I hate limited camera

Why I cannot look in the distance on the map? I hate that, it is quite limiting it feels like looking at my feet when I follow a road. It is hard to choose a way at crossroads when you do not see where the roads lead.

Why I am getting such crazy view when crafting? It is quite weird and annoying, especially since my house is at Brave Coast and every now and then rare and random visitors try to kill me. Why I cannot scan my surroundings every now and then without leaving the station?

Same goes to dialogues with NPCs, especially with PvPflag on (or for the tour guides surrounded by deadly mob), Why we cannot look around or even leave NPCs without closing that dialogue window?

The thing is, I feel too restricted by game. I do not know how better to explain it, I hate invisible walls and barriers and restricted camera is one of those. I quite feel it on the map everytime I try to look in the distance. I did not mind that on paper map, and I did not mind that in Hidden Vale, because I knew it by heart already, but in Novia I quite feel that the limited view is too restrictive for me.

PS: I am adding a poll just because I have not had any in my post for a long time and I am interested to see what others think.

PPS: "Nowhere" is meant that everything is fine and people do not want free camera on the map/when crafting/talking to NPCs. I did not meant to suggest that it should be disabled everywhere.

 

Thanks for bringing this up. When the overland map was first introduced, I recall the dev who worked on it (Lum maybe?) said he set the camera specifically so we couldn't pan up all the way...something to with technical issues. It's always felt unnatural to me. I would be happy if we could pan up just a tad more so that we can see the horizon.

If my memory serves me well, while crafting, we were able to pan the camera using the right mouse button prior to release 14. Don't know why it was changed but I wish the devs would change it back. I enjoyed crafting to a view that was pleasing to me.The auto static view is pretty awkward most of the time. Of course you have a better reason ... the actual difference between life and death! Same thing holds true for npc convo windows. I've played around with flagging myself as open pvp a bit and was more than annoyed when avatars attacked me from behind whilst I was doing business with an npc. So ya, I totally camera panning in all modes, unless of course, it is a big deal technically, in which case I can understand why it would be put off to a later time.

 

I was going to bring up the same thing regarding the overland map.

I'd like to see a fog of war. But I'd also like to be able to tilt the view so I could attempt to see to the horizon.

 

I would prefer to have a Map I could open and see my position on, the camera angle is fine the way it is, if you prefer to craft in a PvP zone then "Beware"...

 

I am against a free camera on the overland map. This would totally destroy the perspective. Imagine a third person view like in the scenes in which the cities, mountains and trees are the size of the hero. Or imagine roving encounters like wolves being the size of trees... This "size issue" is not an issue with the isometric, top-down view we have now as you look down on everything. But it would look extremely odd in third-person view.

As for dialogues: the way it was before the devs introduced the dialogue view was that we did not have the feeling of being in a conversation. It was reading an IRC chat and the NPC didn't matter as we didn't even have to face him/her while "chatting". In a story driven game like SotA I don't want to read a chat, I want to talk to the NPCs, look them in the eyes and get the feeling of having a real conversation. Would Skyrim or Dragon Age work with an IRC chat window instead of the dialogues those game have? No, so it doesn't work in SotA either.

 

I just feel like I'm in Halo traction when on the overland map.

 

Personally I would rather like pure FPS look and feel, more immerse than having eyes in your back.

 

[Edit: I'm only focusing on the map]
From the looks of it, the limitations are for performance reasons. As soon as I tilt down I get lag....one of the things I dreaded most when the cloth map was abandoned
I would much rather be able to zoom further out and see the map from above. It is a map after all isn't it????

 

Maybe they could start adding in signposts and clear paths so we could click our way around the map using signposts to point us in the right direction, while being able to see the actual road or pathway we needed to be moving along.

And if someone could make us a decent map of the Novia continent as we now know it to be, that could be handy too.

I would also like to be able to open a 2D map of the continent I am on by pressing M for map. The "overworld map" is really less of a map and more of a staging scene where things happen.

 

IF they introduce a free camera mode then I hope that it will be optional.
I don't want to walk around in a view in which it is very obvious an "in my face" that my hero as well as animals are as tall as a tree or as a whole city. As I said due to the isometric view this is not as obvious but in third person view this would be extremely strange and annoying.

Also I want to keep the dialogue view in my game as I think such a view is a MUST in a story driven game in which there are a lot of dialogues.

So IF there wll be a free camera, then please make it optional.

 

I prefer looking at a map from above, but the overworld itself is a scene too so yeah naturally you'd want to have the same perspective, despite the scaling issues. So I also find myself wanting to tilt the camera to see further too, but I think it's more because I just want to be able to zoom all the way out because ultimately it is a map. Give me that instead and I doubt I'll tilt the camera.