Before you read this guide, it might be a good idea to make
a backup-copy of your Anarchy Online/prefs/ folder, since most of the options
we are going to show you will alter the configuration-files in such a manner that
you might want to reset them to their original values. Please note that we wont
guarantee you that changing these options will make you able to login due to things
like your graphics card not being able to handle the option properly or anything
like that, so please, make sure that you back up your prefs/ folder before attempting
any surgery.
As we are sure you are aware, pressing F10 will bring up the
options menu.
A lot of the options in here directly affects how you perceive things in game
- others require you to relogin and yet others have some effect immediately but
will take full effect the next time you log in. The one area in the options that
we won't be looking at are the keyboard options.
While it is possible to bind these via the /options command, we think that unless
you are going to do a lot of major reconstructions, you should be changing the
keyboard commands in-game rather than script them. |
|
You might want to change your options for a lot of reasons really - wouldn't it
be nice to be able to lower your graphical options with a single scripted command
in PvP-situations? Or perhaps you would like to get rid of the names that keep
floating above your head and can't find that option? This is all possible using
the option-command, which we will demonstrate in this guide. To activate an option,
you will need to enter it like so :
The option-command works like many other commands. However it is imperative that
you pay attention to that the options themselves are case-sensitive, i.e.-
ShowAllNames
will work, whereas
Showallnames will not.
To make things somewhat easier for you, we have sorted the options into a couple
of categories just like in the game itself -
Sound,
Environment,
Miscellaneous,
Visual and
Chat options. Some of the options
in these cathegories you will see in the in-game options as well - others you
wont, they're "hidden" from you. We will make a note of every such option
as they appear.
So lets begin with
Sound-options, shall we? These are the commands available
for utilizing the sound-options :
 |
 |
| Option |
Range |
Activates |
Description |
| SoundFXOn |
1/0 |
Instantly |
Turns Sound off or on |
| MusicOn |
1/0 |
Instantly |
Turns Music off or on |
| VoiceSndFxOn |
1/0 |
Instantly |
Turns Voices off or on |
| BattlemusicMode |
0-2 |
Instantly |
Toggles between the options when battlemusic
is being played. |
| MasterVolume |
0.0-1.0 |
Instantly |
Changes the volume of all sounds |
| FXVolume |
0.0-1.0 |
Instantly |
Changes the volume of Sound Effects only |
| MusicVolume |
0.0-1.0 |
Instantly |
Changes the volume of Music only |
| VoiceSndFxVolume |
0.0-1.0 |
Instantly |
Changes the volume of Voices only |
| VoiceSndFxType |
1-3 |
Instantly |
Toggles between the types of voices you want
for your character (cool, military, normal) |
| VoiceSndFxHearFriendsOn |
1/0 |
Instantly |
Turns Voices in private tells off or on |
| VoiceSndFxHearGuildOn |
1/0 |
Instantly |
Turns Voices in Guildchat off or on |
| VoiceSndFxHearTeamOn |
1/0 |
Instantly |
Turns Voices in team chat off or on |
| VoiceSndFxHearVicinityOn |
1/0 |
Instantly |
Turns Voices in vicinity chat off or on |
|
|
 |
There is no hidden option inside the sound-options available with the /option-command,
however, there doesn't really need to be one either.
Worth noting is that any options with Voices is only available for those that
own the Notum Wars Expansion pack so you might not be able to change these options.
Then again, if you don't have Notum Wars, you won't be needing to either, so don't
fret about it.
Sound-options are really not that important, but the Notum Wars Voices are definitely
a nice set of options, especially if you like mixing the different types of voices
to personalize your Voice-messages better. Also, toggling sound on and off might
be useful as well.
Next up are the
Environment-options. Environment takes care of the world
around you, it's what makes the water actually look like water and if you have
noticed those small frogs and butterflies and rabbits hopping and flying around,
the client takes care of these functions from here as well, so this is actually
quite a fun place to experiment with.
|
|
| Option |
Range |
Activates |
Description |
| BuffsFX |
1/0 |
On zoning |
Turns buffing nanoeffects off or on |
| EnvironmentFX |
1/0 |
On zoning |
Turns misc effects off or on like smoke from
exhausts and vents |
| MuzzleFlashFX |
1/0 |
On zoning |
Turns weapon particle-effects off or on |
| NanoEffectFX |
1/0 |
On zoning |
Turns combat nanoeffects off or on |
| TracersFX |
1/0 |
On zoning |
Turns other particle-effects off or on |
| OthersFX |
1/0 |
On zoning |
Turns all other effects off or on for instance
the shimmering of zoneborders |
| Shadows |
1/0 |
On relogin |
Turns characters casting shadows off or on |
| SimpleClouds |
1/0 |
Instantly |
Turns basic clouds off or on |
| RealisticClouds |
1/0 |
Instantly |
Turns complex clouds off or on |
| UseCloudShadows |
1/0 |
On relogin |
Turns clouds casting shadows off or on |
| RealisticWater |
1/0 |
On relogin |
Turns water animations off or on |
| RealisticMoons |
1/0 |
Instantly |
Turns moons at night off or on |
| Sunrays |
1/0 |
Instantly |
Turns sunrays off or on |
| StarRotation |
1/0 |
Instantly |
Turns the slow rotation of stars at night off
or on |
| ShowAllNames |
1/0 |
Instantly |
Turns character-names over head off or on |
| Wildlife |
1/0 |
Instantly |
Turns client wildlife critters like frogs and
rabbits and butterflies off or on |
| IsSpaceShipsShown |
1/0 |
Instantly |
Turns spaceships in the sky off or on |
| FogMode |
0-3 |
Instantly |
Toggles between the different fogmodes |
| GroundRendering |
0-3 |
On relogin |
Toggles between the differnent ways of rendering
the ground |
|
|
|
There are a lot of things to be said about this category - first off - the spaceship
option is another one that only owners of the Notum Wars Expansion pack have access
to. There are also a lot of options in here that are hidden from the normal interface
- cloudshadows, realistic moons, sunrays, star rotation and the show all names
options. The ShowAllNames option is currently bugged however and will not actually
save itself, so you will have to do this every single time you log in which is
quite frustrating - we are hoping for a fix for this sometime soon.
As for the fogmode I can safely say that this is a huge FPS-drainer, experiment
with it and you will see what I mean, if you run into some heavy fog. And not
only that, but it will make you able to see where you are going instead of wandering
around aimlessly waiting for a band of rogue atrox enforcers bashing you on the
head around the next tree.
Changing your environment-options will help you reduce lag (a bit) and increase
your FPS (a bit) but it will also make the game (a bit) uglier, so you might want
to think about what you want to use and what not to. We can't recommend turning
off the Liquid Animation for water for instance, as in some cases with video cards,
this will actually make water completely transparen't and not show up on your screen
at all. So all of a sudden you might find yourself trying swim through thin air,
and as funky as that might sound, in the end it just isn't very practical.
On another note - some video cards have a problem if you shut up Realistic Moons
- you will experience the mirror wall effect a bit everywhere in the game if you
do this, so if you encounter this particular graphical error, just switch moons
back on again.
On to our next category now, the
Miscellaneous options. In the miscellaneous
options you will find.. well.. the options that don't really fit in with the other
options. Options that aren't as socially adept as other options you might say,
however, they are still options that we love very dearly...
|
|
| Option |
Range |
Activates |
Description |
| OpacityOnViews |
0-100 |
Instantly |
Changes how opaque your inventory for instance
should be - 0% and it will "disappear" while 100% will not make it transparen't
at all. |
| ChatIndicator |
1/0 |
Instantly |
Turns flashing heads on chatting characters off
or on |
| MouseLookInverted |
1/0 |
Instantly |
Turns inverted vertical axis on mouse off or
on |
| ShowTipOfTheDay |
1/0 |
On relogin |
Turns Tip of the day off or on |
| UseNoBobCamera |
1/0 |
Instantly |
Turns the bobbing camera off and on |
| IsOrgNameShownOverHead |
1/0 |
Instantly |
Turns organization names over head off or on |
| AutoAttackMOB |
1/0 |
Instantly |
Turns autoattack in PvM off or on |
| AutoAttackPvP |
1/0 |
Instantly |
Turns autoattack in PvP off or on |
| AutoTargetMOB |
1/0 |
Instantly |
Turns autotarget in PvM off or on |
| AutoTargetPvP |
1/0 |
Instantly |
Turns autotarget in PvP off or on |
| 3rdPersonCamera |
1/0 |
Instantly |
Toggles between First Person View and Third Person
View |
|
|
|
Needless to say, the most interesting options in here are the AutoAttack options,
but before we comment on that, let it be said that if you change IsOrgNameShownOverHead
on or off, this will reset the value of a similar command in the
Environment
Options - ShowAllNames, so do IsOrgName... first and then ShowAllNames and
you should be fine.
Now, to the autoattacking and autotargeting. Autoattacking means that unless you
are already in combat, you will attack the player(PvP) or mob(PvM) that is attacking
you. There are a number of reasons as to why you might not want to do this - calming
mobs is one of them for instance - on the other hand - there are situations in
which you might very well want to set yourself on autoattack, so having macros
or scripts for these options can really enhance your gameplay.
Next in line is the
Visual-options, one that has quite a few useful commands,
at least if you have a problem remembering the setup you used to take the latest
screenshot, or if you have to switch to another setup running windowed mode. Most
of these settings won't take effect until you relogin, some (classified as Activating:
Relogin) will take SOME effect instantly, but only take full effect once you relogin.
|
|
| Option |
Range |
Activates |
Description |
| ViewDistance |
0.0-1.0 |
Instantly |
Changes the view distance to relative to the
world on your character. |
| CharViewDistance |
0-80 |
Instantly |
Changes the view distance relative to other characters
on your character |
| GroundFullQualityRadius |
3-15 |
On relogin |
Determines the radius of where the ground stops
rendering itself in full quality |
| GroundQuality |
100-200 |
On relogin |
Determines what in fact is full quality for the
purpose of rendering the ground |
| TextureResolution |
0-2 |
On relogin |
Toggles the texture quality - low, medium, high |
| OtherTextureQuality |
1-3 |
On relogin |
Toggles between the different texture resolutions
available |
| CompressedTextures |
1/0 |
On relogin |
Toggles Compressed textures off or on |
|
|
|
Two of the most useful commands in the game can be found in this category, namely
ViewDistance and CharViewDistance. Changing these will dramatically increase your
FPS and reduce "lag" (what is perceived as lag for many really is graphics
slowing the computer down, not network coding issues). For instance - if you are
in a very crowded place and need to see the mobs you are going to target, we highly
recommend that you pull down your CharViewDistance to 0. That way you won't see
anyone that isn't practically standing on top of you, but you will see mobs. A
recommended setting for "all purpose play" is that you set ViewDistance
to 0.5 and CharViewDistance to 0.3 - it might feel odd to begin with, but you
won't regret it later on.
There are commands for changing the bitdepth and resolution for your next relogin
- however, these seem bugged at the moment and won't actually save them. When
or if they are working, we will add them to the guide.
Last but not least - the
Chat-options. Chat options together with the options
in the
Miscellaneous section can be used in great conjuction to make your
life a lot easier in PvP / PvM situations, as we hope you will see when presented
with the selections of options available...
|
|
| Option |
Range |
Activates |
Description |
| JapaneseToChat |
1/0 |
Instantly |
Turns Japenese chat off or on |
| MeGotXpToChat |
1/0 |
Instantly |
Turns information about gained XP off or on |
| MeHealedToChat |
1/0 |
Instantly |
Turns information about being healed off or on |
| MeHitByNanoToChat |
1/0 |
Instantly |
Turns information about getting hit by an hostile
nano off or on |
| MeHitOtherToChat |
1/0 |
Instantly |
Turns information about you hitting a target
off or on |
| MissesToChat |
1/0 |
Instantly |
Turns information about anyone in the proximity
missing off or on |
| MonsterHitMeToChat |
1/0 |
Instantly |
Turns information about mobs hitting you off
or on |
| OtherHitByNanoToChat |
1/0 |
Instantly |
Turns information about others in the proximity
getting hit by hostile nanos off or on |
| OtherHitOtherToChat |
1/0 |
Instantly |
Turns information about others in the proximity
hitting each other off or on |
| PlayerHitMeToChat |
1/0 |
Instantly |
Turns information about players hitting you off
or on |
|
|
|
As you can see, setting a lot of these options to 0 will reduce your battlespam
quite a lot, and make it easier to follow up in teamchat - it might also be wise
if you find yourself in large-scale PvP situations to turn some of these options
off in order to listen to what others are saying. As for a general tip, we have
MeHealedToChat,
MeHitByNanoToChat and
PlayerHitMeToChat activated.
These settings provide a nice middlegrounds for most people. Doctors being the
exception where it can be nice to see who is getting hit by whom, and so on.
So why make all this fuss over options that you could just set before relogging
every time? Well, like I mentioned before, I'm pretty into screenshots, and changing
the visual options depending on the way I play the game, so that is one area where
I really have started using these options. We compiled four scripts which you
can
download
here. They work like this :
|
|
| Command |
Description |
| /vis1 |
Turns Visual Effects and Texture Quality options to High
Settings |
| /vis2 |
Turns Visual Effects and Texture Quality options to Low Settings |
| /vispvp |
Activates the Chat-Feedback for PvP |
| /vispvm |
Activates the Chat-Feedback for PvM |
|
|
|
Final Word
There are more commands out there, but those are commands that we either feel
are too specialized for inclusions in this guide, outdated, or simply commands
that we have no idea what they do and wouldn't want to post them here in fear
of rampaging atroxes starting to jump out of our ears. If you find any more commands
- please don't hesitate to
tell
us about them and their use!
Last updated 23. January 2003
