Camera control combat

[His name is Robert Paulson]

So, the game is great so far, but there's one thing that bugs the hell out of me. The camera controls during combat and in the ship designer are completely non-intuitive.

Something sane would be the ability to center on a unit and then hold/drag left-click to move the camera view around the unit as a pivot, then use the mouse wheel to zoom out and back in. I don't quite understand how the controls work right now, but it shouldn't be this difficult and rough to use.

Secondary to this which makes it all the more noticeable, the automatic camera modes are pretty bad during combat. The top down view cuts out the top and bottom parts of the fight and the cinematic view has bad angles.

Is there any intention to take a look at this or is this set in stone?

[His name is Robert Paulson]

I've been messing around with it a bit. I'd honestly be happy if I could just remap the controls for it. But this is odd ... left-click to move around, no pivot and middle mouse button for spinning the camera? Who came up with this?

[Lyle]

Yes its garbage.

Its basically the same controls as the strategy map. But since the arenas are supposed to allow you to go underneath the horizontal axis, it breaks down. And the sensitivity for dragging is based on your angle in relation to the horizontal plane. The actual keybinds I have no qualms with though. Middle mouse for rotation feels consistent with the rest of the game.

Auto-cam modes are pretty much garbage too. Top down is ok, but kinda defeats the whole purpose of the Viewer.

I believe they are going to revisit this, but it seems many players prefer autocombat so it might not be a huge priority for the dev team. The more players crying out for further Battle Viewer polish, the better the odds of getting it.

[His name is Robert Paulson]

Disappointing. If I could just focus on a single unit as a pivot for the camera and rebind the middle mouse button to my left mouse key, I'd be fairly content with things. I like to get in close and watch a fight unfold. Probably my EVE Online experience talking.

[Lyle]

I agree. Its like they took the mechanics from the strategy layer and rehashed it with minimal possible effort. Personally I would prefer if they revisited the whole arena rendering aswell. It doesnt even come close to how good it *could* look if done properly.
An awesome-looking Battle Viewer would attract a lot of new customers too.

[Jeckenn]

Personally I wish they would have done it like Homeworld where you get to manage each ship in your fleet and tell it where to shoot, what formation to fly in, etc. Why such simplistic combat? It sucks and it is far better to just hit auto combat so why even bother making the combat viewer? Waste of time if you ask me...unless they did it more like Homeworld ship combat with true 3D space combat.

[Lyle]

Homworld is a cool game, but it is 100% combat. Thats why it works.

Having such a system tacked onto a 4X might get distracting, and isnt what most GC fans are looking for anyway. And considering the work and money it would take to add it, its simply not worth it for SD. Not for an established and loved franshise like GC anyway. High risk, little gain so to speak.

What could be nicked from the homeworld formula though is the visuals. The space backdrops from the remastered edition is pretty much how Id like the GC arenas to look like. Very immersive, epic and gorgeous to look at. Coupled with the custom ship designs of GC it would be amazing.


*drool*
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRtqy0CGur4

[FroBodine]

The combat camera controls are hideous. Two presets that are both garbage quickly lose track of the action. And the free camera is nearly impossible to control.

I sure hope this is being improved. There also needs to be an invert X and Y camera axis. I just cannot get used to the current directions the camera moves. It is backwards from the way my brain thinks, and this 50 year old brain needs invert X and Y.

Please Stardock!!

[BigBadB]

The devs tend to agree - they've mentioned improving the manual camera controls and adding additional camera modes, as well as fixing the problem with top-down mode where ships go off screen and you can't see them, in several recent dev streams.

(Until changes are made, the manual camera controls are exactly the same as on the main strategic map - something that it took me a while to work out. Once I did, I've started to get a lot better at using them, but I still look forward to improvements.)