Battlefields can also be very busy places. You may be fighting several mechs, over a dozen vehicles, several emplacements and jets or helicopters. Weapons may be one of the best parts. Gauss Rifles leave a spiraling corkscrew of cyan droplets and lasers are near white-hot at the center, gradually fading to green, red or orange. PPCs fire coruscating electric blue bolts.
Missiles fly off in flocks, leaving smoky trails as they go.
There are also distinctive visual effects in combat. As your heat level rises your instruments start to flake out, flickering, sputtering and eventually disappearing altogether. Having many opponents firing PPCs at you can be an exercise in frustration. Each time you're hit with one, in addition to the physical rock-back from impact, your HUD fritzes and sputters. It looks way cool when you're doing it to someone else.