Enforcement of Config ToS

[MattScott 15281]

Last but not least is the topic of actually enforcing what config edits are allowed and which aren’t. We already know that config edits that edit .ini files are fair game while things such as the Nofog shader and Localization edits are more of a grey area. However, we also know that the removal of particles such as grenade smoke, muzzle flash or other things that edit .upk files is absolutely not allowed, but this front is not being enforced whatsoever so please sit down with the customer support team and train them which edits are not allowed and which are. Right now you may as well not even have a config ToS seeing as most people streaming nowadays are openly using edits that are against the ToS. Alternatively, use your client side anticheat to perform file checks on .upk files to see they have not been altered and replaced with empty files.

 

“This is a puzzling one. Certain things are supposedly not allowed, but you only have to turn on a stream to see things like no smoke, no muzzle flash, no ambient sounds, etc. It's led to the common advice "no that's not allowed, but honestly, no one is getting banned for it". I think clarification is needed and seeing as though it would take little time to write up a post explaining the situation, I don't understand why it hasn't been done yet.”  -Community Member

[BlatMan 726]

[APBGame.cWeaponAttachment]
m_bParticleMuzzleFlash=true

This config option is used to turn off Muzzle Flash. GamersFirst disbaled this feature without reason. Muzzle flash, like all particles in APB, are overused. They cause stuttering during normal gunfights, even with a midrange GPU like a GTX 1080. Enabling this config, preferably adding it as a graphics option in game, will put players with varying hardware at an equal playing field. This should be an easy addition seeing that you've added other graphics options in game.

Edited December 13, 2022 by BlatMan

[Tiuhti 16]

maybe ban cheaters first before people with no grenade smoke

 

pathetic

[R3ACT3M 490]

Just don't let people edit configs. Lock the files down and only let settings be changed in-game through the settings menu. Something like an Advanced users configuration section. So if player NEED to tweak these files for extra stability or performance, LittleOrbit will have already gone through and made sure that these settings do not have an effect on whether or not a player has an advantage using them outside of performance and stability  (stuff like removing ragdolls, grenade smoke, and muzzle flash are examples of effects that should not be allowed to be turned off)

[MrLek 37]

On 16/12/2022 at 11:55, R3ACT3M said:

Só não deixe as pessoas editarem as configurações. Bloqueie os arquivos e só permita que as configurações sejam alteradas no jogo através do menu de configurações. Algo como uma seção de configuração avançada de usuários. Portanto, se o jogador PRECISA ajustar esses arquivos para obter estabilidade ou desempenho extra, o LittleOrbit já terá feito isso e se certificará de que essas configurações não tenham efeito sobre se um jogador tem ou não vantagem em usá-los fora do desempenho e estabilidade (coisas como remoção de bonecas de pano, fumaça de granada e flash de focinho são exemplos de efeitos que não devem ser desativados)

There are many people who play with lousy computers, and removing the fog, removing the quality of the weapon skins, removing the light from the shots, removing some particles from spray missions, etc., end up helping to gain a little more FPS.

[BlatMan 726]

3 hours ago, MrLek said:

There are many people who play with lousy computers, and removing the fog, removing the quality of the weapon skins, removing the light from the shots, removing some particles from spray missions, etc., end up helping to gain a little more FPS.

Most of these "configs" are modifications to .upk files, not just settings in the ini files. Someone decrypted the files to modify them. It is cheating. It's modifying files that are not designed to be modified.

 

Besides, if someone's PC is so bad it can't run APB using the current Advanced Launcher, I doubt they have the funding to make purchases on Armas.

[R3ACT3M 490]

19 hours ago, MrLek said:

There are many people who play with lousy computers, and removing the fog, removing the quality of the weapon skins, removing the light from the shots, removing some particles from spray missions, etc., end up helping to gain a little more FPS.

That's on them, they can't have an unfair advantage just because their hardware can't play the game. 

[MrLek 37]

4 hours ago, R3ACT3M said:

That's on them, they can't have an unfair advantage just because their hardware can't play the game. 

What advantage does this give in the game?

[R3ACT3M 490]

5 hours ago, MrLek said:

What advantage does this give in the game?

Anything that makes visibility easier should not be allowed to be changed

[Rivona 59]

3 hours ago, MrLek said:

What advantage does this give in the game?

 

Edited December 23, 2022 by Rivona

[MrLek 37]

1 hour ago, R3ACT3M said:

Anything that makes visibility easier should not be allowed to be changed

I don't think this is unfair, you could ask L.O to put the option to remove the smoke within the APB options, it would be more democratic. Whoever wanted to play with smoke would activate the option, who had a bad PC and wanted to play with a little more FPS would deactivate it.

[LilyRain 709]

16 minutes ago, MrLek said:

I don't think this is unfair, you could ask L.O to put the option to remove the smoke within the APB options, it would be more democratic. Whoever wanted to play with smoke would activate the option, who had a bad PC and wanted to play with a little more FPS would deactivate it.

Imagine an option in Counter Strike that lets players switch off Smoke Grenades and Flash Bangs.

Fairness will only exist if smoke is either visible or doesn't exist for EVERYONE.

[MrLek 37]

18 minutes ago, LilyRain said:

Imagine an option in Counter Strike that lets players switch off Smoke Grenades and Flash Bangs.

Fairness will only exist if smoke is either visible or doesn't exist for EVERYONE.

We don't have bombs in the APB that have the function of raising smoke or blinding people. So there's no way to compare.

The function of the bomb in APB is just to take damage. You can see the red nick of the enemy passing by. They could make the enemy's red nick bigger.

[LilyRain 709]

12 minutes ago, MrLek said:

We don't have bombs in the APB that have the function of raising smoke or blinding people. So there's no way to compare.

The function of the bomb in APB is just to take damage. You can see the red nick of the enemy passing by. They could make the enemy's red nick bigger.

But we do. Grenades in APB come with some smoke by default since that is a natural aftermath of the explosion. The exception being half-brick, 8balls and snowballs which aren't really grenades.

[Rivona 59]

18 minutes ago, MrLek said:

We don't have bombs in the APB that have the function of raising smoke or blinding people. So there's no way to compare.

The function of the bomb in APB is just to take damage. You can see the red nick of the enemy passing by. They could make the enemy's red nick bigger.

Sorry i dont know all those thingies but is this blinding?

 

[Frosi 727]

18 minutes ago, Rivona said:

Sorry i dont know all those thingies but is this blinding?

 

That's a mix of using High Quality Health Hud, Bloom and the night time shaders and can be fixed by changing two ingame options, no configs required.

Edited December 23, 2022 by Frosi

[MrLek 37]

42 minutes ago, Rivona said:

Desculpe, eu não sei todas essas coisas, mas isso é ofuscante?

 

 

It becomes a joke to compare the effect of the apb bomb with this:

 

 

[jmiIos 24]

You said VFX files will be locked when 64 bit goes live and you didn't. People are still removing it. This game is not going anywhere until you decide to do something about the core of this game. It's disgusting seeing people promote this game on twitch with the ugliest graphics possible, and some of them even put TOS stuff in their config and openly share it with everyone. There is literally not good reason to keep VFX files open. And before some of these people start saying "Oh ItS A CoMPetiTive GaME, U tHiNk cs go pLaYeRs pLaY at mAX GrApHiCs???!!??!

 

CS GO graphics can go A LOT lower than in game minimum to the point that textures are comparable with advanced launcher minimum and of course since those people have common sense, those stuff are cheat flagged, The same thing is with L4D2. There is a different way to have textures that low but that requires extremely low resolutions, to the point u are just seeing pixels.

 

 

 

 

 

and here is a in game minimium

I can see why they would temporarily keep ini files open, until they add all advanced launcher options in the game and add some extra that is not there. 

AND LOWER TEXTURES THAN 64 FOR ENVIRONMENT SHOULD NO BE ALLOWED. There should still be a standard for competitive settings(visibility) and quality and 64 is still VERY visible while not making the game so ugly to the point it pushes new players away, "Oh BuT ThEY cAn jUsT Do It ToO". Anybody can just google cs go or l4d2 in the worst settings possible and most people in the comments would just choose not to play the game than play against people that do this, even though they can just do it as well. It's just way too ugly to be enjoyable. Not even gonna talk about no VFX, that's just a no brainer.

[FakeBungo 248]

banning people for using configs that improve the game? lmao

[NotTheEnforcer 232]

On 2/14/2023 at 11:34 PM, FakeBungo said:

banning people for using configs that improve the game? lmao

If you cant run a game from 2010 thats not anyone else's problem but yours. Grab literally any cpu and gpu from the last 6 years and you'll get 60+fps at the bare minimum with ACTUAL graphics. Nobody runs the edited configs for "more fps". Every single twat does it so they can gain unfair advantages. No grenade smoke, no muzzle flashes, no particle effects. All of those are PURPOSE DESIGNED to obscure vision wholly or partially. It'd be like throwing a smoke in CSGO but being able to completely see through the smoke without issues, even though the enemies cant see at all.

Anyone who runs ANYTHING other than the graphics options the game LETS you change, should be tempbanned until their config registers as default again. You can very clearly make your game run better on extremely low-end PC's, (lets be honest if you cant run APB with at least 60fps in 2023, its YOUR fault, get an upgrade from at least this decade), by using the INGAME graphics settings. Anyone who uses edited configs just wants an advantage, end of discussion.

[NotZombieBiscuit 3146]

4 hours ago, NotTheEnforcer said:

Anyone who runs ANYTHING other than the graphics options the game LETS you change, should be tempbanned until their config registers as default again. You can very clearly make your game run better on extremely low-end PC's, (lets be honest if you cant run APB with at least 60fps in 2023, its YOUR fault, get an upgrade from at least this decade), by using the INGAME graphics settings. Anyone who uses edited configs just wants an advantage, end of discussion.

I edit the config to make my graphics even higher than in game settings?

[NotTheEnforcer 232]

2 hours ago, NotZombieBiscuit said:

I edit the config to make my graphics even higher than in game settings?

Okay Ill give you that, thats alright. I like my games looking as good as I can too. But I still feel like editing the configs is just a gateway to doing bad shit, it shouldnt be accessible. I dont know any other games that allow you to directly edit the complete graphical configs. Some games like Rust and ArmA can, but in a very limited capacity, like disabling some specific postprocessing or pre-rendered frames which you cant do ingame. Being able to fully change every conceivable graphic, particle, etc, is just going to give a excuse for people to do so

[AutumnSan 13]

2 hours ago, NotZombieBiscuit said:

I edit the config to make my graphics even higher than in game settings?

 

The negatives still outweigh the positives. Many veteran players use it to remove muzzle flash, smoke and fire, reducing the graphics to a point they see nothing but themselves and the enemy on a grey canvas.

Edited February 18, 2023 by AutumnSan

[cowhorseman 446]

i'm more worried about the kids who got a 4 screen monitor set up and have the game in all windows so that way they can see a flat 180 of whats going on and effectly disallow me to run or sneak around them

 

Or the kids who know the excat loc of me in a mission. that ones fun. ever ran 1000m from the objective just to have someone come and shoot you in the face while your hiding in some wierd patootie hard to get to spot?

[NotTheEnforcer 232]

1 minute ago, cowhorseman said:

i'm more worried about the kids who got a 4 screen monitor set up and have the game in all windows so that way they can see a flat 180 of whats going on and effectly disallow me to run or sneak around them

As far as I know APB cant even do a multi-monitor setup. That usually requires some specific graphics functions, for example DCS: World has it, but its really resource intensive. Multi monitor-capable games have to be able to render multiple times at the same time. Its not something you can just do in your configs as far as Im aware

 

 

3 minutes ago, cowhorseman said:

Or the kids who know the excat loc of me in a mission. that ones fun. ever ran 1000m from the objective just to have someone come and shoot you in the face while your hiding in some wierd patootie hard to get to spot?

Pretty sure those are just cheaters. Hopefully the anticheat update will clear the majority of them out. $5 says all the cheats today are built around battleye, theyll have to get around EAC first if they want to keep using them. And if you want a look at how effective EAC is, take a look at Rust's auto-twitter banfeed. Hundreds of players banned per hour, using paid or private cheats lol. A good sign for things to come.