i know I won’t get permission to revert CAS night vision to always-on, but I want a compromise and I’m willing to code it if I get permission from maintainers
if dropship has floodlight installed, then DURING THE firemissions, tiles his gimbal fires on will be illuminated
this doesn’t serve much tactical advantage – the reason why nightvision is so powerful is because it lets GP spy on xeno movements, ergo letting him pick the PERFECT time to execute a fire mission (as every firemission takes 10 seconds to even begin and has a pretty big warning that it’s coming, good timing + positioning = kills)
floodlight while the FM is already being executed doesn’t do anything other than give the GP + JTACs feedback and confirmation of kills. It just makes FMs more satisfying
please say yes
7 Likes
I mean, this seems like a net positive in my eyes.
The Xenos get SLIGHTLY more warning since the entire place lights up + the pilot can toggle it on and off at their leisure. Adds some slight bit of counterplay and variance.
4 Likes
i think a good way to balance it is to make the spotlight toggleable like any other DS equipment, lighting up any area where the CAS camera is looking at that can be struck
that way new GP players won’t get punished for not instantly knowing where the CAS signal is and xenos get even more of an early warning of incoming CAS
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You should code and PR it, don’t see any problems myself
2 Likes
Fantastic solution for gameplay and honestly? This is a nice hit of sovl right to the veins. The moving spotlight as the Normandy flies over the area dropping bombs is pure fucking kino.
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I get the feeling this would be a cool feature that everyone uses exactly once and then never again.
CAS is already so telegraphed you’re only dying if you’ve got your airpods in. Giving it a further visual cue seems like it’ll only enable CAS to be avoided even more easily than it already is.
Imagine not just seeing a single green dot marking the first hit, but seeing the entire area light up and the light move revealing the full scope of the firemission and the direction it’s travelling.
What would really make the most sense is just having night vision on the dropship cameras I can’t even fathom why that’s a problem to anyone. Like oooh noooo the PO can see what he’s shooting conductor we have a problem here!! Some of the decisions made about stuff in this game is just incomprehensible.
1 Like
Wintermote -
This is not what I want to code. I understand why people think that’s what it is though.
I have a firemission that fires my left GAU:
Step 1 offset -3
Firemission begins. GAU fires on step 1 offset -3. When each bullet hits around step 1 offset -3, whatever tiles each bullet hits are illuminated, 1x1 light as each tile is hit, super briefly… kind of a strobe. Very cool looking.
I have a firemission that fires my left Minirocket:
Step 5 offset 0
When the rocket actually hits the ground on step 5 offset 0, the explosion radius is very briefly illuminated. Pretty much while the blast animation/sound plays=light.
The illumination doesn’t stick around; its, when a munition hits the ground, it lights up where it hit. Talking half a second to a second at a time.
It looks VERY cool based on my shitty test. Its not able to “light up areas”. You get (relatively dim) light inside the kill zone, while its actively a kill zone. Not before not after.
The sole purpose is to let CAS pilots that don’t have Nightvision (which is more often than not) get sweet dopamine feedback by confirming hits and seeing the fruits of their labor, seconds at a time.
I already have it (sort of) working – just need to get the aesthetics fine tuned, as light code is confusing, and optimize it so it doesn’t lag anyone’s machines. I run SS13 on a 9-year-old Thinkpad, so I’m fairly qualified to do that testing 
Im tryna get it pre approved before I do more work on it tho
3 Likes
If it’s just an aesthetic change it’s probably fine, which is what your proposal sounds like
2 Likes