Color of your lasers

[Strager]

Instead of making Laser Color the difference between different laser techs, color could be assigned to each race that starts with laser technologies. So Human lasers might be blue while Blorg lasers are green. Each race to naturally discover lasers gets its own new color- countries who develop it with the aid of another country (Research Agreements or whatever new diplomatic actions come about) or as a result of scanning debris gets the color of their "benefactor".

This would help create an identity for an empire. Perhaps each "Color" laser has a unique random benefit - getting those blorg lasers could be useful because they cause fires on enemy ships. That's one way to make friends.

 

[safe-keeper]

On a related point, I always thought that "red laser", "blue laser", and so on was a bit of an uncreative naming convention.

Wouldn't mind different laser colours, like in Star Wars where the Imperials had green lasers and Alliance lasers were red .

 

[Angelic_Daemon]

The colors are loosely based on the frequency of spectrum they fall in

 

[Mitchz95]

Yeah, have them match the color of your flag/ships by default, and allow customization if possible.

 

[robertqin]

On a related point, I always thought that "red laser", "blue laser", and so on was a bit of an uncreative naming convention.

Wouldn't mind different laser colours, like in Star Wars where the Imperials had green lasers and Alliance lasers were red .

Name of laser are pertinent to their energy level. Red as a long wavelength or low frequency light has lower energy than blue as I remembered. The energy level follows the spectrum. From low to high energy it is radio, IR, red, purple, UV, X Ray to gamma ray. So the upgrade path in game makes sense.

 

[Meneliki]

On a related point, I always thought that "red laser", "blue laser", and so on was a bit of an uncreative naming convention.

I complained about this when the game first came out, but then someone posted that:

The colors are loosely based on the frequency of spectrum they fall in

...and I wasn't bothered by it anymore.

But I also don't disagree with your sentiment.

 

[BlackUmbrellas]

No laser customization, pls and thx. This is a UI/readability thing- a given colour of laser conveys information about the damage potential of the laser and the technological advancement of its owner.

 

[praftd]

I prefer it the way it is now. Currently there is at least a decent amount of scientific believably in laser types as lasers of higher energy levels do more damage.

Assigning color to races makes zero sense.

 

[Scourgeclaw]

Players need to be able to tell what weapons they're up against at a glance.

Kinetics muzzle-flash have different colors depending on their tech level
Missiles have different smoke trails depending on their tech level
Lasers are different colored depending on their tech level

The ability to make quick determinations of what the enemy is using tech-wise at a glance is what Pdox seems to be going for- which makes a lot of sense in a competitive environment so, I dont really see this happening.

 

[Mitchz95]

I prefer it the way it is now. Currently there is at least a decent amount of scientific believably in laser types as lasers of higher energy levels do more damage.

Assigning color to races makes zero sense.

It's an omnipresent sci-fi trope. And Stellaris is pretty soft already, science-wise.

Players need to be able to tell what weapons they're up against at a glance.

Kinetics muzzle-smoke have different colors depending on their tech level
Missiles have different smoke trails depending on their tech level
Lasers are different colored depending on their tech level

The ability to make quick determinations of what the enemy is using tech-wise at a glance is what Pdox seems to be going for- which makes a lot of sense in a competitive environment so, I dont really see this happening.

Why not just add a different effect to each level of laser, so color is no longer required?

 

[praftd]

It's an omnipresent sci-fi trope. And Stellaris is pretty soft already, science-wise.

Being a trope doesn't mean it is good. I'll take soft/hard sci-fi where technology is releatively believable and interesting, over cheesy sci-fi fantasy where people shoot pink and purple lasers for no reason other than to be dorks.

Stellaris lasers are based on energy spectra and their damages reflect that. There are numerous other mods that let you color your lasers like the rainbow if you wish. However, I see there being no reason to do it in vanilla Stellaris other than making the game even more silly.

Why not just add a different effect to each level of laser, so color is no longer required?

Why not keep it the same because it works perfectly now?

 

[BlackUmbrellas]

It's an omnipresent sci-fi trope. And Stellaris is pretty soft already, science-wise.



Why not just add a different effect to each level of laser, so color is no longer required?

Because colour is visibly readable. You can see what kind of weapon someone is using at a glance, mostly (although I never noticed tiered muzzle flashes for kinetics, they could stand to be improved a bit).

 

[safe-keeper]

No laser customization, pls and thx. This is a UI/readability thing- a given colour of laser conveys information about the damage potential of the laser and the technological advancement of its owner.

I... can't believe I didn't think of that. Herp derp.

Though yes, there are other ways to tell for sure, beam light intensity, for instance, but I digress.

Still would like more creative naming than red, blue, and so on, though.

 

[Summin Cool]

Who cares about Lasers? We all know they are actually Light Oscillation by Stimulated Emission of Radiation (s)