So, after some thinking, I started to come up with a list of ideas, all purely visual, that could impact the visual punch of the game. If these exist already in a mod, please don't hesitate to point it out!
1. I'd really, really love to see more exploding flak. Right now, even with 50+ flak, the only explosions are the strike craft (Which is cool, don't get me wrong). I'd still like to see blankets of flak.... flak cannons from the TEC, exploding missiles from the Vasari, detonating plasma from the Advent.... things like this. This should be able to be done with a mod (even online), since it only affects visuals. It'd be awesome as an official add on though.
2. Bigger missile explosions. Right now... they just kinda puff. Same with #1, can be done with mod, but would be awesome as an official add on. Maybe more defined missile trails.
3. Damage textures. I bet these would be darn near impossible to mod. Or am I wrong? In any case, they'd be truly awesome. At the very least, on capital ships. The textures might need to revert after being repaired.
4. Planetary damage texures. I want to see the skys fill with smoke, and small red explosions peek through the clouds. I want it to look like Im nuking the heck out of it. Flashes of light, burning ground, boiling oceans, the works!
5. Cleaner weapon effects. This is more of a general all encompassing thing, for most weapons. A lot of them are too obviously 2D, I don't know if it's possible to make them volumetric, or appear to be, but it would be awesome.
6. More planetary textures/icons. And since everyone seems to want it, better scaled planets / gas planets and suns. They're the way they are now for a reason, I understand, but making the sun a bit bigger as well as gas giants, shouldn't be too detrimental. More skyboxes. More pirate bases. More asteroids. Etc.
7. Moving ship parts! =D I said it in another thread, and I say it now. That would be so cool. Probably impossible though...
8. And the kicker. Varied ship visuals. That's right. The TEC scrounged up civilian vessels, yet they all look the same? The vasari empire ruled over a huge part of space, and their vessels are perfectly duplicate? The Advent seem ultra creative, but it could be reasoned that all their vessels look alike. The unity and all that. Obviously the meshes need to stay the same, but textures can be changed... given more flair and a personal touch, couldn't they?
9. Ship death effects. We already see capital ships sag and slowly explode. Wouldn't it be cool if other ships had different death effects? Maybe the cobalt lf spirals out of control, etc.
10. More customizable hud/ui. Color, maybe even size. I'm sure this would be pretty awesome. Maybe customizable ship skins? (Ala homeworld 2)
These are just some of the ideas I can come up with. Does anyone else have their own?
Perhaps some of these have already been done in mod form? If so, I'd still like to see them put in officially.
Remember, the point of these is not to change gameplay at all! =D
