TF2: A Distinctive Lack of Team Recognition

foreign the most important element of tf2's visual design is color why team it's in the name the classes the guns the movements everything else comes second because first you gotta know who you're shooting at of course TF2 isn't the only game that utilizes color as a visual aid to Mark friend from foe certainly wasn't the first and wasn't the last but tf2's developers didn't just Hue shift all of the player models and then clock out for the day or rely on the more let's say modern practices of slapping outlines and nameplates over everybody because now good visual design is hard no amount of bit rates gonna fix this cluster [ __ ] my God nope tf2s developers just used color color in tandem with meticulous deliberate design choices that not only create the necessary distinction of friend from foe but also prevent that distinction from becoming an eyesore that detracts from the game's iconic visual Style all color two teams defines tf2's Gameplay at Square One and here's how [Music] truth be told I could spend hours discussing every facet of tf2's art style but for the purposes of this video let's just focus on color it's undoubtedly evident to anyone who's played TF2 for more than five minutes that the game's color palettes are defined by washed out pasteli and neutral tones Dusty earthy or industrial environments you never see fully saturated or flat colors aside from very specific instances higher levels of saturation are specifically placed onto objects and events that act as deliberate visual cues so players can quickly interpret what's happening for example bullet tracers projectiles explosions muzzle flares crits Uber charge signage for guidance small areas on the map to remind players of where they are red or blue side and most importantly on the character models so players can quickly identify friend from foe so how did tf2's developers structure team recognition so that it preserves the game's distinct stylization well for starters they made the mental task of Team recognition a smooth reactive process and not a chore the first step is to establish a clear difference between two teams so we have red and blue well no [ __ ] but why did valve choose these colors well red and blue are close to complementary colors meaning they strongly contrast with each other one is very obviously not the other and it's very easy to tell at a glance unlike with say purple and blue or orange and yellow the next thing valve did was make red and blue the first things your eyes want to see there are several ways of going about this but rather than simply highlighting entire character models or using disgusting colored outlines tf2's developers meticulously colored each character model so as to keep them grounded in tf2's visual style and of course this means avoiding overly saturated colors which is why TF2 uses very distinct sets of colors for each team one for red and one for blue you have the primary team colors themselves which are then supplemented with secondary darker and washed out tones none of which are highly saturated and when these colors are juxtaposed against each other this creates a strong contrast from dark to light that naturally guides the eye towards the primary team color this contrast is the tool that valve uses to present team colors in a readable fashion and you only need a tiny amount of saturation to pull it off however the medic is an exception he's white or light blue so players can identify him as the medic but the contrast between his lab coat and blue or red still achieves that natural guidance proof of concept for you what color was that Circle just now how about that one most of you could probably provide Swift answers without even thinking about it that's because the typical response time to visual stimuli is about a quarter of a second but I left that on screen for a third of a second just to be generous but what color were the larger squares behind those circles what color was the background fewer of you can answer those questions without going back in the video that's how effective contrast is at guiding the eye and now listen this isn't to say that the secondary and tertiary colors can be anything so long as contrast is present in fact these additional colors are deliberately Team Associated as well because they accentuate and emphasize the primary team color and therefore readability if they were just a mishmash of other colors it'd be a hot [ __ ] mess and you'd have no idea what you're looking at so that's color Choice out of the way up next comes color placements the primary team colors red and blue are always located on specific large areas of the character model that are always visible from almost any angle as a result no matter where you're looking it's very obvious what team someone is on these primary team colors are not limited to smaller areas like extremities or finer details it's not enough the medic's hands could be argued as an exception but his hands are massive as are any merc's hands and they're always Thrust out in front of him occupying a lot of visual real estate his team colored backpack makes up for a lack of visibility from the rear but most importantly his colored Medi beam fills in the gaps something else to note is that if a character model completely lacks the aforementioned contrasting areas like the Spy or to a lesser extent the Pyro almost every square inch of their character model is team colored yet muted with faded tones or subtle [ __ ] gradients so as to maintain stylistic adherence do note that I said specific color placement and that specificity is extremely important because during play 99 of player interactions involve mostly default models with mostly default color placements as such players brains are trained to seek out the same colors in roughly the same spots as guides for play it's why they're there and preserving these guides is crucial otherwise it's gonna throw players off keep this in mind because we're gonna come back to it later the final piece comes from tf2's original environments which again contain mostly neutral and washed out colors these muted settings further accentuate the brighter team colors on the character models even at a distance because these brighter colors get sandwiched between darker and washed out tones so they really pop out to the eye not to mention tf2's uncluttered backgrounds simple impressionistic textures and very distinctive lighting processes also help the Merc stand out against everything else as you can see tf2's developers made team identification so easy you don't even think about it you process color friend from foe in a fraction of a second and that defines tf2's fast-paced gameplay and we all take it for granted because all of this was deliberately made to seamlessly integrate into TF2 style feeling natural and pleasing to the eye rather than just being obvious and if you can't identify what team someone is on at a glance that negatively detracts from gameplay this puts you at an unfair disadvantage against the next player they can see who you are right away but you can't see who they are if you pause or get fooled even for a split second more to process what team someone's on by then it's too late they've shot you so why bring this up oh well you thought this was just gonna be a little less of df2's design oh no sir we gotta get on somebody's case here this is my channel after all I am indeed the king of complaints the prince of protest the Czar of Rejection it is my duty to do this as tf2's Corpse continues to shamble about on loot box strings less care let's say has been granted towards cosmetic creation and acceptance as a result we have an ever-growing but thankfully still small handful of TF2 items that hurt team recognition oh my God you [ __ ] I thought you were blue [Laughter] other creators briefly touched on team recognition years ago however comically but I've yet to see anyone fully elaborate upon it let alone show how certain items can degrade it so just for shits and giggles I figured I'd run through a few examples of items that hurt team recognition just to show how easily it can be violated hopefully this will raise a little red flag to valve saying uh Hey guys maybe you should stop adding items like this and maybe it'll be a swift kick to the dick for workshoppers uh hey [ __ ] maybe you should actually pay attention to the game you're making items for that'd be a pretty good thing to do I'd say oh yeah and if that don't work the inevitable surge of people using these Cosmetics as a result of this video will absolutely show everybody else that uh oh yeah this ain't good you know you Gotta Fight Fire with Fire as they say otherwise nothing gets [ __ ] done I'm not on your team sir now then for starters most TF2 players know about paints these tools paint Cosmetics a variety of colors ranging from acceptably TF2 all the way to and in most cases paints are totally fine at least when it comes to team recognition most paints either tread in neutral or team colored territory but others that cause problems we'll get back to that for hats you can get away with almost any color because these regions exist up and out of the way from Main team colored areas this is also why TF2 can get away with something as gaudy as unusuals usually for body Cosmetics most of these are also fine because they either lack paint regions entirely or their paint regions are small they're accentuating details rather than replacements for large areas of default model color and yes saturated paints are indeed brighter than the primary team colors and get the viewers attention in all of the wrong ways that's indicative of other art style violations rather than issues with Team recognition and in my opinion paint colors like these should have never been put in the game give me cancer now guys the key takeaway here is that paint regions and cosmetics in general should not replace large areas of expected default model color without taking measures to ensure that team identification and stylistic adherence are indeed preserved this is how TF2 Cosmetics should be handled not like this we got the water waders the flavorful baggies and the deities dress for pyro not only are all these paintable but their paint regions are so massive they removed nearly all team color depending on what you paint them wow I mean hey this is an issue for obvious reasons if players see a character model that is mostly not team colored at most angles including the most important ones they got no idea what team they're on no [ __ ] and even though this may come off as insultingly obvious for some people it needs to be said colors adjacent to red and blue can be very easily mistaken as red and blue at a glance and can throw players off orange isn't as neutral as some think it is bright orange or warmer yellow are neither red nor blue sure but that doesn't mean neutral when we're playing TF2 we're looking for expected team colors in the absence of these expected colors the game wires our brains to associate warmer colors with red and cooler colors with blue so in a split second if someone is presented with a character model that is 80 orange guess what orange becomes red or blue becomes well blue hence why most people do [ __ ] like this they die a whole pyro set Manco orange and another color similar to slate and then wear them on the opposite teams and man does this [ __ ] with people I played with these pyro sets for five minutes and got away with some seriously stupid [ __ ] almost immediately oh God all right I'm on your team friend and then over the course of a few weeks I had countless complaints from players both off and on my team that they had no idea what they were shooting at one of the more common occurrences was a medic thinking I was on his team him then trying to heal me and then getting toasted like a marshmallow this happened so many times that I lost track and beyond that players were often so fooled I could just Waltz into their team like I was one of them and wreck absolute Havoc players would even bump right into me head on and then [ __ ] die hello he has no idea he feels so bad and yeah typically veterans would pick up on it after getting fooled one or two times but other players got tricked every single time ah it's pretty bad and I mean hey this isn't even a bug these are Cosmetics you can buy and use right now and I mean if you don't believe me I mean just try these Cosmetics out yourself I mean you got to spend a little bit of money it's basically pay to win but you've likely seen all the background footage by now and just how easy it is to throw players off so yeah these pyro items vary obviously violate team recognition thanks to their massive paint Regions they're not a problem when they're unpainted but when they are painted they are a royal pain in the ass because they genuinely disrupt gameplay it's frustrating and I want valve to stop adding items like this and for workshoppers to stop making paint regions the size of goddamn Mars when paint regions go beyond accentuating details it creates more distracting visual noise that confuses people during play you gotta strike a healthy balance between Form and Function you can't throw out function for well this you got to pay attention people seriously so that's paintable Cosmetics up next are Cosmetics that just remove all team color let's take a look at the Bushman for Sniper a cosmetic we just received for summer sniper's main team color all resides on his shirt and that shirt is just gone it's just gone look at this no paint required it's practically free I mean yes how silly of me of course snipers pants those are technically team colored but they aren't what the eyes gravitate towards first here's the problem most sniper Cosmetics preserve his primary team colored shirt in fact 99.9 percent of them do default colors on the same expected areas why is this important well something I should have mentioned earlier is that the saturated primary team colors are always constrained to the upper half of all player model except for spy the secondary and tertiary colors guide the eyes towards the bright torso either via gradients or sharp boundaries remember contrast this was done intentionally so players eyes are guided towards the Torso where most of the game's crucial visual cues lie for example what weapon someone is using if they're firing at you if they're looking at you what class they are and of course what team they're on the accentuating colors were not designed to be team identifiers but rather the guides towards this critical information if you remove that key information it throws players off because they expect primary team color on everyone's torso and not neutral flesh tones and against the pastel neutral tones of most Maps which flesh is and with snipers gun thrust in front of him blocking what little team colored real estate is left good [ __ ] luck telling what team he's on especially at a distance where sniper mostly resides fights not that it matters because people at Point [ __ ] blank couldn't tell who I was either look at this [ __ ] no [ __ ] way dude even set me on fire what team was that just now could you tell how about that one as before I left those on screen for a third of a second but that's almost always too late in the instance of a sniper and that was easy now imagine you're playing the game with all the other visual noise going on veteran players brains are wired to recognize team color as a shortcut for reactions their eyeballs reactively seek out those certain team colored areas on the character models Guided by those ever-present contrasting areas you did it just now too or at least you tried but when you're not presented with enough team color and are given everything but in that Split Second of coming across a player you get confused and that detracts from gameplay if the background footage didn't make it obvious by now I got away with insanely stupid [ __ ] that a sniper should never be able to get away with you gotta put in a little bit more work with this cosmetic but my God it's insulting what you can do I'm not on your team doing hahaha oh man oh man especially if you combine it with something like the Darwin's danger Shield which covers up colored real estate from the rear the final Frontiersman which just removes all remaining default color from the sniper and then the Final Touch ah there we go all gone who the hell thought this cosmetic was a good idea seriously what the [ __ ] were you thinking I mean obviously they weren't thinking that's why I'm making this video These sniper Cosmetics pretty much yielded the same results as the Pyro Cosmetics I fooled people a few times before they caught on but many players kept getting fooled and dying to poorly thought out game mechanics fair and balanced class am I right [Music] don't give us a bad rap man this clip in particular is [ __ ] amazing this guy actually says who's shooting me when I'm in his field of view multiple times and I still kill him ah it's it's [ __ ] it's beyond [ __ ] and apparently items like this are totally fine in the eyes of people who make them man again pay attention to the game you're making items for because you don't want [ __ ] like this to happen oh yeah and use a sniper rifle skin that is mostly oppositely team colored when you're presented with a bright blue or red gun being carried by someone with no other identifiable team color your brain hiccups for a second and Associates that weapon's color with a team so yeah skins can pose a problem as well and here's why weapons are an extension of the character model and often overlap them when they do they occlude the character model and the weapons colors now become a part of Team recognition as such all of tf2's default weapon models are either new naturally colored or team colored and that prevents any issues most TF2 skins also abide by these rules but there's a handful that don't for example the chili Autumn more paint is just red crop dusted is mostly just blue and we have a handful of others but to be clear on their own most skins rarely pose an issue they are indeed out and away from the character model at most angles and most of the time character models are properly colored and take up much more visual real estate than any weapon so skins can get away with a lot without hurting the gameplay but in tandem with other Cosmetics skins can really sell the package as such care must be taken with the design of TF2 skins to ensure that team recognition is preserved don't do [ __ ] like this please just give us both team variants it's not that hard in fact I know it's not that hard because I can do it myself foreign [Music] I know don't go ape [ __ ] in the comments there are indeed other examples of scrutiny worthy loadouts that can [ __ ] with Team recognition but for this video I just chose a couple of the more egregious examples and yes I understand that it's difficult to make an item compatible with every other item in the game while also preserving team recognition and other stylistic elements but there are some very obvious things you shouldn't do no massive paint regions like this and don't strip away expected team colors you get the gist I suspect that at this stage many of you watching this have this thought in mind many other Cosmetics can change and cover default color but a vast majority of these are fine now why is this the difference is that for the most part they change color in such a way that team recognition is preserved preserving default colorization where players roughly expect it to be or preserving expected colors within a class's palette for example this recent medic shirt we've just received the uberware it replaces some of the white on medic's torso but it does so with darker team colors within his palette and only the Tiny Tie is paintable players eyes are still presented with healthy amounts of proper expected team color and most of medic's coat remains intact so is silhouette and general appearance are preserved design Liberties like these are okay but not like this come on guys the teams are red and blue not orange not yellow not green or purple or pink not this shade of red not this shade of blue this [ __ ] red and this [ __ ] blue just stop it's not even a matter of figuring out who's on what team it just looks out of place or flat out weird like the smoking jacket this saturated mess sticks out like a sore thumb and no making the pans to flesh out the set doesn't solve the problem either and no one seriously thinks an item like this is appropriate for the game my God what the [ __ ] are you doing doing ha on a serious note what bothers me is that some not all but some of the more prevalent Workshop creators many with multiple items in TF2 continue to make items like this for example and then openly mock anyone that points out how they would negatively impact gameplay to me that's pretty [ __ ] up these are the people that make most of the items for TF2 that valve returns to on a regular basis they know that their work has a very high chance of being accepted and they scoff at the notion of taking care of the game they laugh at you they Mock You the players and they're more than comfortable expressing just how little they care until someone puts it on public display of course and I see it all the time none of you guys see it because I mean [ __ ] why would you care why would you bother going out of your way to look inside these Workshop circles which are public until they don't want to be but someone's gotta show players this [ __ ] and I'll remind everyone here that you're free to comment on whatever these guys make on the work Workshop vote with your clicks and with your words don't be a dick about it don't go out of your way to be an [ __ ] to somebody but remind them if you're making items for TF2 you seriously need to pay attention to the game you're making items for preserving the game's aesthetic is one issue that gets mired in subjectivity but preserving the gameplay is an absolute necessity remember you're allowed to say that you don't like something voting no is always an option I'm not gonna sugarcoat it but no thanks not interested sometimes I feel like I understand this game better than these guys do in fact I know I do because I've seen horrifically stupid arguments from these same Workshop circles saying that preserving team recognition or class recognition or the general style of the game is some bitter Act of resistance towards tf2s quote unquote evolving art style [ __ ] off tf2s tones and themes and stylistic and Design Elements especially those that Define and control the gameplay must not change especially not on the whims of those who want to make money off the game's cosmetic features through the words of tf2's original art director Moby Frankie TF2 was created with memorable Timeless visual design that complements gameplay Clarity keyword Clarity that Clarity is ingrained so strongly that even after 16 years of trinkets getting pumped into TF2 most of its intrinsic gameplay elements are still miraculously intact yeah Cosmetics can and do get away with a lot but that's not proof of tf2's flexible or evolving art style it's proof of how robust it is even under all the crap and clutter you can still tell what's going on actually now that I've gone off script and I'm thinking about it allow me to repeat a rather fitting metaphor from casual TF2 I know people get mad whenever I mention another YouTuber it's like oh why is the big at talking about this guy but listen to me Envision Tia ef2 as a beautiful well-built home you can take comfort inside of its strong Foundation within its four walls and have a good time and then one day some idiot hobbles through the front door and takes a piss on the living room rug the house doesn't collapse it doesn't burst into flames but because the house didn't fall down around his ears that idiot now thinks the house was made for pissing on and before long there's piss everywhere that piss represents Cosmetics like these they stink like an irremovable stain making the house reek of rot the degradation of tf2's visuals is the direct result of valves gradually increasing neglect which leaves the front door wide open item creators lack of care doesn't help either because they're never held to higher standards by anybody no knocks no locks and I've said all this before somebody's got to put their foot down that's why I keep stepping in and stating the obvious things that people don't want to [ __ ] say for fear of not being heck and wholesome 420 chungus all the time the deeply intentional facets of tf2's design are what attract people in the first place and keep people around not the piss its visuals its gameplay its characters and so on they Define The Full Experience of this game if you corrode these elements you corrode TF2 and make it a shadowy specter of its former self I mean not that it isn't that already but as time goes on we keep getting more cosmetics in this game that chip away at its integrity and we seriously need to pump the brakes before it gets any worse Cosmetics have improved a lot recently keep pushing for better guys but valve clearly does not care for this game as much as they once did and they never will again but that doesn't mean that I shouldn't care stop pissing on my [ __ ] rug they pee on your [ __ ] rug peed at my [ __ ] rug preserving tf2's visual nature isn't some contrarian act I perform at a spite I love this game but I'm tired of seeing it bastardized by people who take no interest in where this game came from who have zero concern for and openly insult those who play it and very obviously do not care for its visual design I know I'm 10 years too late but I actually care about my hobbies and I want to preserve them for what they are and I know the terminally online are sent reeling at the mere mention of gatekeeping but for the sanctity of this game you'd best goddamn Believe I'm Gonna Keep gatekeeping these [ __ ] out who want nothing more than to piss everywhere for their own benefit if you outright refuse to acknowledge something as simple as preserving team recognition in Team Fortress 2 I mean there's the door [ __ ] off all right that's it I'll see y'all later [Music] thank you [Music] thank you [Music] that rug really tied the room together did it not

Channel: Zesty Jesus

Views: 461,178

Keywords: tf2, team fortress 2, zesty jesus, zesty, jesus, workshop, review, team recognition, team, red, blu, heavy, medic, skins, hats, cosmetics, paints, paint, hat, cosmetic

Id: 8RAF-55O2-k

Length: 29min 33sec (1773 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 05 2023