Look, I love trees, I really do. I hunt, I fish, I'll pet a deer with my kids at the popcorn park zoo. I even like picking up the leaves now that I got my leaf blower/vacuum.
Trees make all those things better.
But trees in the AH maps are out of hand.
I think trees are great when I'm in a gv, or when I'm hunting a gv. They add to gameplay.
But I don't think we need forests all over the map. We've got forests in places Gvs will never travel. We've got forests on tops of mountains that it would take a panzer a year to climb.
They are killing my framerate and, I suspect, the framerates of lots of other players out there.
For what?
If you're FR doesn't take a nosedive every time you approach a tree covered hill, you probably don't notice them one way or the other. They don't significantly affect gameplay in those cases one bit and probably do only a little bit to affect your appreciation of the game.
They do, however, affect gameplay enormously if you see your FR drop from 40 to 12 every time the LA you are chasing dives to the deck. They make the game virtually unplayable. That's not at all fun.
I don't see the point.
I've turned my graphics down. All that did was make everything really, really ugly, make it impossible to see GVs on the ground and cause me to crash into the trees when they suddenly materialize in front of me.
I hate playing AH at those times. Probably not the reaction HTC was looking for.
I don't have the best machine in the world, but it's not the worst _ a 2 gig AMD processor, 640mb of ram and a 64 meg video card. Well above the supposed "minimum system requirements."
Could I upgrade? Sure I could. I could also buy myself a beautiful bamboo fly rod, a nice vintage Stratocaster or a really nice longboard to use this summer.
Or I could save the money to take my wife and kids on vacation or replace those drafty windows upstairs so I can sleep nekked even in winter. And don't get me started on the rising cost of college or the obscene price of cars.
AH is my hobby. I like it. I used to love it. I've played it for years. But if HiTech wants to engage in an arms race to see if his customers' computers can keep up with his improvements, well, in my case at least, he wins. No contest.
I might be in the minority. I tend to be. But I think it's time HTC examine all its improvements with an eye toward overall impact, both positive and negative. If his business plan is to cater to a clientele that upgrades their machines annually, then nothing needs to be done. If he's looking for a broader customer base, well then I hope they turn a cyber Paul Bunyan lose on some of those dang trees.
