when i get down past 30 percent my ship is smoking so bad that i cant see anything but the smoke. Cant see to target. Once i jump out of the sector i dont see the smoke anymore. This is on beta 4 test. It happened on beta 3 test also. Gaylic

Ok. The smoke is known and it's surprising that it doesn't reappear when you enter a different sector.

I think the smoke is awesome, it's annoying but it's a feature that, when everyone is on the client, makes fighting more realistic. The not coming back is, strange, but maybe jumping to a wh makes you fly so fast that the fire goes out..

Ah, the outside of your ship is not "burning" due to the fact that there is no air in space. however, if you notice how it appers to be a red dust cloud. that cloud is compoised of heated particels that are flying off of yourship since they are no longer binded to it, thus, it due part, the grey 'smoke' is the same thing, only the particels of armor have cooled down.

Man, that was fun writing.

lol.
Keep the smoke!
Good against backrollers.

Agreed. Keep the smoke. Good against backrollers. Outstanding point, BoxCar.

For me, the smoke is just as bad while turboing as it is when backing up.

I think the "feature" is novel, but annoying.

[Edit]
I just realized why the smoke is so annoying. It's right in the middle of the screen, and the rest of the screen is clear. So you can see everything except what you're really trying to look at.

I look forward to this bug being fixed. (Removed the smoke!)

Hell I like the smoke. I'd like to see more stuff begin to break when you take damage. Like your turbo is intermittent, your radar flickers, your hud goes out, warning buzzes, etc etc. but I think there's another thread on this.

I agree, Leber, that stuff breaking could work. But The smoke doesn't seem well thought out. It seems like a bug to me.

Making stuff break would change the dynamics of the game (below about 50%, everyone would either run or die quickly -- OK, maybe that's an exageration, but hopefully you get the point). That's not necessarily bad, but it deserves planning.

You can still see through the smoke.
And backing up now has a deterrant.

A rather low impact deterrant.

the smoke needs to be changed (contrary to actual physics, I know...) so that it doesn't spew thickly in front of you when you're travelling at a constant forward velocity. Yes, it's nice that it deters people from backing up, but it really doesn't get any more clear when you're going forward - only when you're accelerating rapidly (turbo from stop).

Giving the smoke the tendancy to travel at a lesser total velocity than the vessel would help, because you could effectively 'push' your way out of the smoke and get a clear feild of view by travelling forward... it would also generate some cool-looking contrails. Who cares if it's not realistic, so long as its functional and cool-looking?

That said, I do think it's a bit thick... you get hit below 30%, and the smoke alone is an incentive to run, because there's really no way you can win the fight once you can't see anything, including your target and whatever blasts or ordinance they throw your way... it gives the undamaged vessel too great an advantage in combat, so hitting first vastly increases your chances of winning. The smoke is good... but less smoke would be better. It should dim your vision, not block it... then again, maybe just implementing the former would be enough to counter this effect?

I say implement the former.
But leave smoke density as it is when backing up.

actually no fire at all would be more realistic, fire cannot exist in a vacuum such as space, unless ur ship was release oxygen like crazy.

That's kinda what its doing.