When the rocket is ready to launch, the fun sound clip and cool animation of the rocket raising is often missed unless you're nearby. When you go check on it, all you see is a rocket sitting there, waiting, and when you launch you just get some booster sounds and a lift off instead of a big orchestra for all of that work accomplished, unless you happened to be next to the launch pad right when the preparation was completed.
I like the red lights, since it seems cautionary for a launch of something powerful and dangerous, like a rocket, so I think reserving them for the launch is good. I also really like the siren and animation, but think it would be fun if you got to experience it each time you launched, rather than miss both of them most of the time.
I would think a sequence like this would be more of a big event so that you don't miss anything exciting:
- When 100% is reached, yellow lights flash, the bay opens, and a simpler and not-so-exciting sound is heard map-wide, maybe a less-exciting, single siren and you hear the bay doors open.
- When the bay is fully opened, the flashing yellow lights turn to green. A slow flash (500-750ms?) would catch your eye if it's at the edge of the screen, so that may be good.
- When the player clicks LAUNCH, then the cool siren is heard, the lights flash red, the rocket raises, and is setup.
- The lights go to solid red and the siren stays on as the boosters begin to ignite (some ignition sparks would be a fun addition).
- When the boosters fully ignite and the rocket begins to move, the siren turns off, but the lights stay solidly lit red throughout the lift off phase.
- When the cycle is complete, the red lights turn to yellow flashing as the bay closes, then turn off.
