Damaged ships currently burn, but they do not yet emit sparks. This is in direct violation of the rules of science fiction. Please correct it before I am forced to report you to the Bureau of Insufficiently Theatric Cliches and Homages.

EDIT: I am of course referring to electrical sparks, not the embers that already burst out. There should be arcs of electricity playing over bits of the frame, flashing in that cold blue-white color, and contrasting the existing warmer effects.

We have definitely had damage-levels in the past that emit sparks, and I'm pretty sure we still do. I can't remember which ships off the top of my head.

But, duly noted, more sparks desired.

I was actually also thinking about damage system...
In my opinion gaining damage should handicap the ship in certain areas, like 75% has the random option to decrease engine power by certain amount, or disable turbo system for some time until it comes back online. 40% could have the ability to disable heavy or small ports for amount of time. At 10% all ships should lose oxygen presure, giving the ship small amount of time (3 minutes) to get into a station for repair

@Rallen

This has been discussed before. Although it is without a doubt more realistic to have a ship lose functionality when sustaining (heavy) damage, the downside is that it might make PvP less fun by giving a large advantage to whoever lands the first shot. Currently, a match is tense until the very end.

Mabye a good compromise is to lose functionality, but only after sustaining pretty heavy damage, e.g. from 80% or something?

In my opinion this would only make PvP more intense. Port lose could only be from 45% and last only 5 seconds

Go make a dedicated thread, Rallen Bosessen. This thread is about a purely cosmetic change.

Inc: Sorry, I shouldn't have used the word "emit". They do "emit" showers of sparks, but those aren't what I meant. What I'm looking for is a flashing-electricity kind of effect. Like the systems are overloading and little arcs are zapping between them.

Oh, like electrical arcing? That would be interesting. A very different effect though, from anything in a common "effects" system (particles and so on). Could be done, like the lightning-mine effect except very small between two nearby points on the surface of a ship. Probably would not be the most efficient effect, but I'll keep it in mind.

I think the "Battle Cruiser" bits that come out when a HAC dies have sparks on them.

Sparks, like the fellow with the grinder. ;)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4swp9PYClo

The reality Inc is that you wouldn't have to change anything in the damage model. This could be addressed through a simple texture change.

Burning trail of leaking warp plasma ala star trek circa 1960's....

Flickering HUD. Occasional, short duration, only partial loss/static-y effect.