Muon Farstrider
Partial Safety
8
   |
Posted - 2016.02.10 17:05:14 -
[1] - Quote
As directed, copying my feedback from the other thread:
Overall: I will not be using the new camera in its current state. In particular, the issue below regarding the tactical overlay is a deal-breaker. I am indifferent to most of the new camera features anyway - I have absolutely no interest in 'cinematic' camera behavior or a first-person camera, for example - and so, for me, the new camera has no upsides and quite a few downsides.
Subjective: Playing around with the new camera initially made me feel a bit queasy - disabling dynamic FOV seems to have solved that. Not necessarily a *problem*, as everyone has different tolerance levels for that sort of thing, but a definite thing to watch out for. (I also disabled the dynamic FOV on general principle as I don't like games screwing around with my FOV - thank you for this option.)
Annoyance: Mouse sensitivity for vertical camera rotations feels significantly lower relative to that for horizontal camera rotations than previous (i.e. it takes more mouse movement to rotate a given angle vertically than horizontally), which is very jarring and annoying. Currently I cannot find a camera speed setting that provides acceptable rotation speeds in both directions at the same time - either horizontal rotation is too fast, or vertical rotation remains too slow. Please either revert or provide a toggle/slider.
Annoyance: Loss of the ability to toggle the tracking camera is quite annoying and makes quickly centering the camera on several targets much more cumbersome than before. I would please ask for this feature to return. (Also, I do not like how my ship is offset while tracking a target, and would prefer a toggle for this behavior.)
Annoyance: The continual sound in tactical camera mode is extremely annoying. The only way I have found to remove it is by dragging the master "UI Sound Level" slider to zero, which is obviously not a workable solution. Please remove this or add a dedicated slider to disable it.
Annoyance: When switching from orbit camera to tactical camera the zoom is always reset to the same level, regardless of the previous zoom level in orbit mode or the zoom level when last in tactical mode. Orbit mode remembers its last zoom level and returns to it when you switch back into orbit mode; for consistency tactical mode really ought to do the same.
Annoyance: The orbit and tactical camera modes have different 'default' states for the tactical overlay - orbit mode defaults to the tactical overlay off, and tactical mode defaults to it being on. The problem with this is that every time you undock, jump, or switch camera modes, the state of the tactical overlay resets to the default for that mode. This is highly annoying, because I prefer to leave the tactical overlay on 100% of the time, but would like to remain in orbit camera mode to avoid the possibility of accidentally detaching my camera from my ship (I've already done that a couple times just playing around, and the potential of doing so and losing track of my ship in the heat of combat makes me cringe). Thus, I am faced with the prospect of having to turn the tactical overlay back on every single time I undock or jump, which is highly annoying. If I have the tactical overlay on, it's because I *want* it on, and if I want it turned off, I'll *do it myself* - I don't want the game deciding for me. Please make the state of the tactical overlay persistent, or at least give a toggle (or give a toggle to disable the sound and the ability to detach the camera in tactical mode, so I can use that mode instead).
(Elaboration: for me, the camera is first and foremost a situational awareness tool. Its purpose is to allow me to instantly understand the types, positions, and motions of objects in the 3-d environment relative to my ship. The old camera, zoomed out with tactical overlay on, filled this purpose quite well. There are two critical elements - first, the tactical overlay MUST be on, as it allows me to instantly absorb the position of other objects relative to my ship. Second, the focus point of the camera must be ON my ship, as this not only always lets me keep track of where MY ship is in an often complex environment, but also ensures that the motions of other ships on my screen represent motions relative to MY ship rather than motions relative to whatever other point the camera is anchored on. No combination of the new camera modes matches the functionality of the old one here. Orbit cam keeps turning off the tactical overlay (absolutely unacceptable) and displacing my ship from the center of the screen. Meanwhile, in tactical cam it is far too easy to accidentally detach the camera from my ship, wrecking my situational awareness in a fight if I accidentally hit the right mouse button at the wrong moment.
Thus, to be usable, for me, either orbit cam must let me leave the tactical overlay on, or tactical cam must provide an option (button?) to lock the camera to my ship so that an accidental right-click will not shift it.)
Bug: Occasionally when undocking, the tactical overlay ends up in an odd combination of on and off - for example, in orbit mode the overlay displaying in space but the button not actually being pressed. When this happens I have to turn the tactical overlay off and on again a couple of times to get the state of the button and the state of the overlay in space to sync up again.
Bug: When switching from tactical mode into orbit mode, if the previous orbit mode zoom level was set very close to the ship *and* the ship is currently moving, the camera will rotate slightly as it zooms back in close to the ship. (It's almost acting like the anchor point of the camera is artifically being held stationary during the transition zoom, so as the ship moves away from that point the camera has to rotate to follow it.) This results in an uncommanded change in camera angle once the zoom finishes, which while generally small is still annoying. |