Technically, that is the same. Walls, bushes, weather effects are visual clutter. They make it harder for you to see what you actually need to see. Same goes for hearing things.
This is very sensitive subject because it ultimately comes down to people. Different players do this for different reasons. For example, you might not be bothered by night time or weather effects but change weapon/projectile colours solely to gain an advantage because you are competitive player and that is only thing that matters to you. If you really don't mind weather effects in Warband that means few things: you play in very moderate sessions, not long enough to bother you, you have excellent sight/hearing which isn't bothered by low contrast and visual clutter. All things considered players like this are either rare or young. Very few older folks get to enjoy that perfect vision/hearing.
I'm not that old but my vision is moderately impaired. When you aren't able to see without aids, low contrast is a bitch. Which is exactly how night time in Warband works. There is no real night, it is just like someone drops contrast to low levels and lowers brightness also. You can try it on your monitor while on your desktop, same effect. Took me three years to get rid of that and I'm glad someone told me how to fix that bullshit.
People who change files to get advantage should be punished in some way. But not people who are trying to make their gaming experience bearable for longer periods than 20 minutes. Problem is, it is virtually impossible to know that.
Thank you for you post Leshma.
I agree with you fully, and i realise it all comes down to the same thing.. mods are mods.
But there is a diffrence between modding something to look different, then plain out removing effects or details from the game.
But i think it is very narrowminded, to simply say that if you use mods you are a cheater, since one can never tell the reasons behind it.
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