Camera controls and targeting commands - random thoughts

[Audgisil]

Now that red thunder is coming out with v3 and some new features, I got to wondering a couple things about camera controls and targeting commands.

Camera controls.

With the new version that's coming out, combat mission is going to offer different types of camera controls. That's good I suppose in that it offers more choice for different people with different preferences, but I think Combat Mission already has the most intuitive camera controls of nearly any game I've ever played... Hold left button down to move around the map, hold right button down to pan the camera in any direction. You can move the camera as fast or slow as you want, it's incredibly precise, and I miss it desperately every time I play some other strategy game like the total war series.

The camera controls just seem incredibly simple to me, but then the other day my brother came over and we played a bit of combat mission. He and I have played for years, but we've always lived pretty far away from each other. Well, I was shocked watching him bumble around screen, a little too far to the left... oh back to right, back left again scrolling the mouse this way and that on the screen edges. It was painful to watch. Are people just not aware of the whole left mouse button, right mouse button camera controls? He certainly didn't know about it (not that he would ever actually pick up a manual and read it).

The other thing that got me thinking are the changes to target briefly. I think it's a great idea and a welcome change, but it got me thinking about the targeting commands in general. I find myself almost never giving targeting orders. I nearly always let my guys choose their own targets and they prioritize quite well. Do most people micromanage targeting or do you just let your guys fire at Will? - you know the tall guy with glasses... (sorry I can't let an opportunity for a bad pun go by).

[Lanzfeld]

Well the tac AI will not area fire by itself so that is where the target briefly comes into play for me.

I arc many of my troops to prevent long range waste of ammo but when I cancel the arc I will issue target commands to ensure the teams fire where I want them to.

[womble]

Hold left button down to move around the map, hold right button down to pan the camera in any direction. You can move the camera as fast or slow as you want, it's incredibly precise...

Yeah, that works well, until you drag the mouse cursor too close to a screen edge and start rotating or tracking in some arbitrary direction you never intended. It also doesn't touch the elevation. Many people are used to a "free-flying" camera which if you're pointing towards the ground and you go "forward", you move towards the ground on the slope you're looking down.

The elevation controls break down for intutive use when you get to the lowest levels while Tab-locked to a unit. Newbs will expect the mousescroll "zoom" (not the z/x "optics" zoom) to close in on the unit until your viewpoint is in the middle of the element looking out. What's the point of dropping to ground level (nearly) 10m behind the position you want to see from (i.e. that of the unit)? Half the time there's a visual obstruction between the camera and the unit you're interested in.

...my brother...painful to watch. Are people just not aware of the whole left mouse button, right mouse button camera controls? He certainly didn't know about it (not that he would ever actually pick up a manual and read it).

That may be a problem. I also find myself reluctant to use the mousebutton moves and spins when I've got a unit selected. It only takes a minor stutter in your movement to lose the unit selection. So I've mapped forward, back and side-to-side to mouse buttons.

I find myself almost never giving targeting orders. I nearly always let my guys choose their own targets and they prioritize quite well. Do most people micromanage targeting or do you just let your guys fire at Will? - you know the tall guy with glasses... (sorry I can't let an opportunity for a bad pun go by).

I'm getting more relaxed about assigning targets and letting the TacAI choose, but I often still will to make sure the "fire plan" is coordinated and no potential suppressees are missing out on the good news. Also, the vast majority of my targeting orders for infantry are area fire, and even if there's a spotted enemy, I'll often put an area fire order into their AS, and rely on the TacAI to directly target the enemy while it's spotted. That way, once the enemy goes to ground or is killed, there will be suppression applied to his other cowering/sneaky mates, rather than fire just stopping.

[Battlefront.com]

This is exactly why we're offering more camera choices As with many things, it comes down to personal experience and how one's brain works. No one method is going to work equally well for all people. CM does allow customization of keys already, and that's definitely part of it. But until now it has only offered one form of camera control linked to the mouse. Now with FPS and RTS options we think we'll have more bases covered.

As for micromanagement... some do, some don't. Some do all the time, some never do. Some do all the time for specific circumstances/tactics, some never do. Which means the functionality of changing Target Briefly's specific number of seconds used is going to matter more to some, less to others, and not at all to still others.

Our philosophy is to make UI which presumes the player does NOT want to micromanage, but optionally can be reasonably tailored to fit a specific situation or style of play if the player wishes to. Which is why Target Briefly will still offer the option to click and forget for 15 seconds of fire, just like it does now.

Steve

[Michael Emrys]

I find myself almost never giving targeting orders. I nearly always let my guys choose their own targets and they prioritize quite well. Do most people micromanage targeting or do you just let your guys fire at Will? - you know the tall guy with glasses... (sorry I can't let an opportunity for a bad pun go by).

Most of the time I let my troops pick their own targets. As you say, they generally do that very well. But there are special circumstances where I intervene to give an order.

One is where I really want an enemy unit suppressed immediately and I have units in positions to do that but they haven't spotted it yet. I will give them area fire orders to saturate the target with a lot of fire. There are also situations where there are multiple spotted targets and I don't want them wasting ammo on ones that I know from experience would be chosen by the TacAI. And so on down the list.

Michael