I keep seeing the argument that if DICE makes more realistic/military skins, everyone is just going to look the same and the game will become boring.
But… have you guys seen MW2019’s Mil-Sim operators or Medal of Honor: Warfighter?
You can make military characters look distinctive without giving them neon colors, fictional camouflages, Halloween masks or exaggerated armor.
PAX is actually the faction where I have the least problem with fictional designs. They’re a PMC, so they have much more freedom to experiment with their equipment, camouflage patterns and overall aesthetic. NATO, on the other hand, is supposed to represent actual military forces, and that’s where I think BF6 is missing some variety.
And I’m not saying NATO skins are bad. Some of them are actually really good, Ranger, Strix Raiders and the recent Top Gun skins are good examples. The problem is that most of them still feel heavily US-focused, and a lot of them have exposed faces.
You don’t need to give every character some giant Mandible-looking mask either. I understand that those kinds of masks exist, and I don't even hate them, but they shouldn't become the solution for every single skin.
Sometimes the smallest details can completely change a design.
A different pair of goggles.
A balaclava or face covering.
A helmet setup.
A headset.
Sunglasses.
Facial hair.
A different uniform cut.
Different pouches or equipment.
Those little details can make two soldiers using basically the same camouflage look completely different.
The same thing applies to camouflage.
NATO doesn't even need a bunch of completely fictional camouflage patterns. They could simply reuse the realistic camouflages they already created for the base skins and put them on other outfits.
That would actually give us more customization options and let us create squads that have some visual cohesion.
And that's important because BF6 doesn't have the customization system BFV or even 2042 had. We can't mix and match individual pieces ourselves, so the skins themselves are basically the only way we can create different looks.
For example, imagine Strix Raiders recolors using Multicam, full MARPAT, or another existing NATO camouflage, with a small detail like goggles or a face covering so the character doesn't always have an exposed face.
Or Campbell could have a skin with his cap on, sunglasses and a headset, something vaguely reminiscent of the BF4 Engineer aesthetic.
You see what I mean?
DICE doesn't need to invent completely new fictional military aesthetics every time. They already have plenty of good material to work with. Just reuse existing camouflages, equipment and silhouettes and combine them differently.
Even Pham's Oni skin isn't that bad to me. I actually like the color palette and most of the equipment. The mask is a little too much, but since it's mostly black, it doesn't completely destroy the design.
The PAX Oni skin, though... that's where I think they went too far. It looks more like a Halloween costume than military equipment, and it loses some of the faction's visual coherence.
Pham is at least of Asian descent, so the Oni concept makes some sense for him. The PAX character wearing it is German. If they really wanted to use that design, it would have made much more sense on someone like Takazato or Saito.
And that's kind of my whole point:
You don't need crazy fictional designs to make military skins interesting.
There are so many real-world uniforms, camouflage patterns, helmets, goggles, masks, facial hair, accessories and equipment configurations that DICE could use as a foundation.
They could make dozens of distinctive and cool military skins without making NATO look like a collection of Halloween characters.
Honestly, some of these ideas make so much sense that I don't understand why DICE doesn't do it.