[Droid803]

I do hope that the SGreen is changed no matter what happens. The retail one looks retarded.
And its a piss weak beam anyway (lol absolutely **** DPS), so looking dinky is fine.

[Spoon]

I'm the only one that voted Snuffleupagus? This topic must be srz bzn!

I do hope that the SGreen is changed no matter what happens. The retail one looks retarded.
And its a piss weak beam anyway (lol absolutely **** DPS), so looking dinky is fine.

The beam itself does good damage, the **** dps comes from its absurd fire wait time. So that's no reason for it to look dinky

[Hades]

It only does 2,888 damage per pulse which is pretty wimpy. Even if the fire wait was cut down to svas levels of around 25 seconds, it'd still be a fairly crap beam. Also, try voting something else, as I will not allow a snufflepagus option be on my poll since people tend to only vote it when it's there.

[Zacam]

Added (a bit late) the "Snuffleupagus" option. Shame on you for missing that Hades (Or, better, an alternative for people to register that they've expressed a posted opinion or mixed opinion, rather than an "all or nothing"). (I also probably would have sorted the images in such a was as to show old/new directly in compare to each other, but that's probably just me.)

So, it seems to be relatively neck-and-neck on the opinions. I do see that a lot of people are, at the very least, comfortable with the change to the SGreen, with all the others being the biggest points of debate.

It also seems, to me, that the beams that most people have an issue with are the bigger ship beams, potentially specifically in regards to the Shivan "Awe and Terror" inspiring aspect.

I'll be running a check based on the Retail Weapons.tbl and viewing what the max beam width was for each section and seeing if there is any adjustments that can be made. I will collaborate on these changes with both Hades and bigchunk1 as well as posting "testing" WIPs. I'll also be making sure to test on current Nightlies as well as Valathil's newer Enhanced Beam Lighting builds.

The other factor to bear in mind, is not only the size of the beams themselves, but also the size and scaling of the beam-glows as well in relation to them. And the fact that, at the current moment, it is not possible to have -a- beam scale itself based on what size ship it is mounted to.

To address the mention 3.6.10 beams: I would like to advise that people not revert to those. A: they were actually larger than Retail beams, and worse yet, they were re-sized in such a way that they altered the AI calculations for determining targeting and hit locations. 3.6.12 allowed for the ability to adjust the beam section size widths without altering the targeting/fov.

Addendum: Also, while I love the work that VA did on our beam graphics, now would also be an ideal time if anybody can think or come up with any alternatives. Obviously, changing the colors is out of the question, but how those colors mix, the graphics used and the order they are mixed in are all vital components to a beams appearance. I know that up until recently, Shivan beams had a bit of an issue (due to inverted additive blending) that made them pinkish/purple, but if anybody happens to feel they are not red enough or so, or if the various Green type beams should have better distinction (while still being Green), then I'm all ears (and eyes).

[jr2]

A little reminder, can people actually vote in the polls too? They're there for a reason.

I think you went a little too far shrinking the glows, but I can bear it.

Well, it was meant for the beam to flow out from the glow, instead of the glow looking, well, irrelevant to the beam as it did in previous mvp versions.

I agree with NGTM-1R... remember, the glow effect has particles flowing into it... it's like there is some sort of weird reaction visibly noticeable between whatever generates the beam and subspace or something.    So Iyeah I think the glows need to be shrunk, but not that much.... it's not a lightsaber. 

EDIT: BTW I voted Hades sizing as there is a lack of a third option.

[Spoon]

I'll be the first to vote the mixed reaction option then!

I feel each beam should be looked at individually, big beams can be retail big. Cruiser beams can be hades small

[Commander Zane]

or if the various Green type beams should have better distinction (while still being Green), then I'm all ears (and eyes).

This would be good I think, in the same way that the BFRed is pure red and white while the other beams have that faint purple / pink blending, having maybe a minute trace of blue (Not so much that it becomes cyan), as I recall some 3.6.8 beams used.

[Kolgena]

@ Spoon: That works for the most part, except when we talk about the Lilith and the LRed. I think it should be kept huge, since the Lilith is basically a mobile Mjolnir.

Speaking of which, I'd prefer if mjolnir beams got treated as if it were retail size or similar. Sure, the beam glow is the size of the sentry gun, but I like to think that those spinny bits actually do something, like contain the massive ball of plasma that is generated at its tip.

[Mongoose]

I went with the mixed reaction myself.  There are certain situations, like the forward slash beams on the Deimos/Sobek and most cruiser beams, where I think the shrinking works well, since the larger sizes tended to overwhelm half of the ship when they fired.  However, I also feel like the destroyer-caliber beams need to be kept bigger, by virtue of the raw power output that they represent.  That shot bigchunk posted of the Sathanas looks nothing short of anemic...the BFRed needs to be as "BF" as the name suggests.  Even the Big/Large variants should stay on the bigger side...while the LRed did look a bit goofy on the Lilith in particular, I think that look actually worked for it, since the Lilith essentially mounts a super-overpowered beam on a ship that you'd never expect it from.  It's a shame that we can't define beam sizes on a per-ship basis, since that would give much more control over what's appearing where.

[pecenipicek]

Retail sizing. Definitely. No discussion possible. Not gonna enter the troll feeding any more than that.

I agree.

[Timerlane]

I voted Hades, but do think/agree that the biggest beams could stand to be a little oversized. IMO, the Sathanas should carry a certain amount of shock and awe when it powers up the BFReds, and to a perhaps lesser extent the Colly when it overcharges its BGreens into BFGreens(yes, technically LRBGreens ).

[Commander Zane]

Even the Big/Large variants should stay on the bigger side...while the LRed did look a bit goofy on the Lilith in particular, I think that look actually worked for it, since the Lilith essentially mounts a super-overpowered beam on a ship that you'd never expect it from.  It's a shame that we can't define beam sizes on a per-ship basis, since that would give much more control over what's appearing where.

I think the resized LRed fits on the Lilith very well going by the screen, the beam is contained within the ends of the two arms, and the beam remains fairly large compared to the rest of the ship itself.

[Hades]

Speaking of which, I'd prefer if mjolnir beams got treated as if it were retail size or similar. Sure, the beam glow is the size of the sentry gun, but I like to think that those spinny bits actually do something, like contain the massive ball of plasma that is generated at its tip.

No. I will never, ever let the Mjolnir return to the old size, it was worse than the sgreen. It didn't even look as if the spinny bits contained the ball since you couldn't actually see them when it fired


In this picture, the beam is still big, it's at least 50, if not much more, meters in diameter, but it's big enough yet small enough to look as if it's contained by the spinny bits. I still need to make the beam itself (but not the outside haze part) larger.

[Qent]

No. I will never, ever let the Mjolnir return to the old size

Do you speak for FSU in this matter? The way you said it it sounds like that's the case. Just curious, not accusatory or anything.

[pecenipicek]

No. I will never, ever let the Mjolnir return to the old size

Do you speak for FSU in this matter? The way you said it it sounds like that's the case. Just curious, not accusatory or anything.

Hades, sorry about this, but it has to be said, you have a serious case of not listening to others. Your opinion is NOT fact. You DO NOT decide how the beams will look like in the end. You can put in the effort to make them smaller, to make them leaner, not "glaring balls of whiteout boom", whatever. But please, DO NOT push your opinion on to others, DO NOT state your opinion as if it were universal fact, and above all, please DO NOT go rageing over this again.

You done good there, kiddo. But accept the fact that some of us want our "HUGEASS BEAMS OF DOOM!", and that we wont trade them for anything in our lives

[Hades]

Hades, sorry about this, but it has to be said, you have a serious case of not listening to others. Your opinion is NOT fact. You DO NOT decide how the beams will look like in the end. You can put in the effort to make them smaller, to make them leaner, not "glaring balls of whiteout boom", whatever. But please, DO NOT push your opinion on to others, DO NOT state your opinion as if it were universal fact, and above all, please DO NOT go rageing over this again.

You done good there, kiddo. But accept the fact that some of us want our "HUGEASS BEAMS OF DOOM!", and that we wont trade them for anything in our lives

Waaah waaaah waaaah because I don't agree with you. I was listening, that's why I'm making the beam bigger, durr durr durr. I didn't state my opinion as fact, nor did I push it on others in a way to try to change theirs. I don't put 'IMO' in front of everything just to please you, dumbass. Nor do I expect anyone else to either, it's implied that it is an opinion, and I don't see you yelling at anyone else for it, you huge, double-standard prick.

EDIT: Okay, I went a little bit over the top due to something else that happened that really upset me, but the point stands. I don't see you yelling at anyone else for what you yelled at me for, and there are tons of people who do it. Extremely sorry, pecenpicek.

[mjn.mixael]

Here we go again...

Let's keep this civil please?

[Dragon]

IMHO, glow on Mijolnir could use an increase in size, so the "main glow" part would touch the outer ring (about 1.3 to 1.5 of the current size). And of course, beam resized accordnigly.

[bigchunk1]

Yes, please do not turn this into an Ad hominem(fixed) thread. Debate the issue, not the person. It's difficult to make progress otherwise.

I made a test mission to illustrate the difference between beam size updates.
Mvp3612:

Retail: Mvp pre3612


You can get the mission here. Feel free to play around with it to see all the beams animated in game. The table with the size change is in the MV_Effects.3612.vp in the mediavps3612 folder. You can temporarily rename or move it to see the difference.

[Dragon]

Ad hominem, not ad homonim. [/latin nazi]