There are two instances where the camera controls invariably break down for me.

The first and most common is when I am trying to manipulate the camera while the PCs are moving. If the camera is at a set and fixed angle this doesn't matter as much, but that's almost never the case here, since the camera can't be locked to a PC. The camera is almost always moving in tandem with PCs with a constant WASD zoom in zoom out, click to run a little further, zoom out again, while trying to basically play chase camera.

The second and almost as common is manipulating the camera in combat, where I am simply trying to get a better view to target something. That's where not having a pivot, to swing the cam around a focus point is particularly rough. This happens all the time, whenever there is a change in elevation or when objects are obstructing the line of sight.

People have said just use the Top down tactical view "O" since that's what it's for, but it's kind of the least exciting angle setting a dramatic scene to watch a goblin get gutted. And outside of combat, its less impressive visually than the ISO view, and a lot less impressive than the drive zoom for scanning the surroundings.

I wish the tactical view would try to replicate the same scale of view as BG1/2, but to do that it'd need to zoom out further. Even at max zoom out the PC avatars are still like 5 times as large as the tiny 1/72 style minis we had in the earlier games. I suppose the view we have now is maybe more familiar for a DOS style. But honestly, why couldn't the thing just work with a couple standard views?


Driving = POV, traditional over the should 3rd Person standard ball cam DAO style

Classic Iso = zooms out say 25-50% further than the current max zoom out, and snaps the cam over the party in Iso. Making it look basically BG1 style

Standard and Tactical views = the defaults we have now, DOS style

It seems like the area designs would accommodate all of those with a couple quick settings, allowing players to experience the game from a different view according to their preferred style, and switch between them on the fly.

Last edited by Black_Elk; 01/03/21 04:39 PM.