FoV, Mouse Accel, ETC

[DrownedOut]

Oftentimes developers make some rookie mistakes when making an FPS. If you want a discerning customer, which based on the depth of Trackmania I would assume that is correct, then a few things need to be considered.

FoV cannot be low. It cannot be a console value, which is typically below 90. 90 used to be normal on 4:3 monitors back when Quake was popular. Now, us FPS fans are lucky to get 90 in our console ported shooters. Lower FoVs are decent for couch sitting and allow that archaic tech to get better framerates by drastically lowering the power necessary to run such a squashed view. Lower FoVs also make what you are shooting at much bigger, which allows nooblets to feel good about not being so bad (I know that's uprofessional to say, but it is otherwise accurate).

Solution: Follow what Tribes: Ascend has done by allowing a selectable value from range of 90 to 120.

Mouse accel, smoothing, however you want to dress it up, needs to have the option to be completely disabled. While a select few FPS pros do in fact use this, the vast majority of us dislike it. This is also another sign of a bad console port as analog inputs make use of accel.

Cheat Protection is needed. Please don't go the route of Unreal Tournament and completely forgo any cheat protection. Likewise, Punkbuster is avidly looked down on due to it's intrusive nature and oftentimes causing server lag. VAC is decent, but does not ban for periods of time where hackers are allowed to run rampant. Red Orchestra 2 had a nice solution, by giving server operators the ability to use a combination of PB and VAC, or choose one over the other, or even nothing. Being that Maniaplanet seems rather Steam averse at the moment, I'm not sure that VAC can be expected. Perhaps a reconsideration is due as it is a nonintrusive solution.

Dedicated servers are a must. I'm guessing this is a given, but one can never know 100%. Even the soon to be released Nexuiz, an advertised hardcore arena shooter, is opting to keep P2P matchmaking (most likely due to a lack of resources for it's PC release).

[Zell]

Yep. Any FPS needs anti-cheat software!

Unlike a racing game where it's pretty obvious when someone cheats (car not moving, or fake cp times), in an FPS you could have no idea that the guy is using an aimbot or wallhax for example.
And yes, I personally had issues with Punkbuster not working on my PC in the past, but I wonder if a combo of anti-cheat software is affordable according to Nadeo. It could be a selling point for making this "the next quake" though.

[Forsak3n]

FoV seems fine for me right now, it looked like it was jumping from 90 to 100 or even more all the time so I hadn't really paid any attention to it.
Definitely agree about the mouse settings part.
This game needs an anti-cheat but it is not major because there are some awesome competitive shooters who have not so decent anti-cheat and are still top. And VAC is the anti-cheat of Source Engine, so it will never work in SM.

Also some FPS improvements would be welcome.