1- When stopped, make the screen to have tiny small movements, like if we were floating under water. Instead of perfectly stopped. Something similar to BSGO.

2- When flying around, we see some particles, that gives us the sensation of movement. The idea is perfect, but... it's awfull to see perfect triangles. Give them another shape, w/o edges and corners. (please, not perfect spheres).

3- Those cracked asteroids... didn't know they had a reason to be like that, before reading about here in the Forums very recently. It's ok for them to be cracked... but those long sharp edges, and large flat faces... they pass a very bad 1st impression, like if they were designed in a hurry w/o any care, the easiest way possible.
Well, no cracked rocks crack like that. They should have lots of defects, fissures, clefts, both in the faces and the edges. Always reducing it's original total volume. Take a pickax and use it all over those edges and faces.
And do something with ice asteroids too.

4- Stations are too sharp. No curves at all. I'd like some of them to have organic-like shapes, or mechanic-like. Their textures are nice when viewed from close, but not from far. And all docking bays are identical, and have those blue blinking triangles... I never liked those triangles and the way they blink. (ok, this one is just a rant)

5- The ships could have a few blinking lights. Not like those on real airplanes... again, something like they've put on BSGO ships. Tiny sequenced lights, blinking sporadically.

Edit: the galaxy backgrounds are the most good looking I've seen.

1 - No thank you.

2 - They're probably like that for performance. So if changed, it should be done as an optional thing so that people with crappy hardware can still have the existing functionality. But yeah, could be nice.

3 - The devs pretty much already intend to eventually replace the game's asteroids with fancier ones. I think that was a 2.0 goal.

4 - Yeah, curvy Itani stations might be cool.

5 - I do like pretty lights.

I looked better to those cracked asteroids... and their flat faces do have a good paint on them. The long straight and sharp edges are the real villains.

But, above all, what most annoys me... are those 3 blue blinking triangles. At the docking bays, and jump points. They make it feel like an Atari game.

I like the blinking triangles... They fit with the aesthetic. And I like the aesthetic.

-1 no, that's why we have a NavComp able to "stop" ship in space.

=2 Try the other alternatives, including remove it entirely, from Options menu.

=3 Rocks crack that flat when crystalline, earth of space. Ok for me as-is.

+4 Stations need to be bigger, and related to each nation, like Organic and rounded for Itani, Mech for Serco and Bloated for UIT/grayspace. In ASCII art: {S} (I) #U#

Triangles will be better if made 3D like neon ads, and we should fly thru it. Just like today's HUD approach aid for aircrafts, can be a stack of increasing frames showing ideal approach rounte.

+5 Blinking Lights: Cool, with one addition: tie it to weapons hot mode. Ships with weapons LOCK, or without weapons, does blink NavLights. Combativ players will have it allways off , while traders will signal their peacefull intentions and Traffic Code adherence by blinking...

The only thing I feel strongly about is Alloh's vision for 5. Why in the name of all that is holy, would our ships running lights indicate our intent? Honestly, its one of the worst ideas you've ever had.

Cooler ice roids would be ok... my vote is the ice roids from Titan: A.E.

http://www.navone.org/Media/Images/3DProduction/Titan040.jpg

@ryan
Dude, those are really pretty ice roids!

@alloh

I need those particles, to know my ship's direction. But don't like it's shape. And probably, my hardware would support a fancier one (Radeon 7770). If they change it, make it optional like Pizza said.

And, I liked your suggestion for HUD approach aid. Anything that has a better looking shape, and doesn't blink like it blinks today.

The blinking lights for ships... well, I agree with Ryan. Was thinking about it, only as another way to customize the ships overall look. For example, to differentiate a Vulture MK1, from MK2, from MK3 and so on. They could have different blinking colors, or have them in different positions, or blinking with different frequencies.

@Terranbassador

Aesthetics that make users to feel like they are in an old arcade game... Better to have one that looks modern or futuristic.

-----------------

And no one liked the suggestion number 1, about tiny small screen movements. It wouldn't hurt aiming or anything else that matter for playing. It's just that I saw something similar elsewhere, and it was... pleasant.

can anyone tell me how to turn on my left turn signal?

take off helmet, expel all O2 you have , open canopy, take deep breathes of space vacuum, then hold left arm out straight from ship. :>)

"Aesthetics that make users to feel like they are in an old arcade game... Better to have one that looks modern or futuristic."

I don't feel like I'm in an arcade. This aesthetic is good, they should keep it.

@TerranAmbassador

OK, we have opposite opinions over this point.

This aesthetic is adequate. It does not have to be good to be a good game. It does, however need to be good to be a better game.

The biggest aesthetic issue is that most ships look as though they migrated from a Sega... (for all you really young folk out there, Sega used to make consoles... not just games.)... and a select few ships, look fantastic.

Specifically about those 3 blinking triangles... what about a small change, w/o hurting the overall aesthetics? Like this:

- not triangles, but other shape that indicate direction, like an arrow... no need for curves here
- not 3, but 5 or more of these shapes, in a longer path than the actual 3 ones
- not blinking intermittently, but in smalls bursts. Each one lights .05s after the other, and repeat it each 4 seconds.

to me graphics come second after game play so I could care less about better graphics, put the time into game fixes

Keep the triangles.

Keep the 3 triangles.

Keep the blinking.

Sleepy, the fourth member of Guild Software is an artist. Not a programmer, an artist. That means he makes art, not programs. That means that whether or not he works on graphical improvements has no bearing on whether the game improvements get done. They can happen in parallel.

"They can happen in parallel."

Probably why he was hired in the first place.

Specifically about the sharp edges of asteroids... I've been looking (and admiring) that ice asteroid from Titan: A.E.

The 1st noticeable difference, is the overall shape. It's like an 8 tips star... maybe more tips.

But the main difference, is that there are lots of sharp edges, none of them with the same length of the entire tip. There are several edges, almost parallel, formed by some volume adds and subtracts here and there, forming some orthogonal faces, like rungs in a stairway.
And also, a few ridges in the middle, formed by indentations. And the end of the tip, when viewed from close, is not sharp, but curvy, like it's melted.

So, for Ice Asteroids, I believe that a better work in the 3D model, is what is needed. And not just try new lights or textures. As most of it will be formed by small flat faces, it won't result in too much polygons. No need for curves at all.

And, those cracked asteroids... they could see some similar work. To eliminate that unique sharp edge that circles it. Make it be lots of smaller edges. And a few volume adds and subtracts in its flat face, wouldn't hurt either.

PS.: don't mess with those beautiful uncracked asteroids. They are great as they are.