I'm going to ignore all the bickering that's been going on up to now in this thread and just post my thoughts about the mutator...
If you ask me, this mutator was long overdue. There's no way a monitor can properly simulate real life vision using a static FOV. If you only use a 90-180 FOV everything is just too damn small. If you only use a 45-60 FOV then you have no peripheal vision. Toggling between a wide FOV and a focused FOV is the perfect compromise, IMO. Neither one is 100% accurate, but with the ability to toggle both you can exchange the percentage of the whole you don't need for that which you do need at a given time.
My main criticism is that I think there needs to be a smoother transition between the 2 FOV's. I'm not sure exactly how to do this, but the way the FOV switch is implemented now, it doesn't feel like a natural function of the human eye focusing or unfocusing, it feels like sticking your eye up to a scope. I suppose a simple way to help this would be to make the transition more gradual.
I also think the view bob is excessive in the small FOV mode. It makes me sick, literally, if I use it for too long. Usually, I just switch it on when making long range shots from stationary positions, and then I switch it off immediately when I'm going to move. I feel like some old fart trying to play Doom for the first time or something, but I can't help it. The massive view bob makes me nauseous. I think it also is worsened if I end up switching back and forth between the 2 FOVs rapidly over a short period of time. This would probably be less of an issue with the "gradual transition" I mentioned before.
This is probably not possible in the UT engine, but I think on another engine a blurring or cross-fading effect durring the transition would help as well.
OK, next problem. Scopes are now useless, switching to 45 FOV gives you the same magnification as an ACOG. This makes no sense since looking through a scope should reduce and focus your FOV beyond what you would allready see from looking closely over the barrel of your gun. I'm not sure of the technical specifications of the scopes, but I would day the scopes need to all be magnified further.
Final issue with FOV is key bindings. I always get annoyed if I suggest a new command and people say "no, my keyboard is allready full" but in some respects I have to agree on this instance. This is less of an issue with some commands because you don't need immediate access to them, they're not high priority. For example a 'check mag' command doesn't need to be right near your WASD keys cause you're not going to be checking your mag in the heat of battle anyway (unless you want to do). This does need instant access as it simulated an automatic function of eye sight and is likely to be used in tandem with aiming, leaning out of cover, shooting, running etc.
Right now I have it bound to middle mouse which isn't too much of a problem (although I need to take my index finger off the fire key to activate it, which I don't like) but not everyone may have my preference (and if I end up accidentally hitting my scroll wheel up and down and changing weapons in the process I will be pissed). It might be good to have an option to change toggle FOV's simultaneously with breath holding/aiming (like Beppo's Aimview) to simplify key binds. I'm not suggesting this as mandatory though because the option is important. Being able to have seperate 'hold' and 'toggle' functions might be handy as well. This feature should be flexible. Now I'm just nitpicking though.
OK, now for the final final thing. I think the FOV-toggling features should be seperate from the ballistics/movement/damage/etc tweaks. They address two seperate issues and require 2 seperate mutators. Not everyone who wants the mutator for the FOV features will like the tweaks, and not everyone who wants the tweaks will want the FOV features.
As for the gametypes thing, that's an issue of internet/PR politics and not of my concern. Whether you decide to keep it a mutator or make it a series of gametypes does not affect the actual content or features, and I'm not going to get involved.
Anyway Toad, despite my criticisms your mutator's really cool, and I'm glad someone did it. I'm interested to see how this idea develops over time.
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