Aesthetically, are the lasers a bit much?

The on/off is a realistic (and welcome) depiction of laser physics.  Slow-moving lasers are, in my view, an antiquated relic of early TV/Hollywood sci-fi that just won't die.

But yes, they are a bit...overwhelming.  They're very large and tend to make a mess of the battle view.  If they had a more focused appearance (rather than the wide beams we have now) I think it would be much more aesthetically pleasing.

In the last Dev Stream they mentioned that the lasers read too well. So they might be already working on it. 

I agree. I also don't like that they go through a target I find that annoying as well.  It would be kind of neat if only the beams that truly missed went through a target.

I don't mind the length but the effect is much to large/bright compared to the size of the ships.  I'd like to see this effect tuned way down.

The beams should also stop when they hit a ship, instead of going through it.  Like star trek phasers.

I agree with Charon. Make the beams, thinner..and perhaps more colors and have them terminate upon target hits. I dunno if this physics is possible for the battle viewer but hey we can ask. 

...or it would be cool if they hit the target, stopped for a second, then went out the other side, like they were burning through the hull.

Yup all to true.  Paul sis say the same thing in the last stream and that they would be tweaked.

If we were realistic about things, you wouldn't see the lasers at all.    

Hollywood made the choices they made because those choices made lasers look badass.  That's not a bad place to aim for in a battle viewer.  (Stardock would be so lucky to get to the Hollywood level).  It should #1 be fun, #2 look great.  Match scientific reality would probably be somewhere in the 5s or 6s. 

Even better if they could make them burn an arc across the enemy ship.  Probably too much to ask though.  

Oh yeah and they'd never miss.  

Laser's can miss. They fire in a straight line but if you are not pointed correctly they will miss. Also, at longer distances light can be bent or reflected by cosmic dust and such. Also, in GalCiv there are shields that absorb lasers.

Indeed. Not only the lasers look too large and bright, they are also too abundant in battle. It doesn't take long until the battle is filled with lasers firing all the time, non stop. I'll also propose a comparison:

This is from GalCiv II. The battles look much better.

And this is GalCiv III

Besides, the battle in GalCiv III are extremely fast and therefore hard to enjoy. They have to be slowed down by a lot. But thankfully this is development in progress.

GC2 battles looking better than GC3 is totally unacceptable.  The battle viewer needs a lot of work.

It's surprising how well the GC2 graphics held up.  The weapons effects are varied and really good.

Yeah, those lasers looks a heck of a lot better.  Faster.  Some pulse.  It looks like some may arc a bit.  Very nice.  

I agree.  I love the purple beam followed by the green pulsing blaster.

Please make GC3 look like this.  The missiles seem super huge in GC3 also, it kind of clutters the battle.  Think photon torpedo from Star Trek for space missiles.

Or the missile effects of Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion. They are also pretty good. Besides, they have no unrealistic smoke.

But I have to agree that the photon torpedoes of Star Trek would look very good in GC3.