Glowing weapons

[HAARP]

Greetings.

Sorry to bring this up again. I know that this was discussed as early as the first released screenshots. But no matter how long I play, this still continues to bug me.

Basically, our weapons glow. PPCs and large lasers blue, medium lasers green, small lasers red, ACs yellow and so on. The reason behind this is that the devs want players to be able to instantly recognize the loadout of enemies they encounter.
A lot of voices were heard, but this decision stuck so far. Even today, MWLL is still ridiculed by some for this:

and the funniest thing r thos glowing weapons

I for my part can't say that I enjoy them. I mean, artistic freedom ok, but glowing weapon looks like something out of a children's Scifi comic
Plus, it gives you away at night (even though the devs promised this wouldn't happen). Have a look at the attached screen. Now imagine it a bit darker (I think one of the mappers said they will make Clearcut darker again). Do you think you would've noticed both mechs without their glowing weapons? Difficult. But with these glows, they are easy to see. For me, this is the main reason to get rid of it.

This disadvantage at night far outweighs the one benefit. I would even go as far and say that I don't want people to be able to see my loadout just by looking at it. Mech pilots were often baffled or surprised in the novels when they encountered new designs and loadouts, they didn't instantly recognize them.

The one weapon that I actually want to be glowing is the PPC. But put the glow into the barrel, not the outside. The blue barrel of Doom shall rise again! >:]

Opinions? Devs, is there any chance that this will ever change?

[attachment deleted by admin]

[Clownmite]

I also dislike the glowing weapons. I don't like the graphical look of the weapons, and I think it makes the game seem more arcade-y. With the pod system, you can still see what sort of weapons are being mounted without the glow (albeit it's much harder to do this).

[DFDelta]

I also don't like it. At least not on ACs.
It's ok for Lasers, but the only weapon I think it really fits to are PPCs, as they are often described (in the novels) to emit light when ready/about to fire.

I'd just love if the glowing was PPC only and related to the recharge status of the PPC.
If you have just fired the PPC, it would be dark, after 50% recharge time you'd see a faint glow and at 100% charge it would shine like it does now 

[Mattk50]

yeah, ever since the first screenshots of them came out they have bugged me. please change at your nearest convenience.

[(TLL)KitLightning]

I'm totally not on that page. If I wield big guns, hell I want to advertise it and it looks cool. Sure I can understand that you want to be entirely engulfed by the darkness but still this is sci-fi so anything goes, and there is as many opinions as we are individual creatures.

Regarding the novels I can understand you, and it would make it harder to designate a loadout of a given target, not as it is now with "Cougar on visual echo 4, Primary config, Brawlers close" . It would thou make it less visually attractive. From my point they will stay as is!

[HAARP]

You have a point, but it only makes half sense. How can I advertise my big guns when everyone's guns are glowing? It just becomes boring quickly, "nothing special, move along"
That's why I want to compromise. Make PPC barrels glow, and maybe big autocannons could glow red after firing for a while. This way, you still get cool effect from some of the most fearsome guns in the game, but you're not overdoing it or compromising gameplay much.

And shouldn't the gameplay aspect outweigh the visual one anyway?

[KingLeerUK]

And shouldn't the gameplay aspect outweigh the visual one anyway?

It's called artistic freedom, and granted, MWLL has a lot of it. It's unlikely that the effects [weapon models] will change, especially when there are more pressing matters to be worked on.

 

[whitedrake 1FSAC]

I kinda like em..    I'd also like to see more of a glow pulse x y z around them as they shoot!

[~SJ~ Blhurr]

Is this really a topic?

[HAARP]

And shouldn't the gameplay aspect outweigh the visual one anyway?

It's called artistic freedom, and granted, MWLL has a lot of it. It's unlikely that the effects [weapon models] will change, especially when there are more pressing matters to be worked on.

 

Really bad comparison. Glowy models affect gameplay. PPC effects don't.

[Jaso the Sniper]

I haven't started playing yet, but I think that anything but PPC's should glow. You could have a feature on the options panel that allows you turn on/off glow effects.

It would be plain annoying if you have a mech designed for stealth (with IFF, ECM, and other stuff) and you had a glow effect mess everything up. It's like saying, "I'm sneaking around, so please shoot me." or "Hello, World! Don't look at me!"

@KitLightning, you would be able to advertise ur "big guns" (lol)

[Aposiopesis]

I really dislike this myself. I mean, seriously, who puts big glowy stripes on their weaponry as if to say "Hey! Look at me! Look what weapons I'm using! Look at it completely ruining any attempts at the military uses of camoflauge!"

[noisefloor]

Well i like this look for beam weapons. Fits good to the scifi look of it.
But for an Autocannon, i would prefer a non-glowing Weapon. Perhaps it could glow red shortly after firing, but cools down after a few seconds. That would be cool, don't know if this is possible.
But please no happy glowing autocannons. Those are projectile weapons, they don't need something like that

[ratbuddy]

I think it's fine the way it is, but I do like the idea of ACs starting to glow red as they heat up.

[[MPB]OM_Sannyasi]

glowing crap is awsome, had some once- hospital didn't know what to make of it till i told em i'd eaten six dozen fire flies