That might be a good idea, bt only if it stayed for like 2 secs, then faded, so you could find it...

Interesting off topic sidenote about railguns:

I recently did an experiment and discovered that you can actually hit a target with a railgun up to 1.2km away when you are both stationary. yahoo!

"when you are both"

*gulps*

That sounds evil

replying to arolte:

of course i know you play GR. the post was supposed to be read with an ironic undertone :)

actually, i have thought about the threat indicator and have stumbled upon a problem: how do wwe efficiently show where the damage is coming from?
on a 2d plane, ok, done, no prob. 3d? a thingy representing your ship and arrows/pointers where the damage comes from? i dunno, sounds like that'd gulp up hp...

ideas, anyone?

how bout a small flash on your radar around the player's ship that hit you, even if out of range, you would have a quick blip on your radar

Perhaps they should sound a bit like the Gatling variants... just different in pitch?

I like the rail sounds, they sound like rails :P

no they don't... they sound weak, very weak.

"no they don't... they sound weak, very weak."
-The rail is a precision weapon, it is supposed to sound unassuming. It should just be a quick, clipped rush of air sound, like an energy cough (if that makes any sense to anybody.)

Not really related to sound, but I think it should have a gradient vapor trail that slowly fades away. It doesn't really look like a railgun without it. It just looks like a tiny, fast-firing toothpick. Or a single dart. Bah!

http://www.powerlabs.org/movies/rgunshot2.mpg

Why would a railgun have a vapor trail? Why would anything have a vapor trail in a vacuum?

Nice vid Suicidal Lemming, that "muzzel flash" is cool what causes that in a railgun? I mean there isn't any exploding propelent like in other guns. Is that bullet getting super heated and causing the air around it to glow or something? I know the fusion of slug and rails can be a problem from the heat as can the conversion of rails into plasma so that effect must be somehow related.

I use the term "vapor trail" loosely. It can be dust, minerals, ice, energy, or whatever. When you think of fast-moving objects in space, you usually think of comets with a dust trail flowing behind. So why not apply that logic to the fastest weapon in the game? You'd think a projectile moving as fast as it does for the railgun would slowly strip itself away, leaving a trail behind. Space isn't 100% frictionless when you have nebulas and atmospheres around, ya know! Is that a good enough explanation for you, Oh Great Celebrim?!

...Or maybe it just looks so damn cool! No offense to the particle artists of Vendetta, but some of the current vapor trails are lacking slightly. The Gauss cannon looks like a bubble gun fired underwater, spurting out tiny bubbles behind a huge blob. Smoother, thinner, and brighter trails would be cooler and cleaner looking. Take a look at the Tachyons and Gravitons for a example. Those are projectile graphics at its best!

Aye, the site has a nice paragraph explaining the muzzel flash, but it be a bit late for me to go read through it to find it.
http://www.powerlabs.org/railgun.htm

Vapor trails in space would spread out like a cone instead of coming to a point as they do on earth since there is no atmospheric pressure. But trails spreading out like a cone would obscure your vision. I don't think the rail needs a trail. It's a sniper weapon, it needs to be silent and unassuming.

Well part of the reason most railguns are depicted in games with a trail is to help balance the weapon out. You've got a long range, powerful weapon that travels at immense speeds. In the hands of a very experienced sniper, this has the potential to ruin the fun of any victim, consideringn the fact that you have no frickin' clue where they are. And you'll probably die a hundred times until you finally find out. Yay, what fun! Well... one of the best ways to help give the victim a chance to see where the railgun projectile is coming from is to have that "vapor trail." It's simply a balancing tool so that snipers won't dominate the game.

You may not think much of it right now, because yeah you can just see who hit you by having the name flash and then have them locked on your radar within seconds. But what about when radar masking is implemented and the sniper found a nice spot to hide in within an asteroid? Or what if an even longer range weapon is added to the game? While it's not absolutely necessary now, it may be something to consider later on with a few gameplay changes. And it's really not something that would stay there for a long time (the trail). It would go away quickly, so the victim will still have to pay close attention.

have damage indicators implemented that show from which point the fire is coming from.
haven't you ever played ghost recon?

Uhhh... Ghost Recon uses a threat indicator. I play that game religiously. What's the point of having a damage indicator in Ghost Recon if one or two shots mean certain death?

=b

But yeah, a directional indicator for damage would be a lot better than the ominous red flash that occurs from damage. Though I still think a vapor trail would be cool.

=b