Double-Colors are an Inconsistent Mess

[Magnus]

Double colors are a mess. An absolute mess. They don't make sense and they're completely erratic in what works where and it's not at all consistent either.

Now, I'm gonna quickly establish some definitions. The primary color is the color that is the one that is the most present, dominant color. The secondary color is, of course, meant to be the under color, a flavorful addition to the primary color. With that out of the way:

The Primary Energy and Emissive color is the second slot on Warframes, Syandanas, Weapons, and Weapon Attachments.

Pictured above, the emissive lights are solid white, despite a dark red being in the first slot. The faded yellow is the majority of the projected energy, with the blue in the first slot.

However, the Primary Energy color is the second slot on Warframe Attachments, but the Warframe Attachment's Primary Energy color is the FIRST slot. This is most visible by the Smoke Ephemera.

Pictured above is the Smoke Ephemera with Black set as the first slot, and clearly, it's quite black and can't be seen. The second slot is not the primary color in this exception.

But it gets more confusing. The Esc Menu uses the Energy color of your Warframe, but for the Esc Menu exclusively, the Primary Energy color is instead the first slot, which is in direct contradiction with how this is on the Warframe, where it is the second slot as shown.

Pictured above the same energy colors at the first image. Yeah.

It gets worse still. For Sentinels and Moas, the Primary Emissive and Energy color is actually the first respective slots and are properly shown as the dominant color in complete contradiction to how Warframes and Weapons are.

By the way, the holograms on the Helios Simaris Skin are no longer colored by energies. They just don't work anymore.

Still not done, either. Kavat Attachment Emissive colors are overridden by the animal's own energy color for every single Kavat armor set, except one.

The Kasha Kavat Armor, instead, does have its emissives work properly. But, the Primary Energy color is the second slot, just like Warframes and unlike other Companions.

But then, Kubrow Attachments have the Primary Emissive and Energy colors as the second slots again.

Unrelated, you also broke Kubrow's Prime Armor PBR at some point. The metal is now plastic. Someone told me that it's been bugged like this for a very long time. Has no one actually reported this before?

And, now, to top all that off, because of Chroma's not-really-a-passive, the sub-color, the secondary emissive color, is what defines his element.

This is the most rushed, most flip-flopping system that has ever graced Warframe, hands down. Nothing has ever been this inconsistent.

Edited May 31, 2019 by Magnus

[Kelshiso]

The first slot is the "core" color, while the second is the "glow" color. Bright glows overwhelm cores. This is largely consistent across everything, and the only issue I've seen so far are things like Nekros' Irkalla skin and Mag's Ferro helmet drawing their color from energy instead of emissive. Flame-like effects blend the two much better, and produce a more pronounced result, as most dont have a "core" and instead balance the two more. 

EX: imagine a lightbulb painted red, but gives off a strong white light.