Posted by crunkus @ 22:43 CST, 6 December 2014 - iMsg
In terms of where everything is binded to sensitivity or accel settings... do you think this has a big impact on the way a player plays the game? Meaning their overall playstyle?
The playstyle of a player comes from how he views/solves ingame situations.
Not from how he "experiences the game".
The config is much more based on how a player experiences the game. Which is much more related to hardware and surroundings (chair, table, hardware).
It does occur that the solution of a certain player of a lot of ingame situations leads to a config change (for instance low/high sens).
And some pro's might even change their hardware / surroundings to better fit with this setup (most notably a better mouse and large mosuepad or small but extremely smooth mousepad).
But it doesn't change how the player solves the ingame situations. Thus the playstyle of a player will remain the same regardless of config.
He might struggle more at playing his playstyle when the config changes... But you don't "solve problems differently" because of config things.
You might be forced to "solve problems some way" because of hardware limitations though... Which could lead to a different playstyle.
But in general this shouldn't happen.
The only difference you would 'see' is in their mouse movements, ie; twitchy/smooth etc. gameplay tactics should stay the same, although you could say that high sens players do seem to take more aggressive chances imo, maybe because they know how fast they can react.
It feels that TDMers who jump on keyboard have better all around fighting ability because they can dodge while shooting more freely. They are more likely to pull a random jump here and there.
TankJR seems to be the thing for duel because it sticks out earlier behind the walls. TDMers don't seem to care too much, but it might be because of the nature of TDM and how different the fights are.
The biggest impact I've noticed comes from the sensitivities. Basically your sensitivity optimizes you for different weapons thus to different ranges and situations. For example lower sens and maybe some accel gives you a mid to long distance advantage because of the stability you get with shaft and rail. This is good in duel because of the lack of surprise factor (too much sound to get close comfortably) and fight dynamics (only 3 relevant weapons).
The faster end of the spectrum seems to do easier in the mid to close range (this is relative to other pros) and they naturally want to get closer for their advantage. They are more dynamical in fights using larger variety of weapons more effectively but giving away some of long to mid distance effectiveness and consistency. So they work better in TDM kind of gametypes where you have to be able to use all weapons and where it's easier to get close to someone. Generally people play more the way is comfortable for them and sens/accel affects that. Also for example high sens no accel players who palm their mouse can have good hitscan but relatively weaker close range, because their up down aim is limited.
Can't say for others but from my experiments it's mainly because of the inconsistency that results. Lets say you're using one weapon's sensitivity and then suddenly switch to other to flick then your brain is still in the first weapon's muscle memory mode and you aim incorrectly. I've tried something like having shaft have different sensitivity when I'm shooting (removed accel) but eventually it just felt messy and inconsistent flipping between 2 sensitivities. IIRC fraze used different sensitivities so it might work. Zamuz also had in OSP at some period (if i remember his cfg right).
It's hard to master your mouse movements if your sensitivity keeps changing, that's what I like to believe in. Maybe I've overrated muscle memory or learning a sensitivity but you could argue that's why people don't use diff sens for diff weapons. E.g. 90 degree accurate swaps are harder if you need to do them with two accel + sens combos. Another reason is that people are lazy and cba configuring their configs.
sensitivity and accel are the main values that affect the playstyle a lot
its very obvious if u watch strenx or rapha (low sens vs high sens high accel)
strenx aims slower with close range rockets, but more precise with long range predictable lg
instead, if u watch rapha, he aim really faster close range rockets, and its good in locking fast a long range unpredicted lg,
but long range lg vs lg, in a predictable battle, strenx wins
just watch a rapha vs strenx match on lost world
My quick aim was far better when I played at 8cm/360 with accel, than it is now at 17cm/360 no accel. I don't feel comfortable with really aggressive flick shots, so I don't try to put myself in situations where they would potentially come up. My rocket aim has suffered slightly because I need to make my prediction sooner to move my mouse and +attack accordingly.
My play style is that I want to be aim heavy and dependent, but I can't execute as well as I used to. Config change probably has less to do with this than the amount of time I spend playing, though.