Camera and Motion Sickness

I know at least three people who complained to me about motion sickness when testing SotA R7. One friend, a female player who is hardcore into PvP and raids in Rift and Lotro, even had to stop entirely after an hour or so with SotA.

The reason seems to be the camera. Having to manually control the camera all the time, even while moving around and fighting, can be very disorienting and cause nausea, while the solution implemented in games like Rift with an automatic camera mode seems to work much better for some players. Personally, I also find it tiring and annoying having to deal with the camera all the time. I wonder how card combat will work when I need one hand to control movement and another to control the view/camera. Will you sell me a third hand in the Add-on Store so that I have one free to press the power short cuts?

Automatic camera mode definitely on my wish-list

 

Dunno about automatic, but I'd sure like an option where moving the camera is default rather than holding down the right button. Preferably with a reticle or something that can still interact the same way as the pointer (ala Bethesda games).

 

Yes i feel a bit motion sickness when i walked around in kingsport

 

One of my friends with a knights pledge gave her account to her son due to the same reason.
She also misses the ability to move the character solely with the mouse.

*Salute*
Olahorand

 

Oddly enough I'm usually *really* sensitive to this...one teenee bit of camera swinging and I'm about ready to barf on my keyboard (actually given that I have an Alienware keyboard and it's kindof green already it's debatable as to whether or not you'd notice ). I found it pretty dreadful in R4,5 & 6 but actually for some reason it wasn't nearly as bad in R7. I think part of it is that I've just upgraded my graphics and I'm getting a stupidly high frame rate anywhere accept in Owlshead and there it did become a bit grating (LOOK ON MY FRAME RATE AND DESPAIR PUNY MORTALS.....MUAH HA HA HA!!!)

However, in general I support this plea...come on Mr. Chris, a non-swingy camera thing isn't that hard to do in Unity...can we have one...pretty please!! Just a little one, tucked away in the settings that we can switch...I'll love you forever (in an entirely platonic and non-sexual sort of way - I've been warned!).

DF.

 

I'm glad that this is not just me goes like this.

 

Aye. It happens to the best of us you know. Even little Niamh, a top killer in GW2 sPVP, was finding herself feeling a little worse for wear whilst playing Neverwinter.

I proffered this advice:

1) Breathe
A lot of people tend to hold their breath whilst playing, particularly in tense situations or in fierce combat. That's no good at all! Throw open those windows and breathe deep - in through the nose and out through the mouth. There is no limit to the size of demon horde you can take on if breathing well.

2) Refreshments
I am rather partial to a nice Earl Grey whilst playing. Indeed, It could be said that my greatest victories have come with a hot cuppa by my side! (Apologies to Firkraag).

Young Bronwyn prefers Chocolate milk, whereas my good friend Grix opts for a flagon of ale served by buxom bearded dwarven serving wenches. I don't see that myself, but each to his own!

Follow this advice and you can be like Niamh - max level and thrashing all your enemies before they even know you are there.

 

This cracked me up. Thank you Greyhaven.

 

I did not get a chance to play R7, but there should be a mouse look that you can toggle which would auto-adjust the camera. I remember using it in past versions...

I think motion sickness will start to be relieved more as the frame rate and graphics improve as well.

 

I'm not a good data point here, since pretty much *any* game with any kind of *rotational* camera motion is problematic for me. Third person is usually doable for me, particularly if the motion is slow -- I can handle, say, Resident Evil 4, since your character is never really moving that fast. FPS type games are almost almost impossible. I got through Portal and Portal 2 with a bottle of pepto bismol nearby and could only get play about 30 minutes at a time. Got part of the way through Half-Life 2 and Bioshock and had to give up. Unreal Tournment and Quake? Can't even touch them -- they're so fast it's like an instant barf-fest for me. It's weird because I don't get motion sickness in cars, planes, trains, roller coasters, etc...

I do well with games with *translational* camera motion -- so generally I go for games that use some sort of fixed angle orthographic projection.

I'm more OK with rotational camera motion when the camera is more zoomed out and my character is relatively small. For instance, I tend to handle a 3-D Mario type game better than something like Gears of War. I'm looking forward to Wasteland 2 and Divinity: Original Sin, since they have that more zoomed-out view.

Normally, SotA is not the kind of game I'd go for, just because of the rotational camera motion. But it's a Lord British game... so I will plow through it beginning to end, in small playsessions, with that bottle of pepto bismol in hand.

I wonder how many "gamers" there are out there like me -- people who love the medium, but just can't play many modern games because of this issue.

 

I could be wrong but isn't that ToggleCameraLook which is LeftControl+M

I think using it will transfer camera movement to your mouse... anyway, correct me if I'm wrong since I'm not really sure... ^_^

 

I like the current control scheme. Maybe thats because its exactly the same as Lotro which I played for quite a while.

 

Blacklight retribution then

 

I'm not really sensitive to motion sickness however I've done a lot of betas and normally I notice it there if anywhere. Its not terrible but theres a little in this game for me. I have 2 machines the stronger one has a lot less of it than my older system. I'm pretty sure by the beta they have this sorted out.

 

@abovenyquist do you have the same problem if the game is played full screen vs a small window?

 

Smaller window on the same screen -- or generally smaller screen -- helps. Not sure what the neuroscience explanation for that is.