It's fairly easy to tell where this post is going simply by the topic: Customization, and innovation by the most important standard of all, the player playing the game. Gameplay is an important part, but also very important is how a player perceives the gameplay on his end. A game that comes across sorta iffy and kinda clunky by one person, can be completely changed by him changing his view/look of guis, huds, and adding some sounds.
First off, in whatever from T:V is released in, there needs to be some type of support for soundpacks. For some people, the addition of certain soundpacks greatly increase the enjoyability of the game. Adding more fun stuff to say (and usually to friends/teammates since whatever you're using you pass out to them), and especially relieving boredom in certain parts of the game. (Match warmup, shitty pubs, etc). A simple voice bind editor that draws sounds off the T:V folder, (where new wav files can easily be added), would satisfy this purpose, and probably please alot of people in the process. Everyone loves customization!
Second off, all huds, reticles and such need to be able to be edited. No questions about it. There's no perfect HUD setup, and no amount of pre-set hud layouts included will satisfy everyone. An in game hud editor with the ability to resize huds to your liking, import textures/colors for certain huds, and remove huds some people may find un-needed, would fit this role nicely. Afterall, for every person you have that likes large ultra detailed huds, you have a person who likes an ultra clean looking screen with almost nothing. With lots of people inbetween. Liking your in-game hud definitely adds to the gameplay experience, and longevity of the game as a whole.
Drawing off the huds point, people should be able to make huds detailing the most minute information possible (while obviously not crossing the cheat boundry). Some people really do like certain types of information, while others don't. I'm referring to letting people see their altitude, speed, fps, distance from a waypoint, etc. Anything important in the game that information can be given of that wouldn't give an unfair advantage, should be available right off the bat. Since of course no one player is alike, and what one player likes isn't always what the other player likes. Customization is key, and its sad alot of games around today don't have it. A cookie cutter hud/info setup doesen't cut it anymore, especially after what people have seen in games like T1/T2 in that regard.
Finally, to conclude these thoughts about customization. Let people have the most detailed control over mouse sensitivities as possible. This is one area where people vary the most, from ultra high, to ultra low, to everything inbetween. In fact hardly any two players are alike in their preferences for sensitivity. However, let players have more control than just a simple slider "one size fits all" type deal. Take a que from what many scripters have done in T1/T2, and give an option to customize sensitivities for every weapon, and every vehicle. Someone may like an ultra high sensitivity for say chaingun (go figure), but may like something really low for a disc, then have something inbetween for say a laser rifle. Give people the ability to customize these things from the start, they'll thank you for it later.
I think the final thought here is, I don't think anyone dislikes customization, since everyone is different and has different tastes and preferences. Customization is always a good thing, and compared to other things, its a relatively simple problem to fix. It's sad that some games completely overlook it, since the things listed above go a long, *long* way to helping a game succeed. Individually they may be small issues, but if you put them all together, it certainly means alot. Everyone likes Ice Cream, and probably won't refuse it, but just because the same 2 people will have a vanilla cone, doesen't mean that one didn't want a rocky road instead!
First off, in whatever from T:V is released in, there needs to be some type of support for soundpacks. For some people, the addition of certain soundpacks greatly increase the enjoyability of the game. Adding more fun stuff to say (and usually to friends/teammates since whatever you're using you pass out to them), and especially relieving boredom in certain parts of the game. (Match warmup, shitty pubs, etc). A simple voice bind editor that draws sounds off the T:V folder, (where new wav files can easily be added), would satisfy this purpose, and probably please alot of people in the process. Everyone loves customization!
Second off, all huds, reticles and such need to be able to be edited. No questions about it. There's no perfect HUD setup, and no amount of pre-set hud layouts included will satisfy everyone. An in game hud editor with the ability to resize huds to your liking, import textures/colors for certain huds, and remove huds some people may find un-needed, would fit this role nicely. Afterall, for every person you have that likes large ultra detailed huds, you have a person who likes an ultra clean looking screen with almost nothing. With lots of people inbetween. Liking your in-game hud definitely adds to the gameplay experience, and longevity of the game as a whole.
Drawing off the huds point, people should be able to make huds detailing the most minute information possible (while obviously not crossing the cheat boundry). Some people really do like certain types of information, while others don't. I'm referring to letting people see their altitude, speed, fps, distance from a waypoint, etc. Anything important in the game that information can be given of that wouldn't give an unfair advantage, should be available right off the bat. Since of course no one player is alike, and what one player likes isn't always what the other player likes. Customization is key, and its sad alot of games around today don't have it. A cookie cutter hud/info setup doesen't cut it anymore, especially after what people have seen in games like T1/T2 in that regard.
Finally, to conclude these thoughts about customization. Let people have the most detailed control over mouse sensitivities as possible. This is one area where people vary the most, from ultra high, to ultra low, to everything inbetween. In fact hardly any two players are alike in their preferences for sensitivity. However, let players have more control than just a simple slider "one size fits all" type deal. Take a que from what many scripters have done in T1/T2, and give an option to customize sensitivities for every weapon, and every vehicle. Someone may like an ultra high sensitivity for say chaingun (go figure), but may like something really low for a disc, then have something inbetween for say a laser rifle. Give people the ability to customize these things from the start, they'll thank you for it later.
I think the final thought here is, I don't think anyone dislikes customization, since everyone is different and has different tastes and preferences. Customization is always a good thing, and compared to other things, its a relatively simple problem to fix. It's sad that some games completely overlook it, since the things listed above go a long, *long* way to helping a game succeed. Individually they may be small issues, but if you put them all together, it certainly means alot. Everyone likes Ice Cream, and probably won't refuse it, but just because the same 2 people will have a vanilla cone, doesen't mean that one didn't want a rocky road instead!
