Afternoon BUF’ers!
I’m a long time UT’er and general forum lurker. Occasionally I’ll post (My name was LPRO in 2k3) when something piques my interest, especially when it involves this game I’m a slave to.
I’ve participated in a few FragBU’s since 2k3 days to play some CTF and other game types with a great bunch of people. Your forums are a refreshing change from the constant flame fests found on other UT based sites.
Over the past year or so I have seen numerous discussions (sometimes heated flame filled arguments) about how the game should be played. These topics range from the typical brightskins, hitsounds, forcemodel and other .ini related tweaks to the more recent spawn grenades mutator for TDM.
These issues will probably never been settled. Someone somewhere will have a problem and the fight is on once again. Everything becomes polarized as sides are taken and at the end of the day everyone mistrusts or looks down on everyone else. More competitive players are thinking “Foolish noobs don’t have a clue!” and casual players are like “Those pro players are messin’ up the game again! Without their uber hax they would stink!” Of course this is a sweeping generalization, but does echo true on many fronts.
As an organized TDM player I prefer to have the game customized for that style of play. For me that means - LOS hitsounds, consistent team skins and colors, easy modification of server settings, auto demo and screenshot settings, and recently UTComp’s new net code to equalize pings. Most of the competitive community would generally agree, hence UTComp is mandated for most tournaments or ladders. When I play for fun on stock servers these things aren’t necessary so models appear as they should, no hitsounds are used, etc. I do not require or think that every server should be setup as I like it or every tournament should be run the same way. It depends on who the target player base is and what the objectives for that tourney are.
The designers made various decisions on the game to maximize the fan base and to (I hope) provide an enjoyable gaming experience. This is reflected in the wide selection of game types and stock mutators you can use. Creating a game that specifically caters to organized play wasn’t high on Epic’s list of design objectives IMO so the community creates or decides what settings should be used to best meet the needs of the players.
Getting tired yet? Something that gets missed in all of this is where we are all coming from. We each have a different idea and level of commitment to this game. Some of us love the fast paced action of CTF, others the vehicular combat of ONS or just raw fragging on some random DM public server. Another level adds organized play on various ladders, leagues or tournaments such as TWL, GGL, OLB, or your local BU tourney. Each has different goals and caters to players of different skill levels and commitment to the game.
What I’m driving at here is we all have different expectations and backgrounds. If you enjoy LG Insta-gib CTF, high details, with no special tweaks, go for it but please think about where your fellow players might be coming from and why they use or play the settings they do. I’m not directing this at anyone in particular it’s just been on my mind lately and this is the best place for good discussion without it turning into a mud slinging fest!
I’m a long time UT’er and general forum lurker. Occasionally I’ll post (My name was LPRO in 2k3) when something piques my interest, especially when it involves this game I’m a slave to.
I’ve participated in a few FragBU’s since 2k3 days to play some CTF and other game types with a great bunch of people. Your forums are a refreshing change from the constant flame fests found on other UT based sites.
Over the past year or so I have seen numerous discussions (sometimes heated flame filled arguments) about how the game should be played. These topics range from the typical brightskins, hitsounds, forcemodel and other .ini related tweaks to the more recent spawn grenades mutator for TDM.
These issues will probably never been settled. Someone somewhere will have a problem and the fight is on once again. Everything becomes polarized as sides are taken and at the end of the day everyone mistrusts or looks down on everyone else. More competitive players are thinking “Foolish noobs don’t have a clue!” and casual players are like “Those pro players are messin’ up the game again! Without their uber hax they would stink!” Of course this is a sweeping generalization, but does echo true on many fronts.
As an organized TDM player I prefer to have the game customized for that style of play. For me that means - LOS hitsounds, consistent team skins and colors, easy modification of server settings, auto demo and screenshot settings, and recently UTComp’s new net code to equalize pings. Most of the competitive community would generally agree, hence UTComp is mandated for most tournaments or ladders. When I play for fun on stock servers these things aren’t necessary so models appear as they should, no hitsounds are used, etc. I do not require or think that every server should be setup as I like it or every tournament should be run the same way. It depends on who the target player base is and what the objectives for that tourney are.
The designers made various decisions on the game to maximize the fan base and to (I hope) provide an enjoyable gaming experience. This is reflected in the wide selection of game types and stock mutators you can use. Creating a game that specifically caters to organized play wasn’t high on Epic’s list of design objectives IMO so the community creates or decides what settings should be used to best meet the needs of the players.
Getting tired yet? Something that gets missed in all of this is where we are all coming from. We each have a different idea and level of commitment to this game. Some of us love the fast paced action of CTF, others the vehicular combat of ONS or just raw fragging on some random DM public server. Another level adds organized play on various ladders, leagues or tournaments such as TWL, GGL, OLB, or your local BU tourney. Each has different goals and caters to players of different skill levels and commitment to the game.
What I’m driving at here is we all have different expectations and backgrounds. If you enjoy LG Insta-gib CTF, high details, with no special tweaks, go for it but please think about where your fellow players might be coming from and why they use or play the settings they do. I’m not directing this at anyone in particular it’s just been on my mind lately and this is the best place for good discussion without it turning into a mud slinging fest!