Some loadout cards after the bronze rarity actually have a performance increase!

(Tormentaius) #1

I’d like to expand and clarify on this post’s title - as far as I know any loadout card after the Bronze rarity is PURELY cosmetic, however I’ve noticed that it isn’t the case.

Certain Cobalt (maybe others above bronze rarity) loadout cards actually have a performance increase, but not in the sense of a stat point increase or a better augment, but in the sense of combat effectiveness.
What I’m talking about here is that certain loadout cards have an outfit that has the color of the opposing team. I would say that is a significant combat advantage which make the loadout card perform better.
I know that your team mates have a matching teamcolor highligh/glow around them that the opponents doesn’t have, however you hardly notice its missing from the opposing mercs, especially those that have your teamcolor as an outfit. It takes time for you to actually realize that the merc in front of you isn’t a teammate, most likely the merc will open fire before you’re even aware that its an opponent - which means you have less time to react and once you realize who’s threat you’re already at low health and most likely at this point is either incapacitated or dead. The time to react is even less if coming around a corner or already fighting another merc. This is a CLEAR Performance / Combat advantage to the player with the loadout card with this type of outfit.

To give an example of this:
I’m playing with a Bronze loadout card, say a Phantom and the opponent with a loadout card of Cobalt rarity playing with a Fletcher with this kind of outfit, I also have a teammate thats a Fletcher without this outfit. Doesn’t matter what map, because it could be any map. Say I use Refractive cloak as I’m about to go around a corner, and as I go around the corner I spot Fletcher, I see he’s wearing my teamcolors, I don’t perceive him as a threat, plus the fact I know I have a Fletcher on my team it must be this Fletcher. The opponent didn’t open fire because he didn’t realize I was there until I had passed him, so when I passed him he opens fire and hits me, I turn around to see my enemy and sort of scan the vicinity for threats, I see my supposed teammate Fletcher but don’t see any other mercs, then he fires another round and I realize he’s able to damage me so he must be an enemy so I retaliate, at this point Fletcher already has fired the third round taking my health down even further. So before I’m even aware that I’m facing an enemy right before me, some time has passed, even its only one or two seconds, or even a few split seconds, those seconds is more than enough for the opposing Fletcher to incapacitate me. Now consider if the refractive cloaking hadn’t be activated or it had been any other merc without some form of damage reduction or more health cornering.
Those mercs would most likely have been incapacitated before they even realized it was an opponent.

…and you might now be thinking, a few encounters with this merc, then you’ll be on your guard and will realize it much sooner. Unfortunately thats not the case entirely, yes you’ll be more attentive, but you won’t be able to react faster just because you’re more attentive - its all about muscle memory and reflexes, and the time it takes for this thing to imprint is a lot longer than what one game takes.

This is so imbalanced and should be needs to be corrected immediately.

/Tor.

(poiuasd) #2

All mercs have a clear team colored tint on them regardless of what skin they have. This is literally the first time I’ve ever seen someone complain about that.

(KeMoN) #3

I have to admit that I encountered situations like this twice as well and both times died. It is not something grave or anything, I’m just saying that Tormentaius makes a valid point. Whether or not it needs changing is something completely different though. I think it’s best to wait for the 2nd generation of load-outs and see if this is still an issue.

(alphabeta) #4

Not the first time it has been mentioned as I made a post about it awhile ago. When a Red Team member has a Cobalt loadout card it is sometimes VERY HARD to tell which team they are on. Especially when you are moving fast.

(BioSnark) #5

I am sorta hopeful that, after a year, the ReV event blue/red distinction is an indication that the cobalts could actually be changed. Perhaps this is harder than changing tints in photoshop. Unlocking the option to change enemy glow colors would also help with this, not just some color blind people.

Founder’s Sawbonez enemy variant also has the color scheme of a friendly founder’s Fragger, say. Not as big a deal as cobalts but lazy. There’s not a systematic differentiation in skins.

can’t tell if sarcasm.

Some of the gold tier have red - handicap in a friendly fire environment.

(Tormentaius) #6

To be honest I really don’t care about if its difficult or not, but when its not a completely free game and I personally have paid for stuff in the game, I expect them to take their business seriously and treat their customers right. Anyone playing the game is a potential customer. And what I mean with it not being a completely free game is that it has micro transactions and purchasable items where you spend real currency.

So simply put - if they do not fix this then its a clear P2W.

NB: Fixing this is isn’t really that hard nor difficult, but it something that takes a little time to do, and you know what they say, that time is money.
What they need to do is most likely just change a value or a texture for those loadout cards. It shouldn’t require complete remodelling or re-skinning of the merc, otherwise they have made it much harder than it needs to be.

(LifeupOmega) #7

Literally never had this issue, I still murder people cobalt or not.

(Tormentaius) #8

Either you never faced one or never realized you were facing one. Guess you shoot at everything that moves just to be sure.