Suggestions for Graphical Improvements to Sins

from Sins Forums

So, after some thinking, I started to come up with a list of ideas, all purely visual, that could impact the visual punch of the game. If these exist already in a mod, please don't hesitate to point it out!

 

1. I'd really, really love to see more exploding flak. Right now, even with 50+ flak, the only explosions are the strike craft (Which is cool, don't get me wrong). I'd still like to see blankets of flak.... flak cannons from the TEC, exploding missiles from the Vasari, detonating plasma from the Advent.... things like this. This should be able to be done with a mod (even online), since it only affects visuals. It'd be awesome as an official add on though.

 

2. Bigger missile explosions. Right now... they just kinda puff. Same with #1, can be done with mod, but would be awesome as an official add on. Maybe more defined missile trails.

 

3. Damage textures. I bet these would be darn near impossible to mod. Or am I wrong? In any case, they'd be truly awesome. At the very least, on capital ships. The textures might need to revert after being repaired.

 

4. Planetary damage texures. I want to see the skys fill with smoke, and small red explosions peek through the clouds. I want it to look like Im nuking the heck out of it. Flashes of light, burning ground, boiling oceans, the works!

 

5. Cleaner weapon effects. This is more of a general all encompassing thing, for most weapons. A lot of them are too obviously 2D, I don't know if it's possible to make them volumetric, or appear to be, but it would be awesome.

 

6. More planetary textures/icons. And since everyone seems to want it, better scaled planets / gas planets and suns. They're the way they are now for a reason, I understand, but making the sun a bit bigger as well as gas giants, shouldn't be too detrimental. More skyboxes. More pirate bases. More asteroids. Etc.

 

7. Moving ship parts! =D I said it in another thread, and I say it now. That would be so cool. Probably impossible though...

 

8. And the kicker. Varied ship visuals. That's right. The TEC scrounged up civilian vessels, yet they all look the same? The vasari empire ruled over a huge part of space, and their vessels are perfectly duplicate? The Advent seem ultra creative, but it could be reasoned that all their vessels look alike. The unity and all that. Obviously the meshes need to stay the same, but textures can be changed... given more flair and a personal touch, couldn't they?

 

9. Ship death effects. We already see capital ships sag and slowly explode. Wouldn't it be cool if other ships had different death effects? Maybe the cobalt lf spirals out of control, etc.

 

10. More customizable hud/ui. Color, maybe even size. I'm sure this would be pretty awesome. Maybe customizable ship skins? (Ala homeworld 2)

 

These are just some of the ideas I can come up with. Does anyone else have their own?

Perhaps some of these have already been done in mod form? If so, I'd still like to see them put in officially.

Remember, the point of these is not to change gameplay at all! =D

22,199 views 10 replies
Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top

Some of your request already exist :

 

3) When damaged, ship are in fire... once repair, it become like before

5) some weapons use a mesh and the particule for the effect ( full 3D )

6) Some mod make it...

7) Take a look at the B5 mod... ship have moving part by using the particule effect

10) Alreadu have it with 7DS... some race have a special HUB

 

Sure that the remaining point can be made BUT

 

Sins have a hardcoded limit on the number of texture and the number of mesh... Almost all you write here will ask more mesh or more texture... a solution will be that Stardock rise the hardcoded limit but the backside is that some low end computer will not more be able to use the game... rise the harcoded limit along with a "loadondemand" will be perfect... it will allow low end computer to game little map, with few AI/race...

 

Maybe the solution will come with the multiple mod loader from the V1.14... a mod for different planet, effect, etc... a mod for a single new race... and you enable what you want... curious to know how this new system deal with the english.str and the galaxydef file...

Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top

3. While fire does present, and it's probably the closest we'll get, I'd still like to see actual damage overlay textures. But something like that would be impossible for the game engine huh?

Elemental: Reforged
Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top

agreed with you about almost everything..:)

One addition would be : more realistic move of ships. I mean : in space you need mutli jet to stop your ship, turn aso. in sins ships have only 1 big rear reactor...in fact you need far more reactor to clearly move in space.

Collision between ships : currently there is no collision between ships...for example a frigate that get in contact of a cpaital ship should be severly damaged, and strike craft should be destroyed..:):)

Reply #4 from Sins Forums Top

I'd like to see recognizable debris from destroyed capital ships and starbases. Few Vasari Caps have these, but it'd be nice to see this from other ships too, and especially starbases! It makes no sense that a gigantic construction like that vaporizes entirely :S

Reply #5 from Stardock Forums Top

i dont know about you guys but any moar graphic impovements would kill my averagish computer

Reply #6 from Sins Forums Top

Which is propably why this stuff isn't in it. This game is the Anti-Crysis :grin:

Reply #7 from Stardock Forums Top

Too many effects makes it hard to tell what is actually going on.  Was that one of your own ships exploding, or just some enemy missiles?  Were those fighters that just flew by or missiles?

Blizzard actually openly said that they severely overdid the effects in Warcraft 3, for instance.  When they tried in-house with less fx, it was much easier to play.

Reply #8 from Sins Forums Top

10) get the star trek mod, u will get the LCARS gui

Reply #9 from Sins Forums Top

Which is propably why this stuff isn't in it. This game is the Anti-Crysis

We have a winner!. :P

Some of these things would be quite nice. Most can be modded fairly effectively at least, minus the texture deforming damage effects and such.

Reply #10 from Sins Forums Top

alot of what you said has been done as said by thoumsin my only add on would be that when all caps are destroyed i think they should leave chunks of themself behind as some of the cas caps do to show evidence of a battle the flak idea i do like and belive iv seen it in a mod before but forget which one it is "belive it was Epic war" but unsure but i really love the muti tex for the caps idea give the fleet more of a  unique look rather than standerly always looking the same.