Can't Distinguish Friends/Enemies - Color Deficiency

Discussion in 'PlanetSide 2 Gameplay Discussion' started by RainQQ, Nov 22, 2012.

  1. RainQQ

    New to the game and I like it, hope it does well. But seems to me this game has a major, major problem: it is near impossible to differentiate friendlies from enemies, and this must be especially true for the significant minority of persons with red/green colorblindness, properly called color deficiency.

    The problem is this: the hue/color of the character models simply are not vivid enough to distinguish between friend and foe. And this is gamebreaking for those with even mild forms of color deficiency.

    I have a mild version of color deficiency. Can see regular reds and greens just fine. But once those colors are particularly faint or light (or especially dark), it is impossible -- impossible -- to tell them apart. This is genetic, causing the colors to appear very similar and impossible to distinguish. For people with more severe forms, you need a vivid red or green to assist them. Think traffic light red and green.

    In PS2, it is pretty gamebreaking. I have looked at all three factions side-by-side multiple times since launch, and I cannot tell them apart. I say again, I cannot tell the difference between friend and foe, because the selected hue and color scheme makes all players appear identical. Again, this is because the colors appear identical across factions. Oh, and the same is true for vehicles as well, no matter the faction, all vehicles have the same mushy color appearance. Badges do not help, either due to distance, speed of play, positioning, etc.

    Also, the game appears to lack a vivid green nameplate for friends, and a vivid red nameplate for enemies. If there is some distinguishing color or characteristic, it is so faint (or fails to appear during fast action) that it isn't working, at least not for me. And given the number of times I've died to friendly fire, it isn't working for a significant minority of the new playerbase.

    For those with more severe color deficiency, I have no idea how they can discern friends, enemies, or even the map colors. This needs to be addressed, and quickly.

    So I hope the creators get on this, and get on this quick. It would take one day, and not a lot of money, for the developers to consult with a color specialist and get recommendations on three specific hues that even those with severe color deficiency could easily discern. This could be accomplished in a day, no exaggeration. Second and final step would be to add distinguishing nameplates so that friends have one color, enemies another, and it is vivid and visible. This issue is very well known and is regularly addressed across many different businesses.

    Finally, this isn't an idle complaint. Color deficiency affects around 8% of the American population, a majority of them are men. Hence not only does this affect tens of millions of Americans, and who knows how many people worldwide, it disproportionately affects the PS2 playerbase, I would imagine. And if I, with a mild color deficiency, find this issue gamebreaking, I just know tens of thousands of other players also are affected.

    So here's to hoping for a very quick and immediate fix via patch, which will only inure to SOE's benefit. And I conclude by saying this is a request for help from someone who really likes the game thus far, thinks it is very well done, is fun to play, and thinks this type of genre is the future for online gaming.
    • Up x 2
  2. MalakithSkadi

    This was raised during the beta, it is especially problematic if you have problems with the Blue / Purple region of the colour spectrum as you have no chance of telling NC and Vanu apart, even the map colours just blend in together.

    On the topic of name plates, you can make them as Vivid Green / Red as you like, someone with true Red/Green colour blindness will still have huge issues with them. Blue / Red is a far more reliable alternative but the developers seem to be so in love with their "faction identities" that nothing is being done to help this.

    On a side notem during beta for a phase there was an immensely helpful thick black border on the edge of the territories that bordered each other owned by opposin factions, this seems to have been removed again so I am back to square one when it comes to VS v NC and thus stick to shooting Terrans as they are at least easy to tell apart and I know which bases I have to go to!
  3. RainQQ

    How do you change the nameplate colors, is this in the game client?

    Also, I imagine you are right on all counts. It probably won't help too much -- I really think the character model colors need to be made more vivid, and in hues that color deficient people can see. And as you say, this is probably even worse for people with blue/purple deficiency, I mean the game must be simply impossible to play, can't see map, can't distinguish enemies.

    Really hoping SOE gets on this ASAP.
  4. Grizzly-Konried

    considering the wide variety of camos I think you're placing too much emphasis on colour identification. Each empire's soldier looks completely different in terms of shape and weapon. That's how I identify. I never go for colour. Furthermore, you can press "Q" and it will highlight the enemy for you.
  5. rabidquokka

    I'm not colour blind but i don't rely on colours to tell friend/foe , anything over ~15 meters tends to blend in anyhow so i just use the blue/red triangles, and if a guy is close and doesn't have a name tag or triangle i tag him with one shot, if i don't get team hit indicator he gets the full burst.

    I think to many people are relying on colour since i see enemy all the time walking into big groups of teammates and start firing and teammates don't even realize, they just see a bunch of friendlies and think the guy without the tag is one of them.
  6. Bags

    I have no issue and I use my night scope 24/7.
  7. Vargs

    This is a real pain in the *** when it comes to vehicles that are too far away to be spotted with Q. Even worse at night. And I'm not even colorblind. I wish all vehicles looked distinct between factions, like MBTs and ESFs do.
  8. Ice Pirate

    My problem is mostly to do with friendlies not being easily visible or marked at medium to long range. Takes a few secs for the triangles to appear and names.
  9. Turiel =RL=

    The problem for me is that there are too many sets of camo to chose from. Everyone is running around like a clown. There is no "uniform" anymore. There should only be one pattern available for each continent. Desert camo for Indar, white for Esamir and woodland for Amerish. Each empire should have their own color-scheme.

    It may be too late for this kind of suggestion, because people have spend money on certain patterns already, but still this is a very obvious solution to the problem. Actually it is also used by real armies also....so it is certainly no rocket science.
  10. Rolfski

    This is a serious issue that should have been dealt with long ago as it really affects the game play. The biggest problem imo is the distinction between green and brown squad colors and enemies.
  11. Sturmhardt

    Well then wait till you see different classes with different armor upgrades + camo. They don't only have different colors, they have different shapes too, it gets really hard to identify the enemy.
    I am really disappointed that none of this was tested during beta.

    The game engine's color grading is really bad, which is another problem. Everything looks the same with it.
  12. kreel

    Actually during the last month of beta I never had the problems I experienced in the two days after the release, and I'm fairly used to the different appearance of the factions by now.

    I think that the problem is particularly evident when playing in close quarter like inside bases, where you don't have the time to look carefully at the people in front of you to assess who you're dealing with and you don't have the time to spot them.
    It's easier when you have opponents at mid/long distance because you have the time to spot them and you can tell by their appearance anyway, but it's not something you can do that fast in any situation and you should be able to.
    I'm playing as NC but in some situations I couldn't tell the difference between friends or foes, especially when meeting the Vanu.

    Maybe brighter or more saturated colors could help because I don't think that trying to convince all players to "buy a camo" is a viable solution, even more so if you consider that the game shouldn't rely only on the good heart of the players to work as it is supposed to without it. Besides if I have to find a workaround to make things work it means they usually don't and that's not a good thing.
  13. RedNoak

    right now the game is really hard to play... it uses nearly the same colors as battlefield 3 and its quiet impossible to tell the difference between the name-tag colors of enemys and squadmembers

    also in the map overview i needed like 4 hours to finally understand that there are infact THREE factions...because the VS and NC had (for me at least) nearly the same color

    its already as hard as it is (with all the camo etc) to distinguish the factions on the battlefield... now try to do that, when enemys and squad members has nearly same name-color

    the real problem with the name tag is that both enemy's red and the squas's green are using that bright neon-style color. it would be a big help to either change one of the colors or better, to fill the colors with more contrast. i.e. darker more intense RED maybe with darker outlines...



    i really hope that the game will get some colorblind option... it would be a shame if i had to abandon the game because of this...


    p.s.
    oh and btw... great game so far :)
  14. TehRooster

    Agreed, died as much to friendly fire as enemy fire so far, need better distinguishing factors.
  15. Kageru

    I'm not color blind but still find the recognition incredibly difficult. Trying to look for a tiny little triangle to determine whether I can shoot it takes most of the time.
  16. Snowmageddon

    yeah no color blind but they are muted... this was not a problem "EVER" in Planetside 1. You knew who a bad guy was... now everyone is a blob of death, i mean even in a freaking MAX im getting TK'd a MAX unit... im big and red yet they shoot me...

    this is a major issue, its sad it was never addressed... World of Tanks has a Color Blind mode... whats up here?
  17. HumsterMKX

    I mostly run into this issue due to the snow camo. It gets screwy when all 3 sides have ppl wearing that.
  18. Althalos93

    Yeah I just posted about the same thing a while ago. I'm not colorblind I just really have a hard time with the nameplates and blips on the minimap. Mainly because the building are the red for my faction color,but any hostile threat is also the same color and it really is hard for me to distinguish at some certain times.
  19. Opapanax

    Has been discussed before in Beta. I believe the devs. said something may be in the works. How far out it is I don't know..

    But this has been pointed out by a few other colorblind players. I support any action to help em out regarding distinguishing targts.
  20. PSpleyer

    friendly have a triangle on top of them ........ even at long range