Modifying the grass texture is possible, so not just a rumour.
Making the playing field even is impossible though. Real world skills, your physical condition, input device, screen size and quality, internet connection speed, gpu power and a plethora of other things make playing the game different.
PC has plenty of other things aside from mods going for it. Macros, graphical settings (I’d think of the meteor size, grass removal etc as such too), higher fps and lower loading times. Should we artificially normalize portal loading times so they’re fair?
The dev’s stance in PM’s has been “if it breaks the sandbox, don’t do it”.
I know how you feel about consoles and Sony from previous posts, hehe
But to say this makes no sense to me. Plenty of people even on PC do not know about mods so it’s already unfair to them to not have them.
If I create a mod that gives me a gigantic advantage and I don’t share it with the rest of you, is that fair you feel?
So yeah, it might be better to do some things to prevent the more advantageous mods out there.
BTW, most mods currently seem to be more a settings change in one of the many config files, perhaps it’s a good idea to obfuscate those and to make them unchangeable without the game doing it. Also the other half of the mods change other files, perhaps do a check on those to see if they are still the originals. THEN also add an expert tab in the Settings screen where we can tinker with those variables the devs are ok with and perhaps add options that mimick the non-config file mods like the colour number in the tool tips which essentially changes the colour names to have the number included.
Absolutely, Cause either one of two things will happen, The devs break the mod if the advantage is indeed „Gigantic“, or if the mod is useful enough, I will try to figure out how to do it on my own, regardless if you tell me how to do it or not, the simple fact you brought my attention to its existence is enough. and then depending what it is, I myself might share it with the public.
„A fair is a place where pigs win ribbons and medals“ - Random 7th Grade History Teacher
What I don’t know about, won’t hurt me, in most cases. If I am unaware of its existence then it might as well not exist as far as I am concerned, If the impact the mod has is large enough, then it’s impact might cause me to notice its existence.
You should know me by now, I do not make personal attacks.
It is a silly quote my 7th Grade teacher would always say when ever anybody mentions something is „Unfair“ in his class.
I should clarify when I said a cosmetic change, I mean it in the sense that it does not affect gameplay in any way, clearly removing the grass effects the gameplay, therefore it’s not purely cosmetic.
There is a difference between opportunity and ability. Of course everyone has different abilities, no-one is asking to make everyone the same. This is specifically about not allowing people to change the client.
Everyone should be working within the same rules, changing the client is effectively changing the rules for that user.
If these are intended as graphical settings, then it would be a relatively easy job to add them to the graphics settings, for everyone.
@Mayumichi I greatly respect you from what I have read of your posts and the aid, etc you are happy to give other players. But I feel like you are muddying the waters somewhat with equating external factors (player ability, internet connection speed, etc) with people who are willing to alter the client to give themselves an advantage.
I hate using real world analogies, but it’s more like a football (soccer) game where one side is allowed to double the size of the goals, or playing golf where half the players are allowed to make the cup much bigger.
But it’s not like just some players are able to change the client. Anyone can play on the PC.
“But I don’t have a PC”
If it’s about the cost, I just don’t see how this is different from players who have expensive peripherals, bigger screens with better refresh rates and better internet speeds. Also, PC’s can be built for less money than a PS4.
Because they can change all the peripherals they want, but the client is still the same, they are still playing to the same rules.
I object to the rules being different for different people.
And again, these are all external factors.
Like have the most technologically up to date tennis racket, but you still play to the same rules as your opponent who has a wooden one from the 1920s.
It might give you an advantage, but it doesn’t change the rules of the game.
To me the server holds the rules for that server (planet, etc) and the client holds the rules for our interaction with the server.
However, before we start getting too far down this rabbit hole, don’t you think this would be a good opportunity for the devs to state, unambiguously, what their policy is?
I’m gonna leave this thread for a little while, cos I actually wanna play rather than continue to flog this dead horse! (don’t worry, the whip won’t go too far)
Hmm yeah probably. But it is the server which dictates how the client is allowed to interact with the game, you can’t tell the server that I’ve picked up 100 orbs if you really didn’t. All interaction with the world is checked server side, it doesn’t trust the client. I can change the warp bump delay to 1 second in the client config, but you can’t actually bump your warp before the cooldown is done on the server.
Yes it’d be nice to know exactly what’s ok and what’s not, but it’s pretty evident they don’t want to draw hard lines and rather judge things on a case by case basis. That way they’re not burdened by their previous statements and can change their mind (without backlash) if they think it’s for the best.
edit: And just to be clear I don’t think of this thread as arguing, I just like debating I think in the end it helps everyone if all sides of the coin are brought up. Whatever the devs decide is fine, it’s their game, I just adapt to their decisions.
Can we please keep this out of the modding discussion It’s not possible (afaik) with asset file modifications.
Hiding grass I see as a grey area. I can only tell my own experience that even though I have the option to use it, I don’t. It’s effect is so minimal I don’t bother installing it, it doesn’t affect the gathering rate of surface resources if you have good eyes. The same with meteors, you see them falling regardless of their size. I think of these as being in the QoL, accessibility department, like a brightness/color blind setting. I wouldn’t complain if they were in the options menu, but the devs have more important stuff in their todo list imo. If they expose the setting in the config files, they must be ok with people modifying them.
I don’t think modding should be disabled just because they didn’t have time to add all of the configurable settings to the menus for ease of use. It does have the side effect of ps4 not having access to them at all, but I’d rather they not close the door just because of ps4.
I think part of the disagreement arises in that some insist on believing and continuing to spread the rumor that the hack is possible to see the beacon timer while they see that as a mod, and others refuse to give credence to that rumor. The funny thing is that those who make mod say that the timer is not possible and those who do not use mods are those who spread that rumor. If you remove the timer from the discussion, what difference would there be between having a better PC that improves your graphics, setting the brightness to see things better lit, and removing the grass to improve vision? Are they not aesthetic and graphic changes? Another discussion would be if it is necessary for developers to include that configuration in the game, as well as the intensity of the lighting, that everyone could change the density of the grass without the need for a mod.
Many games have settings that allow you to either remove or severely reduce the amount of grass for performance reasons, which depending on the game, can have an impact of game play either from the performance gains and/or better visibility of objects.
ARK is an example where both cases can happen. It is allowed to happen because it is mostly a cosmetic change that is typically done for performance reasons, personal preference, or in rarer cases, medical reasons. Yes it can be used for non-performance and non-medical reasons, and that is fine.
The fact that this can only be done in boundless via renaming texture files at this time, means nothing to me in terms of rather or not it is morally correct or ethical to do so as long as the devs are allowing far more invasive things, such as data mining prices and exo world color Information from network packets that are supposed to be encrypted.
Don’t think the change was because of the grass texture mods, although I could be wrong.
Foliage and Object-Lod detail settings now have 8 options, removing the confusing named levels in-place of simple numbers 1-8. The highest setting is enough that even on the highest possible terrain-detail settings, you shouldn’t ever see foliage or models unrendered.
Foliage detail settings are bumped up so that the lowest foliage setting is now 50m (and the new max 250m!), whilst foliage played little part in gameplay previously, it now being used for most crops and wild-crop surface resources makes it much more important to be seen further away even on lower settings.
If you see better and further, is that changing the rules of the game?
I think in the end it helps everyone if all sides of the coin are brought up. Whatever the devs decide is fine, it’s their game, I just adapt to their decisions.
It’s not possible (afaik) with asset file modifications.