Texture Mods
Super_Gorge
Join Date: 2013-03-22 Member: 184212Members
Join Date: 2013-03-22 Member: 184212Members
I'm seeing some new texture mods being posted as screenshots. Basically it creates a form of alien vision for Marines where it strips out all of the detail leaving just blue outlines.
This in effect seems like a reverse glow in the dark mod. Rather than highlight the aliens directly with a mod (which is cheating), they're doing it by leaving the aliens alone but changing the environment to make aliens much easier to see. Anyone have any idea just how prevalent this form of cheating is?
This in effect seems like a reverse glow in the dark mod. Rather than highlight the aliens directly with a mod (which is cheating), they're doing it by leaving the aliens alone but changing the environment to make aliens much easier to see. Anyone have any idea just how prevalent this form of cheating is?
Comments
http://cloud-2.steampowered.com/ugc/848075022401705743/5AA53A89FBB7AA64DC658B1DF3CB3D7B9027E959/
And there are similar ones that essentially remove all textures and monochrome out the rest of the map in a color very contrasting to the aliens. Some not to bright users are posting screenshots of these mods to the Steam content page. Essentially they are broadcasting that they are cheating.
The black and blue mod and similar mods do the same thing though.
However, I prefer the dystopian view of NS2 specular:
That makes it easier to see aliens as they are glowing. Its cheating, right?
/hasn't seen black&white stuff in years and is probably wrong. XD
Well, the mod system was designed with the intent that people create and USE alternate textures for aliens, marines, structures, and possibly even the envornment. All of that was put in place by the developers intentionally, so you should be careful what exactly you call cheating.
Mods like http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=109537600 are obviously intended to be cheating, although I might hesitate to call it that given they are merely the logical extreme of the options we are deliberately given. Mods like http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=99185777 are NOT intended to be cheating, but they still provide a very clear advantage.
Actually the skulk stands out significantly more against dark metal backgrounds, although it blends in a little bit on infestation. It's a pretty clear advantage in most cases, I've actually been using it myself and will personally attest to that.
My point though is that a mod isn't "cheating" just because it provides some measurable advantage. The question tends towards how much is acceptable, although I think the real question is a matter of taste, which is so nebulous that I'm not sure I can call any mod cheating.
That's the whole point of cheating. To gain an advantage over your opponent...
Well then all mods are cheating, even the crosshairs (ESPECIALLY the crosshairs), and why the hell did the devs think it would be a good idea to allow mods in the default game online to begin with?
There are a lot of things that can give you an advantage, outside of "skill". A faster computer gives you an advantage, is that cheating? A microphone gives you an advantage, is that cheating? A bigger monitor. Reading the fucking forums! Where does it end? Where does it even start?
Some mods obviously carry more weight than others when talking about "giving an advantage", but the premise still applies.
what about changing the colors on the graphics side to simulate the effect of one of these mods?
this is the crap we have to deal with when a game has no brightskins
It begins and ends with common sense.
Calibrating your monitor with settings like gamma, brightness and contrast changes the view of your entire display, it may help someone distinguish between darker colours but isn't comparable to a texture mod that drastically changes the visibility of a single entity relative to the darker environment.
The reason the game has no bright skins is a design decision.
White walls or the illustrated adaptions above is cheating, gamma cranking is considered cheating (though never gets close to what whitewalls texture changes do).
If you cant see the enemy unless he is highly contrasted against another surface thats part of the challenge.
<sarcasm starts>
Sorry but I cant aim properly myself and need an inbuilt aim assist...if UWE wont put one in then I will just go and install a aimbot.
<sarcasm ends>
The only point in time that something like that matters, barring real cheats, is in something like ENSL.
In a pub game, anything goes, as long as it is within the confines of game rules.
Mods* don't even work on whitelisted servers anyways, so I don't know why you guys are crying about this.
Edit:
*Except for crosshair mods.
Some people do mod their game and can use them on a white listed server by simply modifying the textures in one of the game files. Therefore I could make all the aliens bright pink if I want to. To me anyone doing this on a server (especially a public one) is getting an unfair advantage that is not supposed to part of the general game play and is not intended by the game developers so I feel very comfortable in saying that it is cheating to a degree although not as serious as using an aim bot or wall hack.
If everyone on the server has this mod fine, then it is no longer an exploit because it is part of the game environment and no one clearly benefits from it over other players.
The point is that you cannot enforce what people do with their display settings, so you might as well put them in the actual game so that everyone is on a level playing field