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What class color-coding do you use?

Posted: Fri Jun 09, 2017 8:04 am
by SouthpawHare
It's a common option (AFAIK) to color-code your soldiers based on class for easy identification, especially in Long War 2 with so many soldiers. Everyone who does this does it a little differently, and may well be something of a sacred ritual to them. How do you color-code your troops? Additionally, is there any method to how you select props?

My method, along with the questionable thought processes behind the choices, from most to least logical. Also my prop reasoning.

BLACK - Shinobi
Naturally, ninja dress in black.
Props: Shemagh, Recon Hood, samurai masks, black face paint, handkerchiefs

WHITE - Specialists
Specialists are primarily medics the way I use them, so white fits very well.
Props: Helmets, including exclusive access to the pickelhaub

RED - Assaults
Assaults are aggressive, and there is no more aggressive a color than red.
Props: Helmets with scouters or microphones, Master Yi Helmet, badass masks, warpaint

GREEN - Rangers
The color of fantasy wilderness rangers (even though they're not really the same thing).
Props: Headbands, Recon Hood, handkerchiefs

YELLOW - Technicals
Firemen wear yellow sometimes, when they're not wearing red (which is already taken), and technicals are kind of like... reverse firemen. So that makes sense... right?
Props: Elaborate helmets, Gas Masks, Goggles, spiky hair

PURPLE - Grenadiers
Grenadiers are kind of like the spellcasters of the base classes (ignoring Psis, who are actual spellcaster units), and magical power is often purple. So naturally your fireball-throwing wizards would be associated with it!
Props: Helmets, beanie hat, headbands

BLUE - Snipers
Uh... I guess, like, the sky is blue? And snipers are often at high elevation, which is closest to the sky. Yeah!
Props: Fancy dress hat, berets, anything swag

ORANGE - Gunners
See, this one makes complete se... okay, no, I just ran out of colors. It's basically the only one left in the standard rainbow.
Props: Whatever
Yeah, I literally just give the gunners the leftover color and the leftover props. That's not to say I don't love me some Gunners (they sure are one of the most powerful units in the game!), but they don't have any real visual identity in my mind, so they're relegated to the Misc. Bin.

And in theory...
PINK - Psi Ops
...I've yet to actually get a Psi Op, since I completely skipped it in my 1.1/1.2 playthrough due to everyone saying they were bad. But someday, if I ever get one, they will be pink, because... well, it's like purple, which I already established is for spellcasters, but also with white added in, like their hair...? Yeah, that works.

And for completeness:
BEIGE - Rookie
My newbies are beige-shirts in my army, as it is a remaining color that they actually come in fairly often without me having to switch them. It's a somewhat realistic military color, so I like to imagine that they come in that way before my team ends up dressing them in clownish Power Rangers armor instead.


And then sometimes, I make some hybrid colors! I do this when I have a member of a class that has a certain build that significantly changes their play-style compared to the more "regular" builds (relative to how I play). Examples:

GREEN/RED - Ranger with a focus on mobility (read: SMG) and using the Sawed-off Shotgun.
A natural mix between Ranger and Assault

BLUE/BLACK - A Sniper with Phantom.
A sniper ninja!

RED/YELLOW - An Assault that focuses on using the Arc-Thrower.
An Assault who uses a specialized piece of equipment like the Technical. Also, electricity is associated with yellow (even though it's light blue in this game).


And that's the whole of my bizarre thought process.

Re: What class color-coding do you use?

Posted: Fri Jun 09, 2017 8:18 am
by LordYanaek
I used color-coding a lot in LW1 but not in LW2. XCOM2 offers far more customization and the guerilla theme don't really goes well with uniformization so i tend to have a lot of different looks including some that don't really allow coloring at all (Resistance Fighters and some Anarchy's Children props).
I rarely have issues identifying my soldiers quickly based on their weapons. Mostly playing with fixed squads also helps me know who's who and who does what because my Point blank ranger officer in one squad is not the same ranger as the Rapid reaction guy in another squad and the kickass blademaster shinobi who was my first MSgt doesn't play like the tanky scout from my triple snipers squad so class based color doesn't make a lot of sense anyway.

I tend to give either headsets or berets (from Capnbups') to my officers.

Re: What class color-coding do you use?

Posted: Fri Jun 09, 2017 8:26 am
by SouthpawHare
LordYanaek wrote:the guerilla theme don't really goes well with uniformization
Oh, I agree. Dressing up my guys like a team of Sentai Warriors instead of realistic guerilla warfare soldiers looks absolutely absurd. I do it anyway. ;)

The aliens must be super color-blind or something, lucky for me.

Re: What class color-coding do you use?

Posted: Fri Jun 09, 2017 10:41 am
by Kwic
Hi,

I do use color code, so I can know with a glance who is standing where.

Black : Assaults -

Red : Grenadier (explosions)

Green : Ranger

Yellow : Snipers

Pink : Shinobis

Orange : Flame throwers

White : Psi

Blue : Specialists

Well, Shinobis and Snipes colors were randomly choosen.

Maybe it doesnt match with guerrilla theme , but it helps a lot !

Re: What class color-coding do you use?

Posted: Fri Jun 09, 2017 10:44 am
by Daergar
I would do this, except I tend to deviate too much to make use of it.

The top ten HQ assault slash trimmed down eight-man squad that slaughters 0% supply missions gets to look cool. The rest get nothing until I can form a second elite team.

Generic cannon fodder does not deserve to look shiny!

Re: What class color-coding do you use?

Posted: Fri Jun 09, 2017 10:53 am
by Franzy
I use very similar scheme. Blue for rangers, green for gunners, yellow for techs, white for specs, black for shinobies, purple for psi, red for assaults, grey for snipers, brown for grenadiers. Also my soldiers use specific headgear to allow me to easily identify their class in resistance management screen, for example all my snipers wear cowboy hats. And I also use symbol-coded nicknames for builds.
I.e. "Danny O %$= fb" is Owerwatch& suppression guy who also has phantom ($) and low profile(=) and flashbanger from AWC.
"Victor C *# sm" is Crit-based with holotarget(*) and shredder(#) perks. And a smoker too.
Other notable AWC-perks: H for Salvo (good for EXO-quits), & - Run and Gun, ? - Ghostwalker, S - stealth-perks like tradecraft or covert, P - pistol build, ~ - steady hands, ^ - Damn good ground, K - has kubikiri, R - has Rapture, @ - lightning reflexes or shadow step, + - medic.

Re: What class color-coding do you use?

Posted: Fri Jun 09, 2017 12:23 pm
by Dwarfling
Assault: Dark Red / Light Red
Technical: Bright Yellow / Light Red (Full Helmet)
Shinobi: Full Black
Grenadier: Black / Yellow
Specialist: Full White
Ranger: Full Blue (ADVENT helmets)
Sharpshooters: Full Green
Gunner: Dark Purple
Psi: Light Gray
SPARK: Julian goes White/Black, next ones, just different from Julian.

Re: What class color-coding do you use?

Posted: Fri Jun 09, 2017 1:35 pm
by Lyzak
All of my classes wear a primary color (which is also their weapon color) with a secondary color based on their specialization. For example, straight-up combat Rangers have a black secondary color, close-combat-oriented Rangers get an orange secondary color, and overwatch Rangers get a white secondary color. Typically blacks represent the base "combat-oriented" specialization, and white represents some kind of support or control-oriented specialization.

Rangers: BLUE
Assaults: ORANGE
Gunners: GREEN
Grenadiers: BROWN
Technicals: RED (Flamers get red-dark orange-bright orange)
Specialists: WHITE
Sharpshooters: PURPLE
Shinobis: BLACK
Psi Operatives: GRAY and VIOLET

SPARK Units get their whole own array of colors, partially because, come on, HOW are you going to mistake a SPARK unit for a normal soldier, and partially because I came up with so many different kinds of builds, following my "primary class color, secondary specialization color" scheme didn't visually differentiate the SPARK units enough.

Re: What class color-coding do you use?

Posted: Fri Jun 09, 2017 2:04 pm
by dwhansen777
Assault:orange
Grenedier:purple
Gunner:blue
Ranger:red
Sharp:light green
Shinobi: bright yellow
Spec:white
Tech:hot pink

Re: What class color-coding do you use?

Posted: Fri Jun 09, 2017 2:37 pm
by Stweels
I use the colors from the LW1 colour classes.

Dark Blue = Rangers
Light Blue = Grenadiers
Green = Gunners
Orange = Shinobi (Old LW1 'Scout' Colour)
Black = Ninja Sneaky Shinobi
Red = Assault
Yellow = Hacker Specialist
Yellow and White = Medi-Specialist
Purple = Technical
Grey = Sniper
Rookies stay in default colours.

I don't customize my soldiers much.
The team's current officer wears white and officers get spec ops helmets with goggles and mikes.
Advisers get to wear Dress Berets
Shaken soldiers wear black and a warning colour (Red, Orange or yellow)
Individuals used as grenade carriers (Smoke\Flash) go out in hot pink. (Smoke = Pink)
I did once assign trouser colour codes to match squad logos but that just gets confusing on the field and adds to the admin.

Someone with an unusual AWC + perk combo making them a hybrid class gets to wear a split colour scheme.
I play with Grimy's loot mod. Weapons may not be stripped or modified. To distinguish then they get the special weapons colours. All other weapons stay default.

Re: What class color-coding do you use?

Posted: Fri Jun 09, 2017 2:51 pm
by sadh
@OP, my scheme is pretty similar to yours, and for many of same (contrived) reasons.

Assault: Red (#7, I think)
Grenadier: Olive Green (#1)
Gunner: Brown (#50, I think)
Ranger: Khacki (#4 or 5, I think)
Sharpshooter: Dark Blue (#35)
Shinobi: Grey (#6)
Specialist: White (bottom row, far left)
Tech: Burnt Orange (can't remember #)

To maintain at least some semblance of uniqueness, I usually leave the secondary color whatever it was originally. The only class I use specific secondary colors for are Specialists, where Medic-spec gets dark red and Hacker-spec gets medium blue. It feels silly that my squad rolls into the op zone looking like a marching band in a gay pride parade, but if I don't use color-coding I end up forgetting to utilize a soldier's skills sometimes because it isn't immediately obvious what class they are.

I wish there were more tools for setting class default colors and loadouts. For instance, I insist that all soldiers wear helmets but the default is no helmets. I also want all soldiers' leg gear to be the same color as their chest gear, but several of the leg gear choices use the secondary color.

Re: What class color-coding do you use?

Posted: Fri Jun 09, 2017 4:13 pm
by Jacke
I had a very simple colour code in stock XCOM and XCOM 2, one colour per soldier class. However, with LW2 and 8 soldier classes with 3 skills per rank, I have many possible builds. Was around 14 or more in LW2 1.2. Here's what I had.

Code: Select all

Troop Appearance

Will keep most customization of new troops.  Will change Helmet and colours.

    Props

    Helmet      Delta 2
    Arms        0
    Legs        3
    Torso       3

Legs 3 to make Secondary Armor colour stand out

Type        Colour # for Main Armor Secondary Armor Weapon

Me (Ranger)           Green                    0  3  5

Rookie                Tan                      3  3  5
Assault Dodger        Yellow                  21  3  5
Assault Shocker       Yellow / Grey           21 14  5
Grenadier Needler     Red                      7  3  5
Grenadier Support     Red / Aqua               7 97  5
Grenadier Sapper      Red / Black              7 91  5
Gunner Hail           Dark Green              29  3  5
Gunner Shredder       Dark Green / Dark Red   29 81  5
Ranger                Green                    1  3  5
Sharpshooter Spotter  Grey / Grey              6 14  5
Sharpshooter Sniper   Grey / Black             6 91  5
Shinobi Scout         Black / Black           94 91  5
Shinobi Tank          Black / Grey            94 14  5
Shinobi Blade         Black / Dark Red        94 81  5
Specialist            Blue                    35  3  5
Specialist Medic      White / White           91 94  5
Technical             Orange                  14  3  5
Technical Rocketeer   Orange / Black          14 91  5
Technical Flamer      Orange / Dark Red       14 81  5
Psi Op                Purple                  42  3  5


Interface Websafe Colours (qUIck_LW)

Class   Colour  Mine    qUIck_LW

Class   Colour  Mine    qUIck_LW

Asault        FFFF33  33CCCC
Grenadier     FF3300  FF9900
Gunner        009900  FFFF33
Ranger        99FF00  0099FF
Sharpshooter  33CCCC  990000
Shinobi       990000  FF3300
Specialist    0099FF  009900
Techinical    FF9900  99FF00
Psi Op        9900CC

Re: What class color-coding do you use?

Posted: Fri Jun 09, 2017 5:17 pm
by Bill365
I definitely use a color coding to instantly recognize my guys, and have since EU. Red for assaults, Blue for specialists, White for snipers, etc. I still use these in general, but I am very much enjoying the creation of individual soldiers, kind of like superheroes, and try to make them unique, including backstory.

The extra voices and props mods makes this great fun, especially capnbubs and the Mass Effect mods. I even have special squads, where one is the "Star Hunters"; visitors from outer space that have come to battle the Advent on Earth, "Woody's Warhawks"; a group of Advent rebels organized by Reginald Morningwood, a British aristocrat that looks a lot like Colin Firth; My main team, "Earth Force One", a group of NASA sponsored heroes who are the only team with team colors, Red and Blue. My class-based color system still comes into effect, but no two troopers are the same. Fun fun fun.

(Edit: one thing that might be nice would be a flag set for soldier countries and an icon for the squad that matched. I like to switch the country flags of soldiers in a particular squad to match, so I can see in the soldiers screen who is in what squad... but when I go to the geomap, the squad icons don't match so I can't remember which squad is on which mission.)

Re: What class color-coding do you use?

Posted: Fri Jun 09, 2017 6:42 pm
by Zyxpsilon
Reminiscent of what i used to play with most often than not in LW1.. these HTML values are what still define my basic system of recognition.

Image

Matched with...
SharpShooter -- Grenadier
Shinobi -- Gunner
Ranger -- Specialist
Assault -- Technical

BUT, since their Squad management feature is heavily focused on distributing various combo-setups for different tasks or missions.. i soon lost interest to keep tracking everyone within the above coloring schema.
All i mostly use now is an hybrid theme that relies on the -Uniforms Manager- mod & a newly edited pool of limited instances.

-- Haven Advisors are always White/Black (PRI/SEC) and they all get to wear the Dress-Beret from -Cap'n'Bubs- mod
-- Smash'N'Grab (unique) Squad is also Very light Grey/Black
-- Anybody else can still get the LW1 theme if i suddenly feel the urge to be reminded of those oldish cool principles

There's still more new concerns to deal with;

-- My qUIck mod stuff comes with yet another way to detect Classes (Icons + related Text).. and as such is sufficient in terms of relatively high Barracks numbers. If i need to hook at particular soldiers at a glance.. it is simple & very rapid (-duh=qUIck!).

Image

-- I play with thematic "Groups" that i load via a highly customized & complex Character Pool *and* pre-defined roaster span with Grimy's -SelectStartingSoldiers- Mod. As a result, i tend to stick with the original authors coloring ways & special options in a vast majority of cases. For example.. that StarGate Darker theme is really cool & the Predators militaristic Armor/Patterns are somewhat fitting, etc.

-- Sometimes only the Weapons get the LW1/Colors to obtain distinctive hints. These contrasting elements are mostly visualized during Shot animations though.. enough fun under certain conditions.

-- I've re-discovered the Anarchy/Children DLC splendid (but sadly limited at three variations) set of Armors.. specially that it also allows to replace the regular default "Tron" sharp lightBlue lines with our direct secondary color.

Considering how many soldiers need to be active during LW2 campaigns (minimally 5/6 squads in my case -- all of which eventually reach 7/9 soldiers of diverse Classes.. PsiOps last!).. i just don't want to be stuck for hours re-cycling anything to adhere to a constant Coloring schema. If anything.. my feelings are now more oriented towards high diversity & variable tactical contexts.

Visuals are fun. Yet, the battefield events are sometimes just a matter of watching that essential set (which auto-adapts to qUIck stuff too) of -SelectSoldierIcons- Mod by ZFail.

In conclusion.. IMO, the trick is to find what we prefer & stick to THAT generic system(s) for the Long run. Why live an overly complex life when we can just simplify it for the best gameplay experience? :D

Re: What class color-coding do you use?

Posted: Fri Jun 09, 2017 6:59 pm
by DrBeast
Color-coding is a must for me, as a tribute to LW1. I use the same set of characters on all my play-throughs and they're always a predetermined class (thank the Gods for Commander's Choice!) so the colors are purely cosmetic, but I feel it's a nice touch, nevertheless 8-)
I also use the More Colors mod, as well as Military Camouflage Patterns which allows me to pretty much have at least one camo pattern for each nationality - or something close enough, if a nation doesn't have its own pattern. I use matching armor and weapon camo, with the weapon color mirroring the character's primary armor color.

Assault:
Primary: White Smoke. Secondary: Wine Red. Reversed on some characters depending on their camo pattern and armor parts.

Ranger:
Primary: Blue. Secondary: Medium Gray. Reversed on some characters depending on their camo pattern and armor parts.

Grenadier:
Primary: Light Brown. Secondary: Medium Brown.

Gunner:
Primary: Bright Yellow. Secondary: Dark Sienna (my Brazilian Gunner, Max Cavalera, uses Green - for obvious reasons).

Sharpshooter:
Primary: Forest Green. Secondary: Dark Camouflage Brown. Reversed on some characters depending on their camo pattern and armor parts.

Shinobi:
Primary: Midnight Blue. Secondary: Black.

Specialist:
Primary: Cyan. Secondary: Any.

Technical:
Primary: Bright Red. Secondary: Bright Orange. Reversed on some characters depending on their camo pattern and armor parts.

Psi-Ops:
Primary: White. Secondary: Any.

Haven Advisors:
All use the ASAT pattern with the default 0/0 primary/secondary colors. They are also the only characters not from the pre-existing character pool so it's always new people on each different playthrough.

Re: What class color-coding do you use?

Posted: Fri Jun 09, 2017 10:08 pm
by Cloista
I have a set 'Uniform' for each class, for my randomly generated characters. My pool characters are all based on my gaming group and have their own unique looks.

Assault: Beige 3/Brown 2. Classic 2 Camo. Helmet Delta 2 - A 'desert camo' look.
Grenadier:Yellow 78/Black 91. Muton Armour Camo. Helmet Delta 3. - A 'hazmat suit' look.
Gunner:Grey 56/Brown 29. Tundra Camo. Boonie Hat. - An 'urban hunter' look.
Psi-Op:Purple 45/Black 91. Alien Cell Camo. Headband. - An 'otherworldly misfit' look.
Ranger:Green 29/Black 91. Classic Camo. Recon Hood. - A 'jungle camo' look.
Rookie:Red 7/Black 91. No Camo. Helmet Delta 1. - A star-trek style 'red shirt' look.
Sharpshooter:Black 94/Teal 97. Wild Camo. Floppy Bonnie. - An 'urban marksman' look.
Shinobi:Blue 36/Black 91. Shemagh Camo. Shemagh Hood. - A 'ninja' look. Dark blue is a more 'night time' stealthy colour than pure black.
Specialist:White 91/Green 70. Digital Camo. Helmet Delta 4. - A 'hacker/medic' look.
Technical:Orange 75/Red 81. Tiger Camo. Aviator Helmet w/ Goggles on eyes. - A 'pyromaniac' look.

Re: What class color-coding do you use?

Posted: Mon Jun 12, 2017 11:41 am
by justdont
Although I used strict color-coding in LW1, I never felt the need of doing so in XCOM2/LW2. On the mission, there aren't as many soldiers as in LW1, and it's much harder to lose sight on who does what.

Still, I always keep my specialists distinct (green-ish, with no other class using green at all), I use them only as full support / officers, and as such, keeping them in good health is pretty important.

Other classes do follow some guidelines - shinobis and snipers are mostly black and white, storm troopers - rangers and assaults are at least partly blue-ish, heavy weapon guys are reddish, and technicals get their special orange. But I'm not particularly enforcing these and often go simply with "whatever fits".

Re: What class color-coding do you use?

Posted: Mon Jun 12, 2017 6:52 pm
by azarga
Shinobi - Black with grey pants
Gunners - Swamp green
Rangers - dark blue with white pants
Support Grenadiers - Light grey with black pants
DMG Grenadiers - Orange vests with brown pants
Technicals - Orange and brown +blots camo
Snipers - Dark green, Green +digital camo
Assaults - Light blue, grey +diagonal stripes camo, whatever it's called
Specialists - don't care - Gremlins are distinctive enough

Officers are getting black scheme + red beret


Also, soldiers with negative DEF are distinct by sleeveless outfits, soldiers with high DEF - armored sleeves, soldiers with poor aim - blind round glasses.

Re: What class color-coding do you use?

Posted: Mon Jun 12, 2017 10:42 pm
by GiftGruen
Why not use the ADVENT rainbow scheme, since you all have enough things to remember during the game to confuse yourself with two separate color sets.

Black - Rookies
Dark Red - Officers
Light Green - Gunners
Orange - Rocketeers (Technicals)
Light Red - Grenadiers
Blue - Sentries (Specialist)
Dark Grey or Dark Green - Stun Lancers/Commandos (Shinobis)
Brown - Vanguard (Assault)
Light Grey - Scouts (Sharpshooter)
Purple - Shock Troopers (Ranger)

And I guess:
Pink - (Psi Ops)
White - MECs (SPARKs)

Even though, to be true to MECs, they would have to change color whenever ADVENT upgrades to a higher tier MEC.
All this would actually fit and expand on the whole "SPARKs infiltrate by posing as MECs" concept by just saying everyone in your squad poses as some form of ADVENT trooper, even though every idiot could see through that disguise. I guess they got themselves Superman disguises?

Re: What class color-coding do you use?

Posted: Sun Oct 06, 2019 8:44 am
by lumber-chick
Hi guys,

I am finally appreciating coloring the soldiers!

Is there a mod which colors the rows in soldier lists, based on class? You know so e. G. Assaults name etc in avenger menus are red,etc. I thought I saw a caster with such a mod but can't find it in the Workshop. :(

Re: What class color-coding do you use?

Posted: Thu Oct 10, 2019 6:38 pm
by Jacke
lumber-chick wrote: Sun Oct 06, 2019 8:44 am Is there a mod which colors the rows in soldier lists, based on class? You know so e. G. Assaults name etc in avenger menus are red,etc. I thought I saw a caster with such a mod but can't find it in the Workshop. :(
Yes, there is a mod that changes the lists to make the different soldier classes stand out. I'm just trying to figure out which one is it. It's been a long time since I played LW2 and I don't currently have it installed. Just going through my many mods to find it. May take a while.

EDIT: And it's qUIck_LW2!

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/ ... =855089938

Re: What class color-coding do you use?

Posted: Sat Nov 23, 2019 7:55 am
by lumber-chick
Thank you this is the thing I needed!

It also improves a lot of other things in the ui.

I also changed the colors in config of this mod so Tactical Headshots class icon matches soldier outfit colors.

So useful to quickly see which soldier is where :)

Re: What class color-coding do you use?

Posted: Mon Dec 02, 2019 4:08 am
by Jacke
Glad I could help.