minifig404
Welcome. For those from /r/lightsabers, thanks for stopping by. For those from Hackaday (or elsewhere) unfamiliar with lightsabers, that subreddit has a very helpful Buyer's Guide that will give you the high-level of the ecosystem.
There are many lightsabers that bill themselves as "combat-ready". That's not new. Nor is the variety of blades, colors, sounds, or sound effects. There's even sabers with customizable motion control now. However, the only sabers that can be used confidently in a combat scenario (as far as I've seen) are the ones that are ruthlessly simple in their function. The instant you add more complex functions, you have to really think about how you do it, or else they show their weaknesses under fire, and lose their fun. But even those simple sabers still find a way to break down in really hard to fix ways. This leaves the market, to my eyes, composed entirely of half-measures and compromises.
Here's the thing: all of these issues are fixable.
Clunky button menus do not have to be the standard. Motion controls with a mind of their own changing your settings behind your back don't have to exist. Slow-scrolling color fading doesn't have to drag you down. Random button-triggered visual effects that can give people seizures don't have to make you afraid to turn the saber on. Broken wires don't have to leave you doing "percussive maintenance" in the middle of a combat round
Arya
John Adams
bobgreenwade