Will we still be able to identify the enemy with skins and camo?

[Sturmhardt]

Hey guys,

I just found this video of a TR Max with a rather bright brown camo skin and got a little bit concerned about identifying him as an enemy:

**TOP SECRET PROTOYPE -MAX SUIT-** Planetside 2 (Camo, armor, etc.) - YouTube

Notice how there is nearly no red color left in the skin, just black and the camo. You only see the fine red lines if you get really really close. The only thing telling me it's an enemy is the shape.
If everybody runs around in camo like that it's gonna be really hard to identify the enemy - at least for me.

Any thoughts on that?

Good thing we tested these things during beta :lol:

[Timealude]

Me personally being a sniper, I always spot before I shoot just in case there's that off chance its a friendly. If you pay close attention though and don't tunnel vision then It shouldn't be hard to recognize by shape.

[Raka Maru]

I think this is an old video??? The factions have more faction colors now which IMO make the camo look dumb, but I'm military so that's how I think.

I watched the FNOPs and the models looked more factiony when PurrfectStorm and Jimmy showed the models in the shop.

[DirtyBird]

Some of my best long range head shots were on team mates.
With characters popping in and out at random I always fired first and sent apologies later. :D
Some times no amount of mashing that Q key seemed to worked.

[ringring]

In that instance I don't think ther's a problem because the shape is pretty distinctive. The same for NC and VS maxes too.

But I do wonder about grunts. I shoot enough friendlies as it is.

[derito]

I believe this skin was used by devs so it may not even be for sale.

[Piper]

Who doesn't run about sphamming their Q key like they're a rat with the pleasure-center of their brain wired up?

My IFF was pretty awful at the start of beta, improved vastly by the end, probably have to go through a similar process again with skins. But the shapes I believe will be enough to IFF regardless of camo'.

[Ghoest9]

ForgeLight's color grading is so extreme that everything ends up having the same color anyway, so who cares?


I cant be the only one who uses the low graphics setting just to get better color grading.

[Buggsy]

I've shot friendly infantry in the back cause they didn't have a blue triangle, it's hard enough to tell which are friendly infantry. If you don't mind being shot in the back by friendlies, sure get camo for your infantry/sunderer/lightening/liberator

[Sturmhardt]

ForgeLight's color grading is so extreme that everything ends up having the same color anyway, so who cares?

Agreed, it's terrible. I would really like to tone that down, just like the bloom. Waypoints or facilitys are practically blinding me from 1000 meters away, it's ridicolous.

In that instance I don't think ther's a problem because the shape is pretty distinctive. The same for NC and VS maxes too.

But I do wonder about grunts. I shoot enough friendlies as it is.

Yup, I was not only talking about Maxes, right now they are pretty good to spot, but the grunts look very much the same as is without the skins, so it's just gonna get worse.

I think this is an old video??? The factions have more faction colors now which IMO make the camo look dumb, but I'm military so that's how I think.

I watched the FNOPs and the models looked more factiony when PurrfectStorm and Jimmy showed the models in the shop.

Cool, didn't watch that, do you have a link? I couldnt find it on youtube...

[WNxThentar]

I'm really disappointed that they didn't test the impact of skins out on game play. Now at launch you'll get people buying this stuff then SOE might be in the position that they need to change or remove a skin and what...credit people who bought it? I guess that would be the best option.

[Raka Maru]

Cool, didn't watch that, do you have a link? I couldnt find it on youtube...

Was trying to find the exact time when Luperza was showing the camo in the cash shop but adobe doesn't play on my ipad. It is not on youtube but on twitch.tv and can't get on my rig till tomorrow, but here is the link.

http://www.twitch.tv/planetside2/videos

[bullet]

QQQQQQQQ*Enemy Spotted*QQQQQQQ*Enemy Spotted*QQQQQQQQQQQQQ*Enemy heavy armor in the area*QQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQ QQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQ*I broke my Q button*

*I could use your help!*

[Ghoest9]

Low is still terrible. You used to be able to turn it off completely by hacking an xml file, but they encrypted that data in some other file and now you're forced to accept bad visibility.



Im not saying it couldnt be better.
But low is MUCH better than high.

[Knocky]

Well look at it this way....if you are leading the charge you will not have to worry about shooting friendlies.

And frankly we are shot in the back so much by "friendlies" even when it is obvious we are supposedly on the same team that camo will not make a significant difference.

However, camo can make a great difference if you don't join the zerg and instead are using your head to flank the enemy.

[Dagron]

I've shot friendly infantry in the back cause they didn't have a blue triangle, it's hard enough to tell which are friendly infantry.

QFT, it's stupid how only half of the friendlies have the blue triangle. I'm surprised they didn't address this before launch, IFF is vital in a game with FF on.

That said, character silhouette (yes, infantry too) is a more than decent tool to IFF, even when i don't spam the spot key i almost never shoot friendlies, unless they get in the line of fire or if i get startled when i turn a corner and they're right in my face.


The factions have more faction colors now which IMO make the camo look dumb, but I'm military so that's how I think.

QFT, i'm not military and i too think it looks stupid. It already looked stupid before they added more faction color, from day 1 i kept saying they should be full camos because of the blue triangles... But if they're going to fail at providing the interface with decent IFF then i guess the only fix is to make camos lame. Because of that i'm probably not going to buy any, which is a shame. :/

[Bags]

Yeah, I can't tell that's a TR max any more. For all I know that could be VS!

In all seriousness spotting nullifies camo.

[Sawboss]

The shape of different infantry and vehicles makes spotting friendlies fairly easy I think.

Only time I had difficulty was with the common pool vehicles. Shot up a few friendly sunderers from the air.. I'm playing on lowest possible settings and the lighting actually makes sunderers look blue sometimes, only when I flew up close did the red textures pop up on the sides.

[RSphil]

the overall shape of the troops will not change so you will still be able to tell who is who from the silhouette. this has been saked before nad this is the answer we always get which is fine by me. always look at shoulder guards. they are a good indication of who is who atm.

[Shogun]

iff is total shit right and may be the factor that makes me leave the game.

the Q key is just stupid! i had to spam it all the time to be able to identify any enemies. and that was even before any camos were added!

the q key isn´t even working very accurate, and that´s the worst part.
what was wrong with the ps1 iff system?

having to press a button literally all the time just to get something that was naturally there all the time in the first game sucks.

the addition of camos will make it totally impossible to identify enemies on your own and will make us even more reliant on this stupid q spamming which is even more annoying now, that it plays stupid taunts on every use.

[Nasher]

AFAIK they changed the camo skins so they still have the faction colours on them quite early on (before the beta), because it was a problem.

[Knocky]

I made it all the way through beta without pressing Q, and I had no problem in knowing whom to shoot.

Now maybe camo (that you can only get with money) will change it somewhat, but as of right now I don't see it as an issue.

[Dagron]

In all seriousness spotting nullifies camo.

QFT.

the addition of camos will make it totally impossible to identify enemies on your own

Not impossible at all, silhouette is a very effective way to identify a target's faction. Also if we complain about it they might make spotting more natural (auto spotting any target you have in your sights for a couple of seconds).

[Bags]

Yeah I go by silloete... barely ever tk people or shoot them at all.

Yalls eyes must be bad.

[Shogun]

my eyes must be very bad although i am wearing kind of new glasses and play on full hd beamer with a 3meter canvas.

most of the time i cannot even make out any siluettes at all and just notice enemies because they are moving or showing a muzzle flash.
maybe i should try to play on low settings instead of all high plus textures on ultra?

[Bags]

my eyes must be very bad although i am wearing kind of new glasses and play on full hd beamer with a 3meter canvas.

most of the time i cannot even make out any siluettes at all and just notice enemies because they are moving or showing a muzzle flash.
maybe i should try to play on low settings instead of all high plus textures on ultra?

I play on high, only time I have issue is dead of night -- but that's mostly with vehicles that have their triangles obscured by an object.

[Sturmhardt]

Was trying to find the exact time when Luperza was showing the camo in the cash shop but adobe doesn't play on my ipad. It is not on youtube but on twitch.tv and can't get on my rig till tomorrow, but here is the link.

http://www.twitch.tv/planetside2/videos

Thanks, found it:
http://www.twitch.tv/planetside2/b/337866138 at 1:33 it starts

They actually look pretty decent, I can still tell them apart. In the video I posted it is much worse, they acutally did it pretty well in this newer video.

[Raka Maru]

Thanks, found it:
http://www.twitch.tv/planetside2/b/337866138 at 1:33 it starts

They actually look pretty decent, I can still tell them apart. In the video I posted it is much worse, they acutally did it pretty well in this newer video.

I completely understand the idea of not wanting to shoot your own guys, but having real camo patterns that don't actually act as camo is an abomination LOL :D

They could have done this in a different way.


Getting the spotting system to actually work
Mouseover to actually show red or blue taco instantly
A few seconds of mouseover to "auto spot"


The way it is now, I probably will not be spending money on "real" camo, but will go for the badass looking skins. Such a shame :)

[Dagron]

They actually look pretty decent

You're kidding, right? Yes they allow those who are demanding IFF through color to have their way, but honestly they look like shit. Seriously, i can't express how much i loathe those "camos" enough.


I completely understand the idea of not wanting to shoot your own guys, but having real camo patterns that don't actually act as camo is an abomination LOL :D

They could have done this in a different way.


Getting the spotting system to actually work
Mouseover to actually show red or blue taco instantly
A few seconds of mouseover to "auto spot"


The way it is now, I probably will not be spending money on "real" camo, but will go for the badass looking skins. Such a shame :)

QFT

[Hamma]

The plan was for them to be identified by their silhouettes as well as their armors.

[BigpermCML]

I think composite armors will help flesh out more "boxy" or rounded features, which will help identify by silhouette.

We were pretty much just using F2P placeholder armors. Camo itself is more for funs imo.

I know The Perm will be rocking some zebra stripes!

[Raka Maru]

I'm still hoping they will give real camo without the bold faction colors that ruin the word "camo".

[Dagron]

Yep, they won't see much $$ going into cosmetics if they're all just half painted armors.
Sure everyone likes to look different - hell, everybody wanting to be a snowflake is the reason why cosmetics sell at all - but most people like to look different good, not just different weird.

[Raka Maru]

Yep, they won't see much $$ going into cosmetics if they're all just half painted armors. Sure everyone likes to look different, but most people like to look different good, not just different weird.

And this is my point. I was looking forward to getting tons of these camos for different environments. Now it seems I'll just be trying to get my "costume" to look like I want, to express my character, which is ok too, but it doesn't seem right to buy camo when it's not. Shame because there are a lot to pick from.

They will see when people just buy the zany ones and ignore the camo.

[Dagron]

And this is my point.

I know, i'm not disagreeing with you, i'm just ranting because those ugly half painted armors make me mad. :lol:

[Sturmhardt]

You're kidding, right? Yes they allow those who are demanding IFF through color to have their way, but honestly they look like shit. Seriously, i can't express how much i loathe those "camos" enough.


I am one of those who like to recognise their enemy instantly. I don't have a problem that the camo in this game doesn't serve it's original purpose, we knew that from the start. Im not saying they all look good because some of them are really tasteless, but some of them are not bad (especially the subtle ones with only few colours). I am okay with what they do with them.

[Dagron]

That's the thing that really annoys me, if the triangles over friendlies heads weren't buggy and actually showed on everyone, then nothing else would really matter for IFF.
We could even have TRs in blue, VSs in red and NCs in purple, if they didn't have the friendly indicator you'd immediately know they deserve to be shot in the face regardless of color, silhouette or whatever.
Of course having the empire specific colors open to enemy empires would still be lame and shouldn't be done, but my point is that any textures would be fine because they wouldn't interfere with gameplay, and those of us who want to look badass instead of silly would actually want to buy camos.

[Piper]

Sure everyone likes to look different

Really? Different just gets you noticed, getting noticed gets you dead. :p

Soldiers in the Napoleonic era sensibly shot the buggers on the horses with the gold braid on their shoulders first. ;)

Looking like a newb and trying (and probably failing) not to play like one for me everytime. :D

[Sifer2]

Personally I would prefer it if there were no Camo's anyway. I like bold faction colors, and being able to more easily see who is what. So if less people buy the camo, and just proudly stick with their full faction colors that's a win to me. If they do it right the armor customization should be enough. Halo showed it's possible to have quite a few armor variants on the same sized model.

And on the spotting I agree it should be a simple hover cursor over target for a few seconds, and they show up as a bad guy. For actual spotting to let everyone around you know where the enemy is I think that should be an Infiltrator role using a special tool.

[MrBloodworth]

The plan was for them to be identified by their silhouettes as well as their armors.

Ehhhh...........

Never seen that work. Also, last day of beta, I noticed you can attach plates to your grunt. So much for silhouettes.

Its like conscription, for fashionistas at target. I don't know which one of those to shoot eather. "Q" is the only reliable method. Funny, only reason we need Q is because of the "Brown is real" rule of the recent generation. Brown on Brown with some Visine on the lens, I AM IMMERSED!

With all the little bees on my screen, sometimes I fell like I am playing EVE.