Laser beam(s) - not like in the classical Elite

[Smivs]

...the (four) beams can be computer-controlled to converge to the desired point of impact.

And even disregarding Disembodied's point about the four beams only really being necessary for graphical reasons in the original, as you hinted yourself (above), it's a complete fudge! It doesn't matter where your target is in terms of distance, the beams 'automatically' converge to the target position.
Parallax is important, and learning the 'sweet spot' on the gun-sight, and learning how to fine-tune and tweak your aim is one of the skills that makes Oolite so rewarding.
Like many of us here I am a bit of a purist and am very keen to keep as close as possible to the original game except where genuine improvements that enhance game-play can be made, and this is a case in point. The single laser looks better (in my opinion), is more believable in terms of immersion and actually adds another layer of skill.
One other consideration is that having four 'beams' flashing across the screen would look awful with many of the current HUD layouts.

[superbatprime]

If one would really want to change something about the laser beams, I would say make them look like more like laser beams, with fade-out of red in the edges or something like that to enhance their appearance. Now, that would definitely get my vote.

Yes please, fully support this.

+1

I would love lasers to have a slight glow or some kind of bloom effect to soften the edges.

[Cody]

... if it's a laser beam then you wouldn't see anything at all (except when it hits something).

I kinda like that idea... an invisible beam, a visible hit!

[Commander McLane]

... if it's a laser beam then you wouldn't see anything at all (except when it hits something).

I kinda like that idea... an invisible beam, a visible hit!

Nah. I'm afraid it would turn out to be a case of realism-getting-in-the-way-of-gameplay, which is the point where we generally throw out the realism with great prejudice.

One example: you would miss the indicators of great battles in the distance, which are so important for immersion for me.

[Cody]

... a case of realism-getting-in-the-way-of-gameplay, which is the point where we generally throw out the realism with great prejudice.

<chuckles> Oh, I agree entirely... it was merely a passing thought. Still...

... you would miss the indicators of great battles in the distance, which are so important for immersion for me.

Well... the flashes of hits and shields flaring would provide that.

[Diziet Sma]

... you would miss the indicators of great battles in the distance, which are so important for immersion for me.

Well... the flashes of hits and shields flaring would provide that.

I always found the eruption of a dozen or two blue spheres in the distance to be the prettiest sight..

[Cody]

I always found the eruption of a dozen or two blue spheres in the distance to be the prettiest sight..

QCMs? None of them in my game... well, only in test-mode!

[superbatprime]

... if it's a laser beam then you wouldn't see anything at all (except when it hits something).

True, but I always think of the term "laser" to be generic slang for any directed energy weapon which uses beams.
In Oolite my lasers are orangeColor and I think of them as focused streams of charged particles emanating a cheery warm glow of death.

It's a tightly packed particle accelerator system that is used to create a charged particle beam - composed of protons - that is directed through the gun barrel, effective range is determined by the distance the beam can travel before diffusing, it presumably functions by colliding high-energy positrons to generate its proton beam.

Aside from massive physical destruction and energy shield disruption it would also have the neat side effect of trapping and holding "negatively charged ectoplasmic entities".

Who you gonna call?

[Cody]

I would say make them look like more like laser beams, with fade-out of red in the edges or something like that to enhance their appearance. Now, that would definitely get my vote.

Yep... and improved drive-plumes would also get my vote!

[Diziet Sma]

Agreed.. more important than sorting out lasers, IMO..

[superbatprime]

improved drive-plumes

Oh man yes good point, this supersedes lasers for sure.
I always end up applying a soften brush to plumes in my screenshots to try to make them more consistent with all the OXP eye candy.

[Diziet Sma]

Now that's an interesting idea...

(mind you, I kinda like the nested multiple plumes of my Pitviper.. )

[Cmdr James]

There is of course the other obvious problem which is that many ships have lasers modelled and the point of origin moved to the barrel. How do we retro-fit multiple beams to tham in a way that doesnt look utterly stupid?

What do we do about detecting hits? What if two of the beams cross a target and the others do not?

What about the NPCs who do in fact have 4 forward lasers?

[drew]

Good to see this one being debated. I always wondered about it.

I remember wondering whether, in the original Elite, it was 4 pencil line beams, or 2 wide beams drawn by vector graphics. I tended to the latter.

On the Spectrum version at least, the Cobra Mk3 had a point on the nose, which I always assumed was 'the laser'. It arguably should have had the single beam.

I never played on the ST or the Amiga - how did they implement it there.

Tend to agree that now it should be a single beam, but it should look more like one of these if you ask my humble opinion.



Cheers,

Drew.

[superbatprime]

It needs like a lasercolor1, lasercolor2 kind of option.

Color1 is the "body" of the beam, color2 is the "edges" of the beam.

So if you set say, color1 to blueColor and color2 to cyanColor the beam would have the (albeit somewhat crappy) illusion of glowing.

If you had 3 lasercolor thingys you could put whiteColor in the very center of the beam to really enhance the effect.

Edit-Or actually you would set them the opposite way, now I look closer at the picture Drew posted.