SOE removing the tactical aspect of camouflage, good or bad?

[Jonny]

I think SOE need to make their mind up, and the more they change things like this that people pay for, the more people they are going to make angry. (like me)

I bought my vehicle camo's for how they looked on the magrider before this change. SOE was happy selling them this way and they made that decision, such as they make the decision to clutter their game with loads of other cosmetic crap.

The Scythe now has large purple chunks and the Mag has more purple and green with large chunks or black plating. They have also scaled down the camo so it looks more like its applied to a 3D model and less like it's been a paint job over the whole vehicle.

To me it doesn't make sense that they didn't change other vehicles like the lightning or sundy, but change the MBTs and ESFs. I'd like to know why, and if it's for the vehicle hacking, why the stock vehicles are unchanged. Nobody is going to mistake a Magrider for a non floating tank.

Anyhow I won't be buying any more of anything cosmetic for vehicles.

[GeoGnome]

I am about 80% certain that the camo changes were put in place so that vehicle hacking could be a reality.

[Falcon_br]

Originally Posted by GeoGnome

I am about 80% certain that the camo changes were put in place so that vehicle hacking could be a reality.

You are probabily right, with a full vehicle camo, vehicle hacking would be the ultimate war strategy, because there would be no way to easily tell a hacked vehicle to a loyal one.
But if they don't place vehicle hacking ASAP we will think they are just f... With vehicle camo for free.

[Snoopy]

but as Jonny said... who is going to get a Scythe mixed up with a Mozzie? OR a Mag with a Prowler? Fair enough in the case of NS vehicles (Flash, Lightning, Sunderer etc), but this isn't just that...

And they look terrible.

[War Barney]

My take on it is I'd be fine with it if there was camo you could buy with certs, even if it was just 1 piece for each area but as there isn't its a clear advantage for people who pay money. If you look white on esamir you are very hidden compared to a bright blue or red person.

Its also a pain in the ass if people use cosmetic stuff to look like other factions they are fighting as that second it takes to determine if its a enemy is all most people need to get the kill.

[Plaqueis]

Originally Posted by Jonny

I think SOE need to make their mind up, and the more they change things like this that people pay for, the more people they are going to make angry. (like me)

I bought my vehicle camo's for how they looked on the magrider before this change. SOE was happy selling them this way and they made that decision, such as they make the decision to clutter their game with loads of other cosmetic crap.

The Scythe now has large purple chunks and the Mag has more purple and green with large chunks or black plating. They have also scaled down the camo so it looks more like its applied to a 3D model and less like it's been a paint job over the whole vehicle.

To me it doesn't make sense that they didn't change other vehicles like the lightning or sundy, but change the MBTs and ESFs. I'd like to know why, and if it's for the vehicle hacking, why the stock vehicles are unchanged. Nobody is going to mistake a Magrider for a non floating tank.

Anyhow I won't be buying any more of anything cosmetic for vehicles.

I just went in and had a look.. lol Mag and Scythe got fucked up so bad. I have no idea what happened to other faction ESF's and Heavies, but those 2 are butt-ugly now.

[fierce deity]

Originally Posted by GeoGnome

I am about 80% certain that the camo changes were put in place so that vehicle hacking could be a reality.

That is what I'm thinking too. As FalconBR said above hacking a fully camouflaged ES vehicle would be truly OP as it would be impossible to get an IFF reading until it fires upon you from a compromising position. I'd imagine that the permanently faction colored sections would change to the faction colors of the hacking faction. For example, the purple on the Scythe turns red if hacked by the TR.

I also agree with FalconBR that if it is for hacking, and hacking doesn't get implemented for a few months, then all this does is make a lot of paying customers angry.

[DirtyBird]

If they are going to add those prominent colors for each faction then I reckon its a fair trade off if we get vehicle hacking.
Although in the case of the VS I think their personal armor should also be updated to reflect their true color purple.
Its good enough for the TR and NC (ok, maybe not the baby blue NC bra).
████████ not ████████
████████
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[Rolfski]

Trading in the tactical aspect of camo for vehicle hacking still feels like a trade-off to me, especially for all the players that have invested so much money into these camo's.

Isn't there a way to keep the best of both worlds? Like the camo coverage only goes out the door the moment the vehicle is hacked?

[DirtyBird]

Higby responds on Reddit.
http://www.reddit.com/r/Planetside/c...metics/cddrt04

Hey guys, sorry I'm just seeing and replying to this. What we are doing is creating some more cosmetic slots to give more customization options. We had some cosmetics that occupied some of these new cosmetic areas already, camo coverage is a good example. Maybe you liked having Indar Desert Scrub on your whole Magrider, but now it's only covering about half, the other half will be able to be set with a secondary camo slot in a near future update. Our plan is to grant the cosmetic items for the new slots to people who previously owned cosmetics that would have filled that area, so you will be getting a new "secondary camo" slot soon, and also camos for that slot based on what you already had. End result will be that you can create the exact same look as before, but you will also have flexibility to do a lot more. We are scrambling to get the items set up to grant so hopefully having a half painted Magrider is only a very short term annoyance.

[KesTro]

As long as we don't see a secondary camo slot that we need to buy MORE camo for than I am perfectly fine with this.

[EVILPIG]

SOE screwed this up from the beginning. They should have made all camo patterns unique to empires so that if I see a guy wearing Forest Scrub and Forest Scrub is a TR only camo, I know it is a TR. Having empires share camo patterns was a bad move. Had they made them empire specific, Forest Scrub could cover the whole model, give the real benefit of camo and not create the problem of friendly fire.

[Rolfski]

The only thing I don't really understand is the optimization reason behind it.

Higby:

Yes, it's absolutely an optimization priority. We are saving a lot of texture memory with these changes which is a major issue for a lot of people. Asset swapping to maintain memory footprint is/was one of our major sources of hitches and frame drops

Why is equipping 2x Forest Scrub to maintain the same old Forest Scrub look more memory efficient?

[Mastachief]

Originally Posted by Rolfski

The only thing I don't really understand is the optimization reason behind it.

Higby:

Why is equipping 2x Forest Scrub to maintain the same old Forest Scrub look more memory efficient?

It's optimising their profits...

[ringring]

Am I the only one who thinks that camo should not have any tactical value in the first place?