TR control point color is green?....

[NMnine]

Originally Posted by kaffis

I like friendly=green.

It means that my hilariously color-blind friend can play NC with me this time around. In PS1, he couldn't do it very easily, because his inability to see the red in the Vanu purple meant that he saw two colors on the minimap and distant soldiers: Terran pseudo-grey (or however red/green colorblind people actually perceive red) and blue. Was that Vanu red-blind purple blue, or true NC blue? Nobody knows! Well, he sure didn't.

He's learned to usually differentiate the colorless tones that red and green make by varied brightness, etc. in order to function in normal society. But things like blue/purple still throw him off easily, because it's a lot more subtle to him.

Im colourblind too altough not as severely as your friend seems to be. The only thing I wish was that the NC primary colour was yellow instead of blue. I think that would clear up alot of confusion (at least for me), since purple and blue look kind of similar to me while red yellow and purple would not look similar at all.

It will probably be fine though if there are nameplates or some kind of HUD indicators for friendlies.. or i play TR but i doubt that will happen haha!

[Spoof]

TL;DR ... how about a UI option to use your preferred style?

Default: Green and Red

Faction: Red, Blue, Purple

High contrast: White-on-black vs black-on-white

[starshine]

i agree with choosing the color in settings to suit our own style. if anyone f**ks it up they can always restore defaults (maybe hide it in advanced settings to keep it away from people who wouldn't know what they're doing)

I haven't played ps1 but having a color for control point that's different from my faction color (go VS!) feels a bit off.

so yeah, keep this as default, but allow us to change it (just like UI )

my 2 cents.

edit: in fact, why not allow us to choose the colors for every faction? this will help the colorblind as they can choose a color for themselves which suits them. of course, if someone tries to choose same colors for two faction then it just goes back to defaults

[Tapman]

Originally Posted by arclegger

We've actually done a lot of usability and gameplay testing on this specific topic. Turns out not everybody are pros like you guys (duh). You would think that it would be obvious, let's just have red blue and purple but anybody that played as TR and never played planetside would always get confused with the red. They would try to take over the red cap points not thinking they were actually the ones they owned. As NC it was so easy, you own and defend blue and take over red and purple, but as TR it felt the opposite. As soon as we added the green for the ones you own across all three empires people just got it and it has worked beautifully.

Also correct, TR sees green blue and purple where the other two empires see red green and blue or purple.

Hope this helps.

Wouldn't having one empire's default color being green confuse new players on the other empires and result in them not trying to capture it? I think that it would be better to have the default empire colors and change the text that comes up when you go up to a friendly capture point to say "Defend this point!" or something to that effect.

[DesertFox]

An option to change the colours to red/blue/purple would be nice. My experience with Ps1 is pretty limited, but the green control points still confused me for a while. I mean, the TR soldiers wear red, as do the vehicles, and the "banners" hanging on the base walls, along with the cap points themselves are also red.. but not the little icons? Hmmmnn.

[starshine]

Originally Posted by Tapman

Wouldn't having one empire's default color being green confuse new players on the other empires and result in them not trying to capture it? I think that it would be better to have the default empire colors and change the text that comes up when you go up to a friendly capture point to say "Defend this point!" or something to that effect.

Originally Posted by DesertFox

An option to change the colours to red/blue/purple would be nice. My experience with Ps1 is pretty limited, but the green control points still confused me for a while. I mean, the TR soldiers wear red, as do the vehicles, and the "banners" hanging on the base walls, along with the cap points themselves are also red.. but not the little icons? Hmmmnn.

as I understand the green is NOT tr's color, it is the color of YOUR faction (tr/vs/nc) if you hold the point. if you do not hold the point, you will see the opposing faction's colors (RED, BLUE OR PURPLE depending on your faction)

[SurgeonX]

Originally Posted by CViolet

Doesn't matter to me either way, but it seems like one of those tings that you really shouldn't devote that much thought too. stuff like this usually falls under the umbrella of the learning curve and common sense.. No real need to simplify something that is innately simple. Additionally, there's the psychological reward of "fuck yo blue couch, this shit is purple now." Maybe that's just me.

Actually, this is exactly the sort of thing that time should be devoted to.
Usability is one of the most important aspects in ensuring that PS2 succeeds.
And it certainly shouldn't fall under the umbrella of learning curves and common sense.

As Arclegger says: "Turns out not everybody are pros like you guys (duh)."

That's the essence of usability and user-centred design.
Ensuring a system is usable for all users, and not just a select few.
Just because you think it's simple, doesn't mean everyone else will.

The fact that they're performing focussed usabilty tests is just another demonstration of how determined the PS2 team are.

[kaffis]

Originally Posted by arclegger

We've actually done a lot of usability and gameplay testing on this specific topic. Turns out not everybody are pros like you guys (duh). You would think that it would be obvious, let's just have red blue and purple but anybody that played as TR and never played planetside would always get confused with the red. They would try to take over the red cap points not thinking they were actually the ones they owned. As NC it was so easy, you own and defend blue and take over red and purple, but as TR it felt the opposite. As soon as we added the green for the ones you own across all three empires people just got it and it has worked beautifully.

Also correct, TR sees green blue and purple where the other two empires see red green and blue or purple.

Hope this helps.

Do you check your usability sample pool for color-blindness? It would be awesome to hear you guys run at least the UI through to get some dedicated color-blind feedback.

[Trevellian]

As someone who played original Planetside, and someone who plays a ton of Battlefield. It only took me a few minutes of seeing the game from Each factions point of view that Green meant your team owned it. No matter which team you were on, especially since when NC held the base the points turned Red and Purple, was kinda obvious.

I don't see why this is a big deal.

[Death2All]

Originally Posted by arclegger

We've actually done a lot of usability and gameplay testing on this specific topic. Turns out not everybody are pros like you guys (duh). You would think that it would be obvious, let's just have red blue and purple but anybody that played as TR and never played planetside would always get confused with the red. They would try to take over the red cap points not thinking they were actually the ones they owned. As NC it was so easy, you own and defend blue and take over red and purple, but as TR it felt the opposite. As soon as we added the green for the ones you own across all three empires people just got it and it has worked beautifully.

Also correct, TR sees green blue and purple where the other two empires see red green and blue or purple.

Hope this helps.

Sounds like another compromise to appease the more casual player. Seriously, if someone can't differentiate which color their faction is (especially when they're colors that are so representative and defined as PS' factions) then to hell with them. It's really not that big of an issue in the grand scheme of things, but I'm a little irked by the fact that the devs don't want people to be lost for a few moments and then have to actually learn what something means by simple reasoning or asking another player. Please, please, please stop catering to these people who can't figure anything out on there own. It's just dumbing down society.

[kaffis]

Originally Posted by Death2All

Sounds like another compromise to appease the more casual player. Seriously, if someone can't differentiate which color their faction is (especially when they're colors that are so representative and defined as PS' factions) then to hell with them. It's really not that big of an issue in the grand scheme of things, but I'm a little irked by the fact that the devs don't want people to be lost for a few moments and then have to actually learn what something means by simple reasoning or asking another player. Please, please, please stop catering to these people who can't figure anything out on there own. It's just dumbing down society.

It's not like UI colorization is going to yield worse gameplay for vets. If you can make the learning curve shallower and your game start being fun by making it quicker to understand without sacrificing gameplay, you should do it.

Especially since the devs want people to stick with their game long enough to buy things, rather than get frustrated/bewildered and move on to something else.

[Krishtov]

Seems someone beat me to the punch, but yes...

What about a... Color Blind Mode?... I've met plenty of color blind players.

[Death2All]

Originally Posted by kaffis

It's not like UI colorization is going to yield worse gameplay for vets. If you can make the learning curve shallower and your game start being fun by making it quicker to understand without sacrificing gameplay, you should do it.

Especially since the devs want people to stick with their game long enough to buy things, rather than get frustrated/bewildered and move on to something else.

If someone gets frustrated and bewildered because they can't figure what empire their color is then I think they have other issues and probably shouldn't be playing games since critical thinking isn't one of their strong points.

[GuyFawkes]

this sucks . seriously have to rethink my idea of being tr if my faction naturally attracts those with a negative IQ.

[IMMentat]

I think that ws for who owns the base not the cap point, the points themselves did change to reflect what faction captured it tho.

Something simple like enemy faction symbols next to enemy faction cap-points would enhance the current design.
I have no problem with the green = good, red = bad dynamic but even I was wondering if green cap-points meant neutral at first.