Considering the Orange Lights

remiremi remedy [blu.knight] Join Date: 2003-11-18 Member: 23112Members, Super Administrators, Forum Admins, NS2 Developer, NS2 Playtester
edited November 2016 in NS2 General Discussion
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?

Comments

  • IxianIxian Denmark Join Date: 2014-03-16 Member: 194783Members, Squad Five Blue
  • NordicNordic Long term camping in Kodiak Join Date: 2012-05-13 Member: 151995Members, NS2 Playtester, NS2 Map Tester, Reinforced - Supporter, Reinforced - Silver, Reinforced - Shadow
    edited November 2016
    Orange! Please give orange back.
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  • Legend_BossLegend_Boss UK Join Date: 2014-02-27 Member: 194394Members
    I played it during the Halloween period bit I didn't even notice the orange light change. Don't think it really matters too much.

    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)
  • VetinariVetinari Join Date: 2013-07-23 Member: 186325Members, Squad Five Blue, Reinforced - Shadow, WC 2013 - Silver
  • 2cough2cough Rocky Mountain High Join Date: 2013-03-14 Member: 183952Members, Reinforced - Shadow, WC 2013 - Supporter
    haven't people been complaining about the red lights for a long time?

    funny it took the novelty of a holloween change to finally make the point clear.

    would be good change
  • Soul_RiderSoul_Rider Mod Bean Join Date: 2004-06-19 Member: 29388Members, Constellation, Squad Five Blue
    Fits the vents.

    Fits the orange alien theme in general...
  • WyzcrakWyzcrak Pot Pie Aficionado Join Date: 2002-12-04 Member: 10447Forum Moderators, Constellation, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue
    Orange.

    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.
  • IronHorseIronHorse Developer, QA Manager, Technical Support & contributor Join Date: 2010-05-08 Member: 71669Members, Super Administrators, Forum Admins, Forum Moderators, NS2 Developer, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue, Subnautica Playtester, Subnautica PT Lead, Pistachionauts
    edited November 2016
    Orange please.

    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.
  • NordicNordic Long term camping in Kodiak Join Date: 2012-05-13 Member: 151995Members, NS2 Playtester, NS2 Map Tester, Reinforced - Supporter, Reinforced - Silver, Reinforced - Shadow
    @coolitic Do you feel like explaining why you think red lights should be kept? There seems to be a lot of orange love in here, and I think you might bring something to the table.
  • The_Welsh_WizardThe_Welsh_Wizard Join Date: 2013-09-10 Member: 188101Members, Reinforced - Supporter
    remi wrote: »
    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?

    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.
  • RadimaXRadimaX Join Date: 2013-02-05 Member: 182840Members

    orange is the new black red
  • xDragonxDragon Join Date: 2012-04-04 Member: 149948Members, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Gold, NS2 Map Tester, Reinforced - Shadow
    IronHorse wrote: »
    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.

    You forgot Ironmode

  • .trixX..trixX. Budapest Join Date: 2007-10-11 Member: 62605Members
  • cooliticcoolitic Right behind you Join Date: 2013-04-02 Member: 184609Members
    edited November 2016
    Nordic wrote: »
    @coolitic Do you feel like explaining why you think red lights should be kept? There seems to be a lot of orange love in here, and I think you might bring something to the table.

    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.
  • twilitebluetwiliteblue bug stalker Join Date: 2003-02-04 Member: 13116Members, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue
    edited November 2016
    While the oversaturate red lighting was hard on the eye, the new orange lighting seems too bright and gives marines too much advantage, and potentially ruins alien vision mods that depend on lighting not having orange overload.

    I would suggest toning down the saturation and brightness of emergency lighting by 10 to 20%. Either red or orange is fine.
  • caperpcaperp TSF quick reaction team "ELOgain" Join Date: 2014-02-05 Member: 193823Members, Reinforced - Supporter, Reinforced - Shadow
    I like how the orange looks, i think it could be a little darker though as well. Maybe you could also look into mixing red and orange, like have lights near tech points/RTs red and the rest orange, i think something interresting could come out of that :).
    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.
  • meatmachinemeatmachine South England Join Date: 2013-01-06 Member: 177858Members, NS2 Playtester, NS2 Map Tester, Reinforced - Shadow, WC 2013 - Supporter
    edited November 2016
    2cough wrote: »
    haven't people been complaining about the red lights for a long time?

    funny it took the novelty of a holloween change to finally make the point clear.

    would be good change
    Maybe we should remove powernodes and cysts for next halloween's update and see what happens :P
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