Toggle to lock view infront of player?

Since there's obviously been alot of bitching/legitimate debate in the other thread about the zoomed out mode been taken from us, I wanted to suggest another alternative. I personally feel very unaware in standard zoom, and flicking around the screen doesn't cut it for me, as you can't both be looking at the edge of your screen and in full control of your player short range, obviously.

So what I would suggest is if there were a way of having a camera lock which keeps you looking like you had your cursor over the horizonal edge of the screen in the way your facing, but without having the restrictions on having to keep your cursor floating over that edge, thus freeing your cursor to actually engage with your character., making moving your shield, quickly changing direction, and high angle shots possible. I'd also suggest that maybe it was setup so you still had to float around the edge to get the furthest of you view however, so you get a little bit of situational awareness behind you. Or perhaps have it so the locked camera is customisable with a couple of sliders for various bits of tweaking or whatever, maybe even have 2 or 3 preset locks that you can define, fuck knows, but this would seem like a decent way to address the problem, without giving back the full zoom out, which is legitimately a little much.

I'm aware this is in the wrong section, but given the other thread it seems like a highly important issue that extends to aot of aspects pf the game, so it seemed like the discussion of how to deal with the problem should be based here.

 

From what I see (which may be wrong), the idea behind taking full zoom out was to prevent people from fighting whilst being able to see long distances. As it is now, to see the same distance, one must scroll to the edge of the screen, thus impairing their ability to fight and restoring the balance that Geti/MM wanted in this respect.

That said, I probably misunderstood your suggestion. Are you saying that (depending on the direction the player is moving), the screen would pan slightly to the left or right to improve sight distance in the direction you are travelling, but decrease it behind you?

 

Archers by their nature are supposed to hang far back from the main line and rain arrows down on the enemy lines.

 

Yeah pretty much the idea, was more a loose suggestion open for suggestion more then anything, the main idea was just to be able to have a toggle that locked the view in the direction you were looking, but the extent to which you could see right to the limits of your view from it and other details were sort of vague. Although even if it was locked with your view pretty much as far as you could see with only a minimal amount of rear view, you still have blindspots vertically and you don't see the majority of what's behind you. I'll explain with a poor diagram

Old zoomed out view range:











My proposal (diagram "to scale" with the one above, showing what of the old view you can see):











So even with the view been to fixed to the furthest horizontal point you can see, it's still pretty far off the amount of situational awareness you had previously, you'll still have to cut off the top/bottom of your screen to look down/up, and you won't really be able to see behind yourself.

 

This is a horrible idea.

If this came out, we'd have a better chance of getting ninja'd.

By fucking builders.

Builders.

 

Whoops, what I meant to say in the first post is it'd be a keybinding, so you'd have your standard vague floaty view, and then you could toggle the camera locking to the furthest point if you so wish. Plus all the awareness in the world isn't gonna save you from Strathos's hammer, infact there are many builders round here that could fuck up a good 90% of people that play knight with theirs.

 

I was upset about the zoom out being taken away, but after readin why, it makes alot of sense!

 

And I sort of agree too, however I think not been able to see behind, above and below is quite a restriction in itself. Like I said before I don't necessarily think you'd have to be able to see to the very extent of your horizontal vision for this to be useful, just something to help you see infront of you better, and also offer a more fixed camera so you can also concentrate on your actual self and actions a little more.

 

When i actually notice i'm fighting Strathos, i prefer to just run away, charge a slash attack, and fuck him over. Or exploit his weakness: His health.

 

At first I was against, but after thinking on it, I absolutely agree with being able to lock in while panned over. Right now angle shots are incredibly difficult to judge due to it being a PITA. I personally think the tradeoff of the pan lock (you don't see your character's immediate danger) is fair enough for the ability to make consistent high angle shots.

 

Seeing some of the slightly unproductive ranting in the 3rd zoom thread - which had to be fucking locked due to people not been civil, and not really making any positive suggestions - made me think that maybe I should try get this some more attention. Still think the 3rd zoom been taken away is fine now I've had time to get used to it, and that to be honest it fit's KAGs style alot more graphically anyway, anyone that hates the pixilated look of it can get out cos that's the whole point, I dunno how the engine works but I imagine there might be a chance that you could mod the game to be higher res if it really bothers you that much anyway.

Also after playing a little more I think this view toggle might be best if it locked your view somewhere about 70-80% in one direction, and it shouldn't lock your camera vertically so arced shots are still trickier then with the normal camera mode we have currently, and looking up and down is possible still while maintaining that distant view without arsing around.