205 replies to this topic

[An6ryMan69]

I downloaded and set up the files in the video, and after some nonsense from freakin' Windows relating to file permissions etc., I got the things working.

I set up the FPS display line to see FPS always (great thing), and also toggled to get rid of the extra trees and water.

The effects were actually fairly minimal in 95% of situations and I don't notice it too much.

My opinion on how significant these config changes are has gone down a fair bit after actually trying it, and I purposely turned on the items that seemed to be getting the most attention and that seemed to me to be the biggest deal, the trees and water items.

The only things I found handy were that no longer can a flea hide in a virtual forest of small trees in Emerald Vale and shoot out of them at me while themselves staying completely hidden (which I always felt was idiotic anyway), and also said flea cannot run around 90% submerged in water in River City and gain all kinds of visual and actual protection from being in the water, since the water isn't there. Both of these situations are uncommon though, just annoying when it happens.

I'm not convinced, as a completely vanilla-level player, that turning off extra trees and water gets me noticeably better results in matches. It does remove some annoyances (I complain about clutter in MWO maps all the time....because clutter is crap.) and it does help me feel like nobody out there has a bit of a scammer advantage over me, both of which are kind of nice.

I could encourage anyone thinking these legal tweaks are actually back-breaking in game, to try them themselves before getting too bent out of shape over them.

Too bad there is not a heat override function though...

Edited by An6ryMan69, 06 September 2023 - 08:30 AM.

[Der Geisterbaer]

Still Off-Topic

Storky, on 06 September 2023 - 07:01 AM, said:

That could be right if:
1. Skillset to pilot assault and light mech would be the same.

That difference is accounted for with "worst case" vs. "best case" and the "average" expectation inbetween.

Storky, on 06 September 2023 - 07:01 AM, said:

2. OP terms are same for light and assault mechs

The "OP" term is defined by those players that make the claim on the basis of

• a light mech should not be able to kill me in my heavy/assault in a 1 on 1 situation
  
• light mechs in general should be the weakest mechs in terms of damage/kill capabilities

Storky, on 06 September 2023 - 07:01 AM, said:

3. We could talk about certain builds, there are strong and weak chassis in all weight categories.

Oh, I'll gladly take a list of those strong light chassis and builds and then still ask a very simple question: Why are we not seeing them in large enough numbers that could even remotely imply that their relative and absolute power levels are in the vicinity of "overall equal in power" to other weight classes?

So go on, make the first step and list the strong chassis and their builds in the Light category but do so in a separate thread (or even an existing one that deals with the "OP-ness" of Lights.

Edited by Der Geisterbaer, 06 September 2023 - 08:29 AM.

[The Brewer]

BumbleBee, on 06 September 2023 - 12:26 AM, said:

with an 8700 and RTX2070 I was getting ~60FPS on mostly high 1080P (~45FPS on Solaris City though)

with a 13700 and RTX3070 I am getting ~150FPS maxed out 1440P

Framerates being bad enough to turn off vegetation and fog is BS

These are not the only things that tank frame rate (not even nearly the biggest) and if made impossible to do the cfg could still be used to optimize. Even your weaker setup is stronger than what some people have to make do with.

I started with a system slightly above the published minimum requirements for this game and it’s a slideshow without cfg optimizations. 20fps average. Modding the cfg gets it into “actually animated well enough to see” territory, without turning off the foliage/water/etc that lots of people are upset over.

[Bud Crue]

BumbleBee, on 06 September 2023 - 12:26 AM, said:

with an 8700 and RTX2070 I was getting ~60FPS on mostly high 1080P (~45FPS on Solaris City though)

with a 13700 and RTX3070 I am getting ~150FPS maxed out 1440P

Framerates being bad enough to turn off vegetation and fog is BS

Agreed...I mean good lord, I play on an old laptop with a i6700 and GTX960M, using crappy rural DSL internet and I get around 95FPS with all settings on medium. The game looks fine and plays fine. If my crap machine can run the game fine it seems absurd to me that far better/more modern machines would need to have environmental effects shut off for it to be playable, let alone aspects (plants and water) of the static environments.

Modifying the .config files in the manner being discussed has nothing to do with optimizing one's machine's performance to make the game merely "playable", but is instead about trying to gain competitive advantage over others. Pretending otherwise is BS.

Edited by Bud Crue, 06 September 2023 - 09:45 AM.

[The Brewer]

The original post leveled the playing field. Whether or not anyone takes it is up to them at this point. Personally I don’t have an issue following the rules as they’re written, neither do I have any issues following them if they’re changed. That’s up to PGI at this point. Certainly the opinions of many have been made clear here.

[Bud Crue]

The Brewer, on 06 September 2023 - 10:54 AM, said:

The original post leveled the playing field. Whether or not anyone takes it is up to them at this point. Personally I don’t have an issue following the rules as they’re written, neither do I have any issues following them if they’re changed. That’s up to PGI at this point. Certainly the opinions of many have been made clear here.

I wonder how many new players (or frankly less computer savvy existing players), or casual players that don't follow streamers or even these forums will be aware of this new mechanism for joining this "leveled" playing field?

Until PGI puts an announcement about this sort of information boldy in the log-in screen or in the game directly so that it is hard/impossible to miss, "the playing field" is most certainly not "leveled". Until then this info will remain mostly unknown to the vast majority of the players of this game (again, especially to new players) and will continue to be used most often by the more competitive minded folks that knew of its existence previously, and now the very small minority who have seen this thread and/or Geeram's video directly.

[The Brewer]

Bud Crue, on 06 September 2023 - 11:18 AM, said:

I wonder how many new players (or frankly less computer savvy existing players), or casual players that don't follow streamers or even these forums will be aware of this new mechanism for joining this "leveled" playing field?

Until PGI puts an announcement about this sort of information boldy in the log-in screen or in the game directly so that it is hard/impossible to miss, "the playing field" is most certainly not "leveled". Until then this info will remain mostly unknown to the vast majority of the players of this game (again, especially to new players) and will continue to be used most often by the more competitive minded folks that knew of its existence previously, and now the very small minority who have seen this thread and/or Geeram's video directly.

Fair points, and part of why this thread even exists… it should be widely known about.

[martian]

Bud Crue, on 06 September 2023 - 11:18 AM, said:

I wonder how many new players (or frankly less computer savvy existing players), or casual players that don't follow streamers or even these forums will be aware of this new mechanism for joining this "leveled" playing field?

Until PGI puts an announcement about this sort of information boldy in the log-in screen or in the game directly so that it is hard/impossible to miss, "the playing field" is most certainly not "leveled". Until then this info will remain mostly unknown to the vast majority of the players of this game (again, especially to new players) and will continue to be used most often by the more competitive minded folks that knew of its existence previously, and now the very small minority who have seen this thread and/or Geeram's video directly.

You have got that right.

Players who "are in the know" will farm casual players who think that are safely hidden in the trees, atc.

[Der Geisterbaer]

martian, on 06 September 2023 - 11:29 AM, said:

Players who "are in the know" will farm casual players who think that are safely hidden in the trees, atc.

... some ...

[martian]

Der Geisterbaer, on 06 September 2023 - 12:06 PM, said:

... some ...

All right, if you wish.

[Curccu]

Bud Crue, on 06 September 2023 - 11:18 AM, said:

I wonder how many new players (or frankly less computer savvy existing players), or casual players that don't follow streamers or even these forums will be aware of this new mechanism for joining this "leveled" playing field?

Until PGI puts an announcement about this sort of information boldy in the log-in screen or in the game directly so that it is hard/impossible to miss, "the playing field" is most certainly not "leveled". Until then this info will remain mostly unknown to the vast majority of the players of this game (again, especially to new players) and will continue to be used most often by the more competitive minded folks that knew of its existence previously, and now the very small minority who have seen this thread and/or Geeram's video directly.

New players and those "competitive minded folks" hardly clash in this game and if they do doesn't really matter if there is 1 map in this whole game that doesn't have small trees.

And as old player you should know PGI doesn't read it's own forums, not general discussion at least.

[Storky]

Der Geisterbaer, on 06 September 2023 - 08:28 AM, said:

So go on

I have answers to all questions, we can revive a thread about this or start new, or just call to clear the points.

[Bud Crue]

Curccu, on 06 September 2023 - 12:27 PM, said:

New players and those "competitive minded folks" hardly clash in this game and if they do doesn't really matter if there is 1 map in this whole game that doesn't have small trees.

For every alt some comp person runs, however briefly, they are coming up against new players. When some of the best streamers drop in groups, depending on who they are dropping with might draw them down to T3 matches, and there they can easily end up against new players. But that is all beside the point. If a veteran player, even a T3 player has the drive to use this exploit they are going to have a distinct advantage albeit in "only" a few maps but that is an advantage new players won't have or be aware of. And as they get hit from the lily pads from mechs they can't see, or sniped from the bushes from mechs they can't see, or wonder how is their submerged stealth locust visible in the water when it shouldn't otherwise be; at least some of them are going to assume that this game has issues, perhaps a serious cheating problem, and without knowledge of this exploit, they will be perfectly justified in thinking that, and some of them will leave. This game can ill afford even the potential for such a reputation or the player losses resulting therefrom. This needs to be fixed or otherwise explicitly shared by PGI in an official manner. Otherwise the field will remain anything but level.

Curccu, on 06 September 2023 - 12:27 PM, said:

And as old player you should know PGI doesn't read it's own forums, not general discussion at least.

That's exactly the point. Those already using/abusing this exploit will continue to do, and now those few who read this thread might join in. But the rest of the player base will remain clueless. That is anything but a lever playing field. PGI knows about this, and unless they do something, this is how it will remain.

[Bud Crue]

Lockheed_, on 06 September 2023 - 02:01 PM, said:

How did you get that frame rate??
I used to play on a laptop with an i7 2.6Ghz quad core and a GT750M and with pretty much all settings on low I was glad to get 45-50 frames using Mr Vaads config editing tool.
I now use a i7 2.6 GHz 6-core and a Radeon Pro53300M and I'm getting around 50+ fps with settings on high. if there's lots of LRMs my frame rate can drop to below 40.

Beats me. I double checked my settings and I have everything set to medium except particles (low) and shadows (low). I get between 85 and 110 FPS depending on map. Yes, if there is a match with lots of missiles on the screen simultaneously I too get hick-ups where the game will seem to momentarily be running in slow motion. I have never altered or even accessed the .config files.

Lockheed_, on 06 September 2023 - 02:01 PM, said:

I knew about editing the cfg since 2019. there was a topic on on the forums here where people were discussing how to get more FPS out of the game and Mr. Vaad chimed in.

I've know about altering config files since at least 2017 when folks were talking about it in terms of trying to adjust the games setting to be more accommodating to color blind folks. My recall from back then was that PGI got a bit upset and said that modifying the game client in anyway was prohibited. I am guessing that that effort involved more that the .config files, but that is here nor there, I think a lot of folks, especially casual players just shrugged their shoulders at that and just took that admonishment as "don't mess with anything behind the scenes" (including the .config files) and let it at that. But even without that history, I think a lot of casual players would have the perspective of "why mess with files that aren't accessible via the settings?" Sure some of the more savvy gamer types may take this sort of manipulation as a given/for granted, but I think there are a lot of folks who have no idea that such modification is even possible, and certainly not presumed to be acceptable or par for the course.

[Horseman]

Bud Crue, on 06 September 2023 - 11:18 AM, said:

Until PGI puts an announcement about this sort of information boldy in the log-in screen or in the game directly so that it is hard/impossible to miss, "the playing field" is most certainly not "leveled".

Like the warning about Faction Play that new casual players nearly always ignore?
You can bring a horse to the water but you cannot make it drink.

[Bud Crue]

Horseman, on 07 September 2023 - 06:46 AM, said:

Like the warning about Faction Play that new casual players nearly always ignore?
You can bring a horse to the water but you cannot make it drink.

Sure. I'm not asking that others do this. If they are at least made aware of it, they can chose not to use it. That is the choice. Until then the playing field will remain uneven by ignorance.

[Meep Meep]

Bud Crue, on 07 September 2023 - 11:04 AM, said:

Until then the playing field will remain uneven by ignorance.

The webmaster could perma link this thread and Mr Vaads config thread in the launcher and there would STILL be players that wouldn't pick up on it. Ignorance my friend is a partner you can never fully get rid of.

[Bud Crue]

Meep Meep, on 07 September 2023 - 02:02 PM, said:

The webmaster could perma link this thread and Mr Vaads config thread in the launcher and there would STILL be players that wouldn't pick up on it. Ignorance my friend is a partner you can never fully get rid of.

Yeah. I made that point above; very few players use these forums. It would have to be something in the load screen and directly made available via settings. Anything else and it remains an issue of those "in the know" vs. everyone else.

[Curccu]

Does this remove leafy parts of the trees in Bog? Because today after I died I spectated He Who Cannot Be Named and he was shooting through those trees like they did not exist at all, No visual, minimap or any kind of hint that there would be enemy behind some of those trees. If those leafs cannot be removed by this then it was 100% wallhacker which I will report to PGI.

[GM Patience]

The concerns raised in this thread are being evaluated by the staff and we will have official news on this topic next week.