Considering the Orange Lights
remi
remedy [blu.knight] Join Date: 2003-11-18 Member: 23112Members, Super Administrators, Forum Admins, NS2 Developer, NS2 Playtester
remedy [blu.knight] Join Date: 2003-11-18 Member: 23112Members, Super Administrators, Forum Admins, NS2 Developer, NS2 Playtester
Now that the fall season is over, the emergency lights have reverted to red but during our playtesting for the Halloween patch, our biggest surprise was how much better the orange lighting felt and looked to us. Many of the playtesters even said that the orange lights should remain even after the fall season.
The orange lighting seems to wash out the map and player models less than the red, and the orange also seems to look better because so many of NS2's maps are blue and so the contrast between the unpowered and powered rooms ends up looking more dramatic (this is also why so many movie posters use that blue and orange palette).
So we are considering replacing the red lighting with the orange lighting in the next patch, but first we want your input.
What do you think of the orange lighting, in comparison to the red?
The orange lighting seems to wash out the map and player models less than the red, and the orange also seems to look better because so many of NS2's maps are blue and so the contrast between the unpowered and powered rooms ends up looking more dramatic (this is also why so many movie posters use that blue and orange palette).
So we are considering replacing the red lighting with the orange lighting in the next patch, but first we want your input.
What do you think of the orange lighting, in comparison to the red?
Comments
Why not just add the change in light as an option in the menu between red and orange so you don't hear people complaining one way or the other (except for ppl who complain of having too many options)
funny it took the novelty of a holloween change to finally make the point clear.
would be good change
Fits the orange alien theme in general...
Oh, and maybe have the lighting change in subtle, dynamic, informative ways depending on which faction controls each territory within the map? So that the map has more of an active -- dare I say ATMOSPHERIC -- vibe during gameplay? My GOODNESS, that would be AWESOME. If only we had code that would do THAT.
Red is the most salient of all colors, and as such it's distracting and washes out the scene.
There are many studies which show unequivocally that red is the single most salient (attention grabbing / first to recognize in scene) of the spectrum... and what's more, this salient characteristic of Red is independent of culture and language development. This is well established in UI design and marketing. (Red is the most used color for marketing as well, of course)
My favorite quote about this specific issue is from this psychology professor's study:
“associations to red — stop, fire, alarm, warning — can be activated without a person’s awareness, and then influence what they are thinking about or doing,” said John A. Bargh, at Yale University.
Save Red color usage for when it really matters (Hit indicators, low hp etc). You already have the player's attention just with lights out or pulsing on and off.
Orange is much better and also it would be very nice to see a general up in lightning in rooms without power. Orange / red / unpowered rooms are a pain to see in because they are too dark and pulsing so tehy get even darker, also some parts appear pitch black.
orange is the new black red
You forgot Ironmode
I oppose improved visibility in dark rooms. I think it was too much to begin with anyways. Plus red just fits the emergency/derelict atmosphere better.
I would suggest toning down the saturation and brightness of emergency lighting by 10 to 20%. Either red or orange is fine.
Orange works fine with Uke's alien vision btw, it might actually be slightly harder to spot if power is up, but it wasn't clear with red lights either.