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Author Topic: Beam coloration in terms of gameplay  (Read 11207 times)

Cycerin

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Beam coloration in terms of gameplay
« on: December 29, 2016, 06:30:02 AM »

So a lot of the current beam weapons in vanilla are variations of blue. This causes some confusion when you take the different characteristics of the beams into account, namely that the Graviton is harmless against armor and that the Ion and especially High Intensity Laser are punishing against armor.

I propose tuning the Ion Beam towards a more greenish cyan color and making the High Intensity Laser either stark red, or with a whitish-blue core and purplish-red outline, or possibly even orange-red, to make it more obviously "angry" looking and different from the less dangerous beams. It's not a big tweak, but I think it's a big quality of life improvement when it comes to visual feedback.

Example:
« Last Edit: December 29, 2016, 06:45:19 AM by Cycerin »
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Sutopia

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Re: Beam coloration in terms of gameplay
« Reply #1 on: December 29, 2016, 06:50:30 AM »

fast scientific facts:
1.blue indicates higher energy per photon than reds
2.lasers are mostly gaussian beam by nature of how it's made, and gaussian beams means it diverges on distance, the blue light having smaller wavelength means it can diverge slower by same initial waist length(see wiki)

well when it comes to game visual effect it doesn't matter anyways ...
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Cycerin

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Re: Beam coloration in terms of gameplay
« Reply #2 on: December 29, 2016, 06:57:48 AM »

Yeah, realism is pretty unimportant here because starsector is a very unrealistic game, and because these are three 1k range constant fire beam weapons (two even have the same beam texture and width) that need to be able to be differentiated at a glance when they are hitting your ship.
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HELMUT

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Re: Beam coloration in terms of gameplay
« Reply #3 on: December 29, 2016, 07:04:37 AM »

I too, wish for more different looking beams. The HIL especially needs to be clearly distinguishable given its tremendous power compared to the other two.
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Sutopia

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Re: Beam coloration in terms of gameplay
« Reply #4 on: December 29, 2016, 07:21:47 AM »

By the way it should be opposite
Stronger lasers should be blue while weak ones are red.
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Tartiflette

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Re: Beam coloration in terms of gameplay
« Reply #5 on: December 29, 2016, 07:24:44 AM »

Beam shouldn't be visible at all and in the UV/X-ray wavelength anyway, so better keep the colors consistent with the rest of the game than pseudo realistic.
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Gothars

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Re: Beam coloration in terms of gameplay
« Reply #6 on: December 29, 2016, 07:58:21 AM »

PD beams are red, though. As long as that doesn't change it can't be a color indicating great power.


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borgrel

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Re: Beam coloration in terms of gameplay
« Reply #7 on: December 29, 2016, 08:05:20 AM »

this would be cool

can we also get a change of colours for the energy projectile weaps  tooo??
having ion cannon and all other ion weapons shooting a uniform (or similar) colour and all HE energy particles sharing a colour range etc would make combat a lot more intuitive.
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Cycerin

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Re: Beam coloration in terms of gameplay
« Reply #8 on: December 29, 2016, 08:08:04 AM »

PD beams are red, though. As long as that doesn't change it can't be a color indicating great power.

This isn't about telegraphing power directly, it's about differentiating the weapons that look the most similar. PD beams are narrow and short-range and visually not something you could confuse with a red HIL.

If someone has a different HIL mockup, feel free to post. I figured purple is off limits thanks to phase/tach lance, but there are other possibilities.
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Megas

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Re: Beam coloration in terms of gameplay
« Reply #9 on: December 29, 2016, 08:11:06 AM »

The two beams I really have trouble with are graviton beam and ion beam.  Both are cyan.  Ion beam is slightly brighter and whitish, but not enough to tell with a quick glance.  Graviton beam is generally so weak you can usually laugh it off.  Ion beam does bad things that it should be avoided entirely if possible.  There were a few times I shield-tanked what I thought was graviton beam only to see the beam pierce shields and go "uh oh, ion beam!"

High intensity laser is a deep blue.  I have no problem telling it apart from other beams.

Phase beam and tachyon lance are very similar, but since they both hurt, it is not a big deal identifying them or not.
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Sy

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Re: Beam coloration in terms of gameplay
« Reply #10 on: December 29, 2016, 12:39:02 PM »

oooh, i meant to make a suggestion about exactly this a couple days ago, but then forgot! :D

i quite like the colors you're using in that pic. and i agree that the red/orange fits the HIL even if PD Lasers are somewhat similar, since you won't really confuse it with those anyway.

i think it would also be nice if there was more variety in beam width and shape/texture. in most situations, ignoring an Ion Beam is a lot more problematic than ignoring a Graviton Beam, so it feels strange to me that the later has a slightly wider and a bit fancier looking beam.
i posted this a while ago in another thread as beam shape examples:


not that i'm proposing using these exact visuals, but i think they show how beams can be visually differentiable even while using the same base color. i understand that too much visual firework can actually make it harder to clearly see what's going on in heated battles, which is the opposite of what we want.. but i think, for example, giving the Ion Beam a shape similar to the one in the bottom left of that picture would much clearer visualize "this is a somewhat unique beam, and deals primarily EMP damage". the shape in the top(ish) left could fit the HIL, as the most powerful beam (in terms of dps) in the game, and would help visualize the fact that it can seriously ruin your day if you don't pay attention to it.
« Last Edit: December 29, 2016, 12:44:16 PM by Sy »
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Megas

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Re: Beam coloration in terms of gameplay
« Reply #11 on: December 29, 2016, 02:47:15 PM »

I would like Ion Beam to look like a flickering lightning bolt instead of a solid beam like the others.  Tachyon Lance could use some lightning death effects too.
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Morgan Rue

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Re: Beam coloration in terms of gameplay
« Reply #12 on: December 29, 2016, 03:21:22 PM »

I like this idea. Having beams be differentiated in terms of shape would be very nice.
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Alex

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Re: Beam coloration in terms of gameplay
« Reply #13 on: December 29, 2016, 09:09:19 PM »

In general, it's tricky because there are some conflicting design imperatives1 at work here. First, beam weapons tend towards the high-tech look, and the beam color tends to follow the color of the weapon sprite. Second, energy weapons don't generally follow the "white = kinetic, yellow = HE, red = frag" formula that ballistics do... but if we're trying to signal damage type, then maybe they should. Except then you get yellow and white lasers and that's a bit weird. So, no.

But: it probably makes sense to do something special for the Ion Beam, yeah. The texture difference is a bit subtle if you're not actively on the lookout for it. The HIL seems more recognizable based on the color it already has.

1. Meaning, early decisions that didn't take into account the increasing variety of beam damage types.
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Deshara

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Re: Beam coloration in terms of gameplay
« Reply #14 on: December 30, 2016, 12:39:05 AM »

not that i'm proposing using these exact visuals, but i think they show how beams can be visually differentiable even while using the same base color. i understand that too much visual firework can actually make it harder to clearly see what's going on in heated battles, which is the opposite of what we want.. but i think, for example, giving the Ion Beam a shape similar to the one in the bottom left of that picture would much clearer visualize "this is a somewhat unique beam, and deals primarily EMP damage". the shape in the top(ish) left could fit the HIL, as the most powerful beam (in terms of dps) in the game, and would help visualize the fact that it can seriously ruin your day if you don't pay attention to it.

I think making a large, high-tier explosive assault-based beam have a messy, overpowering visual effect would be okay. If it is, as is currently the case, set up so that a ship that uses the HIL is based around the HIL (OP) -and- it's not designed to be used indefinitely like other lasers, having it look like a non-stop energy shotgun blast flying out of the emitter (along with the beam) would be appropriate-- a visually eye-catching, blinding display.
I think more importantly the visual effect shouldn't cross the beam-length. I think having the beam itself be clean but have the effect sort of as an extension of the weapon sprite itself and not actually fire particles would work well, so the effect remains a part of the ship making it and not cluttering the space between, thus leaving visual space for projectile weapons
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