Camo Coverage vs IFF

Same here!

I have not been keeping up around here for some time but I cringe at the idea of more faction colors replacing camo. We whined, kicked and screamed about how bad they looked with all the clown colors since launch and they are now going to make it worse?

So where is the big threadnaught saying "give us more faction color coverage" ? I will admit again, I have not been on the forums much for some time but I have never EVER seen such a thread. Does not mean it don't exist so I may eat my words...point is I just do not recall ever seeing a rash of forum posts about how players wished they looked more like Bozo the clown.

Interesting. OPs argument had not occurred to me but I think he makes very good points.

If I'm confused about someone's faction when I don't have time to check the dorito by the way, I just fire. I prefer accidentally putting a few bullets into a friendly and stopping when I hear the beep over pausing and dieing to a shotgun.

Bump, since this is a great thread.
It's clear that many support increased coverage and reduction in faction colors generally. Let shape language and spotting be the way to identify. It seems it's too late, thanks Bill.
Regardless, I think there's something fundamentally disquieting or wrong with the aesthetic of PS2 in general. It feels uncomfortable, and harsh.

Couldn't agree more. In PS2 players are seen from a lot further away than in TF2 and I think the dorito marker is the most reliable way to identify them at a distance. Plainly put, the faction colors for the character models, as they are now, are garish and unnecessary. I think we should keep faction colors, certainly, but they should be understated. I would love to a see duller, more natural color scheme on default character models.

Oh my gosh, I just realized there's a tiny person in that picture of the two TR characters. Right next to the knee of the one on the left. WHAT IS THAT

He's far away.

totally agree with poster, it seems you well explained their camo politic.
SOE we want full camo with actual arrow identification system

Nowhere near far enough away to be that small!

Tech test bases were absolutely massive. He is that far away.

You don't make any sense. You are treating the Doritos render issue as a problem that cannot be solved with a reasonable amount of effort with no information to back it up.

That mentality sounds like if an issue comes up, it would be better to give up and just say "this is my life now"




To be honest, I don't think SOE is even aware of the fact that they do not render correctly. I say this because they were not aware for an unrealistic period of time that:


The map does not render correctly half the time. (2 years later)

Game may spawn you at random locations. This was an issue that was in BETA, and after one year, they say "hey look, we found this new issue with spawns and will be working on it now".

Vanguard Shield would bug out. Took until a month or so after launch to identify as an issue.

Asked animator and devs at SOE Live what was going on with the light assault crazy legs bug. They didn't even know it existed. Still in the game today.

Took months to understand the issue with render ranges on the AV Mana turret.

And many other things.


I also do not understand why issue you have with doritos. The only times it is a complaint was in Beta, where it offered an obvious advantage at night, and in smoke grenades where you can see it through the smoke. Nothing else comes up as something that would offer anyone an advantage because of a dorito.

Personally, I hate how the spot system works where you can spot someone and break line of sight and still use your psychic powers to know exactly where they are for seconds on end afterwards. It should drop it a second after losing LOS.

No they don't. Between all the bloom, dust, lighting and effects, you can't tell who is who by what color they are wearing. There are also a number of camos that are similar to each other.

Klypto, what do you say about the upcoming NC camo coverage changes? i think they are hideous, heavy's chest armor looks like a circus

I just hate doritos.

If you have a good visual design they are unnecessary, handicaps, and just plain ugly.

Good faction identity with zero spotting system would be preferred 100% IMO.

"Shoot here" dots feels like the most braindead handholding feature ever added to FPS short of auto-lock aim-assist

Here's a proper fix:

Disable Friendly Fire (It doesn't do anyone any good anyhow and is just annoying) People will never learn to use "Q" anyhow.

You know, if this is going to come up again, I'm going to play devil's advocate for a bit.

While it's pretty easy to make the comparison with Battlefield series due to their gameplay similarities, Planetside 2 has rather different factors to consider by virtue of being on the free to play model. You're dealing with new players who have much less invested in the game than someone who went out and bought a copy of the latest Battlefield, and are thus less likely to be willing to put up with the hassle of learning subtle IFF nuances than someone who paid upfront for the experience. As well, the game is monetized in good part by cosmetics, which complicate threat identification factors in ways that the mainline Battlefield games don't have to deal with. Say what you will about dull color schemes in a brown and bloom environment full of dust, but at least the visual cues however nuanced and subtle are consistent. Consistency like that is a luxury Planetside 2 can't afford to have.You can't just approach the issue saying "This game plays like Battlefield, so the IFF situation should be like it too." The differences inherent to the free to play model simply don't allow for it.

In that sense I would argue that the Team Fortress 2 "style" of IFF is superior for Planetside 2's needs. Especially early in its life, the amount of attention put into that game's IFF is actually a good deal more sophisticated than has been let on in this thread. Not only are faction colors rather obvious, but each class's character model, as well as the models for the initial set of weaponry, was deliberately designed to appear distinct from a variety of viewing angles. You knew at a glance not only whether someone was friend of foe, but what class they were and what weapon they were using. It made threat assessment instant and intuitive, the exact qualities you want in a casual shooter (Which, let's face it, is what Planetside 2 is by virtue of being free to play, not that this is a bad thing).

But the one factor about Team Fortress's 2 threat assessment situation which I find most brilliant, and something I feel Planetside 2 could benefit most from observing, is how that game handled the use of lighting. The lighting system in Team Fortress 2 was deliberately designed to highlight certain elements of the characters in low light conditions, not glow in the dark light up, but enough to deliberately prevent character silhouettes, and more importantly their distinguishing features, from blending into the environment or becoming hard to see no matter what the background or lighting conditions were like. They could implement that and nothing else, have ridiculously good camo coverage across all factions, and for the most part IFF would be even better than it is now as long as certain consistent color and style cues were emphasized as to not blend in or be obscured by the environment or light levels.

If it were up to me I'd go a step further, probably reevaluating weapon aesthetics to make sure each category of weapon looks visually distinct (shotguns are the biggest offenders here, often looking visually similar to assault rifles despite behaving very differently), and coming up with strict, coherent rules regarding each faction's cosmetic options to ensure that available camo, helmet and armor cosmetics never interfere with IFF (though we still want to allow for as many options here as we can, because that's how we make our money, so that's a rather big challenge admittedly). Done properly, I think it's totally possible to avoid garish clown color scenarios while still having more intuitive IFF, but of course that's very dependent on taking the time and effort to think about the problem and commit to doing it properly.

But then that's most things in life for you. No one ever said things worth doing were easy.

Seriosly, i got more teamkills since the new camo coverage.

I hope they fix the coverage on composite today. My boots looking so awful.

The new camo coverage and tint maps are ridiculously ugly. While I'm not a fan of doritos either, and they're still pretty buggy in regards to actually appearing, (I experience lack of doritos on friendlies pretty frequently.) since shape IFF is crap at the moment, I'd rather have to deal with doritos than have ridiculously ugly outfits.

While we're talking about camo coverage, can we PLEASE let the NC Max's shirt collar be covered by camo? Pretty please?

Brilliant.

I've stopped buying camos, there is really no point to them. The majority just look bad now.

Luke don't its a trap


I have a feeling they will increase faction colors on all camps then offer new camps without all the faction colors...make a buck


Totally not agreeing with this. Part of the lure of massive warfare is the chaos. Let the ff happen, eventually people will learn.

Fix bugs dev not redefine it all again.

One hand giveth the other hand taketh it back

Gotta bump this again not only because its so brilliant but because they are still doing the camo changes (TR have it now on PTS)

If the TR camos get changed I think im done with this game for awhile. I stopped playing vs for the most part out of sheer frustration from this. The changes do nothing but flip off everyone who ever bought camo by making it look terrible while hardly solving the problem at all.

Can someone explain to me what the new camo coverage is doing and why people hate it? I know they reduced VS coverage a while back, and now they're making the colors on NC and TR a bit more dull. TR's gray got darker. But are they increasing or decreasing coverage for them?
I initially thought it was increased after looking on PTS, but I assume people would hate it for decreasing, and making their camo less prevalent. I don't even know anymore.