I'd like to make a couple of suggestions on the sun effects and tracers. It's been mentioned before, but I think it's worthwhile to mention again, so I hope HTC development team isn't too offended if this is already on the "to-do" list ..
The left part of the pic is an offline drone as it directly passes between my pilot and the sun. The pilot is looking almost directly at the sun, thus the whole screen is "whitened out" in a bright glare.. but unfortunately, the drone and icon remain so very clearly visible.
The sun effect is beautiful and awesome, but as it is, it merely remains a cosmetic feature without much tactical value - it's only a slight discomfort for the pilot to stare at the sun, and detection of enemy position is very easy.
The right part of the pic is my suggestion. The opacity of icon/drone part has been adjusted to 30% - you can see that it is possible to see the icon and the drone, but it is very transparent, and a careless observation actually may let it go unnoticed. IMO, this will increase the tactical value of the sun greatly, adding to the fun of the game.
My suggestion is: how about changing the opacity of the rendered plane/icon from between about 20~100%, according to the intensity of the sun glare? If the sun glare is weak, nothing but a bit strong ambient light, the opacity could be like 60~80% which presents no problem for the pilot.. but if the enemy plane/icon is in the near vicinity of the sun, which requires the pilot to look at the general direction of the sun and blinding him, the opacity should be set at 20~30%...?
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My second suggestion is this:
Fortunately, I still have a picture of the Beta3 tracers. The upper part of the pic is the Beta3 tracer round, the under part is the current tracer round. For those who haven't seen Beta3 tracers, please compare the differences.
I'm not sure if Beta3 tracer colors were intended, or an accidental by product of something, but it looked incredibly cool. You can compare by the picture that the current tracer color is pretty much bland, while the Beta3 tracers have a bright white color which almost seems to be illuminated.
The white tracer rounds used to give the sensation of a real burning metal round flying through the air.
Please please please, can we have the old Beta3 white tracer color back? The current tracer trail is excellent - straight lines for MGs, spirals for cannon rounds.. it'd be even better with the bright white Beta3 tracer round.
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