 2002, so that really screws my frame up.