And nasty ,
clones are clones not humans!

It's to let you know your shields are down, we have a HUD indication for when you take shield damage, all they did was add a way for you to know that you're taking armor damage, if it's a bit distracting, than that's a good thing, it's suppose to draw your attention to let you know that you are dying. One of the complaints you'll frequently hear from new players is that they had no clue they were being shot half the time when they die, I remember when I first stated playing this was one of the big issues many had with the game until CCP added a more visible hit marker.

I personally like it, it draws enough of my attention to let me know I'm taking a lot of damage, without distracting me from what I'm doing, it could be a little less saturated and a little transparent though, I find the shade of red unusual and the thickness of the blood can be a little too hard to see past at times.

Flint, Kagehoshi, and Pvt Numnutz posts are opinions that counter each other, but ALL have the "RIGHT SOUTION" merged in them:

The (blood-splatter) attempt was noticed by players around Patch 1.5, and we figured it was linked in conjunction with the new Aim Assist component to "indicate" when you were being the victim of a head-shot, or to "accentuate" those theoretical last seconds of animation, when tech-protection had been fully depleted and rounds were now puncturing your clone body under the suit. But the animation was nicely subtle, an we had to guess about what precisely it's trying to mean.
It was also interesting to notice that you could hear a muffled voice responding in pain just before the kill/wounded screen comes up. (If you have a GOOD sound system, you can study and debate whether they voice-matched the whimper to the gender of your clone---we never really concluded it was clear enough to be certain).

I'm not sure if the voice is still retained in Patch 1.7, but the solution I see hidden in your three combined posts is:

It does make sense that an organic entity of "our resemblance" would use fluids to keep important things distributed through its body, so punctured clone body releasing fluid (tainted red just so us human players can make the right association), is acceptable.

It SHOULDN'T be used just for drama everytime your dropsuit is damaged, because it makes sense that dropsuits ARE NOT bleeders, they are the tech that prevents bleeding, so we should only see a chance of "blood" at 0-sheild+0-armour (or perhaps at fatal headshots, like we earlier presumed).

The graphics for that blood have been changed by 1.7, and the new version just isn't enjoyable, not convincing some of us, repelling some of us, so there's great reason to please improve it.

Keep some sort of "blood" animation, because it's a less-boring way of hitting it home that you're being terminated. "We blew up your DS but you jumped out, but we hunted you into a corner, drilled through your suit, and we finally got YOU!"
EVE Online (used to?) have a "frozen corpse" animation after loss of a capsuleer, which I think of as "a bit gruesome", so Dust should have it's own exclusive animation too!

Thanks for posting this thread, Cass! Good observation on a tiny graphic change that has a surprising psychological effect.

Flint, Kagehoshi, and Pvt Numnutz posts are opinions that counter each other, but ALL have the "RIGHT SOUTION" merged in them:

The (blood-splatter) attempt was noticed by players around Patch 1.5, and we figured it was linked in conjunction with the new Aim Assist component to "indicate" when you were being the victim of a head-shot, or to "accentuate" those theoretical last seconds of animation, when tech-protection had been fully depleted and rounds were now puncturing your clone body under the suit. But the animation was nicely subtle, an we had to guess about what precisely it's trying to mean.
It was also interesting to notice that you could hear a muffled voice responding in pain just before the kill/wounded screen comes up. (If you have a GOOD sound system, you can study and debate whether they voice-matched the whimper to the gender of your clone---we never really concluded it was clear enough to be certain).

I'm not sure if the voice is still retained in Patch 1.7, but the solution I see hidden in your three combined posts is:

It does make sense that an organic entity of "our resemblance" would use fluids to keep important things distributed through its body, so punctured clone body releasing fluid (tainted red just so us human players can make the right association), is acceptable.

It SHOULDN'T be used just for drama everytime your dropsuit is damaged, because it makes sense that dropsuits ARE NOT bleeders, they are the tech that prevents bleeding, so we should only see a chance of "blood" at 0-sheild+0-armour (or perhaps at fatal headshots, like we earlier presumed).

The graphics for that blood have been changed by 1.7, and the new version just isn't enjoyable, not convincing some of us, repelling some of us, so there's great reason to please improve it.

Keep some sort of "blood" animation, because it's a less-boring way of hitting it home that you're being terminated. "We blew up your DS but you jumped out, but we hunted you into a corner, drilled through your suit, and we finally got YOU!"
EVE Online (used to?) have a "frozen corpse" animation after loss of a capsuleer, which I think of as "a bit gruesome", so Dust should have it's own exclusive animation too!

Thanks for posting this thread, Cass! Good observation on a tiny graphic change that has a surprising psychological effect.