Lysira
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Posted - 2011.02.17 16:20:00 -
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First off: Combat in EVE could look like the cinematic trailers of other games, due to the very nature of the gameplay. What we see instead are crosses in space that make me want to turn off graphics altogether and play a text-only version on a smartphone instead.
* Graphics - Battleships just don't feel like I think they should. This is a space game, alright. But look at old WW2 battleships and the most outstanding features you see are the colossal guns, clearly visible from far away. Those are complemented by a whole battery of small support guns. They were platforms loaded to the brim with weopenry. If I want to see the guns on my Hyperion I have to zoom in, and then all I see are tiny barrels that look like they could hardly kill a fly. Then again, if you compare the size of the actual gun on a battleship with one on a rookie ship you'll notice that the rookie guns look much bigger. This just feels... wrong. The larger the ship, the smaller the [Weapon Size]/[Ship Size] ratio gets. Looking at a titan I really wonder what they're using all that space for...
- Why oh why do turrets only target one or two points on an enemy ship? Seeing lazers from 100 ships all hit the exactly same spot on an enemy tower just looks sooo stupid. And why do shots that don't hit a ship still graphically hit it? It would be nice to see a projectile actually miss a ship, if it doesn't do any damage.
- Epic space battles are mostly redruced to shooting dots and crosses. I think this is just a matter of scaling. Make the ships 10 times bigger and you'll actually see the ship you're shooting. Maybe keeping the physical model but introducing a switch to zoom the ship models could do the trick?
- Turret projectile and hybrid animation effects should be more ... persistant. Beam lasers look so cool, because you can actually see them and have the time to appreciate them. Hybrid and Projectile effects are gone so fast that you can hardly notice them. This is such a waste, because if you happen to capture the effects on a screenshot they look really cool. Also, if the weapon size increases (see point above) so should the effects.
- Damage effects... 100 ships shoot a structure, and all that happens is... nothing. No dent, no scratch, no bullet holes, nothing, nada. This seems plausible only if you're shooting the shield. In a fiercy battle, let small pieces break off a ship, only to see it rebuilt by the ship's armor repper.
EVE could be the coolest looking space game out there. The awsome trailers published every now and then show what the engine can do, make use of it! Why use dev-haxed effects only for trailers? Most of these changes mentioned above are only client-side and don't have to be consistent with gameplay mechanics.
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