The alien nightvision is too "Digital"
plausiblesarge
Join Date: 2012-08-02 Member: 154558Members
Join Date: 2012-08-02 Member: 154558Members
For something that is supposed to be organic, the alien heat vision looks very digital - almost like the kind of vision you would expect from videogame NVGs or computer scanners or something. The sound when you turn it on is great, its just the visuals.
I have no clue how to fix it really, I would suggest making it less crisp and clear. that is, while not making it purposely hard to see, maybe if things were less cleanly highlighted, kind of like the "scent" from the AVP games effect which aliens can spot rather than straight outlines and such. It reminds me of the augmented vision from DX:HR and has very much the same style.
Did that make any sense?
I have no clue how to fix it really, I would suggest making it less crisp and clear. that is, while not making it purposely hard to see, maybe if things were less cleanly highlighted, kind of like the "scent" from the AVP games effect which aliens can spot rather than straight outlines and such. It reminds me of the augmented vision from DX:HR and has very much the same style.
Did that make any sense?
Comments
Are there any downsides to using the heat vision?
Well, the only downside I can think of is an inability to determine what the current ambient lighting is like (although a double-tap of the F key will fix this), especially for us skulks that like to lie in wait for our prey ^^
You can't see the parasited indicator, you need to look at your map or turn of the alien vision. You can't see also where your bilebombs hit as a gorge or the spit.
I think it would be better if it left the environment alone, and just highlighted players with an inner glow type effect. Kind of like when you put a bright light behind your hand or ear and it glows.
At the moment it's really useful, to the degree where it might be a bit too useful. I started out just using it in darker areas, trying to resist over-using it in areas where I could see fine, but I've started to resort to using it almost all the time. It just makes it much easier to determine all entities at long distances without having to deal with all the intricacies of texture details.
The downsides are you can't see many effects, such as active phase gates or healing spray (I think), and you don't benefit from being able to track marked marines through walls. Upsides though are that you never miss anything within your field of view.
Depending on how it looks when (if) it's getting changed, if it's still really useful maybe it should be tweaked a little. I'm pretty sure it's not "heat vision" as such, but if it were then maybe flame-throwers should bloom up the screen and make it hard to see anything at all. It could be changed to movement vision, where Marines that stand still have the same invisibility that cloaking gives aliens, but only when viewed through Alien Vision, but this would have implications for viewing marine structures (or maybe that should be a downside too?)
Or other things could be tweaked. Could make the effective view range be half, or the world gets less in focus the further away you're looking. Marines could even have an upgrade ability that masks them (individually?) from Alien Vision. A cold suit upgrade if it's thermal, or some anti-pheromone nanotechnology if it's scent, something like that, so that Alien Vision is largely the same as it is now except that you run the risk of encountering an enemy you cant see if you leave it on all the time.
I dunno, either way, it is a bit digital and tech-looking as it is right now, though functionally it's quite useful.
Whatever the case, it does need a change. Right now I just pretty much have it on all the time, which is a real shame because the aesthetic of the game when you have it turned off is brilliant.
Personaly i don't think the alien vision is realy usefull because you see everything red
aliens, humans, structures, doors, stairs,.... and in the end it doesn't realy help you much.....
I hope it will be improved with the next update....
Personaly i don't think the alien vision is realy usefull because you see everything red
aliens, humans, structures, doors, stairs,.... and in the end it doesn't realy help you much.....
I hope it will be improved with the next update....<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Are you crazy? I never turn it off. I need it to play as aliens otherwise it's so hard to make out marines from inanimate objects. I would rather that they didn't mess with it at all but only made the toggle more permanent, as is I have to re-enable alien vision every time I evolve, upgrade or respawn.
.... bloom.
I also use it all the time even when i play gorge
but it lacks on effects like the light and shadows (you can´t see if you are hidden in the dark or if you are not hidden at all...)
and i think it would be great to have different colors for aliens marines and structures
and i agree with your idea of the permanent toggle