USER.CFG File Cheating?

Hi @graebner101 ,

First off, I am not an EA official !

So my comments here are just as from one player to another, and sharing observations and opinions.

But your question is a good and very relevant one, as recently we have observed an influx of players manipulating some of the game setting files beyond what are within the boundaries of what was intended from EA for the game and what low res settings from within the game is capable of.  And in here lies I believe the essentials why EA do indeed consider this cheating.

When comparing the screen scenario, it suddenly looks as simple as an early days Minecraft game.  Where the enemies are very clearly standing out, as aka all tree and bush foliage, ground cover and grass is all gone.  And we have already evidence that some streamers running with such manipulated settings have been banned off, even while in mid stream!

Now, I do not know if those streamers got banned off because of some other funky cheating business at the same time, but fact is they got banned off, and the link to abusing such manual editing of the system files appear at multiple occasions now to be the root cause.  And why is that, you may ask?

Well, try and look at the TOS from EA for playing the game:

(this is an exploit and an undocumented feature...)

(this is an exploit and a game altering feature...)

(this significantly changes the fair and respectful gaming environment of the EA gaming service...)

It allows the player to see enemies that would otherwise hardly would be visible, if at all.  And the contrast to enemies vs background when they run in the open is appalling versus what is achievable even with low-res in-game settings.  The question is whether improving visibility in such a way is actually cheating?  But the bans suggest DICE has already made their judgment on the matter. These kind of settings are not achievable by using the in-game resolution parameters, so even at Low-Res settings in game, you are still very far away from the result you can realize by your manual editing of the config files.  So obviously far beyond what was intended by EA and the developers for the gameplay.

So as EA appear to ban players off for this, then if you want to stay safe and play on a fair and level playing field, then you better not engage in gaming with such manipulated game files.

Again, I am not any EA official, but I have followed the development of these exploits over time and also the community- and EA reactions to them.