Greneer Sensors need better visibility

[Steel_Rook]

You know those yellow energy Sensor fields that the Grenier use on doors with Sensor Bars attached? Those same Sensor fields tend to show up in Spy mission Vaults, serving a similar purpose to moving Corpus Lasers, namely they knock players down and sound the alarm. Unlike Corpus Lasers, however, Grenier Sensors are REALLY hard to see. They're yellow in colour which matches the background in the majority of Grenier tilesets, they're highly transparent and their emitters are often hidden in door frames and such. I've had no end of trouble trying to take the "shortcut" in the Grenier Sealab Spy Vault that you flood three times to get up to the console. Trying to jump up an elevator shaft while dodging sensor fields I often can't even see is the height of frustration.

As such, I'd like to see some kind of new effect for Grenier Sensors. The colour can remain orange/gold as that's consistent with the overall Grenier energy colour scheme, but the effect itself needs to be both far more opaque and I'd argue far more animated. If I end up accidentally going through a sensor, I want it to be because I failed to look where I was going, rather than because I looked quite intensely and just failed to separate the thing from the background. I'd also really like to have some warning that an area is covered by a Grenier Sensor field turning on and off. I've failed quite a few missions by walking through a door with no field across it, only for it to turn on as I was passing. It's also really hard to tell where they end, since they sort of just fade gradually, meaning that sidestepping them is also quite difficult.

And when I say "difficult" above, I'm referring to eye strain more so than player skill. I'm fine with dodging Sensors, waiting for them to turn off or even trying to anticipate them to a certain extent. It's just doing that makes my eyes hurt after a while, especially if I'm playing during the day with sunlight in the room. Eximus enemies got a redesign to make them easier to pick out of a crowd. Hell, Corpus Lockers got a redesign for seemingly no reason beyond giving them higher fidelity. I'd love to see the same happen to Grenier Sensor fields.

[SordidDreams]

6 hours ago, Steel_Rook said:

I'd also really like to have some warning that an area is covered by a Grenier Sensor field turning on and off. I've failed quite a few missions by walking through a door with no field across it, only for it to turn on as I was passing.

The edge of a sensor field begins to glow yellow just before the field turns on, but it's really subtle and easy to miss if you don't know about it. Same with corpus lasers that turn on and off on a timer.

Edited May 4, 2019 by SordidDreams

[Steel_Rook]

1 hour ago, SordidDreams said:

The edge of a sensor field begins to glow yellow just before the field turns on, but it's really subtle and easy to miss if you don't know about it. Same with corpus lasers that turn on and off on a timer.

I've actually never noticed this. I'll have to keep an eye out, but there's still the issue of the sensor field emitters themselves being hard to spot unless you know exactly where to look. Corpus lasers which toggle on and off on a timer have a similar issue, but at least the lasers themselves are clearly visible when on so I can usually spot them before I approach the emitters. With Grenier Sensors, I end up having to stand just outside of their effective range to even they they're there.

[(PSN)haphazardlynamed]

Well

being hard to spot is kinda the point

they're traps

 

I hear in some other games they don't even have visual cues, they use infrared or other wavelengths that are outside your visual spectrum...

 

[Teridax68]

As others have mentioned, Grineer sensors can in fact be detected, as the doors with them have a sensor bar that projects a yellow field in front. All it takes is to slow down a little when nearing a door, and destroy the sensor bar in time. I can however sympathize with changing them, because ultimately they're a frustrating mechanic designed for the sole purpose of slowing players down, and so in a punitive manner when the game should instead be looking for ways to have players move at their own pace without merely skipping to the main objective.

That can into a little tangent, though, so if the issue is purely one of eye strain, it might be better to change the color of the field from yellow to red, particularly since Grineer galleons tend to have a heavy yellow tint in general that makes it all too easy for sensor fields to blend into the background. So long as the core gameplay is preserved, there shouldn't be any harm to it.

[Steel_Rook]

5 hours ago, Teridax68 said:

As others have mentioned, Grineer sensors can in fact be detected, as the doors with them have a sensor bar that projects a yellow field in front. All it takes is to slow down a little when nearing a door, and destroy the sensor bar in time. I can however sympathize with changing them, because ultimately they're a frustrating mechanic designed for the sole purpose of slowing players down, and so in a punitive manner when the game should instead be looking for ways to have players move at their own pace without merely skipping to the main objective.

Actually, my primary issue with them is in Grenier Spy vaults, where the sensors are mounted on racks recessed into the wall in a lot of cases. They also move on a lot of occasions, requiring precision timing to dodge through them. The Grenier Sealab Vaults are probably the worst offenders as I have to stop and stare at the sensors every time to tell whether they're on and which way they're pointing. And I've completely given up on climbing the elevator shaft in the flooding Vault there as I simply CANNOT see the topmost sensor to tell when it's safe to jump up.

 

5 hours ago, Teridax68 said:

That can into a little tangent, though, so if the issue is purely one of eye strain, it might be better to change the color of the field from yellow to red, particularly since Grineer galleons tend to have a heavy yellow tint in general that makes it all too easy for sensor fields to blend into the background. So long as the core gameplay is preserved, there shouldn't be any harm to it.

Agreed completely. Orange energy fields against an orange background with orange lighting makes spotting the sensor bars hard on the eyes. Red should help on most tilesets, but I suspect simply making them brighter would be enough. Their Alpha seems to pulse right now, meaning they go from being fairly visible to fairly transparent, which makes it hard to keep track of when they toggle on-and-off or move across a room. Most Corpus tilesets and especially the Spy vaults have a heavy blue/cyan tint to them, but the somewhat greenish Corpus Lasers never blend with the background. I've never had to wonder if there's a wall of lasers in front of me or if the passage is safe. Hell, the same goes for all of the Orokin tilesets, as well - the yellow trip lasers stand out from the background quite well, despite the background being predominantly white and gold. Then again, DE did switch the "unscanned enemy" highlight for the Synthesis scanner from gold to red precisely because people had a hard time telling the highlight from the scanner overlay...

But yes, offsetting the Scanner hue from the background a little and making them more opaque should be enough.