Missile explosions

Weylin · Post by **Weylin** » Fri Jun 12, 2009 7:49 am

I never understood the effect used for missiles, it's a teeny tiny little blue puff of smoke. Shouldn't something larger and more explosive be used?

It would be interesting to have a different explosion effect depending on
What type of missile it is; normal, anti shield, anti base.
If it hit it's target, or merely expired after reaching it's maximum range.

Not really critical or important, but a short lived explosion effect would be nice for certain weapons, watching a tactical nuke make a little blue puff is just silly.

Makida · Post by **Makida** » Fri Jun 12, 2009 12:47 pm

I agree, that'd be a very cool effect (though it'd probably actually be less "realistic" than a tiny blue puff, considering this is all in space...

). ^_^

Icky · Post by **Icky** » Fri Jun 12, 2009 12:50 pm

From a gameplay perspective, I don't want bigger explosions or anything. I like being able to see what I am shooting at.

Makida · Post by **Makida** » Fri Jun 12, 2009 12:58 pm

But explosions look cool, dammit! If we were gonna optimize every model, texture, and effect for maximum visibility, there's probably lots of things we could change right now.

Besides, missile explosions can be made cooler than the little blue puff without making them overwhelmingly huge to the point where they'd make it hard to aim.

Also, this would imply you prefer to use missiles at point-blank range, since otherwise the point would be moot.

Icky · Post by **Icky** » Fri Jun 12, 2009 1:12 pm

Unless you are in a SF, and are firing missiles and sniper/util about 1k out.

Avalanche · Post by **Avalanche** » Fri Jun 12, 2009 3:23 pm

I did replace the missile code with real explosions (along with fixed AoE and proximity explosions), but after hearing plenty of comments along the lines of Icky I never submitted the patch. Might submit it again if there is interest.

Icky · Post by **Icky** » Fri Jun 12, 2009 5:24 pm

Is there not a client-side mod we could make for the explosion graphics to make all parties happy? I don't have an issue with the fancier explosion graphics, but for me personally its one of those things where you sacrifice realism to make the game more fun...it's similar to sounds. You really shouldn't hear anyone else's guns firing, only your own and you should be able to hear if bullets hit your ship, but it would make the game a lot less exciting.

Makida · Post by **Makida** » Fri Jun 12, 2009 5:57 pm

If you want realism, there shouldn't be visible explosions in space at all.

Given that there's no air, the explosion's "shockwave" would expand so rapidly, and would be so thin, that the only visible effect would be an extremely brief (i.e. a few milliseconds) flash of light, bright but quite small, and that'd be it. But that wouldn't look cool...

(Alternatively, I like to pretend that the "sectors" in which allegiance is set aren't regular space, but are weird <technobabble> bubbles of space-time filled with some sort of medium like an atmosphere. This would neatly explain both the way ships fly, and the fact that there's a "boundary" to sectors.)

Imago · Post by **Imago** » Sat Jun 13, 2009 1:29 pm

You wrote code and didn't submit it? Are you some kind of dickhead?

I don't really mean that, but come on! upload that, who cares what anyone says or thinks, don't waste your time - at least commit or upload the work you have done.

Thanks.

Avalanche wrote:QUOTE (Avalanche @ Jun 12 2009, 10:23 AM) I did replace the missile code with real explosions (along with fixed AoE and proximity explosions), but after hearing plenty of comments along the lines of Icky I never submitted the patch. Might submit it again if there is interest.