[MatthTheGeek]

Beam fading is full of win. As long as it's logical with the range of the beam. I am very surprised by the results of this poll.

[-Sara-]

Beam fade is that the beam fades slowly to being invisible the further you move from the firing source, right?

[General Battuta]

Beam fade is that the beam fades slowly to being invisible the further you move from the firing source, right?

Yes. I actually think the implementation in BP is pretty good. But the MediaVPs I'm less comfortable with.

[-Sara-]

I've not given it an awful lot of attention. However, if the beam still damages while being faded, that'd not make a lot of sense. I'd imagine quite the opposite to happen: when a beam loses intensity at some point it'll only heat the hull of a vessel without damaging it.

[General Battuta]

* Qent prefers 30 km-long beams.

But I think the "compatibility issue" is that the MediaVPs change balance to create a visual effect (since retail beams did full damage out to 30 km).

Quite so.

Well I'll look into making a community patch for the 3.6.12s then.

[Droid803]

It looks ****ing atrocious, how can you say that it looks good?
You have this near-invisible beam tail scraping ships and cause eruptions.
From afar beams look like these weeny little laser swords with a frayed tip.

It makes beams look utterly underwhelming, unimpressive, and plain silly.

No longer do we have an impressive column of light that extends to infinity, but some puny laser spike that's waved around.

[Droid803]

For the record...

30km long beams look impressive.
6km little laser spikes look pathetic.

Energy emission of that magnitude doesn't just...dissipate like that in space :/
Definitely not that abruptly.

It looks silly.

[MatthTheGeek]

Ur face lookz unimpressive and silly.

Stupid jokes apart, 30km beam looks silly, period. You're gonna have to pay me big time to change my mind.

[TacOne]

Infinetly long beams look worse.
The beams look just fine in BP, I've seen nothing wrong with them whatsoever.
As was said, having more control over the fade would be better, but that's a topic for the SCP or FSU threads.

[Droid803]

Oh, it has no problem? try playing The Blade Itself and pay attention the the Trie--eh the Diomede's slasher beams when it tries to attack you from out of range.

IT LOOKS HORRIBLE. You have this beam-like thing pointed at you (but not actually hitting you), and you take damage, there are explosions and such.

* Droid803 pukes all over his keyboard.

Beams don't just MAGICALLY END in space when it's decided its reached its maximum targeting range. If it faded out to infinity, maybe, but it just magically starts fading out at like 4 km and ends completely at 6? WTF?
Extending to infinity (or 30km, which looks close enough for normal missions) is far more realistic than rather abruptly ending at its maximum targeting range.

Nonsensical, nonfunctional, and ugly.

[Turambar]

Too bad we can't cook up a shader that looks like the beam is losing cohesion and getting fuzzier and dimmer with distance.  Or can we?

[Polpolion]

I will say that these visibly shorter beams do look a bit silly coming off of a 2km behemoth destroyer. It honestly just detracts from the awe-inspiring aesthetic beams had without the fade like this. Someone take a picture of an Orion firing its beams from a position ~10km away and you'll understand what I mean. And saying "hurrdurr when are you ever 10km away from an orion firing its beams" is no counter argument. I don't feel that the modders should be forced to choose between A) re-doing all of the beams B)re-doing their campaign plans or C) not offering mediaVP support.

I can understand a matter of opinion like what Matththegeek is saying, but it's just that: a matter of opinion. I honestly don't think this matter of opinion merits forcing everyone to change it whether they want to or not. At most, it should be an option you can choose from.

EDIT: Also, shouldn't this be moved somewhere else if it's not an issue solely with BP?

[The E]

We can't. Not without a materials system.

[Commander Zane]

Too bad the beams that fade out 30km away is what you'd be more likely to see in reality.
A directed-energy weapon that blooms out two kilometers away? In space?
What.
Maybe in an atmosphere, but in space there's very little bloom, so there's much less energy dissipation, much greater range.

[Mongoose]

Yeah, I'm sorry, Fury, but those fading beams look awful right now.  Beams are supposed to look like raw masses of pure energy spewing dozens of kilometers into space, not a tiny little blowtorch flame.

[Spoon]

Was there a poll about this for the mediavp's that I missed or did someone just decided that beam fade should be in it, opinions of others be damned?

[Fury]

Too bad the beams that fade out 30km away is what you'd be more likely to see in reality.
A directed-energy weapon that blooms out two kilometers away? In space?
What.
Maybe in an atmosphere, but in space there's very little bloom, so there's much less energy dissipation, much greater range.

FS is not reality. Missiles and blobs magically disappear when they reach their max range. Beams, despite extending up to 30km only have 1.5 - 8km targeting range.

While we still have lack of control over fading, I'd much prefer seeing extended visual range than 30km long ridiculous beams again. Visual range is currently 1.5 times targeting range, I'd rather double that than look at 30km long beams again.

Was there a poll about this for the mediavp's that I missed or did someone just decided that beam fade should be in it, opinions of others be damned?

There was mediavps beta(s) up for beta-testers and FSU staffers quite a few weeks, nobody said anything during beta-phase.

[General Battuta]

Was there a poll about this for the mediavp's that I missed or did someone just decided that beam fade should be in it, opinions of others be damned?

The latter.

FS is not reality. Missiles and blobs magically disappear when they reach their max range. Beams, despite extending up to 30km only have 1.5 - 8km targeting range.


While we still have lack of control over fading, I'd much prefer seeing extended visual range than 30km long ridiculous beams again. Visual range is currently 1.5 times targeting range, I'd rather double that than look at 30km long beams again.

That would be better, but I see no reason to break gameplay for visuals. I know you don't believe the MVPs should support anything but retail but frankly I think that's just kind of silly.

More importantly, though, what you think doesn't matter. If the majority of users dislike this feature it should not be implemented because you want it. That's just insane.

I liked the 30k beams. What makes your opinion worth more than mine?

[Commander Zane]

Missiles magically disappearing? You should check your .VPs for missing files or something, my missiles explode at maximum range.

At any rate, the best option is a longer fade point, I like the fading beams, but they currently fade to nothingness too soon at most points.

[Delta_V]

I would have to agree with Commander Zane.  I think the beam fade was a good idea, and I definitely don't want to go back to the 30km beams of retail.  However, as it stands now, the beams fade out too quickly, and this takes away from their sense of power. 

Basically, keep the beam fade, but make it happen more slowly, IMO.