Adding %color to vehicle short-descs
A cherry red HondaMitsu Katana 250 does a wheelie.

"What color was the Koi that baka go away in?"

"No fucking clue, man."

There's been a number of times where I've seen a type of vehicle drive past, too quickly for me to do a 'look' at it, and I would have zero indication if it might've been the same vehicle I saw making a pass a bit ago. Even though I'd -probably- notice the same hot pink minivan.

While I don't anticipate this being a direct indicator it was the same vehicle, it would still be a small clue, a piece of the puzzle, in case you see the same metallic black Holden circling the block... Or you know the shroud who killed you was on a purple Roadmaster.

This would also create more of a demand for mechanics, with people swapping out the color of their rides. And potential for paydata (IE: JoeBaka got his purple Roadmaster painted yellow after that hit on you went down...)

It would also still leave license plates viable, and hard to catch with a 'look'.

Please tell me how shit this idea is. Thank you.

I think it'd also really drive the carpaint and repair business. We do crimes and switch hoods and shrouds. Let's use getaway cars, then pop in and paint them and have a ding pulled so it's not easily identifiable.

System as it is now with relatively few car objects in the game, and a big sign on them telling you that it's the exact car you saw last time really makes it challenging to go out of your way to avoid meta.

+1 in support of this idea.

Is that the current license plates are nearly necessary for ease of commands in some places.

But you could move those plate ID's onto an OOC section of the EX, or onto SCRUT, or even EVAL. Essentially becoming an IC VIN in the case of EVAL. But one that isn't as easy to see at a glance. While still retaining the functionality of being able to use that plate ID for commands..

Thermos? Nope. Easily meta'd.

Shrouds and hoodies were easily meta'd for a long time too. Still kind of are due to some circumstances that I believe the Admins are already aware of (not sure if they were fixed or not).

Players have to self-policy sometimes, and the staff will bop people for metaing like this.

But ultimately I think this change would be healthier than just not having those colors since technically our characters SHOULD be able to see colors from a glance.

The room for meta is clear, however just like disguises we suspend the sense of disbelief and get slapped by GMs for attacking someone solely based on the color.

No GM is going to take "I saw a red Koi" as a credible reason unless there was further evidence to support the matter, just like how attacking someone in a red hoodie isn't a credible excuse.

This would also make tinted windows even more desirable...

After some reflection I have to agree that people are going to meta no matter what, there be features that obscure or not someone's identity. And in that spirit, I would try to use the code to make it more difficult, instead of more easy.

I like the idea of tinted or polarized glasses, that 'obscure' the driver's features but doesn't block seeing them entirely, conceptually at least.

The other ideas Talon suggested seem more intricate or difficult to implement.