nice idea, could be cool

A lot of effects are final, a lot are placeholders and a lot aren't even in yet (in beta 4 anyways). I don't think we have any lightning bolt type effects but I haven't seen the latest ones.

its what he's paid to do, you dont think he actually works on sins do you?

Boy oh boy, I cant wait till all the eye candy gets put in! Go gobots go!

Lightning is a very difficult effect to simulate accurately as an example look at the Ion Distruptor in X3 where Egosoft got it completely wrong.

UT3 has a nice effect with their 'lightning gun'....

i noticed that in some scenario's there is suposed to be an astroid ring.
and when u play this it turns out there are just like 3 astroidfields around the planet but they dont form a belt at all.

now i understand its impossible to make the 3 fields 1 belt, but is it possible to just draw a belt between these fields?

not even moving and unable to travel along the rocks but just for show, so u still keep the 3 fields as is but just have some rocks in the background connecting them and surrounding the planet or whatever the astroid belt is supposed to surround.

maybe in the same way the background changes when zooming in on different colored stars(systems)?

no i dont mean the resource astroids around the planet, im talkin about the "level/map" itself.

for example, when u play a game of Close Encounters.
the description of the scenario is:

"Only a thin astroid belt seperates neighboring empires.
Expand quickly but warily, an assault may come at a moment's notice."



But the astroid belt consist of just a few astroidfields, as in u got planets with resource astroids and astroids with resource astroids, the last i call astroidfields.

I mean is it possible tp connect these fields with some astroids in between so they form a belt, it will stay a field with the same gravity well, i just mean a trail of small rocks between the fields so they form a belt.

maybe u dont even need models and can just use textures or something, like the way the background changes when u zoom in on a different color star/solarsystem.

so u got fields, with gravity wells within a big picture of a belt, like its just show but there are 3 astroids big enough within the belt to have a gravity well.

ok, twas just an idea

I'm not sure what your asking 44RS -- star systems and planets do already have some Z axis randomization, its slight but its there.

Um, Ick, horrid idea.

The changing of perspective does matter, hugely. It would amplify the (huge!) need for a frame of reference (currently lacking you will note!) and leave people even more confused than they are right now. I tend to pick one direction as "north" and stick with it -- and so do most others, I believe! -- but having to flip and twist your view makes that impossible, making things even more confusing. And without a shared frame of reference (e. g. a "north" and a "south") directional communication is impossible (I'll engage him on the north, you on the south, etc etc ).

Fact is, we desperately need a frame of reference -- going and mucking up what little reference we do have, is a Bad Idea.

It seems to me a simple built-in compass would solve most peoples area awareness issues.

I`d like to see already excellent graphics swollen up with higher poly-count versions that require Pixar-level animators to generate, so that despite no visible difference at anything but artificially close-up ranges I can write a promotional statement about the game declaring the insane number of polys present in each entity.

And then have the announcement follow of even more totally unnecessary poly count increases in the next entry in the series.

(grin different-fps-game-starting-with-'C'-and-ending-with-'s'`ishly)