These forums have been archived and are now read-only.

The new forums are live and can be found at https://forums.eveonline.com/

Player Features and Ideas Discussion

 
  • Topic is locked indefinitely.
 

Warp trails - Warping that leaves its mark
Author
Previous Topic Next Topic
Moonaura
The Dead Rabbit Society
#1 - 2012-12-20 12:41:07 UTC  |  Edited by: Moonaura
Hey CCP Devs,

I'd like to suggest a feature for the next expansion that would both look great, but also add to the PvP.

Warp Trails.

Very simply, when a ship warps to a destination, it leaves behind a trail briefly in space. And I don't just mean like engine trails, this effect should look different and unique and remain visually a few seconds after the ship has warped off.

The trails point in the direction of the warpee (Thats now a word folks) and I'm sure a fleet warping off together like this, would leave a beautiful, brief graphical effect for those watching to go 'Ooooohhhhh' and 'Ahhhhhh' about.

Think of it more like how an airplane leaves contrails in the sky in its wake, which then disperses.

Naturally, there should be some sort of appreciation of the physics, with the start of the trail blue, and it going into the red spectrum as the ship in question speeded up. Or I don't know, make it rainbow coloured and have sparkly ponies dancing off light beams or something.

It doesn't have to be a long trail, but should be a nice effect that also helps in PvP by giving an arrow and direction to where a ship went.

One thing that is very clear in the game right now, is it is not always obvious when a ship has warped off, unless you watch its speed and happen to be looking directly at it. And even then, its not always possible to see where it went unless you're looking at the right angle. If you're all lined up, you basically see is a square box moving very quickly towards a small icon or group of icons.

So yes, this effect would help with hunting other fleets, so it feeds into my evil side of wanting to shoot people I guess. But hey - its about time we had this graphical effect.

Other options:

Warp landing - Visual on grid effect as ships leave warp

Warp initialising - When somebody is trying to warp, it creates an effect around the ship in question which increases until POP it warps off.

Please bump this thread if you like this idea and would like to see it happen.

"The game is mostly played by men - 97%. But 40% of them play as women... so thats fine."  - CCP t0rfifrans 
Galphii
Caldari Provisions
Caldari State
#2 - 2012-12-20 13:05:01 UTC
Love it.

"Wow, that internet argument completely changed my fundamental belief system," said no one, ever.
Seranova Farreach
Biomass Negative
#3 - 2012-12-20 14:38:17 UTC
as long as its not a sonic rainboom :P

[u]___________________ http://i.imgur.com/d9Ee2ik.jpg[/u]
nikon56
UnSkilleD Inc.
#4 - 2012-12-20 14:48:21 UTC  |  Edited by: nikon56
agreed on the effect when entering / exiting warp.

something really sudden, in the spirit of the Star trek / Stargate warpin/out

i'd like the sequence to be like: ship speeding up with a "warp portal" opened in front then suddenly WOOSH ship's gone

reverse it for the arrival

also a squad / fleet warp could use the same, bigger portal,when using a warp squad order eventually leaving one big trail behind it, size would reflect at a certain point fleet size.

this spirit is pretty well rendered in the warpin / warpout of this sequences:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vBKSM82G7I
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbWmFv0yZ2E

regarding the persistance of a trail, it would be cool looking, but it would also impact gameplay, so further need to be said regarding this point, the timing mostly.

i think it shall not exceed the time that an "inwarp" ship remain on overview before disappearing (actually it is like 1-2 sec max i think)

also one shall be able to deactivate this effect, to save comp. ressources in crowded moment like big fleet fight / jita etc....
Moonaura
The Dead Rabbit Society
#5 - 2012-12-20 15:13:09 UTC
I like the noise the Star Trek ones make too. Some nice "Phhhump' noises there too Smile. Wouldn't say no to that either.

Yeah, the effect shouldn't last that long, I'm thinking about 3-5 seconds. And for some reason I like the idea of it evaporating, actually sorted of a half way between the smoke effect in the SG-1 video and the light blur effect in Star Trek.

But if implemented, I'm sure the graphics guys would have some very cool ideas for it.

"The game is mostly played by men - 97%. But 40% of them play as women... so thats fine."  - CCP t0rfifrans 
nikon56
UnSkilleD Inc.
#6 - 2012-12-20 15:39:20 UTC  |  Edited by: nikon56
Moonaura wrote:
I like the noise the Star Trek ones make too. Some nice "Phhhump' noises there too Smile. Wouldn't say no to that either.

Yeah, the effect shouldn't last that long, I'm thinking about 3-5 seconds. And for some reason I like the idea of it evaporating, actually sorted of a half way between the smoke effect in the SG-1 video and the light blur effect in Star Trek.

But if implemented, I'm sure the graphics guys would have some very cool ideas for it.

absolutely, i like both of those effects, and i'm confident that provided this feature being added, graphical team would come up with something great, that would fit perfectly with the warp effect we have now etc....

3-5 sec would seems too much tho, altering the easyness of following someone, and i'm currently ok with the current mechanism making it possible but not that much easy, the current balance in this regard is correct and shall not be altered imao