Let's talk about how we can distinguish technology by visuals on vehicles: Engines: Bio-Diesel: A variation on a green recycling logo. Gas-Turbine: A gas symbol, visible gas cylinders. Adv-Coolant: Blue coolant injectors or a big ass fan with blue below. (I forget the other engines) Weapons: High explosive: No difference Railgun: That dual rail setup you see for railguns. Armor: Composite: Tiled hexagonal plating texture. Reactive: Thick plates over existing armor. Reflective: Small, multi-angled faceted texture. Please post any ideas you have!
Is the intention to only have weapons that look different in reality look different ingame to add realism, or ... is the intention to have everything visible for gameplay purpose, so everyone can always know what's coming for them? Edit: Also how will you be handling double weapons? Not allow multiple cannons or max 2? Have several on one turret?
Both? Realism : Things shouldn't look the same. Gameplay : You can decide your tactics according to the properties of enemy customization. But I don't think we "must" do this, IMHO Brenodi Empires troopers (Or Northern Faction Rebel scum) are pretty stupid if they don't try to cover what they use on their tank. *cough* camouflage *cough* AKA they can make things look the same. I think I just found an explanation for "why it is okay for different things to have the same look?".
Composite armor looks like simple plates of steel. If you one make it look different you can draw each metal rectangle with a different corol to point out the different materials composite armors are made of. In reality those metals form layers tho. In particular Steel outsite and heavy materials like titanium, tungsten and uranium behind those to absorb kinetic energy for projectiles. I think A mix of regular steel color, silverish, white steel etc should look nice. you could add some dark green for uranium for ultimate camo. It will be the best skin only 5$
For the armour indicators... I would suggest doing this in shaders, rather than as separate textures. And using particle effects on impact to help indicate which armour was hit. Leave the base texture as camo, but the armour effects could be achieved with shaders and particles.
This is as much about realism as it is about letting the other team know what you're using. For example it makes sense that different armor looks different, but HE rounds vs regular rounds shouldn't mean a different barrel.
