38 replies to this topic

[Morang]

So, with those newly introduced colors and patterns what combination you think can serve as universal camo approach, being appropriate in most situations?

It's hard for me to judge how a mech with certain camo will looks in action when viewing it in the bay (because of different lighting and background). But most mechs I see in combat look darker than background for me, so I think it's wise to choose lighter colors (and don't forget we also have four! more-or-less snow maps now). Colors choice for universal camo is more or less obvious: grey, tan and green.

Pattern is another story... I think, Woodland is more appropriate, as Tiger Stripes are too thin to provide any disintegration of silhouette at any sane distance. I also have an idea that perhaps one of the colors should be darker to break silhoutte better.

As scale of camo greys are very limited, I suggest using the colors from "general" varieties of grey, though they're more expensive at 1000 CBs vs 500 of camo colors.

So a Jenner in one of the UniCam variants I consider will look like this:

[Orgasmo]

I use camo light grey as primary, camo green as secondary and camo light green as tertiary in urban block pattern.

[PhDGreg]

Why did you post a picture of an empty mech bay??

[Skribs]

Be careful trying to find universal camo. The Army did that, and look how it turned out. The picture below is the only thing I've seen that a soldier can hide in.

As to your question, I think you're on the right track about colors. Problem is, it's hard finding a color that will work on a wooden map, a snowy map, a rocky map, and an urban map, since those are vastly different colors.

[Morang]

Skribs, on 21 February 2013 - 07:36 AM, said:

Be careful trying to find universal camo. The Army did that, and look how it turned out.


You're right, it's well known in airsoft community how miserable the UCP is. But it's not because it is universal pattern, but because it is poorly designed universal pattern. Look at this table (from Natick Photosimulation Camouflage Detection Test): it performs as bad as woodland camies in desert environment and as bad as desert camies in woodland environment. There are patterns that outperform UCP in any tested environment (and almost at any tested scene). UCP performed similarly poor when compared to other patterns in field survey performed in both mountainous and desert regions of Afghanistan (Hephinger etal, "Soldier camouflage for Operation Enduring Freedom").


Whoever invented UCP and pressed it into service, you should honor him with a firing squad.

[Orgasmo]

Multicam works pretty well for most terrains, but you will need more than 3 colours permitted in the game though. Needs at least 5 different colours arranged in woodland pattern to make it work.

[Morang]

Yes, having multiple colors allows to vary both hue and tint/shade. Multicam has at least 6 colors, and they're of different proportion (with darkest and lightest being least common).

I feel we don't need average-toned green because we don't have really "green" map - even the Forest Colony isn't very green. And I included grey because we don't have so much colors and I hope that neutral-hue grey will "pick up" surrounding colors better and also will stand out less on snow maps. It is said that MultiCam relies on blending more than on contrast to disguise, so perhaps there's no need to include contrast darker color as well - different non-painted features of battlemech exterior will do the job. And then it is most important to adjust overall lightness/darkness of the pattern, which only can be done on the field...

[Syllogy]

Camo won't hide you if you're within line of sight and radar range.

Might as well have fun with it.

eg:

[Sedant]

Syllogy, on 21 February 2013 - 08:51 AM, said:

Camo won't hide you if you're within line of sight and radar range.

Might as well have fun with it.

eg:

Merika'

Edited by Sedant, 21 February 2013 - 09:05 AM.

[Golfin Man]

This is an interesting topic as I have wondered about what camo to use if I actually want to be camouflaged and not just painted up for show. I think Syllogy is right though, as unless you are ECM cloaked a giant red marker appears above your head. Evenwhen ECM cloaked you light up like a christmas tree in thermal, so it seems as though camo would only help if you were shut down. Its still probably worth it in some way, but I don't think actual camouflage is important enough to focus on, unless you want to do it cause it's fun. For example before I dropped hoping for my first Alpine game I got Woodland with pc gamer grey/black and camo dark grey for my PPC Stalker. It's really just another way to get into the feeling of being an actual Mechwarrior, which is obviously not a bad thing.

[3rdworld]

AFAIK everyone uses thermal vision anyways.

[Khaze]

You can color your mech? All I ever see is blobs of red and orange.

[ice trey]

For MWO?

I'd say the most effective choice is to run with desert camo schemes as much as possible.

Let's be honest, the Thermal cams are currently very OP, allowing you to see far, far better than with visual or night vision. The only times I've seen it handicapped is on Caustic Valley.

...so If Caustic Valley is the only map in which players aren't going to thermal vision - that's the only map that camo serves a purpose on.

Long story short, set your camo up for Caustic if you're doing camo at all.

[Stingz]

Camo isn't really going to help against radar.

Purple/Black seems to make medium mechs low-priority, white usually means giant target. Grey is pretty good for hiding components of your mech.

[Straylight]

Maybe we're looking at this the wrong way. Rather than trying to hide the 'mech, we should be trying to confuse the eye looking at it. A jagged, high contrast pattern buries the details by overwhelming the eye with contradicting information, making it hard to tell where one zebra ends and the next begins, what shape a car's bodywork is, or which direction a battleship is pointing.

In the chaos of a firefight, targets appear and disappear from your view very quickly, and often a pilot only has an instant to judge whether he needs to react to an enemy. If a sufficiently distracting pattern can trick that pilot's eye into thinking a Stalker that just appeared on the edge of his screen is moving away from him instead of toward him even just for a moment, that may be enough time for that Stalker to line up a 6 PPC alpha strike the pilot might otherwise have avoided.

[Sh4dow78]

Cammo have no use in this game since most ppl use thermal vision...

[Herodes]

Camo?
Shiny colors and beautiful curves are the law

[Elessar]

Straylight, on 23 February 2013 - 02:05 AM, said:

Maybe we're looking at this the wrong way. Rather than trying to hide the 'mech, we should be trying to confuse the eye looking at it. A jagged, high contrast pattern buries the details by overwhelming the eye with contradicting information, making it hard to tell where one zebra ends and the next begins, what shape a car's bodywork is, or which direction a battleship is pointing.

...

That´s what I use for one of my Commandos ...
a mixture of really dark grey (almost black) and light grey patterns,
which makes it hard to discern the outline of the Mech.

Dunno if it works, however, after all it makes no difference in thermal vision,
which is why I have to agree with ice trey, it is, the best Camo is the one adapted to Caustic Valley,
as this is the only map where almost noone uses thermal vision

Edited by Elessar, 27 February 2013 - 07:02 PM.

[Hobietime]

Straylight, on 23 February 2013 - 02:05 AM, said:

Maybe we're looking at this the wrong way. Rather than trying to hide the 'mech, we should be trying to confuse the eye looking at it. A jagged, high contrast pattern buries the details by overwhelming the eye with contradicting information, making it hard to tell where one zebra ends and the next begins, what shape a car's bodywork is, or which direction a battleship is pointing.

In the chaos of a firefight, targets appear and disappear from your view very quickly, and often a pilot only has an instant to judge whether he needs to react to an enemy. If a sufficiently distracting pattern can trick that pilot's eye into thinking a Stalker that just appeared on the edge of his screen is moving away from him instead of toward him even just for a moment, that may be enough time for that Stalker to line up a 6 PPC alpha strike the pilot might otherwise have avoided.

I think that's the whole point behind the dazzle pattern.

[Captain Stiffy]

I just use the blue and purple basic colors. Makes your mech way dark and with the 'grey' filtering of everything on most maps hides you very very well. It's like the nighttime urban camo.

Edited by Captain Stiffy, 27 February 2013 - 07:20 PM.