The return of warp transition turbulence

The recent patch to EVE Online brought back the warp transition turbulence that the introduction to Apocrypha temporarily removed. The turbulence is the violent shaking your ship experiences when transitioning between warp and sub-warp speeds and is a visual cue I find to be quite important.

Normally I am not a fan of shaky-screen effects but the warp transition turbulence occurs only at times when the capsuleer is entirely passive. There are no inputs the capsuleer needs to make or items required to be monitored that are affected by the screen shaking, rendering it functionally harmless. Having the whole screen shudder can still be visually distracting but that is mostly what makes the visual cue important.

When the screen starts to shake you know that you've either entered or are shortly to be leaving warp. When you've entered warp you know you are safe from immediate harm and can reload launchers and turrets, turn off modules and relax a little. When you are about to leave warp you either need to get ready to jump or to activate modules and keep an eye on the overview and tactical overlay for trouble.

Without the turbulence effect the transition is too smooth, you end up having to pay attention to your whole journey through warp so that you don't miss when you drop out of warp, which gets tiring quickly. It's much better to be able to sit back and play World of Starcraft until the shaking graphics catch your attention and pull you back to the real galaxy.

It would be even better if Apocrypha's sound were fixed and the warp boom and deceleration noises could be heard reliably, but until then I am glad to see the warp turbulence return.

Posted in Gaming |
Tags: eve online, mmorpg