So, in any job or things for fun. You set out to do something then a problem presents itself and you find a great way to fix that problem but that throws up a different issue and you find a solution that fits in the middle somewhere that isn’t perfect but is the best solution.
I felt I’d criticised player outlines on several posts in different topics so it’d only be fair to look at the alternatives.The things I took into account and things that surfaced were
1 - people are paying (too much) for cosmetics, if we went back to red v blue - what would be the point in paying (I don’t pay for cosmetics but sometimes even my ranty back side sees things from others point of view) only to be forced to play red or blue and what if they’d paid for a nice red visor, then they get covered in blue everywhere else and felt they couldn’t be seen in public with that fashion faux pas and fear the fashion police.
2 - the outline is consistent - I just looked back at a H5 video to confirm what we had before. If I was on the red team:
- the enemy was blue
- above their head was a red triangle and a red name
- if I killed them - my name would be whitey yellowey gold in the kill feed (I’ll just say gold from now on), their name would be red in the kill feed
- their shields would pop gold
- my reticle would be red
- my team would have a gold triangle and name above their head
In infinite one colour everything enemy oriented, one colour friendly oriented except white for yourself in kill feed.
3 - colour blindness- I’m not saying games should be centred around everything being accessible but if a person can’t differentiate between two particular colours, it’d be quite unfortunate if we had the ability to offer to switch a colour out but decided not to, it would mean them not being able to play.
4 - we had shield popping in previous halos anyway that glowed gold, so the only difference of being spotted is when you have full shields.
5 - one argument is to only show the outline when being looked at DIRECTLY, but what not everyone has perfect reticle pre-aim placement and what if you see someone out the corner of your eye and you could flick shot them but have to first line it up to them to see if friendly or enemy.
6 - another suggestion is only the name and triangle above their head being coloured, yes but when is that activated, if some sneaky mother is hiding in a dip/behind cover/bottom of stairs thinking no-one knows he’s there yet a whopping triangle is above his head then he’s a bit annoyed. If we only include the triangle when being looked at then same problem as number 5 above. If only included when can be seen anywhere on screen, when do we draw the line? In the dip example, if we can literally only see one pixel of his head, some players may spot him, others won’t, if we choose to put the triangle in everyone will see him, if we leave it out then the people that see him won’t know what team he’s on.
7 - the obvious fix for at least 5&6 is to do what I suggested before - only add outlines for friendlies, so know to shoot everyone else - I still think this is the best alternative to keep customisation and stop being overly lit up like a Christmas tree but then the shields popping would again light up and if that colour was predetermined as gold as before then it may be another slap in the face for the colour blindness. Saying just let that be an option for them isn’t a good answer because everyone that didn’t put it on would be at a disadvantage.
So i see only 3 solutions
1 - keep as is
2 - keep as is but tone down shield pop
3 - only friendlies have outlines. Colours for friendlies and enemies chosen by player but colour for enemy only happens with shield pop (no outline, only shields).
I prefer option 3.
Oh 
! I set out to agree with a decision of theirs and I’ve ended up back to what I thought before. Do number 3 343! Do it!