Quick Question Regarding ICE Mod

[Leschar]

How much of the player base is split using the ICE Mod do you think? (Overhaul mod if nobody knows what I mean) I can't imagine many care about it?

[Mr. September]

Considering the average player most likely won't even use simple mods for mundane things even after they do everything in the game, I think the user amount is in the double-digits, perhaps in lower triple-digits at best.

A newbie won't even know about ICE, and likely wouldn't use it if they learn about it; how it works and what it changes. Odds are, they probably will never use any mods to begin with.

A veteran might use it, but ICE changes the game drastically in terms of moment-to-moment gameplay (a good example is movesets and combos). Unless the person in question has other people to play with, chances are they won't use ICE alone.

While I might not agree with a lot of Capcom's design choices (and how they handled some other things), I still don't like ICE due to the core gameplay changes. When I get reminded of ICE, the only things I can think of are: "At what point is a game no longer what the developers intended to create? When is it an entirely different game?". That's the main reason I refuse to mention it in my modding guide whatsoever.

I may not necessarily hate ICE, but I have a few solid reasons to dislike it and not recommend it to others. To add, most of the mods/changes included in ICE can be obtained by using other mods without locking yourself out of the regular community (and without bothering other people, of course).

All in all, there isn't much of a reason to use ICE unless you exhausted literally all content available to you, including Custom Quests. Considering how small that sort of playerbase would be, I think that's your answer.

[rina]

Less than 1%. Most players download their mods from nexus so if its not there, the chances of it being popular are basically zero.

[Armameteus]

As an aside, I liked the concept of ICE before it got ridiculously bloated with changes to movesets, enemy AI, drop tables, MVs, etc. All it needed to do was lightly retouch the larger issues with World/Iceborne (looking at you, Clutch Claw) to balance things a bit better. But they instead pushed it way past that point and then some; ICE now plays almost nothing like World or Iceborne at all. It's like an entirely different (and, in my opinion, stripped-down/dumbed-down) version of the game, like a spin-off or a re-imagining. Perhaps even a regression in terms of scope and depth, like an attempt to turn it back into Old World Monster Hunter or something.

And that's fine for those that want that experience. Play the game however you like, but I wouldn't personally recommend it.

[makinaccion]

I remember reading something about it, then got to a part in which it said something about buffing HBG, laughed really damn loudly and closed the tab. That was a long time ago though so no idea how it evolved.

For more content, I wholeheartedly recommend the -mhg- quest pack, it's basically the true endgame!

[Qua2ar]

It's a wierd balance mod, that changes stuff thats higly unnecessary. The balance in regards to weapons is wack in the normal game but this mod makes it even worse.

[Mr. September]

Originally posted by makinaccion:

I remember reading something about it, then got to a part in which it said something about buffing HBG, laughed really damn loudly and closed the tab.

Oh for fu... That just can't be true. Tell me it's not true... I refuse to believe that. I knew they had some highly questionable changes in ICE but a buff to HBG (out of all weapons) sounds too stupid to be true.

I checked the changes for that while typing this and bloody hell... It's just ridiculous. Light Bowgun isn't any better either... Some changes are REALLY good though, I'll admit. Notably, the Rapid Fire one that makes all additional shots go individually if you alter your aim during firing (which isn't the case, by default).

Originally posted by Armameteus:

As an aside, I liked the concept of ICE before it got ridiculously bloated with changes to movesets, enemy AI, drop tables, MVs, etc. All it needed to do was lightly retouch the larger issues with World/Iceborne (looking at you, Clutch Claw) to balance things a bit better. But they instead pushed it way past that point and then some; ICE now plays almost nothing like World or Iceborne at all. It's like an entirely different (and, in my opinion, stripped-down/dumbed-down) version of the game, like a spin-off or a re-imagining. Perhaps even a regression in terms of scope and depth, like an attempt to turn it back into Old World Monster Hunter or something.

If anything, it needs a Lite version. Obviously, for such a thing to happen, a lot of the things would have to be removed, trimmed off or otherwise changed. Mods can already provide what ICE does (for the most part) as well, so a Lite version is redundant unless it offers something unique without changing the entire experience and/or separating you from the majority of the playerbase.

In my opinion, whoever had the idea for ICE wanted to make their own rules for one reason or another. I think they had at least some good intentions at the start, but ended up vastly overengineering their work. It would have worked well otherwise, if they stayed reasonable. Some changes that are not found in standalone mod form are actually pretty reasonable and useful but the rest of it spoils it.

[ominumi]

A lot of the changes are questionable to me. Many of the weapon fix are to maximize buff uptime with little to no downtime. Then there's reverting tons of Iceborne changes back to base MHW stuff. I find it weird they didn't do anything to Gunlance shelling damage.

[Leschar]

Yeah I didn't expect many people. Seemed like something friends would download for a different style of gameplay. Thanks for the detailed responses! Maybe they will announce MW2 this fall.

[Armameteus]

Originally posted by Leschar:

Maybe they will announce MW2 this fall.:tabbycat:

Nah, Monster Hunter Universe! Like any franchise that's run out of ideas, it's time to take it to SPACE!

[Seamus]

Originally posted by Mr. September:

Originally posted by makinaccion:

I remember reading something about it, then got to a part in which it said something about buffing HBG, laughed really damn loudly and closed the tab.

Oh for fu... That just can't be true. Tell me it's not true... I refuse to believe that. I knew they had some highly questionable changes in ICE but a buff to HBG (out of all weapons) sounds too stupid to be true.

I checked the changes for that while typing this and bloody hell... It's just ridiculous. Light Bowgun isn't any better either... Some changes are REALLY good though, I'll admit. Notably, the Rapid Fire one that makes all additional shots go individually if you alter your aim during firing (which isn't the case, by default).

Originally posted by Armameteus:

As an aside, I liked the concept of ICE before it got ridiculously bloated with changes to movesets, enemy AI, drop tables, MVs, etc. All it needed to do was lightly retouch the larger issues with World/Iceborne (looking at you, Clutch Claw) to balance things a bit better. But they instead pushed it way past that point and then some; ICE now plays almost nothing like World or Iceborne at all. It's like an entirely different (and, in my opinion, stripped-down/dumbed-down) version of the game, like a spin-off or a re-imagining. Perhaps even a regression in terms of scope and depth, like an attempt to turn it back into Old World Monster Hunter or something.

If anything, it needs a Lite version. Obviously, for such a thing to happen, a lot of the things would have to be removed, trimmed off or otherwise changed. Mods can already provide what ICE does (for the most part) as well, so a Lite version is redundant unless it offers something unique without changing the entire experience and/or separating you from the majority of the playerbase.

In my opinion, whoever had the idea for ICE wanted to make their own rules for one reason or another. I think they had at least some good intentions at the start, but ended up vastly overengineering their work. It would have worked well otherwise, if they stayed reasonable. Some changes that are not found in standalone mod form are actually pretty reasonable and useful but the rest of it spoils it.

A lot of the changes in ICE were crowd sourced concepts from speedrunners initially and has since expanded from there via a suggestion channel on the official server that people can vote for or against.

Final decision comes down to asterisk and the other modders though.

[ominumi]

Originally posted by Seamus:

Originally posted by Mr. September:

Oh for fu... That just can't be true. Tell me it's not true... I refuse to believe that. I knew they had some highly questionable changes in ICE but a buff to HBG (out of all weapons) sounds too stupid to be true.

I checked the changes for that while typing this and bloody hell... It's just ridiculous. Light Bowgun isn't any better either... Some changes are REALLY good though, I'll admit. Notably, the Rapid Fire one that makes all additional shots go individually if you alter your aim during firing (which isn't the case, by default).

If anything, it needs a Lite version. Obviously, for such a thing to happen, a lot of the things would have to be removed, trimmed off or otherwise changed. Mods can already provide what ICE does (for the most part) as well, so a Lite version is redundant unless it offers something unique without changing the entire experience and/or separating you from the majority of the playerbase.

In my opinion, whoever had the idea for ICE wanted to make their own rules for one reason or another. I think they had at least some good intentions at the start, but ended up vastly overengineering their work. It would have worked well otherwise, if they stayed reasonable. Some changes that are not found in standalone mod form are actually pretty reasonable and useful but the rest of it spoils it.

A lot of the changes in ICE were crowd sourced concepts from speedrunners initially and has since expanded from there via a suggestion channel on the official server that people can vote for or against.

Final decision comes down to asterisk and the other modders though.

Heh... that makes a lot of sense. It strikes me odd when monster's hitzone were not changed much. Not to mention Low Rank would be a cake walk with ICE mod. Hell, even Master Rank would be a cake walk. Most of the changes really only benefit Post Guiding Land.

[Mr. September]

Originally posted by Seamus:

A lot of the changes in ICE were crowd sourced concepts from speedrunners initially and has since expanded from there via a suggestion channel on the official server that people can vote for or against.

Final decision comes down to asterisk and the other modders though.

That answers a few things. Good to know. Thanks for the heads-up.

[Seamus]

Originally posted by ominumi:

Heh... that makes a lot of sense. It strikes me odd when monster's hitzone were not changed much. Not to mention Low Rank would be a cake walk with ICE mod. Hell, even Master Rank would be a cake walk. Most of the changes really only benefit Post Guiding Land.

They were changed enough to de-emphasize tenderizing while tenderizing its self was changed to a fixed 5% reduction rather than... whatever the hell the math is in the unmodded game. Don't remember tenderize math off the top of my head anymore.

That along with the removal of clagger just ends up with better overall gameplay flow.

[Leschar]

Originally posted by Seamus:

Originally posted by ominumi:

Heh... that makes a lot of sense. It strikes me odd when monster's hitzone were not changed much. Not to mention Low Rank would be a cake walk with ICE mod. Hell, even Master Rank would be a cake walk. Most of the changes really only benefit Post Guiding Land.

They were changed enough to de-emphasize tenderizing while tenderizing its self was changed to a fixed 5% reduction rather than... whatever the hell the math is in the unmodded game. Don't remember tenderize math off the top of my head anymore.

That along with the removal of clagger just ends up with better overall gameplay flow.

Yeah I will say the Clutch claw is cool, but the tenderizing was a bit silly.

[Seamus]

Originally posted by Leschar:

Yeah I will say the Clutch claw is cool, but the tenderizing was a bit silly.

Hitzones being changed to force emphasis on it was the worst part.

Which carries over to rise in that Narga's hitzones are the iceborne hitzones but with no option to tenderize. So when he's in rage mode, you have ZERO weakzones with guns/bows.

It's unpleasant.