Lasers

I assume PA will have lasers in it, if that is true I would like to know how Uber will handle the lasers. What I mean is in SupCom if for example a PD shoots a laser, if that PD shoots you with the laser but the PD is not visible than the laser is not visible either. This causes problems because your units would be getting destroyed but it seems like nothing was hitting them. I would like to know if Uber is planning to make the lasers visible even if the unit firing the laser is not visible.

Let's just keep the "lasers" Star Wars style as light projectiles, rather than sissy Star Trek beam weapons that just look like a light show.

I will say that the star wars style ones are way freakin easier to deal with from a FX standpoint. There was a lot of work involved in getting laser sweeping to work for example. It's a totally different damage model than a simple line projectile.

Thank God because I prefer that style too.

The Monkeylord's beam laser was epic though. And I don't use the word epic very often.

I'll agree, when the Monkeylord was bearing down on you with that laser? Holy crap, intense. Just recently was in a bad spot from messing around in a skirmish game, and I could only watch as a Monkeylord ate through my shields down to my commander. It was such a sinking feeling. Wonderful

But I'm fine with pew pew lasers for most things. Only the really advanced units should have superpowered ongoing damage lasers.

I too would really like to see Beams make a return along side the "SW Style" lasers as well, the variety was really great not just for a visual standpoint but also from a gameplay one as well!

But if you do, fix the issue mentioned in the OP, it made long range beam weapons a bit awkward from a gameplay/player perspective.

Mike

Hell no! Light traveling at 300 mph... pff. I would like lasers that are barely visible (but sufficiently visible to not hinder gameplay). Only upon impact you get a glow around the point of impact, as the light gets scattered.

Lasers are actually visible if they're powerful enough: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlnzcZj_rqU

I agree with thelambaster on the light speed.

Okay, that was super cool. High School taught me that light will only be visible if it reflects off a surface to your eye, or directly from the light source. Perhaps in this case the laser is so frikken intense that photons are literally reflecting off of each other to hit your eye? In any case, this actually gives the monkeylord laser some merit

However, I think everyone missed the point of the OP. He was talking about how, in Supcom, if you couldn't see what was firing at you, and if what was firing at you was firing a laser (the Cerebus, for example, if memory is correct), then you couldn't actually see the laser itself, until you got in visual range of the PD. This was annoying, I remember. I think that the solution would be if something fires and hits one of your units, you can "see" both the unit and the laser, in the sense of how Starcraft 2 does it with units firing that are elevated.

Oh, that's good news! No more physical realism being in the way of epicness.

i have to support both options, while SW style lasers are great for ships/bots what have you, but honestly beams just have a level of awesome that cannot be matched by SW style lasers. One thing i have always desired was the sweeping beams of awesome/doom, which supcom/FA delivered.

Sure ok yes lasers are very hard to see, but invisible lasers is boring and not cool.

I am throwing my support in for both SW style pewpew lasers and supcom style sweeping beams of doom, why?

because as Scathis says in the video "We're not going for Realism, We're Going for Awesome" and sweeping lasers of doom are awesome (and so are pew pew lasers )

As far as I know that was a bug in SupCom. Not intended.
I would be totally fine with SW-Lasers. Shoot for awesome, not for realism.

I agree that for most purposes, continuous beam weapons are unnecessary when a rapid-fire projectile attack could be present instead.

However, I would be sad to see them go. Big continuous beam weapons are impressive, and function quite differently from weapons like guns and cannons. They should be reserved for units with a LOT of power available. Little beams might be Star Wars intermittent blasters. But a giant laser from space, or firing the Death Star, should be a constant beam that lasts a significant length of time.

Also, cutting out beams cuts out a possibly interesting gameplay distinction between the two. For example, shields might be designed to stop plasma and other energy-based weapons. Conversely, shields might be designed to stop high velocity physical rounds, and lack the strength to stop concentrated fire from a large beam.

there will probably be no shields

It could be bouncing off particles in the air, like the little bit of water in the air's natural humidity.

Also I kind of liked the epic sweeping lasers from supreme commander, oh well. For visual variety it'd be nice if there were all kinds of lasers in the game.

I just hope that lasers are not too slow.

No shields?? Why would they do that? Shields are great!

TA had no shields. And actually shields are not that great in SupCom.

Regardless of whether there are shields, a gameplay distinction between beams and conventional cannons in some manner is easy to make.