A Small feature Request

[Alan G.]

Hi everyone. I have a small feature I'd like to see in CMSF. Let me preface this with a small explanation of how I play. Usually when I'm immersed in a game of CM I play WEGO and I'm "down in the dirt" with my units "Locked" in view, jumping from unit to unit. I hardly ever jump up into god's territory and survey the battlefield. My only frustration with this style of play is when using the mouse to pan around, my view sometimes goes shooting off the unit and I lose the "lock" on the unit (I know I can probably use the keyboard to pan but I'm a mouse user). I'd like to be able to toggle the unit lock function so that is stays locked on the units until I toggle it off so my point of view won't go flying off willy nilly and have to re-lock the unit again.

Thanks BF for such a great game.

[Other Means]

Press tab again and you'll be back at the unit if I understand you correctly.

[Alan G.]

Press tab again and you'll be back at the unit if I understand you correctly.

Yes I know I can do that. My request is to not have to do that every time the POV jumps off the unit. Have it permanently "Lock" on the unit of my choosing.

[Other Means]

If you press "+" and "-" you scroll through the units. Try pressing one of them - I think it works.

[Alan G.]

If you press "+" and "-" you scroll through the units. Try pressing one of them - I think it works.

I sorry, I'm not much of a forum poster so my point doesn't seen to be coming across.

Yes, that will make you jump to the next unit when you are locked and centered on a unit. But if you move the mouse too far and hit the edge of the screen, the lock is lost, and hitting + or - just makes you look at the next unit and not jump to it.

What I'd like to be able to do is hit a key combination and be able to keep the unit centered and locked no matter what I do with the mouse so if I mistakenly move the mouse too far down to say the control panel and over shoot and hit the edge of the screen, the view does not move backwards, it just moves say upward as if I were looking toward the sky, or if the mouse goes to far left or right it would only pan left or right, not slide horizontally.

That way the immersion factor is not broken by mistakenly moving the mouse too far and having to reset the POV with TAB again.

[missinginreality]

Well it makes sense if you think about it; the Unit Lock or View Lock is just that; moving the mouse to pan your view means you can't physically be locked to a sinlge unit to do that as the camera needs to be able to move non-centrically to the unit. Orbit or height are the only movements one could realistically do with the camera locked to a specific unit.

The solution is to keep the right mouse button held down for orbiting and roll the wheel [if you have one] for height adjustment; with the right mouse held down you wont break either view or unit lock that way and can scoot around the Tab'd unit to your hearts content

[MikeyD]

I recall waaaaay back whe CMSf was just a gleam in Charles's eye Steve had proposed something along that line for 'iron' mode. You stayed locked to your unit and you +-keyed from unit to unit. That never materialized - probably for obvious reasons. Alan G does have a point, 'lock to unit' is pretty darned easy to accidentally knock free currently. I'm most often riding forward locked to my moving tank when it deposits me in the dust and i'm left watching it roll away.

[Alan G.]

Alan G does have a point, 'lock to unit' is pretty darned easy to accidentally knock free currently. I'm most often riding forward locked to my moving tank when it deposits me in the dust and i'm left watching it roll away.

Hehe, MikeyD, that has happened to me many a time. It is one of the reasons I made the suggestion. Anyway, it's the way I play, and being able to keep from slipping out of lock would enhance the "down in the dirt feeling" in my opinion. It is just a suggestion. Thank you all for the responses.

[Dietrich]

What about holding down the right mouse button to pan while locked to a unit (instead of moving the cursor to the edge of the screen)? I think that would minimize the tendency of the view to suddenly zoom off course.

[-Pv-]

My biggest complaint along this line (not suggesting specific UI change) is the usually large mouse move down to the control panel. More often than not I over-shoot and scroll the screen. The more I use the keys, the less trouble I have, but I find myself using both as I play real time and I use a hybrid learning technique of using what I remember easiest among the UI features.

It boils down to mouse or keyboard. As in most games I play, the keyboard more often than not is more accurate and predicable and the mouse, more visual (less memorizing) but harder to control.

When I do use the mouse, getting near the edges of the screen always drives me nuts because I lose control of the view I need to control the unit of interest.

I use the mouse less and less the more I play.

-Pv-