I only just read the blog...
Er, it's a bit strange to deliver the maths hype when trails curved fine before. It looks kind of convenient that the 2 screenshots of the old trails don't show them curving. If they did, readers would wonder why the rest of the blog is really talking about it. On top of that, the flaws pointed to it the old trails - again as shown in the 2 screenshots - were both examples of warping and trails not working well together. Crucible turned that off completely anyway.
I'm glad they're back, I'm glad they're now client side as they should be, and I'm glad they render faster than before. These are the real things to celebrate. The points made in the blog about the maths of the curves and the flaws in warp... nothing done that the old trails didn't.
Anyway, don't mean to sound harsh but it was hard to make that point otherwise.
Meanwhile, if the maths is now client side, shouldn't they be
more eligible to appear in warp? Was this just an art decision? Just curious, I'm fine either way, but it would be cool to see someone's trails streak across grid as they drop out of warp at insane speeds.
I hope you'll forgive my sharp opening because I would like to ask a few things:
-+ In the blog, this screenshot -
http://cdn1.eveonline.com/www/newssystem/media/2954/3217/10.jpg - shows the trails being brighter near the engines. But this doesn't happen at all in game. Currently, if you use an AB to reach high speeds then the further away they are, the brighter they are. Somewhat anti-intuitive. Maybe that's unavoidable with the rendering method used but this is one of the bigger factors for upsetting their feel. Without any bright-to-faded, or reversed fading even, they really hit the player as bars of simple and plain colour more than engine trails. Is it not possible to throw some kind of cylinder brightness into the equation. Yeah I probably don't know what I'm talking about here.
-+ Continuing that however, since it's all a bunch of separate cylinders... can we get some stupidly novel tweaks? Yeah, Ima say it. Rainbow trails. There I said it. I don't mean each trail is a different colour like Nyan Cat, no. I mean each trail changes colour within itself. Or both. :D So many colour ideas. AB trails deepen their colour. MWD trails deepen further plus take on a red tinge. Maybe not good from an artistic point of view. Just suggestions.
-+ More seriously, introduce "Fuel Additives" that temporarily change the colour of our trails. :D They can work like boosters and hey, they're vanity. Chuck 'em in the Nex store. I'd be all over that. 500 AUR for something that lasts 1 hour on 1 ship. 7,000 AUR to buy the stuff that makes it permanent, for 1 ship. The significance this could add to the mind games; people using permanent coloured trails like poisonous fish, to show they they're pretty hot stuff. People using temporary coloured trails to make their bait look extra tasty. And the hijinx this could bring to scamming, since the only way to tell a ship has the new trails is to watch it fly. People would literally be trading via pod in space. Or instead of this issue and consumable items, rigs. Pure waste-a-rig-slot vanity rigs. Better yet, both. The temporary change is a consumable item. The permanent change is by using a rig. Perhaps the rig fitting doesn't show the colour of the trails, again allowing more scamming upsets and lols. The permanent aqua trails? They're cheap. But the red and black trails (yes black), they're expensive as hell and you watched him fly in space, you thought that was the ship you were getting when you traded back in station. Completely going off on a tangent here I know. But really, trails for Nex. Do it.
-+ Honestly, anything that can be done to get these trails further away from the plain bands of colour look they currently have would be hugely loved. Most important I think is making them feel more tangible by sorting out the brighter-near-the-jets issue.
If that is done, then I embrace practically any shiny tweak that can be added. The blog talks about animation and refraction... o_O Bring it on! I love the shiny.