Config Settings/In-game Config Update

[Soukyuu]

Yeah, so? Just have a pop-up window tell the player that some settings will not be applied until the game is restarted. Problem solved. There's no need to have a separate, external program. All that does is make things more complicated than they need to be.

That doesn't really change the fact you have to restart the client, no? I see no problem with an external program tbh, just make it accessible from the client login screen. It would also make sense to keep all settings in the external program AND have those settings which don't require a restart ingame at the same time.

[Rhianu]

That doesn't really change the fact you have to restart the client, no?

Restarting the game is still faster than exiting the game, starting up a separate program, changing the setting(s) you want, closing that program, and then starting the game up again.

Without an external config program:
1. Change Settings
2. Exit Game
3. Start Game

With an external config program:
1. Exit Game
2. Start Up Config Program
3. Change Settings
4. Exit Config Program
5. Start Game

Really, I don't know why you think an external config program would make things faster, because it wouldn't. In fact it actually slows things down.

[Soukyuu]

Really, I don't know why you think an external config program would make things faster, because it wouldn't. In fact it actually slows things down.

Because when you look at the external program for the first time, before starting the game, you can set it up according to what you think your PC can handle, for example turning off AO, instead of logging in with everything maxed and having 1fps.

It never hurts having both, both write to the same .cfg file anyway. It can even be part of the login UI as I already said.

And one more click to close the config program doesn't warrant a separate point on the list, else you could start counting how many clicks/keypresses you need to reach the config ingame >_>;;

[Rhianu]

Because when you look at the external program for the first time, before starting the game

Stop right there. That's exactly the opposite of what usually happens. People don't look for an external configuration program before they start the game. They just start the game first and then look to change the settings afterwards if the defaults aren't to their liking.

And yes, actually it does hurt to have things in an external program because that's not what people naturally expect. Pretty much every other PC game does everything in-game, so to do things externally is highly unusual, and causes significant confusion for new players. I can't even count the number of times I've seen someone in FFXI or FFXIV ask how to change settings, only to have to explain to them that the game has an external configuration program that's separate from the game itself. It's just not intuitive or user-friendly to have a separate program for configuration purposes.

And one more click to close the config program doesn't warrant a separate point on the list, else you could start counting how many clicks/keypresses you need to reach the config ingame >_>;;

Actually, I would count that, too. A good, well designed UI should allow you to use as few clicks as is conceivably possibly to accomplish whatever task the UI was designed to accomplish. If there's even one unnecessary click, then the UI has room for improvement.

[Rhianu]

Having two separate methods of configuration would be redundant. Redundancy is also something to be avoided in UI design.

And sure, maybe some people mess around with the configuration settings before they start a game, but most people generally don't, the reason being that you don't know how things will run on the default settings the first time, so any changes you make would be like shooting in the dark. You don't really know how it'll impact the game.

[Soukyuu]

the reason being that you don't know how things will run on the default settings the first time

Oh I do. Because I build my systems myself and know their limitations. I think we should just agree to disagree on this one, I don't want to fill another page with this.