The shot now has a moment, from the crosshair to the card
Over the last two weeks the catch card got a back, tier effects, a stamp and a flight into your wallet. The moment before all of that was still flat. You held the crosshair on a ship or an aircraft, the ring turned green, you pressed, and then nothing happened for half a second or more while the server answered. On aircraft it could be longer, because the game also asks your browser where you physically are (that decides the "overhead" badge), and that question can take a couple of seconds. So the best part of the game started with a pause.
This update reworks the whole run, starting at the crosshair.
The lock
The reticle is now one shared piece for ships and aircraft, so both feel the same. While it is acquiring, an outer ring of ticks turns slowly and the brackets breathe as they close in. There is a lock tone: short beeps that get faster and higher as the ring fills. When the lock closes, the brackets snap shut with a small overshoot, two rings pulse outward, a "Locked" tag pops above the crosshair, and you hear one bright double note. On Android the phone gives a short buzz. You no longer have to read the colour of a thin ring to know you can shoot.
The outline
With five ships in a harbour or three jets on approach, a ring in the middle of the screen could not tell you which one it was locking onto. Now the target itself gets a contour, drawn in the world around the hull or the airframe. It is amber with a light running down it while the lock builds, it thickens and turns green when the lock closes, and it goes grey on an aircraft you already caught today. A distant aircraft that is still only a dot gets a ring around the dot instead. If the contour is on the wrong ship, turn toward the right one before you shoot.
The shutter
Pressing the shutter closes an aperture over the crosshair: six blades swing in to a point and open again, with a faint camera flash across the screen. It plays before the server answers, so the press always gets a reply.
The card leaves with the shot
The card back now flies out of the crosshair the instant you press and waits on screen, gently swaying, with a light bar sweeping across it and a "Developing…" caption. Once the server answers, the back stays up longer than before (one to two seconds, longer for rarer tiers): it is a little larger, it turns slowly to one side and the other, a band of light runs across its pattern, and a glint flares on a corner. On iPhones the card used to turn over with the photo already showing through the back, mirrored. The card is now one flat sheet that turns edge-on, swaps sides while it is a thin line, and turns back, so there is never a face behind the back to show through. The server round trip and the location question happen behind it. When the answer comes, the same card stays where it is: its edge lights up in the tier colour, light gets pulled into it on epic and above, the card trembles, and then it turns over with a shockwave behind it. On legendary and mythical the whole screen flashes in the tier colour. A repeat catch turns the waiting card over quickly instead of popping a new one in.
Once it is face up, the card floats in your hand. With a mouse it tilts toward the pointer and a glare slides across the photo, the same feel as tilting a foil card under a lamp. Under the card the tier is now written out with stars (★★★ Epic, ★★★★★ Mythical) before the XP line.
When the shot does not become a card
A refused shot used to show the flash and then only a line of text at the bottom of the screen. Now the waiting card shudders, goes grey, says "Missed" and drops out of the frame. The reason is still in the message under the crosshair.
If you are not signed in, the card still flies out of your crosshair, but it stays face down under a gold padlock with "Sign in to turn it over" under it. A second later the sign-in window opens. As before, the catch is held while you sign in and turns over on your next flight.
Settings
All the new sounds follow the existing catch-sounds switch in Settings → Sound. If your system asks apps to reduce motion, the turning, the shockwaves and the sweeps are switched off and the cards simply fade in and out. In VR nothing changed: the headset cannot show these screen overlays, so the scope readout and the controller buzz still do that job.