As long as they don't do a new newnet, I'm all for UTComp. The screenshots I've seen show the player models just like they are in UT2004: nearly completely invisible by being colored to blend in with the background just because it looks good and realistic. I understand Epic wanting to make a pretty game, but if they want anyone to take their game seriously as a competitive vessel, there should be options to enable such things that
do even the playing ground (like a menu option to force models instead of having to rely on someone else who knows how to INI h4x). Otherwise companies like CPL are going to look past UT again in favor of something that seems more competitive. Hitsounds I don't particularly care about, though I do enjoy the sound of the pings when I shoot someone. I don't know what it is about them, but I like them. Glow skins aren't necessarily the answer to player visibility, but
we can't have models like in this screenshot. Imagine that guy from a distance - he'd seriously be f*cking camoflagued into the map. That's
stupid for this type of game. I don't know what they should do about player visibility, but they've got to do something, or else a mutator like UTComp is
inevitable. Sure, the lights on the shoulder in UT2003 looked retarded, but they only did it because they knew they f*cked up the player visibility.
Now, I'm not one to bash UTComp because I do think it has some great features that vanilla UT2004 needed (map/gametype switching while in a map, changing crosshairs without jumping into the menu, etc.). Newnet doesn't necessarily even the ground, and yes, it does screw up the way the game is played, but it's served its purpose. The whole reason it was created was to make it easier for serious clans to agree on a match server without either team being forced to take on a crap ping. They wanted it, and they got it. Dislike it all you want, but if you're using it outside of the area it was intended that's
your fault. As for the newnet itself, the problems with it are a screwed up weapon balance - the game is even more hitscan dominant than it would have been otherwise - and even though it touted that uneven pings would seem even, it's really not the case. A higher ping - up to a point - will actually have an easier time hitting people, at least that's what I've noticed time and time again. Then you get into severe discrepancies between what both players are seeing and what the server decides is a hit from both of them and things start feeling totally different than stock net. I'm sure Raffi will come in here and tell me I'm wrong, but that's my experience with it and I'm sticking by my observations.