Different colored smoke

[WildlifeMarshal]

Does each smoke color have it's own use? Like you would use green for one thing and purple for another. Please inform me.

[Nutlink]

Generally speaking red is used in a hot zone, green is used whent he zone is clear, white is used as cover. However, none of this is set in stone as each colored smoke has a pre-determined meaning (or no meaning at all) based upon what the players decide.

[Pèpè Silvia]

IRL I'm sure each color does mean something, but in game it's really up to the mission-maker or squad leader.

Usually when using smoke to mark targets, I fire a round then relay to the group that targets are marked with xx smoke

[WildlifeMarshal]

Allright, thanks for the answers.

[Elite]

I'm pretty sure red smoke is generally used to mark enemy positions, green is used to mark friendly positions and white is used for concealment, along with the other colours unless if they have been given a specific use for the scenario given.

These are just what the colours indicate generally, but depending on the scenario and what players decide (like Nutlink said) the smokes could have different meanings

[NZPorterDJ]

There is no specific designation to each color. They have used different colors as visual signals since Viet Nam so that the ground/ground and ground/air forces could coordinate and know which smoke was friendly. The VC were using smoke to get helicopters to land in the wrong place and then get ambushed, so different colors allowed the pilots to know where the friendly's were after they radioed in saying "LZ is at 1 red, 1 blue, ect."

If you're playing a Coop game against AI, it is usual to use Green = Friendly; Red = Enemy; Blue = Move To; Purple = Assualt Here; etc. or however you have them assigned. In a PvP or TvT is is unlikely that you will want to use standard colour definitions like this so as not to give away information to the other side. So you just have to have a standard way to define what a colour means before mission start.

[Medicinal Whiskey]

Well, based on my experience, here are the general color sets:

White = Used for conealment (No marking use)
Green = Friendly Forces
Blue = Friendly Forces and/or LZ
Purple = LZ/Medevac LZ
Red = Hostile Target

Mind you that is the color set that was used in most of my old Arma 2 milsim units. As far as real military applications, I couldn't really say,

[Affy]

smoke color means nothing unless you tell people what it is designated to mean over the radio.

[Sir Roadwolf]

Someone who is a regular on my server, keeps on swearing up and down that the colored smoke in Arma 3 doesnt conceal you from enemy AI. He claims they can still see thru it. Has this been anyone elses experience? In my own experience, colored smoke seems to work just fine...

[NZPorterDJ]

Originally posted by Sir Roadwolf:

Someone who is a regular on my server, keeps on swearing up and down that the colored smoke in Arma 3 doesnt conceal you from enemy AI. He claims they can still see thru it. Has this been anyone elses experience? In my own experience, colored smoke seems to work just fine...

Used to be a bug in the BlastCore MOD that had this effect but the vanilla smoke will 'conceal' you from AI. This doesn't mean that they lose track of you and will oft times shoot the ♥♥♥♥ out of the smoke the same as you should do for them!

[Sir Roadwolf]

So as far as anyone is aware, all smoke, no matter what the color, works to hide you from Enemy AI?

[Avarus_Lux]

yes, the smoke will hide you, but the ai is smart enough to then just use surpressive fire through it, as Wild said, same as you would do... cant see it? then spray and pray... ai kinda does that to, although to various degrees and effects... sometimes it ingores it and waits for it to clear, at other times the smoke becomes a more dangerous area to peek your heads into then it was before...

[buckythewondersquirrel]

Originally posted by Medicinal Whiskey:

Well, based on my experience, here are the general color sets:

White = Used for conealment (No marking use)
Green = Friendly Forces
Blue = Friendly Forces and/or LZ
Purple = LZ/Medevac LZ
Red = Hostile Target

Mind you that is the color set that was used in most of my old Arma 2 milsim units. As far as real military applications, I couldn't really say,

In real life, it's all based on your unit's standard operating procedure (which almost every single one of them has to be special in their own ways). For training purposes, it was whatever the ammunition supply point had on hand (i.e. if all they had was yellow and purple, guess what bud). I've personally never seen white smoke unless fired from vehicle mounted launchers during survivability drills, I would assume because while it is smoke, white smoke does a lesser job of breaking up your dark camouflage silhouette while crossing a danger area. Also, CS gas billows out white, so needless to say everyone gets nervous when white smoke is popped on a maneuver range. Mostly I've seen purple for that. Red is the universal "f*** me I need a medevac and have no other signalling method". Yellow seems to be the teacher favorite for simulated chemical attacks (though we've never been through one in decades). But again, IRL all of this is moot because if your commander wants blue smoke to mark where the water is, well...you throw blue smoke into the water to mark it.

[Pathfinder Serza]

Most 9-lines also contain a "marked by" line where you can specify, among other options, smoke color.

[Vectif]

they're mostly used with other players in units and such, AI don't tend to react to any other than white unless scripted. Their meanings depend on agreements for your unit, aircraft, and people involved, and last but not least what the situation calls for.

Blue and green tend to be interchanged with Friendly positions/LZs markers.
Yellow for "possible/last known" enemies.
Purple is for MASCAS locations.
Red is for marking targets for aircraft and mortars / bombs, etc.
Usually Yellow and Orange can depend on agreements between the parties involved for whatever use you want to assign to them.

Usually this is what I tend to go by when I'm JTAC/FAC or in charge, but it may vary with others.