Guide [Issue 57] Under the Radar: Paint Camouflage

[Shedinja 1,488]

 

 

With paints and protections split apart, wearing that special paint you've fawned over since Corporal has no drawbacks involving resistances with defenses so poor that they're useless at higher ranks or those that overlap others already owned, making it a waste of hard-earned crystals. Be it Blue, Lead, or Winter, you can always hook up your favorite paint to the module that best suits the battlefields lying ahead.

 

However, if you're more of a function over fashion player, then the update that cleft paints in two may have another unique benefit to offer: the dubious tactics of tank camouflage. While it is considered a superfluous scheme to pass careless Shafts by, taking advantage of the old and new paints as methods of reducing detection is certainly worth the time on specific maps to potentially increase your lifespan. You can't hit what you can't see, no?

 

 

Previous Articles

 

I'm not the only one to delve into this topic. In [issue 7] and [issue 29], @hogree and @Thekillerpenguin respectively tackled the 'trivial' topics of tank camouflage, effectively explaining the benefits and deficits of specific paints' concealment properties. At first glance, it would seem irrelevant to create another article on the subject, but several new forces have come into play that requires the topic to be drastically, if not completely, rewired.

 

To recap over the previous two, the most important points to gather not actually involving paints themselves are listed as follows:

 

Stay small. The less volume of hull you have to conceal, the better. Vehicles such as Wasp, Hornet and Viking are the best choices, due to their small sizes or low profile. However, it should be noted that certain variations such as M2 Hornet and Viking and M3 Hornet might not be the best choices, due to their steel detailings leaving your tank standing out like a sore thumb in some situations. XT equipment only amplifies this problem and should be left to those who find their home on the front lines, drawing all of the attention of baffled opponents.

 

Stay stationary. Masquerading as the rocks or the grass is effective only when it follows the rules of rocks and grass. That is, they don't move. You shouldn't either. I highly doubt that another player is going to mistake you for just a breeze.

 

Stay sharp. The term is ambiguous, yes, but it essentially means that you need to keep a constant eye on your opponent's movements and fire at them only when they're not looking. The moment they see you, you're only going to have the same advantages as you typically have on the battlefield, and chances are that you're likely going to be targeted and further prevented from fighting in that area covert ops style, forcing you to play more openly.

 

Stay sniping. In other words, don't start spraying. Firebird and Freeze are terrible choices for camping weapons for obvious reasons. However, less apparent poor choices for camping are Vulcan and Railgun. The former requires continuous spraying to inflict damage, and the latter leaves both a bright charging sequence and a blatantly obvious ion trail for seconds in the sky, making tracking ridiculously easy. Shaft has some difficulties with sniping due to the laser sight. The best weapons to use with camouflage by far are, oddly enough, Thunder and Smoky, thanks to their quick muzzle flash, no trail, and instant impact. (The upcoming artillery-type weapon may have potential to stay hidden as well, but only time and developer's news will tell on that subject.)

 

 

 

What's Happened Since

 

As far as standard battle techniques go, the items above are all the best that one can do when attempting to screen themselves from others. Camouflage is considered fairly irrelevant, due to a combination of nametags, the R/V keys, and supply notifications rendering the concealment aspect somewhat ineffective at short ranges. Secondly, since both of the previously mentioned articles have been created, a few critical events have occurred.

 

Shaft's Laser Scope

I think we can all safely agree that this update has significantly crippled Shaft's overall effectiveness on the field. However, it was not wrongfully so; this weapon was easily one of the most dangerous on the field on maps like Kungur, Skyscrapers (previously Abyss, all of you vets will remember), Monte Carlo, Berlin... even medium sized maps such as Serpuhov and Barda, where range was limited by high building density and uneven terrain levels, were constantly dominated by a clever sniper. While the laser scope did indeed ruin Shaft's hiding capabilities, intelligent players figured out how to keep their beam hidden while hunting for their prey, keeping shaft a dangerous enemy.

 

New Paint Editions

Over the years, Tanki Online's developers have rolled out a few new paints from the assembly lines, now available in stores everywhere. Some of these certainly have piqued interest as tools of disguise, some in more unorthodox methods than others. Unorthodox certainly doesn't imply outstanding effectiveness, however.

 

Module Selection

New and old, any defenses you want to use with a specific paint can now be used at whim. Smart players have already taken utmost advantage of this and revived 'dead' paints from the lower ranks. Y'know, those with excellent concealment aesthetics, but mediocre resistances that typically weren't useful at all next to prized defenses like Inferno and Africa.

 

These, in tandem with players with better graphic settings being able to spot tanks easier than those without all of the automatic settings placed, have thrown heavy changes onto the game, leaving those with similar tactics from the previous articles to possibly be outpaced. However, many relevant points made by hog and TKP still stand stalwart today, and will be covered alongside the newfound possibilities for camouflage.

 

 

 

Environments

 

As I would wander across the mountains near my town, I'd find locusts with various skin colors depending on what kind of stone they claimed as their home. One particular hill was comprised entirely of dark igneous stone, an unusual phenomenon in a valley with primarily hematite-based rock, where everything was a light shade of terra cotta as far as the eye could see. While the rest of the valley was primarily dominated by hoppers with rusty coloration, this unique upheaval of rock had sprung a unique generation of coal-colored insects, completely unique to the valley.

 

These creatures have mastered the art of disguising themselves perfectly in their respective terrains, and a tank should perform no differently when pursuing this tactic. When preparing to select a paint for an upcoming match, be sure that it can effectively blend with the colors in the background. For example, using Urban, a dark gray and green paint not unlike asphalt and shrubbery, might be a good choice for a Future or Rio DM; more specifically, the plants near the edges of the map, where the road meets the darker shades of the bushes.

 

Many paints have niche locations for where they can be used effectively, attracting minimal attention even from the most scrutinous of tankers. A respectable number of these niche locations are even effective holing points for medium to long-ranged fighters on their own merit, disregarding aspects of disguise altogether. Many paints are multi-purpose, however, serving as viable tools of obscurity versus prying enemy eyes on many grounds. I've dug through the list of paints and correlated them to many locations throughout the Tanki Online universe, revealing a multitude of suitable hiding spots in relatively plain sight.

 

 

 

Desert

 

Grasslands

 

Shrubberies

 

Buildings

 

Industrial

 

Space and Sky

 

Winter

 

Nighttime

 

Destroyed Tanks

 

Essentially Pointless

In short, you're not looking to stay hidden using these paints. These are better suited to those who want to make a statement or just enjoy the in-game aesthetics. Either that, or you're trying to draw attention from the other tanks to let others set up or attack in CTF mode.

 

Africa - bright orange and yellow don't do all that great in the real world unless the developers come out with an autumnal themed map.

 

Cherry - bright red that can't stay hidden around even the most sunlit red brick buildings.

 

Confetti - the stuff is designed to celebrate and flash itself about. Maybe useful if developers make a giant cake map.

 

Disco - if I said Confetti was a bad idea, what makes you think a zoomed in version of it is any better?

 

Domino - Almost works like Holiday, but that one's borderline to begin with. The shell shapes don't help hide you.

 

Electra - would have been useful at night if it didn't have the giant red lightning strikes.

 

Eternity - despite its minimalistic features, the color scheme ruins it by throwing contrasting colors.

 

First Love - pink, pink, more pink. A great metaphor considering that buying love doesn't help you stay secure.

 

Fracture - what kind of jungle is this designed to camouflage its owner in? None that I've ever seen, at any rate.

 

Frost - the blue coloration is too bright even at night to use effectively. That and the different blues have such differences in luminosity that it's not useful unless the developers design a map like an icy cave.

 

Golden Star - I don't want to disguise myself as a pizza. For 750,000 crystals, you shouldn't either, honestly.

 

Graffiti - creative, but not effective in hiding in urban areas. Lousy sales pitches.

 

Harlequin - not designed to be a form of camouflage, so it won't serve as one.

 

In Love - more pink, this time with extra blue. You still can't buy love.

 

Inferno - reds and oranges that can probably be seen through buildings.

 

Invader - potentially excellent indigo blotched with insufferable green things. Try this for camo, and you're guaranteed a game over. Don't click continue unless you want to be seen.

 

Jaguar - almost useful for deserts, but it's ruined by the dark splotches.

 

Jeans - a decent blue, but too bright to be useful.

 

Kaleidoscope - trippy, but not particularly useful as a visual defense.

 

Lava - the brightest orange on the planet. Even Sahara can't top this.

 

Lime - while it may sport a slightly different color per tanker, it doesn't sport one unique enough to keep you hidden.

 

Mary - like the urban legend itself, it's best just for flair and shock value. Tanks don't bleed, so pretending to be a bloodstain on the snow won't deliver desirable results.

 

Nano - too bright of a blue. Last I checked, this paint glowed in the dark.

 

Neuron - ditto to the above. Wouldn't be surprised if it created its own light.

 

Orange - not a chance this can be useful, even under a sunset in the desert.

 

Python - simply too luminous of a brown to feign as dirt. The black diamond design doesn't really help.

 

Raccoon - the pattern just doesn't work, no matter where the paint is juxtaposed. It's almost useful against rocky walls.

 

Red - red, not brick red. There's almost nothing red in the game spare the paints.

 

Red Suit - Deadpool forgot to mention that while they may not be able to see the blood, they can certainly see him.

 

Rustle - would be unstoppable on an autumnal themed stage, but sadly, all we have at our disposal is summer and winter. Heck, we barely get nighttime.

 

Sahara - no sand in Tanki Online sports such a bright orange hue, sadly rendering this pleasing paint ineffective.

 

Soft Flowers - purple and pink are a beacon to snipers. Best to be avoided.

 

Swash - although it can fare well near certain crates in Polygon and Esplanade, it can go literally nowhere else without standing out. There's no water in Tanki Online, but I bet it'd be invisible under the surface should it be implemented.

 

Sweater - plot twist: babushka made this to spot you from miles away.

 

Tiger - unless Tanki Online decides it needs NPC animals, I doubt this will be useful camo.

 

Traceur - you could try and pretend to be a race car, but that's a Catch-22 because players will try to shoot you anyways.

 

Vortex -  the pattern, like Raccoon, just doesn't have anywhere it can match. The color scheme might allow for occasionally being unnoticed on the stone walls of an arena, but you have to be squinting...

 

Watercolor - shares the same set of problems as Disco, too many colors.

 

 

 

 

Several of these are up to debate on how well they can actually deceive enemy tankers, be it due to graphical settings, an individual player's color blindness or variance (as far as my optometrist has explained, I have no inhibitions involving color blindness, but I do require glasses for moderately severe astigmatism), or due to even the tactical efficacy of staying still for great periods of time limiting camouflage to mobile defense at best. For each test I conducted, I studied the paint under maximum graphic settings, dynamic lighting, shadowing and all. I also had each tank move about a bit during testing for best possible measure.

 

v  v  v   E X T R A S   v  v  v

 

A few items that couldn't quite fit within an article without making it look bulky and unorganized, but were still necessary for the construction and integrity of the article. 

 

Paint Catalogue

In case you ever wanted an alphabetical list of every purchasable* paint in the game, here you go. I constructed this list to check each and every applicable paint with a various combination of tanks, systematically going through them all to find prospective uses.

 

*by purchasable, I mean it as those that were purchasable by anyone at specific times. Eternity, Red Suit, Traceur and Moonwalker were purchasable by the common player during their special events, making them applicable for addition to this list.

 

Alien

Africa

Arachnid

Atom

Black

Blacksmith

Blue

Carbon

Cedar

Chainmail

Cherry

Clay

Confetti

Corrosion

Desert

Digital

Dirty

Disco

Dragon

Domino

Electra

Emerald

Eternity

First Love

Flora

Forester

Fracture

Frost

Golden Star

Graffiti

Green

Guerrilla

Harlequin

Hive

Hohloma

Holiday

In Love

Inferno

Invader

Irbis

Jade

Jaguar

Jeans

Kaleidoscope

Lava

Lead

Lime

Liquid Metal

Loam

Lumberjack

Magma

Marine

Mars

Mary

Metallic

Moonwalker

Moss

Nano

Needle

Neuron

Night

Orange

Picasso

Pixel

Pixel Heart

Premium

Prodigi

Python

Raccoon

Red

Red Suit

Rhino

Rock

Roger

Rustle

Safari

Sahara

Sakura

Sandstone

Savannah

Soft Flowers

Space

Spark

Storm

Swamp

Swash

Sweater

Taiga

Tiger

Traceur

Tundra

Urban

Vortex

Watercolor

White

Winter

Zeus

 

Environments Text 

 

If for whatever reason you cannot access the photos above, the likes of which contain crucial information on the topic at hand, these units of text were preserved in the event of that situation. They are exact copies of the information in the photos, so you're not missing out on anything spare a few classy shots of tanks in their natural environment.

 

Desert Text

Iraq, Duality, or even the blatantly obvious Desert -- these maps and sections of others sport lots of sand, typically a dull beige or yellow. While up close you're fairly easy to spot, considering little shrubbery exists in wastelands, under shadows and other pixel scattering and dulling props, you have opportunities to go unnoticed. While Desert coatings fare well in pretty much any related environment, paints like the darker toned Dragon and the light color of Sandstone can blend in better to areas depending on the absence or lack of shadows, respectively. 

 

Grasslands Text

Almost every form of summertime map has some variation of grass, a bright, dry green with a slight yellow tint. By far, the best possible choice for an arena consisting entirely of the stuff would be Lead, since its patterning and hue blend into the field perfectly. On maps like Forest, Serpuhov and Bobruisk, there's plenty of the good stuff used as a ground texture, perfect for low hulls like Viking to utilize for hiding in plain sight. While not quite perfect options, Dragon, Digital and Savannah are also decent choices for taking shelter among fields, so long as you don't move. Moss gets an interesting feature in being able to camouflage itself as both part of the field and the surrounding walls with its unique overgrown stone texture.

 

Shrubberies Text

Any effective method of disguise is one that obscures your sight, obviously. So why not focus on augmenting already potential hiding spots with a paint of the same tint? As far as using shrubs goes, Forester is hands down the best choice. With a dark complexion perfectly comparable to that of the bushes, there's nothing that can really outclass it in the same field, with the tried-n'-true Green taking the role as runner-up. In maps with low shadow counts and wide spaces like Lost Temple and Kolhoz, however, Pixel Heart, Roger and Picasso can also be used, especially with the skybox active, the overhead design greatly contrasting with the ground below.

 

Buildings Text

Many buildings sport many different colors, so this section is finicky and dependent on the map at hand. Typically, the red brick buildings tend to fare best with Mars, white buildings tend to conceal Blacksmith fairly well, the lighter grays support Metallic and Carbon splendidly, and a few variations of blue building can shelter users of Marine. In dryer environments, Jade, Rock and Hive have opportunities to blend in with the walls, whereas Flora and Cedar have the potential to use wooden buildings as cover. Ultimately, these work best if you're peeking from behind the buildings or are lined up alongside them, as to draw minimal attention while shooting frequently. Tall hulls like Dictator have opportunities to camp near these, sometimes being large enough to pretend to be another room of the building in question.

 

Industrial Text

Where concrete meets iron, nature loses its ground and green and beige give way to grey and rust, meaning new forms of disguise must be created. Fortunately, in environs like these, even M3s with their chrome details and extensive mechanical miscellanea won't have trouble staying hidden, thanks to an overwhelming amount of detail in the terrain itself letting tanks feel right at home. Light concrete will do wonders for Metallic, Carbon, Prodigi, and Liquid Metal, whereas the asphalt and dark backgrounds aid Taiga, Rhino and Urban. Chainmail is especially useful for the shadows of Future and Industrial Zone, near the rusty bridges and lookout towers. Magma, Dirty, and even Corrosion serve their purposes well for blending in with pipes and other rusted surfaces, but it's a bit of a stretch to rely on these during daylight.

 

Space and Sky Text

This is tailored specifically to Madness, the only space-esque map as of now, and maps like Gravity and Atra, where the skyboxes are apparent and constantly in sight due to a lack of walls. This may be pushing it a bit, but Spark and Space have the potential to remain hidden in certain areas of Madness if you're incredibly tenacious about positioning. Night and Zeus may be able to pull off the same trick, but to a limited extent due to offset hues. As for maps with dull city backgrounds, White, Blacksmith, and possibly Irbis can be a clever visual deterrent against unwary eyes.

 

Winter Text

With the advent of snowfall comes a new set of rules. The greens and yellows that were acceptable a season ago now glow like neon signs to Shafts and Thunders everywhere, inviting shell after shell into their hull. If there was ever a reason for camouflage, it would be due to the Winter maps, where monochrome surroundings guarantee the death of anyone with a semblance of extravagant hue. The only acceptable paints for snowy terrain are those orbiting between black, grey and white, preferably closer to the brighter end of the spectrum. Winter, surprisingly, is considered an inferior coating due to the high levels of dark grey and black, rendering it ineffective outside of bushes and other cover. White, Irbis and Blacksmith can obviously roam in plain sight, while Tundra and non-active Holiday can use shrubbery and alcoves to attack from.

 

Nighttime Text

The moon casts a dim blue glow over the planet as the sun abandons its post, leaving visibility lower and rendering daytime paints less effective. Come the end of the twilight, paints that seemingly had no aesthetic benefit during the sunlight hours suddenly become far more threatening as they vanish into shadows without a trace. On the luxurious beaches of Rio, Storm, Moonwalker and Alien find their place on the concrete and the alleyways, nearly invisible in the din. Black and Blue become a field standard, Hohloma, Rhino, Swamp and Arachnid become common lurkers just outside the inviting glow of the flag, Pixel, Emerald, Clay and Taiga become invisible in the bushes, and Atom, Sakura, Winter and Safari have no problem with standing in the open near light buildings or snow.

 

Destroyed Tanks Text

Typically, when you see a dark brown, motionless tank, you assume it's dead and rapidly shift your focus on the Hornet/Isida barreling down on you. While insanely difficult to pull off consistently, one can actually pose as a destroyed tank and 'play possum'. This is most effective on giant maps like Dusseldorf, Berlin and Lost Temple, where even the highest resolution screens have difficulty pointing out minute turret movements. Needle, Loam, Guerrilla, Dirty, and Chainmail have the potential to look exactly like an imploded vehicle from a distance, sporting generous amounts of brown, black and grey. This may deter an unexpected number of tankers from attacking, so long as they don't stare at you for too long. Keep your wits about you, and when you plan on pulling this off, always have a member of the Griffon or Kodiak module family equipped. 

 

 

---

 

Again, while a skilled veteran may not always be tricked by a clever paint choice, there's always a fair chance that you can catch them and many less wary players off guard. It's common knowledge that bright and quickly moving items are far more attention-grabbing than dull, trawling ones; wisdom would state to apply that knowledge and stay absolutely precise with your placement, control the timing of your movements, and of course, keep an unwavering eye on your enemy's every move. Follow these guidelines well, and your chances of being noticed last increase exponentially. Tread carefully, cadets.

 

.

Edited July 20, 2017 by Hexed

[TTK_229 1,080]

So, what could my Corrosion be good for? Besides looking awesome, of course. B)

[ArcadeMode_ON 155]

Excellent article!

[Shedinja 1,488]

So, what could my Corrosion be good for? Besides looking awesome, of course. B)

...Magma, Dirty, and even Corrosion serve their purposes well for blending in with pipes and other rusted surfaces...

[TTK_229 1,080]

 

So, what could my Corrosion be good for? Besides looking awesome, of course. B)

 

...Magma, Dirty, and even Corrosion serve their purposes well for blending in with pipes and other rusted surfaces...

 

kk m9 soz for not looking

[leonny-boy 12]

Superb article, I am impressed

[boomber_01 3]

at last i found an article about tactical paints and camoflag

[r_I_already_won0 2,339]

The Guerilla and Needle paints are the best camo paints IMO.

[Nicola_M 1,563]

Taiga is pretty good for blending into the bushes.