Squad markings and YOU

[SecretStamos (Joshuu)]

Hi everyone. I'm one of the developers here on COLONIAL MARINES. I'm sure you all know me. If not, you probably know the blurry graphics I churn out for the server.

Lately I've been pretty dissatisfied with the visuals of the squad markings. Sure, they do a decent job of making the divisions clear, but I feel like they add a lot of visual clutter. Either that or they're too colorful, bright, ect.. But in any case, I vastly prefer the look of an IDless marine

The main thing keeping me from replacing it, is that I can't think of any viable replacement. Sec huds are probably out of the question, because they're visually cumbersome and incompatible with Health scanners, mensons and welding goggles.

I turn the question to YOU. What would you suggest to improve this?

[YungCuz]

I mean sure it would look visually nice if there was a better way to show squad markings but wouldn't cause a lot of confusion?
Thoughts aside i thought about maybe some sort of armband thing or maybe some sort of helmet with a special marking defining whos in which squad.

[SecretStamos (Joshuu)]

I mean sure it would look visually nice if there was a better way to show squad markings but wouldn't cause a lot of confusion?
Thoughts aside i thought about maybe some sort of armband thing or maybe some sort of helmet with a special marking defining whos in which squad.

I thought about helmet markings (Spade, Club, Heart, Diamond) but I realized a good chunk of marines do not wear helmets or lose helmets. Plus, if they were white, they'd blend in with the snow helmets unless I made those black helmets.

[Steelpoint]

Spawn all Marine players with a unremovable HUD implant. The HUD implant would project a squad ID above all Marines.

This would allow Marines to wear glasses/etc but still see what other Marines are in a squad. You can also let a Marine turn their internal HUD off.

[TangoThree]

My initial reaction would be to take the coloured vertical stripe away and replace it with a solid colour shoulderpad. Helmet would be easier to spot, but those tend to get destroyed or lost. Keeping track of which marines are in your squad at a glance is quite helpful for co-ordination, and given the graphical limitations of the engine and the fact that we can't use sechud-type things we're stuck with a block of a distinctive colour on the body as about the only way to do it.

Colouring the backpacks might also be an option (with symbols in the center for spec, SL, engineer and medic), but not everyone wears a backpack.

[completelynewguy]

It'd be neat if there was a helmet attachment that acted as a SecHUD, that didn't take up space.

Other than that YungCuz's idea of armbands sound neat and relatively easy to implement.

[YungCuz]

It'd be neat if there was a helmet attachment that acted as a SecHUD, that didn't take up space.

Other than that YungCruz's idea of armbands sound neat and relatively easy to implement.

Its Cuz m8

[completelynewguy]

Its Cuz m8

Now it just looks silly. Besides that, I got an idea as how the helmet attachment would work.

It'd override any visual HUD while on; while in use it will apply a marine's squad color onto their armor or clothing in virtual reality. Anyone that doesn't have an ID will be painted white or grey, to indicate being a possible neutral party.

[lucashunter608]

Spawn all Marine players with a unremovable HUD implant. The HUD implant would project a squad ID above all Marines.

This would allow Marines to wear glasses/etc but still see what other Marines are in a squad. You can also let a Marine turn their internal HUD off.

I was thinking of that too, i mean, its an implant, it won't take any place in your inventory, its an excelent idea

[SecretStamos (Joshuu)]

Now it just looks silly. Besides that, I got an idea as how the helmet attachment would work.

It'd override any visual HUD while on; while in use it will apply a marine's squad color onto their armor or clothing in virtual reality. Anyone that doesn't have an ID will be painted white or grey, to indicate being a possible neutral party.

No virtual reality magic. Doesn't fit with the universe well

[Edgelord]

Shouldn't you be drawing blurry pictures?

Yeah I'm not a fan of the colorful marines either to be honest (plus it meshes with my hat), I think armbands could be a winner.

[TopHatPenguin]

Armbands honestly sound like the best alternative here.

Also a somewhat small tag-along idea:

Have a few pre-made armbands with insignias on which the player in setup character can choose from and then if said player is the squad lead everyone in the squad has that armband.

[slc97]

I see that most Marines do not have anything on their eye-slot. Possibly make a set of hud-glasses that show A, B, C, or D for the squads they are in.

If we do keep it as is, I would recommend changing the blue or the purple of Delta and Charlie to maybe black. Occasionally when I play BO, I find it difficult to distinguish between the two colors.

[Bigchilly]

why not just make the colors alot more darker and rustic, or just get rid of them and overhual the sprites, marines in colors look alot cooler than a marine with no ID.

[LordeKilly]

I like the standard green colors honestly, I'm down for internal eye implants.

[Renomaki]

OH OH OH, why not have something like this!

> http://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/sta ... 1107002620

Notice the colored shoulder pad? Why not have armor with colored shoulder plates to represent your squad? That way, you have an easier time knowing squad members at a glance, instead of mostly via helmet?

[Cobraman202]

Possibly give marines HUD glasses which act like sec huds, but only show marines and command staff, with the background color being the squad color and a white letter denoting a role if the person is anything other than a normal marine.
EG: A Alpha SL would have a icon with a red background and a capital white L imposed in the center, a delta squad medic would have a purple background and a capital M, a normal charlie marine would just have a yellow icon. Command would get blue backgrounds, so a commander would have a blue background with a C imposed on it.

[Renomaki]

Honestly, forcing people to wear glasses as a marine just so they can tell who is who is kinda crappy if you ask me..

I'd rather more freedom in how you customize a marine if you ask me, not being forced to have to wear things like hudshades just for identification purposes. Arm bands, shoulder plates, helmet markings... Why not get all three involved? Then you can have a more diverse looking squad that can be easily color coded.

[Steelpoint]

Again, make it a internal HUD that all Marine players start in their head from round start.

Best of both worlds, you can't lose your HUD and you can still use your eye slot.

[TopHatPenguin]

Again, make it a internal HUD that all Marine players start in their head from round start.

Best of both worlds, you can't lose your HUD and you can still use your eye slot.

I'm no code magician but surely if every marine has an internal HUD that is going to cause some serious lag? that's my only concern for this really.

[Warnipple]

Perhaps we could slightly altered cosmetic load outs for each squad?

For example: Modifying the backpacks for each squad to as a visual aid for what squad they're in. The only problem with this is medic backpacks and engineer backpacks won't show what squad they're in but they should help all squads anyway. Combined with an internal HUD or an HUD on marine armour, this would look very nice imo.

Alpha gets infantry satchels.
Bravo gets dump bags.
Charlie gets the current back packs.
Delta gets ???

[Edgelord]

Perhaps we could slightly altered cosmetic load outs for each squad?

For example: Modifying the backpacks for each squad to as a visual aid for what squad they're in. The only problem with this is medic backpacks and engineer backpacks won't show what squad they're in but they should help all squads anyway. Combined with an internal HUD or an HUD on marine armour, this would look very nice imo.

Alpha gets infantry satchels.
Bravo gets dump bags.
Charlie gets the current back packs.
Delta gets ???

What about marines that don't wear backpacks?

[Fritigern]

Let's be honest here, we have very little in terms of pixel real estate to work with. To make visual changes to the armour that match the same visual fidelity we already enjoy would require a complete resprite of the standardized marine armour. And if it was up to me I'd re-do the base human sprite altogether (why are their hands so fucking big?), but that's likely not going to happen anytime soon on our server.

Any changes we make have to match the readability we currently enjoy or we are taking a step back in terms of gameplay. Darkening colours would be a mistake, as it'd make orientation amongst large groups of marines even worse.

I have a few ideas and suggestions I'd like to make but they'll require visual aids, so I'll work on some mockups for presentation tomorrow.

[Renomaki]

Honestly, sometimes the simple things are much harder than they appear and thus require more work than expected.

If it has to come to a remodeling just to change the squad markings, then might as well. Better than having a magic hud that takes you out of the experience.

[Desolane900]

More pike "How can we remove the visually distinct armor colors in favor of something smaller and harder to see which is probably going to reduce marine winrates even more."