Economy Mods, Power Throttle

[gnatinator]

Ecomods are the cancer killing FAF.

Really guys, it's time to put away the mods and play the game properly.

Anyone actually condoning economy automation without integrating it (which would be equally shitty because it would be shallowing out the skill ceiling of the gameplay) does not realize the damage they are doing to the credibility of the game and community.

"Highly ranked players" who defend "Economy Mods" can get off their pedestal and look at some of our fellow esports communities who have been damaged by this stuff: The most recent example from this month with the Workshop mods exploit in CS:GO (not detectable during a tournament), which caused such an outrage that players on pro teams are literally being fired for using it.

This is not restricted to FPS games.. in RTS games such as Brood War, even very minor gameplay exploits (observer over turret) or mods would result in lifetime ban from any tournaments ran by KeSPA, etc. Cheating in esports games, and the inevitable backlash has been going on literally for decades.

Sure, this mod may only significantly effect Setons, but reality check, Setons is the most widely played map by far on FAF, so it's a problem.

[Gorton]

I also think some mods are bad.
I think we should stick to the definition of "UI" in "UI" mod.
As in, affecting the User Interface, allowing you do to something easier : That's ok in my eyes.
Doing something for you is not.

Examples of the two:

Giving you an easy button or key combination that turns off all mass fabs. UI changes only, is ok.
Turning off all mass fabs automatically when you are losing power. Playing the game for you. Not ok.

[Col_Walter_Kurtz]

I think I need more information to understand what effect these mods are actually having on gameplay.

[ColonelSheppard]

Massfab mod has been around for ages, sometimes i used it and sometimes i don't, sometimes i switched it off for recording and forgot to put it back on for months. This is a neverending discussion going on for years now, what exactly makes you think it will kill SupCom now?

The effect of these mods is minor in most games, and the setonsplayers can make their personal rules like they always do, no reason to bother the "public" with it.

I think the RAS notify mod has aa far bigger impact than the massfab mod for instance, you wanna forbid that too now?

[ZLO_RD]

I think I need more information to understand what effect these mods are actually having on gameplay.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-VVxQpSUPA
1) automatic pause when stalling, maximises mass that you get from mexes
2) automatic power giving lets your ally to get ras faster (cause regular power overflow does not work very well, when you overflow every ally gets 1/3 of your power in a 4v4 game)

in result you never stall power, and rarely waste power, cause it is automaticly given to ally that need power

[Crotalus]

First of all, power throttle is inefficient enough that a player who can manage his energy will get a better result without it, the only exception is spamming ASF while building power. Most players have it disabled because it takes over too much control when to pause / not.

As people say, the timing of RAS is having a much bigger impact on team games and that's the only time autoshare also are really useful. Half of that reason is because the game's energy overflow is currently bugged.

If I remember correctly the highest ranked player ever (galacticfear) managed to get ~2500 rating without any mods whatsover.

[Gorton]

Crotalus,
Sorry for maybe any misunderstanding: My post is about my personal opinion towards the mods themselves being used, not toward any advantage gained using them
I really couldn't care less whether they are hurting you or helping, I just think that mods that do stuff for you are not good because they are literally playing the game for you.


On a less serious note technically gala has some way to go to become highest rated player ever - CC has him beat for another 100-150 rating I think.

[galacticfear]

It is correct I got to about that rating before I started using the UI mods yes. In my opinion the only advantage ecomanager has over playing normally is for distribution of mass reclaim and for building t3 air/ big t4. But there are I believe several mods to make giving resources easier between team mates- this is just one step further because of the automation involved. In my opinion you can only look at such mods in terms of "apm saving", which all this does, same as many others. It saves going into menu and manually giving e. Like a hokey to build a factory saves you clicking to make it. No difference there between the two that I can see. Its too hard to just be able to "draw a line" in an arbitrary place as to what is ok and what isn't as there will always be grey areas... you have to either allow all or ban all.

[Gorton]

I think the line you can draw, gala, is how I described :
Doing something for you not ok
Helping you do something , making it easier, ok
For powershare, a button in the main ui to give customiseable amounts of your power to allies who have little/are stalling would work just as well, with only one click - And you'd be doing it yourself.
I know already people have made mods to show the economy status of allies, so this would not be so hard.

[galacticfear]

I think the line you can draw, gala, is how I described :
Doing something for you not ok
Helping you do something , making it easier, ok
For powershare, a button in the main ui to give customiseable amounts of your power to allies who have little/are stalling would work just as well, with only one click - And you'd be doing it yourself.
I know already people have made mods to show the economy status of allies, so this would not be so hard.

That isn't a line at all. How do you determine how much stuff is done once you click a button to be acceptable? I can argue turning eco manager on or off, energy throttle on or off or sharing parameters is the same. And seeing the economy status of allies- surely this is an automated mod, doing something for you?