3rd person perspective?

[Franz Karl]

Will the 3rd person mode be implamented in spellforce 3 like the originals?

[rockmedved]

I am really curious about this too! Third person view was the second major selling point of the previous games for me (the first being the beautiful cover art). Even though it was implemented somewhat awkwardly in the first game, I just loved loved LOVED using it to explore the world, chill in my own town watching the peasants work, experience all the epic battles from inside! I would hardly ever use normal view, I would just order my army (ok, disorganised mob) to follow my character.
When SpellForce 2 came out, I was pleased to see how much third person controls have improved, but was kinda disappointed that it was still not possible to manually aim, attack, block etc. So I thought, "oh well, maybe in Spellforce 3"

So, developers, can you please answer our question? How, if at all, will the third person perspective be implemented? And if you were not planning to implement it, could you please do it anyway? I'll buy your game and send you a box of sweets from my country!

[Rakun]

I think they said 'no' before, but we'll see, I guess. I mostly only used 3rd person for screenshots, so it doesn't matter much for me.

[Younger Dreams]

As I know, regime of 3rd person will be not used in the SF3, because It is rather difficult to do. And I dont think that SF is like a "Kingdom Under Fire 2". Maybe devs will leave 3rd mode for the dialogues and it will be good.

[Wartinald]

A 3rd person mode is a must in any SpellForce game, I really hope it to be present in SPF3, otherwise they're going in the wrong way if they think that this is a new SpellForce game.

[Younger Dreams]

Originally posted by Wartinald:

A 3rd person mode is a must in any SpellForce game, I really hope it to be present in SPF3, otherwise they're going in the wrong way if they think that this is a new SpellForce game.

To my mind It will be a completely different game with majority of innovations. In any case, developers need to produce a demo version.

[MaChao]

To be honest, it takes away one of the things that made SpellForce unique.
The whole "persistant Hero that levels up and can be equipped" was done in an RTS before, Warlords: Battlecry for instance.
But playing an RTS in 3rd person was a rather unique experience.

I just hope that the devs feel the same down the road and implement it.
"because It is rather difficult to do" is not a valid excuse if it has already been done several times in the oast if you ask me.
There is no reason why it should not work this time around, especially with way more advanced tech.

[LAGRIE]

No answer yet ? or no one that knows if it will be implemented?

[MegalomaniacNG]

The 3rd person perspective was one of the toughest decisions we had to take right at the beginning. While we all agreed the 3rd person perspective was a cool feature in SF1 and SF2 we also came to the conclusion that a simply eye-candy as in SF1 and SF2 would work. As it was stated here already players would have expected to have more controls over essential gameplay features. So our thoughts on that were that we either have to expand that feature which would have meant to either make 2 or 3 games in one or go a completely different direction in terms of genre and base gameplay mechanics or just dont do this feature. We thought that building up on the formula of an RPG/RTS hybrid with a top down perspective is more important and therefore we decided to not do a 3rd person camera because doing it in SF1/SF2 wouldnt be enough nowadays and doing more of that would dilute our focus.

[MaChao]

Originally posted by MegalomaniacNG:

The 3rd person perspective was one of the toughest decisions we had to take right at the beginning. While we all agreed the 3rd person perspective was a cool feature in SF1 and SF2 we also came to the conclusion that a simply eye-candy as in SF1 and SF2 would work. As it was stated here already players would have expected to have more controls over essential gameplay features. So our thoughts on that were that we either have to expand that feature which would have meant to either make 2 or 3 games in one or go a completely different direction in terms of genre and base gameplay mechanics or just dont do this feature. We thought that building up on the formula of an RPG/RTS hybrid with a top down perspective is more important and therefore we decided to not do a 3rd person camera because doing it in SF1/SF2 wouldnt be enough nowadays and doing more of that would dilute our focus.

First of all, thanks for the indepth explaination.
And your reasoning is perfectly understandable from a design standpoint. Its just that it was one of the unique little features that made the series stand out in the first place, as mundane as it might sound nowadays.
The gameplay itself shouldnt really suffer from it, as most players i know mostly played in top down view out of conveniance. Only the few "non-army" maps played rather well in 3rd person, which was also rather immersive at the time.

Id also argue that "doing it in SF1/SF2 wouldnt be enough nowadays" isnt quite true, as most fandoms are rather fond of mechanics that stick to the "olden days".
For comparison, look at Pillars of Eternity. A game using esthetics, mechanics and a UI the industry declared dead and obsolete for the longest time turned out to be one heck of a profitable endevour just because it was "just like they were back then"

"Going with the times" isnt always the right path, especially not when were talking about niche genres / games. They more often than not have a very dedicated fanbase.

Nevertheless, i understand your point of view on this and look forward to the game anyways :)
Again, thanks for explaining the matter.

[PikaTheChu]

A spellforce game is about the 3rd person, nobody gives a ♥♥♥♥ about a top down rpg , there are enough of them out there.

[K O I]

Originally posted by Tytos:

A spellforce game is about the 3rd person, nobody gives a ♥♥♥♥ about a top down rpg , there are enough of them out there.

But this is combined with RTS elements which makes it stand out and a day 1 buy for me

[Wartinald]

If the devs are not going to add a 3rd person mode, I hope at least we can zoom the camera ;)

[Vanorah]

If it's top down, my hype is dead.

[Ynez]

I am so sad about no 3rd person! There simply has to be a 3rd person perspective in a spellforce game :(

[Cthuleric]

Originally posted by MegalomaniacNG:

The 3rd person perspective was one of the toughest decisions we had to take right at the beginning. While we all agreed the 3rd person perspective was a cool feature in SF1 and SF2 we also came to the conclusion that a simply eye-candy as in SF1 and SF2 would work. As it was stated here already players would have expected to have more controls over essential gameplay features. So our thoughts on that were that we either have to expand that feature which would have meant to either make 2 or 3 games in one or go a completely different direction in terms of genre and base gameplay mechanics or just dont do this feature. We thought that building up on the formula of an RPG/RTS hybrid with a top down perspective is more important and therefore we decided to not do a 3rd person camera because doing it in SF1/SF2 wouldnt be enough nowadays and doing more of that would dilute our focus.

Sorry devs, completely wrong and it really makes me sad. You kill Spellforce :(