There's been an exploit in the game I refuse to use to change to 120 FOV and coming from games like tf2 where we could change it on demand - I can confidently say it's a massive advantage.
So I have a few thoughts and questions here. Is this exploit bannable? If not, why not? It definitely shouldn't be allowed especially in a game with crossplay.
I was kinda hoping this would've been fixed by now but it's been a long time. What's the deal?
@itz-majman If that's true it seems like 99% of people who got banned are ones we will / have never heard about but ones who make content for thousands or even tens of thousands of people are still running around with 120 FoV unpunished.
There are more and more videos on youtube, specifically in the kill montage community spreading that it is really obvious they are using this exploit. I've not heard of anyone being banned but it's becoming such common knowledge I think they need to address the problem soon.
If people aren't getting banned for it then it's just going to be arbitrarily punishing those of us who chose not to use it and making the game unfair to anyone on console(more so than it already is with load times and mouse movement)
Some videos even show people's pirate names and how to do the exploit yourself, what to change in the files ect... I'm not sure cracking down on the community is the right choice personally.
I'd like to see them just put in some anticheat protection that gets you in trouble if you start changing values like that. Maybe I don't know enough about game programming but surely there's gotta be a way to just lock people out of it.
@gallerine5582 said in Can we talk about the FOV exploit?:
Its changing the games core files so yes it's technically bannable, I'm not sure if anyone HAS been banned, and I'm not sure what they could do to fix it but I'm not dev.
No, such as everyone else that cheat similar....no one is being banned for it. - I see constant streamers that uses it and rare does jack sheit.
So for now it's not bannable as no one has reportedly been it.
Can't understand how people would want to play like that anyway, it hurts my eyes deluxe.
It SHOULD be bannable as you're tempering with the game files so.
@burnbacon said in Can we talk about the FOV exploit?:
Question is. How would you report someone?
If you suspect them.
Can't really do that tbh, other than just seeing their gameplay.
Haven't seen a single streamer use it and if they use it they have 1 viewer.
Here is the mod-statement if anyone was wondering https://www.seaofthieves.com/community/forums/topic/134246/bans-for-120-fov/31
Yeah at least streamers aren't doing it but youtubers sure are. I'm not looking to get community members banned honestly.
I'd rather just attention be brought to this issue and have the devs look for a solution. It should be more on the devs to fix this rather than the community to track down and investigate or find evidence of something almost impossible to prove.
I'm pretty sure Rare can run a file-check on the files involved in this exploit and just handout bans based on diffrences from the original file since you have to change a value to make it work.
@itz-majman I don't think they even need to apply bans. Just set a hardcoded limit for specific settings in Unreal Engine. Hell Let Loose recently did something like this to prevent people from changing the graphics so much that grass covered nearly disappeared.
@itz-majman It seems like one of them streamed some time back but right now they are just making videos to youtube. If you are curious I can DM you their names as I'm not sure if calling them here on forums would be considered as "Witch-hunting and Call-Outs"
Yea kinda sad to see creators abuse something like that, specially when Rare has already stated it's ban worthy
@itz-majman yeah, be seems like a great player and a funny guy, but it definitely feels like an exploit. Plus, it’s honestly not the ideal way to watch as a viewer. It’s just not as pleasant or pretty to watch.
I hope it doesn’t become prevalent either way.
@limend said in Can we talk about the FOV exploit?:
@itz-majman It seems like one of them streamed some time back but right now they are just making videos to youtube. If you are curious I can DM you their names as I'm not sure if calling them here on forums would be considered as "Witch-hunting and Call-Outs"
Yeah probably a good call not to specifically call people out by name in public like that.
@thecobra7191 said in Can we talk about the FOV exploit?:
Its not an exploit. Its a config file that Rare willingly gives you access to.
If they were willingly giving access to everyone it would be an in-game setting, not a file you have to change outside of the game, only available on one platform.
@triheadedmonkey said in Can we talk about the FOV exploit?:
@thecobra7191 Any tampering with or editing of game files is not allowed and can be classed as cheating.
If an option was intended it would be available in the game settings.
I'm sorry but Sea of Thieves has massive FOV issues with viewport scaling. I have an ultra-wide monitor and the viewport scaling is set to use the horizontal (X-axis) to scale the image. The result is that, even at max FOV, I still get nausea and a headache playing because of how low the effective FOV is (it basically zooms in). I feel like I am looking through a straw. I don't have this issue in other games.
You don't need to increase the FOV limit in settings, I can easily see how this is unfair to other players so I agree it should stay capped around 90-100, but the game is literally unplayable for people with ultra-wide/multi-monitor setups without a high FOV because the scaling uses the horizontal viewport length instead of the vertical length and our effective FOV is lower than what is intended.
Fix this and I have no issues with limiting FOV for gameplay balance but until then, for those people with wide viewports, it's either this or ask for a refund.
Edit: Also, just wondering as a software engineer, why is something that shouldn't be tampered with stored in a configuration file in plain-text format? it should at least be binary to stop easy editing. If it's important enough, encrypt it or store it server-side, which the game does almost everything (as it should be).
Edit2: This image should illustrate the problem with the FOV scaling:
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@triheadedmonkey "tampering" is not really the word to use about a config file that any user has access to. If you didnt want people to be able to do it you wouldnt give them the tools to do it. Its like selling someone a car, and giving them the tools they need to replace the engine, but you get mad if they replace the engine. As long as that config file is readily available people will use it. Especially since people have been asking for years about implementing higher fov. 90 simply isnt enough on a game that focuses this much on constantly scanning the horizon etc.
And honestly the fact that youre banning people for it just goes against your whole "accessibility" stance. Many people make this edit to the config file because they literally cant play the game otherwise. I know so many that get sick after extended periods of playtime on 90 fov, and theres lots of posts about that on the forum too.
@needsmokes lol theres always a solution. Have it be a toggle in accessibility settings, 120 fov enabled but render resolution drops to 75%. Xbox would handle that fine, and if you get sick from 90 fov, lower render resolution will have to be the tradeoff.
Youre still not getting the point lol. There are exclusive PvE players using this because they would otherwise get nausea from playing too long. Its not about advantage or disadvantage, although there are a few niche situations where it might benefit a PvP player. All the more reason to actually implement it properly.
@needsmokes also, lets say they remove the config file. What is stopping people from buying an ultrawide monitor? Are they exploiting too? It has the same effect, just with slightly less vertical fov. Ban all ultrawide monitor users too?
Not to mention: different aspect ratios and reslutions can also result in effectively anywhere from 100-110 horizontal fov with slightly less vertical fov. Ban all people that use anything other than 16:9 too?
@thecobra7191 If it gives you less vertical FOV, then maybe it just stretches the existing 90 FOV image to the sides? I don't think compatible hardware is even capable to change hard-coded variables in a game, correct me if I'm wrong here please, but if that were the case then we could adjust stuff like FOV using buttons on the monitor itself.
by the way, it was mentioned before, but as long as SoT supports the older hardware it won't change to have higher FOV than 90 since that affects hardware performance (graphic card has to draw more pixels and render more objects in case of a higher field of view) - and what's the point in offering an option that is not even stable on a certain supported hardware, right?
@shralla said in Can we talk about the FOV exploit?:
They just need to increase the max FOV on all platforms and it literally solves all the problems. It's absolutely unreal that they haven't done this yet.
This doesn't literally solve all of the problems because the game itself states putting it higher than 70° can cause problems. This means that older platforms will likely struggle more.
@uzugijin widescreens do stretch the fov, my friend has an ultrawide monitor and when comparing screenshots while standing in the exact same spot, he can see more horizontally and a bit less vertically. Same thing with resolutions and aspect ratio, change to something like 4:3, and youll notice you can see more horizontally as well.
I already offered a solution for older hardware. Make it a toggle in acessibility settings and warn the user that if they turn on higher fov ranges, the game might lower the render resolution to keep constant framerates. Its not that hard, we already have a render resolution scaling slider on PC.
viewport scaling with horizontal axis.
