Camos were always a part of the game, though the argument of "PS2 is P2W because of camo" is brought up surprisingly rarely. Usually it's more about weapons and implants. I don't get that. If anything a resource boost gives bigger advantage than a weapon. As far as F2P games go, PS2 is one of the free-est. Camo can give an advantage, but even then you have to work for it - seek out specific situations where it would be useful, and in other situations it may be harmful instead. It's not like you slap on a camo for 5$ and go pwn everyone. You can do that for free with a MAX anyway, lol.
Great guide! This is something I've thought about on and off, but was too lazy to look into. I mostly use the dark $10 camo all the time (except on vehicles). As I don't like to re-position often (again, lazy), I've been put more effort into finding angles that keep my sniper trails out of view of the incoming crop source. Kudos for the effort.
This is great stuff and I'm glad you gave is a sample. I'm eagerly anticipating the finished guide, and I'm almost convinced to drop another few dollars into this game to see how this works for me. Question: it would probably be best if I stopped using decals and cosmetic armor, right? I usually use the red "shank you very much" decal that I got before they changed it to blue for NC. Also, I use the araxium armor when fighting VS since in glows nearly purple. Other than that I just use the gold armor or the composite armor. One last thing, does anyone have any opinions on the best helmet NC players could use for this?
Excellent guide. Far too many players write off camouflage wholesale, but you hit all of the major points on why it's worth it, and then some. I would add a few particular bits and pieces. My ideas may or may not be accurate here. Camo is just one of those things I think way too much about. Camouflage patterns with situation-appropriate high-contrast stripes and splotches are great for disrupting the human silhouette, and are thus great for hidey playstyles. But if you're doing something like sprinting across a grassy field or a snowy expanse, old-school high-contrast patterns can work against you. If you're going to be doing a lot of open movement unconcealed by your cloak or terrain, you may want a good middle-ground between a monochromatic and high-contrast pattern. Also, some camouflage patterns in PS2 actually change quite a bit depending on the lighting conditions. I'm not talking about shiny or reflective camo patterns. I mean that there are flat patterns which have one or two colors which suddenly become a lot more pronounced or express a different shade in direct sunlight, and this often makes the camo a lot more or a lot less useful. Esamir Ice is probably the best example of this that I can think of, off the top of my head. I'd also emphasize the importance of randomness and avoiding eye-catching patterns, even if a camouflage pattern is greatly disruptive to your silhouette and has a good color spread for the terrain in question. Randomness and a finer resolution than older patterns are what made modern digital camouflage so effective. Resolution itself might be worth a mention too. Even if a finer resolution pattern looks "obvious" in the preview, it can be incredibly effective at medium or long-range if it turns you into a random-looking grid of terrain-appropriate colors, even if you don't quite match your background. I dunno if any of that is useful. Aside from my "vanity" camo (I do love War Embers camo and Fujin Helmet on my TR infiltrator), I mostly just operate with three patterns myself. Esamir Ice is my favorite winter pattern. It's not solid white, but contrast isn't too high for a white environment. And its whites and grays tend to be bluish, like Esamir. Desert Scrub V2 is kinda my goto Indar camo. A lot of the dessert patterns either don't have enough red (and rely overmuch on overly light tannish colors) or they have too much and are a little ruddy. Desert Scrub V2 was the middle ground that I liked best. And Amerish Forest V2 is my woodland camo. Admittedly, none of those patterns have very high contrast, and I may have made too many sacrifice in pattern quality for the sake of color-matching, though. Speaking of that, I think it's good not to trust your memory for picking colors. It's hard to tell what camo really matches a given environment unless you have a representative spread of screenshots, including light/dark versions of all terrain types. Sorry for the wall of text. :<
Some decals can actually be helpful. I really don't want to get into that right now, but it stands to reason if you find something that "fits" with the overall color scheme it probably wont hurt. They are probably not necessary though. Something bright like "shank you very much" or the rainbows on the other hand, not a good idea. Save those for disguise cammy. Helmets are tricky I havn't touched the NC yet. I think they will be the hardest to conceal because much of your gear has metallic bits and bright yellow accents. Toning that down is going to be a task which might require more tea then I originally expected. Helms Checklist: Little to no faction colors Mitigate yellow to only your face if possible. The reason you don't want faction flavor on the sides and back of your head is simple. You want to know who could possibly detect you. If its only located on the front of your face its possible for you to control that giveaway by looking around or using your rifle. As few metallic accents as possible This ones pretty self explanatory. Metallic accents tend to pop out and while they look really stylish its not going to help you hide. Possibly you could get away with these in snowy environments. Full camo coverage around the entire head. Make sure the camouflage covers the head. Some of the helmets have neat little black fabrics and stuff for style and its ultimately up to you if you want to try and use those designs for disruptive coloration. Shapes that disguise your head: Avoid "stuff" at the back of the head which looks complicated or draws interest. Something that looks like a rock is a great idea. Something that looks like the back of a jet engine isn't. Cover up / No Skin Try and avoid open face masks, humans are good at picking out faces and eyes. Buggy eyes could also give you away. Id rather have black sunglasses then an open face mask if forced to pick between the two.
Very cool thread I must say! I've been taking notes as I work on making more camos. While many will be altered and out of my control I'm trying to design them with more detail and/or disruptive elements as possible. Admittedly, some of my past ones weren't very good (some phased out) so I'm doing my best to make something worthy of you camouflage experts.
Yeah. For NC, the Heavy Cloth Helmet seems to be the best way to go. It's not perfect, but it's the best option that I could find. Humans are adept at picking out patterns, and unfortunately, nearly every helmet for the NC has a symmetrical angular appearance, which is less than ideal. And many of them also have very prominent face masks which are a high-contrast solid color and usually reflective to boot. Kinda the worst faction for cryptic helmets. The Heavy Cloth Helmet has a nice scarf which obscures your neck to give you a less human silhouette. It also has a matte texture throughout, and it has very high camo coverage. It also doesn't have a prominent visor or set of glasses, like some of its similar counterparts. It has its downsides, of course, though none are major. It has a perfectly rounded silhouette at the top of the head, but that's true of most helms. Your eyes show, but only barely. Shouldn't be a big issue beyond immediate short range. And it has a winding blue stripe wrapping around it. Not terrible. Might even be a benefit in Esamir, as NC's cloth blue works well there, and that irregular pattern helps to further confound the silhouette of your head. That said, I chose not to use it. The Open Wasp Helmet is the only one I really enjoyed looking at on my NC infiltrator. I'm also semi-afraid of some of the shade I might catch for using the Heavy Cloth Helmet.
As VS, I purchased the Ifrit Mask, since that seemed to have the least amount of embellishment imo. For camos, I went with the Giraffe for Indar, Esamir Snow for Esamir, and Scary Faces for Amerish (mountain sniping). I also purchased the low toned voice pack, as I figured that would have been a little harder to pick up than a normal human or high pitched yell. Any suggestions or am I okay with my choices?
Bumping for the 30% camo sale, just in case someone was waiting for a sale to come along. Progress: My work has resumed on the camo guide now that I am no longer testing cloaked sundies dark-lights, and radar issues. Indar for VS is nearly completed. I will do TR next. (as NC infill colors were changed and this makes some of my previous work invalid)
I'm curious; what's your opinion on Walhugger Camo? It seems to be really powerful to me, it deceives the eye with all the broken forms and pseudo-stereo effect. I barely recognize my character on the loadout select screen, can only imagine how it looks to enemies
Hiding in trees is great which I do religiously when distance sniping, but does anybody have any suggestions for a camo that blends well with the standard indoor building environments? Additional: I distance snipe with a silencer for added fun (my target range is second to last tick on the 12X scope) and the biggest anti-camo is the tracer. The best way I've found to hide this is to pick a tall tree that resides on the sunny side of my target area when possible as the sun washes out the tracer visibility. Unless you want to constantly move (Mustarde style snipers can ignore this tip as they move constantly), never setup in a position where the enemy runs in your direction to reach the frontline.
thanks CuteBeaver for all your time spend on the PS2 infiltrator section i always can use something out of your posts/video's
I haven't tested buildings yet. I personally have been using "Broken Hearts" for rooftop work which is a grey heart patterned camo from Valentines day. There have been other camos created since which have more grey tones. Ultimately not sure on this and Im going to need some testing time. I know I will also be testing the vehicle ammo towers because those are one of my favorite places to hide snipe in urban environments. Currently making the video for the rest of Daytime Indar Trees (VS). As for WallHugger I have high hopes for that camo on Hossin but it was much too dark for Indar trees. At night it was also a touch to dark for my tastes as well.
Keep up the good work, Beaver! Nice to see that you're still here, keeping the forums alive while I was gone xD. Consider this post my return to the forums! I'll agree with Breeje, and say thank you for being so Frosty! (I've been busy between college, work, and a part-time gig as an Instructor's Assistant in Long-Range-Combat-And-Support-Mechanics [I know, it rolls right off the tongue] in the hopes that I can become a civilian trainer at some point. Nice to have my foot in the door at least!) -Stay Frosty
I run "Shrapnel" on my TR and I have had pretty decent success with it, however I am interested in how it stacks up in your testing.
I would also like to add that Hossin Weeds camo doesn't seem to be very effective outside of the swampy part of Hossin and doesn't really work on NC infiltrator (the blue contrast too violently on the arms, making you just kinda look like an infiltrator covered in snot)
Video for VS Daytime Indar Trees. Arranged in no particular order so viewers don't get biased by camo being numerically labeled. I did tag the bottom corner through the video so you could tell what your viewing amd included both daytime as well as night time clips. These are on maximum graphics settings with shadows, and also include some with low and no shadows. Its very nice that these three camos do offer night time usage. I would personally rank Indar Dunes as the least ideal for night time. Indar Highlands V2 and Bladestar are excellent at night by comparison.
