cloud and lightning gameplay

[Mattig]

Hello all,

I have to say I love the clouds in this game.  The idea that you don't know where the enemy is coming from, or for those few seconds if the ship you see is a friend or a foe.  It adds a bit of realism to this game that I wish more games about flight added.

I wanted to suggest adding a couple of maps that were nothing but clouds.  one that was free and clear of all debris, so all you have are ships trying to find eachother then kill eachother.  and one with debris/obstacles, adding a bit more skill in flying through the map.  If people are wondering why the entire map is filled with clouds, you could add some rain effects to it.  making it look like your flying through a rain storm.

Also, I would like to see some lightning effects added.  Perhaps adding them to darker storm clouds.  Using random chance subsets to determine whether any ship is hit by the lightning, which ship is hit, then what damage is done to what subsystem.

Finally, I heard that there was a map talked about where it was dark and you only had flashes of lightning to see by.  Is that map in existence, or just an idea the devs floated out there?

[Plasmarobo]

Putting aside the fact that the lighting engine slows the hell out of most people in this game, your suggestions would lead to long and frustrating matches for most people.

Some clouds (the amount they have now) allow for tactical positioning. Flares can illuminate them, so it's balanced.
Being stuck in only clouds is probably the most annoying thing I can think of. I imagine spending large chunks of time flying through the white murk without seeing so much as a Tailfin. Nobody would be able to find anyone, and luck would pretty much be the only factor unless you are silly enough to bring flares and flare yourself (if you flare in a cloud the flare pretty much travels zero distance).

It's an interesting idea, but I think you'll find in practice that it will not result in tense manhunts, but rather boring aimless flying. Unless the map is teeny tiny. And then it'd be easy enough to find people to not achieve your goal of tension.

The ideas are interesting, but I just see them translating into more annoying than anything else when applied to gameplay. Realism often makes for pretty terrible games.

[NoWuffo]

For me, I think the mix between solid obstacles (Rocks, walls, objects) and gas obstacles (clouds) is a good combination to yield many offensive and defensive options. All of one or the other would leave most pilots wanting more. Sometimes ducking behind a pillar is what can save a ship from going down, and clouds can break line-of-sight to allow sneak attacks or ambushes.

Also, Plasmarobo had a good point about flares in an all-cloud map. They'd be rendered pretty much completely useless, because they'd light as soon as you fired them, illuminating you to the enemy, rather than illuminating the enemy as you'd want. Remember kids, there's a big difference between peeing in the pool, and peeing INTO the pool.

[awkm]

At some point, we will have lightning although it won't blow engines up just like that for the same frustration issues.

They will play a greater role in visibility and stealth mechanics on an even darker map.