Do you have what it takes??

[HD135]

I’m curious to hear from others who have bought a new PC after playing DFLW on an older system for awhile. How you are connected to the net is obviously an important factor in game play. Not quite as evident is the role of your hardware. For those who bought new units, how much difference did it make in your game? Did you gain a competitive advantage by upgrading? If that’s too broad of a question, how about ranking the following hardware as it relates to improved game play: Processor brand/ speed, amount and type of memory, type of graphics card, monitor type and size, mouse. Feel free to list the spec’s of your system.

[Steve]

personally i rank connection as the most important thing. i got a modem, and get shot before i hear the gun shots lol.

i dont think u can excel if u have a poor connection, no way.

i played a large LAN game with 0 ping, man i couldnt believe how easy it was. ppl were actually dying when i shot them first time, it was fantastic


ok back to hardware

i play with everything on minimum - setting that is - everythign on low 640 x 480. so in theory i could get the same results using a minimum specs machine - cant remember what that is, soemthing like 400Mhz TNT2 128 mB ram etc. but i use amd 1400Mhz 64MB Gfx card 256 DDR ram on a 19 inch monitor.

if anything is important id say gfx card, but then u need a fast processor to make the best use of it...etc etc, vicious circle.

i say this besacuse one thng gets my back up. ppl who cry lag in game. this can be 2 things

1) connection - i.e. bad ping rates / packet loss
so u ask them what connection they have - "cable" or "1 MB ur server is crap its laggin" so its probably not that especially if they say the game is jerky

hmm ok so lets look at possible answer no.2

2) frame rate loss - i.e. jerky game play. and u get comments like "this map suks" " i cant play on this **** map, its too laggy" etc etc. so u ask them what their settings are "oh yeah everything is on full"

!!!!!!!!! yeah no wonder its jerkey. and the thing is its their own fault. having everything on full is stupid in my opinion. apart from having a distinct advanatge of being able to see people easier with low settings, things run smooth, and u dont **** ppl off by saying stuff sux. and in the game how many of you are actually bothered about terrain detail or how nice the the enemy uniform looks like??!?!


ok well i have an M$ optical mouse - very nice - 5 buttons, fast , accurate. most important thing is a wheel. i had a frikin awesome mouse - logitech gaming mouse, quite big but fit into ur hand like the best thing ever lol. but lacked a wheel, so i couldnt change weapons as fast so it had to do.

not really associated but - nice speakers can help a lot. this can help u find enemies very well, especially snipers. weird thing is i used to have onboard sound card which was great but i wanted more features so i bought a Sonic fury, but the sound produced by this is not accurate, ppl appeaar to be more over to the right on DF. kinda pisses me of but i suppose i can change the balance.

bigger monitor the better. i had a 15 incher and went to a LAN weekend and was instantly labelled 'n00b' hehe. noone there had a monitor less than 19". get the biggest u can afford, but dont buy the cheapest in its size bracket because the qualtiy will be bad. i went from 15" budget cheapy nasty thing to 19" flatscreen, and its probably the best thing ive ever bought for my computer. believe me its awesome. downside is i cannot use a 15" monitor now lmao, i get frustrated looking ( squinting ) at it. cost me £250 but worth every penny. and the fact that it said £300 on the box but they only charged me £250 made it all the sweeter.

i think uve heard enough from me. hope u find it useful in someway

[staffy bull]

definately connection and graphics card m8 these make hell of a difference,i must admit that like stevie says a better monitor would also help bout time i changed this 15 incher i use
amd 1600 xp
epox 8kha+
radeon 8500
512 ddr crucial
and a poxy little monitor
mmmmmmmmm must get monitor

[HooD~cto~]

have to agree with stevie, 100%--have a friend that has 256 ram, voodoo5500 graphics, and phone line connection, yet his graphics are amazing!! and he plays just as well as everyone else. settings are extreamly important. Lag--I believe lag is ones own problem, 99 % it is a peson's pc .or connection. Get more ram,a good graphics card, check your settings, you'll play better

[Scott]

My opinion...

I played fine when I had 56k and didnt know what lag was. I got really good at df2 when I was still on 56k. So when you say you cant improve, thats not true, some really really good players are on 56k. They would probably be a little better on cable, dsl etc. But then they would be alot easier to kill. Take skinbag for example. He is a great player. He would be better on cable, but he would also be easier to kill on cable.


Now for hardware. I used to play on a PII 450MHz. Didn't have any problems and ran the game fine till it got old. It started having problems running custom maps with a few more objects. Graphics lag is worce then lag in my view. I even had a GeForce2 MX/400 64MB Card. That didn't seem to help my gfx lag at all. I would recomend getting a new CPU and GFX card if you are getting lots of video lag.

But I do agree with sb alot on the moniter. I used to have a POS 15 inch 2. When I bought my new one my whole game improved alot. I could see better and things were alot clearer. I even found I liked dfhq better hehe. Flatscreens rock .

To sum it all up. 56k is fine to play with, you will probably do better on cable, but you will be killed alot more. Hardware and a nice moniter will improve your game alot. You dont really need a super system to play df. This game was made for 56kers and ****ty computers. Just look at all the other games (SoFII For example). If you got anything higher then a 250 ping you are done for. And if you got a crapy computer your game will run like crap. But 56kers can be top players in DF and crappy computers seem to run this game just fine.

[HD135]

Great, informative replies, all of them. There were a few surprises in the feedback too. I had no idea that someone on a 56K could even compete with cable and DSL players. And why is it that a faster connection means more deaths? I had not considered the relationship between high settings and game play either but will be investigating it in short order. I'm playing on a 600mhz P3, tnt2/128bit graphics card, 384mb RAM, 17in monitor, with optical wheel mouse. Connect with cable. I have fun and occassionally I'm competitive with it. However, there are those times when I run into someone that is so much better it's scary. While I am still forming the idea of pulling the trigger they have already done so, killed me, and are shooting someone else. It made me wonder if their equipment was the big difference. Think I will pacify myself with a new monitor for the time being and take it from there. Flat screen the way to go, eh?

[Steve]

Originally posted by HD135
However, there are those times when I run into someone that is so much better it's scary.

i see u met ~ÞÄцH£R~ in a game? lol

[~FB~Ghandi]

its not the connection or the hardware that decides your skill level i played DF2 and 1/3 of LW on a 56K connection and a pentium2 350mhz with a no name graphics card and a ****ty 17 inch monitor i just think there is a difrence in how you play no a slow connection and slow hardware i know when i had the slow con and the slow HW i had 2 play more sneaky and keep out of close combat because of frame lag then nades was used i used mp5 a lot in DF" and i was great with it hehe ...

now i have adsl 512/512 and a XP1400 with a GF4 graphics card and a new 19 inch monitor wwuhhuu hehe
i think its all about the time you put in the game BUT there is also some players that never learn they keep making the same mistakes

[Steve]

Originally posted by HD135
However, there are those times when I run into someone that is so much better it's scary.

Ghandi is another one of 'someone who is so much better it's scary' people



yeah i guess we missed player ability. i dont have any natural gaming talent but i have common sence ( lol this IS true ), if i'm good at a game its cause i play it too much - hence i suk at LW cause i play once every month lol. suppose i cant blame my connection any more hehe

[chunx2]

great subject HD 135 & all who replied. i recently gave my computer a small facelift & noticed the difference. ie new mother board,g-force 4 graphics card & 5-1sound card.steve talks about flat screen monitors, recently i tested my game on a 19'' sony digital flat & it blew me away.so did the price at $1,450 (aussie dollars).expensive or not u get what u pay as they say.my old sound card was a tnt2 but the 5-1 is a much clearer sound.steve also talks about frame rates. so what is good, average or bad. i know when playing if i click on the home key down the bottom it tells i have 63+ is this ok?as 4 playing against players that r good & even scary as mentiond i dont think these players get credit they deserve 4 the time they put 2 their computers 2 make things better & smoother.all 2 often u hear the (cheater word) from some fool who just got their ass kicked by some 1 who's put a lot of time,money & effort in 2 their trade ie: gunner or sniper.ps still trying 2 talk the wife in 2 the new monitor lol!!!!

[HD135]

ps still trying 2 talk the wife in 2 the new monitor lol!!!!

I see wives in Australia are no different than the ones in the U.S. If you can convince her its a piece of furniture you might have a chance.
The long and the short of this dialogue would seem to be you can't buy talent. That is actually a refreshing conclusion. It bothered me to think competitive edge was simply a matter of dollars. On the other hand that $1450 monitor might be worth a few extra kills. LOL

[machiavelli]

Small investment: lot of gain - changed few weeks tooptical mouse! it rocks... far more accuracy. I wil be using headphones soon.

[chunx2]

good 2 hear something about the optical mouse. a mate of mine switched 2 1 as well but i couldnt get much feedback on how it performed.as it turns out he cant c anything 2 shoot so he gave up playing.now he wears glassess & still wont play lol!! anyway im using a standard cordless 1 at the moment, but a cordless optical (mmmm!!) i could handle 1 of them.

[Steve]

i liked the look of the cordless optical when they first camee out but the one with a cord was £50 and the cordless was £70, and for £20 i thought i would stick with the regular one. althought they are much cheaper now

make sure u have spare batteries at the ready, imagine being in a match and them running out lol.