I know that the lighting in galaxies is a big part of C2 and a lot of work has gone into it. It is actually really cool to have the color from the different suns reflect off of objects like my ship. In my opinion though, it's just slightly too much of a good thing. For example, in my little wingship II half of the ship is always in darkness (the half that doesn't face the sun of course). The half that I can see usually blends in with the clouds and nebulae in the background because it takes on the color of the sun. Of course, all of the other ships do the same thing. I end up squinting all of the time trying to figure out where everything is, which way it's facing, etc.

It may just be that I'm old and get eyestrain too easily. If other people have the same problem though, maybe we can consider adding a little bit of white background light or something to make things a bit more visible?

On a related note: Laser beams and glowing projectiles should be much brighter and retain their colors better. A red laser in a galaxy with a blue sun shouldn't look purple and splotchy. It should look bright red and intense. As an example, a red light shined under our yellow sun in broad daylight doesn't look orange. It looks red. It doesn't get washed out by the sun. The laser beams and glowing projectiles should be their own light source, possibly even reflecting their own colors off of nearby ships.

I agree with the OP to some extent. I think it's a combination of having less ambient light your own ship and also having more effects going off in the background, but I've definitely had to pay more attention to avoid running into hostile AI. It's also more difficult for me to tell at a glance what ships I'm looking at, which contributes to the problem.

As far as lighting goes, it's a balance between realistic harsh light, which really would have half your ship bright, and the other half totally black, and slightly easier to see lighting that has an ambient component to it. We're used to seeing things with strong a ambient component to the lighting, because on earth, the sunlight scatters in the atmosphere, but in space, lighting is very harsh.

We do currently use a small amount of ambient light, and I personally like the harsh look that we currently have. I have been working on adding glow maps to more and more ships, and you'll notice that those that have glow maps looks really nice, and are much easier to see in a variety of situations. For example, the Zebucart's cockpit glows, and I just added a few red lights to the Wingship, etc.

I've just made a thread here viewtopic.php?f=94&t=47526 that explains glowmaps and how to make them and add them if you are interested in helping with that.

As for the weapons, they are not being lit by the sun as far as I know, but in some situations they might be behind a big corona billboard that could color them. Weapon shots do light things up with their own color. If you get in a Zebucart and shoot a pulse gun, you will notice that the nose of your ship gets red as the bullet leaves, and if you fire while over a planet, the planet does get some red from the shot.

All the ships look awful doesn't help anyone. If you can be specific as to what you do not like about ships corrective action can be taken.

for example the hotrod, it's way to flat and the cannon it gets when you go in combat mode just ruins it even more.

This is what I am getting at. I agree, it's kind of cool that lighting is situation-dependent now. However, we are complaining that the level of ambient light is just too low. How much more specific can you get?

Maybe it's easier on higher graphics settings (not available to me on this computer at this time), but it takes me significantly longer to identify ships visually. For example, I often mistake the Zebus in Blue Outpost for SBA Scouts at first glance.

So far, the most this has cost me is a bit of extra concentration when I'm flying around in my Zebu+. However, I could see this adversely affecting my gameplay in the future when I'm just trying to keep spawn neutralized or the squad healed in Olympus. There are enough challenges in this game already without at the very least doubling the effort it takes to visually identify what you're looking at. Moreover, something as mundane as that isn't exactly what I look for in a game.

Sorry, but I don't feel it's appropriate for this concern to be dismissed in a single sentence: "I personally like the harsh look that we currently have."

Maybe we should make a new "Headlights" item that you can put on your ship!

To be fair, I think part of the problem is that the radar screen and map are not really polished yet. Those issues and the low level of ambient lighting all give me the uncomfortable feeling of flying blind. I'm sure it will be somewhat better once those two problems are addressed. I still can't help but feel that the ambient light is just a bit too low for comfort.

I understand it's a matter of preference, and really, it looks beautiful the way it is. Unfortunately, it's just really hard to play. I know you've been playing the game; I saw you doing Nexus missions in your Zebu on the first day of the release. I just wonder how far you've progressed since you've obviously been working your tail off fixing crash bugs and stuff (or watching Jey fix them ). Anyhow, try flying a little wingship with your client zoomed all the way out so that you can see the full range of your mag cannon II or III in a galaxy with a red sun. You can't tell which way your ship is facing at all unless you're firing. I can't anyway.



They have to be getting lit by the sun. Yellow Mag Cannon bullets are hard to distinguish from red Mag Cannon II bullets. You can't always tell the difference between laser types by their colors because the glow around the laser beams always ends up splotchy and blended with the galaxy's color.

I am absolutely the LAST person who would ever criticize your artwork, as I'm artistically challenged. All I know is that C2 looks beautiful to me, but some of the things that make it look so good also make it less functional.