65 replies to this topic

[CmdrPoopyPants]

I just looked at my settings, and they're all at medium.. bleh. Of course, that's because there's no SLI and I don't know if I can run them higher without getting into a game and maybe hosing my team by not being able to have decent framerates.. lol..damnit.

I'll try the DOF thing, and set my settings up and see what that does. I just worry because my computer is a little dusty and the fan on that primary GPU already spins way up in game and I run 79 to 80c, way too hot for my taste.

[CmdrPoopyPants]

Hmm.. temps stayed near the same, but I didn't find thermal to be much better even at very high settings. Though, the rest of the world looks much better! Not sure the DOF is doing anything either.

I also added r_Fullscreen=1 to my user config, and that actually applied until the login screen, then it went back to windowed mode for the mech lab and stuff. It's odd that you can alt+enter there to go to full screen (mech lab), but it resets after every match. Clearly it's hard coded somewhere in there, and that's just silly.

But.. at the end of the day, even at max settings, thermal isn't as good as normal vision, at least not for me, not in daytime settings. I just ran River City daytime in thermal, and while OK it wasn't as good as without.

To each their own I guess.

[focuspark]

Yup. :-)

No, SLI - no problems with max settings.

[Koniving]

Well, you're fighting on multiple planets. What are the chances it will be day time on every planet you drop on? Most combat operations are actually done at night for that very reason -- because the other team can't see.

[Daggett]

StalaggtIKE, on 04 February 2013 - 03:06 PM, said:

Thermal vision. Get used to it. With ECM that's all you'll be using anyway.

Yeah, lets make a great looking game and then include a mandatory piece of equipment that forces everyone to always run around in way less beautiful heatvision if they don't want to get ambushed.

Personally i like the different viewmodes. But the OP has a point.
To make the different viewmodes interesting they must be balanced in way that the players don't have to use them exclusively. They should be alternatives for special situations, not the default way to see the gameworld.

In normal maps like Forest Colony this is already achieved. By default you run around in normal vision, but when engaging long-range targets (e.g. as a PPC or AC sniper) it is often beneficial to switch to thermal vision in order to see distant targets more clearly.
That's how alternate view-modes should work.

However this does not exclude the use of night maps. In River City for example the devs could add some sorts of street lights in some areas and leave other areas dark. This way it would not always be necessary to use the alternate view-modes, you only need them in those darker areas.
Another way would be to have those search-lights mentioned before. While brawling normal vision would be very viable again while heat/night vision is still needed to see farther away targets.

In Frozen City there is already a nice solution: The snow storm has different strenghts. Sometimes you can see really clearly, and a few moments later you are totally blinded. Thats kinda cool, i think it just needs a bit tweaking, because the 'blinded'-state happens too often/long and you do not really notice when the storm intensity changes while in heat vision.

The trick is to create environments that forces encourages the players to switch between modes, not using a single one through the entire match.

And thats where the ECM kicks in.
Currently it forces everyone in every map to always use heat-vision if you want to see ECM mechs early enough and even then they can quite easily sneak up to you. Personally i only use normal vision when there is no enemy ECM around and thats not often especially because it takes several minutes until i know that the enemy has no ECM so it's safe to switch back to normal view.

And in my opinion this is bad. It devalues all the work of the designers who textured the maps and it forces us to play the game most of the time in quite colorless view-modes. So i really wish that ECM-mechs are targetable (not lockable) again.
This way we can not only see the beautiful maps more often, it also takes away one of the many features that makes ECM too powerful for it's very low cost. ECM does not need to give the whole enemy team stealth to be good and viable

Edited by Daggett, 04 February 2013 - 06:12 PM.

[DreyfussFrost]

Variety is good. If all we had were clear day maps, you would probably be complaining that all the maps are the same.

[CoffiNail]

TheBaron, on 04 February 2013 - 06:23 PM, said:

Variety is good. If all we had were clear day maps, you would probably be complaining that all the maps are the same.

QFT!

[ICEFANG13]

To be fair though, other than testing, a map that is completely dark is foolish and worthless. I dislike River City Night because it doesn't do a thing to anyone other than forcing everyone to play in thermal (night vision if you feel like it for the lulz). If a map doesn't have varying amounts of light, so that you can't derp in thermal OR normal all the time, then its just the same as a pure light/dark map, with a little twist.

I'm looking forward to the map that is full of lava and volcanoes, at night! Imagine, walking in the darkness, and suddenly you have to switch to normal to see near the lava, while someone shoots at you from the darkness. Too cool.

River City Night, you start, click (whatever your thermal is, mine is T) and get to derping. Might as well just force everyone into it all the time on that map anyway.

[zraven7]

Tombstoner, on 04 February 2013 - 03:16 PM, said:

I'm sure a graphics rework is in the future.. far future. as it is i think they are working out how to make night games and i'm sure they know no one uses night vision due to lack of detail.

I use night vision all the time. Thermal is great for spotting at a distance, but at close range, it turns everything into a blur. Also, lasers and flamers can completely blind you, and terrain can get hard to notice. Maybe it's a preference thing.

However, I love the inclusion of both night vision and thermal vision. It adds realism to the game, and the fact that they worked out the thermal output for all the mechs and weapons is pretty incredible. Don't get me wrong, I do worse on night games, but I still enjoy the heck outta it.

[Kraven Kor]

patpowers1995, on 04 February 2013 - 03:01 PM, said:

I hate night games. You can't see what you're doing. Plus, what you can see is butt ugly. It's like the designers said, "Hey, these cool 3D maps we've constructed for Mechwarrior are WAAAAAY too much fun. Let's make "night games" and force people to use "Night Vision" and "Heat Vision" to create a map that has the look of bad Commodore 64 eight bit graphics! Everyone will LOVE it! So retro!"

To be fair, there are two exceptions: the night games in Frozen City are great. You can see everything in that cool blue ice light. Great look!

Also, the day games in Frozen City with lots of fog ... just as freaking bad as the night games.

WTF were they thinking? I guess maybe having what seems like more maps, without the expense and trouble of creating new ones.

They were thinking, unlike other games, that Night Time should actually be, you know, dark.

Nightvision and Thermal are your friends. River City Night is actually my favorite map - I can see the enemy, as I use enhanced vision modes, but they can't see me because "Thermal vision is ugly."

[Fuzzyhead]

patpowers1995, on 04 February 2013 - 03:01 PM, said:

I hate night games. You can't see what you're doing. Plus, what you can see is butt ugly. It's like the designers said, "Hey, these cool 3D maps we've constructed for Mechwarrior are WAAAAAY too much fun. Let's make "night games" and force people to use "Night Vision" and "Heat Vision" to create a map that has the look of bad Commodore 64 eight bit graphics! Everyone will LOVE it! So retro!"

To be fair, there are two exceptions: the night games in Frozen City are great. You can see everything in that cool blue ice light. Great look!

Also, the day games in Frozen City with lots of fog ... just as freaking bad as the night games.

WTF were they thinking? I guess maybe having what seems like more maps, without the expense and trouble of creating new ones.

Rly i dont know if he is trolling or if he really serious, 2nd case is the worse

[Sesambrot]

I really don't get why people are moaning about RC-night!
It's not like all maps are like that, and so far it's the only one of the maps with those lighting conditions...
Srsly I find it a rather delightful change to MWLL where we couldn't really make the nights as dark as we would have liked to because NV sucked!
Here we have a properly working NV and HV and a reason to use them, and people are complaining that those are not just useless gimmicks...

[Xalorous]

CmdrPoopyPants, on 04 February 2013 - 04:13 PM, said:

Several maps are much harder with thermal on than off. It drives me nuts to see spectator mode with thermal on when it's a clear day map.. it makes it MUCH harder to manuver and track your target.. yet, people seem to think losing 1/2 their visual queues is a good idea.

I only use thermal for River City Night and the heavy fog in Frozen City.. and in the heavy fog I turn it off once I'm in close combat with other lights because chasing them with terrain mostly missing is a really bad idea. I also use thermal at the start of assault for forest city, to see which way the enemy is moving out, but I turn it off as soon as I start to move.

And even though River City Night is my most hated map, it's also one I tend to do pretty well in (thermal vision the entire time). I always get flustered when I end up in spectator mode there and see the pilot in normal vision mode, with no clue where enemies are because they don't know about or refuse to use thermal vision.

so.. it has its uses, but they are limited and most definately not 24/7... not if you expect to be your most effective.

I found the reverse to be true. In thermal mode I have a better ability to see targets over distances and to see relative movement AND to aim in order to place the damage where I want it. Plus I can see when their sig crosses a friendly not only that they ARE crossing but also I can often tell whether they're crossing in front or behind my friendly. Saves some friendly fire. Of course Cauldron renders thermal unusable and Frozen city night and some locations on Forest I switch back and forth. I also find Night Vision useless. I cringe to see people blundering around in River City night without using SOMETHING.

[ArchMage Sparrowhawk]

I love Night River City. I loved running around in the cave with my night vision on. I love any excuse to use the stuff on my mech. If it came with headlights, I'd be high beaming you right before flashing you with ERPPCs.

I like the implementation of night and different environments. I like how the city at night is actually dark. Please make more just like it. give us a Mech battle on an asteroid in the pitch black of space.

Yes, I do run around without heat or night vision, and my cockpit lights turned off. Cruising in the night, with nothing but my lasers to guide me.

Edited by ArchMage Sparrowhawk, 05 February 2013 - 12:41 PM.

[zraven7]

ArchMage Sparrowhawk, on 05 February 2013 - 12:38 PM, said:

I love Night River City. I loved running around in the cave with my night vision on. I love any excuse to use the stuff on my mech. If it came with headlights, I'd be high beaming you right before flashing you with ERPPCs.

I like the implementation of night and different environments. I like how the city at night is actually dark. Please make more just like it. give us a Mech battle on an asteroid in the pitch black of space.

Yes, I do run around without heat or night vision, and my cockpit lights turned off. Cruising in the night, with nothing but my lasers to guide me.

There is a cockpit light button?

[Biruke]

you can't pick all of your battles. especially at the moment.

[Wizard Steve]

I'm hoping that at some point in the future, we et the chance to play night games without night vision or thermal vision but with searchlights. As it stands, night games are exactly the same as day games but uglier.

[1stBEAST]

@patpowers1995: so what is your problem?
that you can´t see in the DARK the details of the map?!

okay have to tell you someting: there are times in a 24hours day were you cant see much because it is pitchblack out there.
it is called "night". so if there is no ambient light you need heat or nightvision to see something this thermal vision for example only show´s differences in HEAT so the details that can be seen are very rare(this is also true in reallife, look at heat visions from AC-130 gunship´s) and then there are other times of day with something that is called fog....i think you get it.


so be thankful that we are in a "hightech" Battlemech with heat vision an not in a T-34 Tank without.

[tuokaerf]

The vision types can be a big help tactically.

On day maps, I'll switch to thermal early on to spot mechs in the distance to help track enemy movement. On River City Night, thermal until I get into a brawl then switch to night vision.

[Borias Zarkhan]

I rather like the nv and tv idea and hope they keep it. Same with crazy weather. As long as these occurrences aren't the norm.
I still want more maps in daylight with normal weather overall but the freaky exceptions can be cool.

Game can use some more maps in any case.