Suggestions at the end in case you are already aware of the issues.
Hi, I'm one of the mental asylum escapees that plays this game actively avoiding the traditional camera in favor of the action camera, in great part because I'm as much a shooter player as I am an MMO one, and with Guild Wars 2 having a more action-oriented gameplay it also initially feels like a great option. However, I know people don't come to the forums to read autobiographies, so I'll get to the point: what could be changed and why it needs that.
Projectile direction:
One of the most jarring problems to be found with the action camera is the piercing function on certain weapons. The projectiles are set to always go towards what I assume is the target's center of mass, which leads to a case like this: it is lined up correctly, but the proximity to the golem creates a big vertical angle that cannot be fixed without moving further back or manually targeting the golem on the back, which requires an input beyond the simplicity of aiming in the direction you want to pierce and piercing it.
This, however, is "technically" solved by another thing: not having a target; you can attack down, but you can also attack up. This lack of a target combined with the ability to aim vertically is something that in theory could make action camera aiming give the player a massive amount of agency regarding where they want their shots to go exactly. But...
Targeting and autotargeting:
The game runs certain skills on the premise of having a target, because why wouldn't you. The most glaring issue this displays is the inability to use certain skills without an enemy listed as a target on your UI, which clearly differs from "I'm looking at my target and my crosshair is on it".
In this situation I would not be able to use the dagger ambush that untamed has, as it requires a targeted enemy and will refuse to activate if you do not have a target (or an autotarget on your UI).
In this one I enabled autotargeting, as shown by the change in the crosshair and the circle beneath the golem, and my attacks will turn that golem into a soft target. The problem with that is the projectile direction mentioned on the previous point, and it becomes a solution that leads into another problem, which is no solution at all.
Another issue on both is that the game actually does not give targeted information unless the player manually targets the enemy or starts attacking, as prior to that it won't display the enemy's information at the top of the screen.
Oh my sweet Mother Theresa, spare me from this zoom:
I cannot stress how much the action camera's zoom out function aggravates me. It's easier to show:
When zoomed all the way in in action mode, it behaves normally and the crosshair is lined up to the center of the screen.
When zoomed all the way out in traditional mode, it still works in the same way and the camera had no... intriguing changes.
I have received 30 stacks of torment and I don't think I have a cleanse equipped, and am wondering why the camera went up as well as the crosshair, when that is clearly not the case in traditional mode. The lines speak for themselves, and this is the lowest the action camera goes, so you cannot make it reach the same angle.
* A little epiphany I had in the middle of writing this: the Vertical Position Far slider has had, since I started playing all the way back in high school (which was some 10 years ago), a tendency to reset itself to the middle value seemingly randomly. During testing today I have figured out that the difference in height between traditional and action on the far zoom on the third image is exactly that half that resets itself, but that wrong half is only working for the action camera, as shown above.
My suggestions:
A checkbox that disables player projectiles going through the center mass of the enemy when targeted. The objective of this is to allow players using the action camera (or even the normal one?) to manually aim their projectile attacks without any sort of projectile magnetism towards the target. This will help hit vertical shots that were otherwise missed due to said magnetism.
A checkbox that enables enemy information to be displayed atop the screen on mouseover, as if it was already a soft or hard target. This does mean that it would start having a convulsion if you looked around at a pack of pocket raptors, but that's why checkboxes can be (or remain) unchecked. The pros to an option like this is instantly knowing which information an enemy has by glancing at it with the mouse, while ideally it would not infringe on the normal targeting system (specially not on locked targets, this should never override a locked target).
An option to set crosshair height or simply keeping it consistently centered across zooms.
I'm pretty sure the Vertical Position Far thing resetting itself is a bug and fixing it would enable the traditional and action cameras to have a consistent height across all values of the slider (which they do for the right half, but not the left). In case it's WAI (how, why), just please make traditional and action have consistent heights across all zooms and we gucci.
Suggestions at the end in case you are already aware of the issues. Hi, I'm one of the mental asylum escapees that plays this game actively avoiding the traditional camera in favor of the action camera, in great part because I'm as much a shooter player as I am an MMO one, and with Guild Wars 2 having a more action-oriented gameplay it also initially feels like a great option. However, I know people don't come to the forums to read autobiographies, so I'll get to the point: what could be changed and why it needs that. Projectile direction: One of the most jarring problems to be found with the action camera is the piercing function on certain weapons. The projectiles are set to always go towards what I assume is the target's center of mass, which leads to a case like this: it is lined up correctly, but the proximity to the golem creates a big vertical angle that cannot be fixed without moving further back or manually targeting the golem on the back, which requires an input beyond the simplicity of aiming in the direction you want to pierce and piercing it. This, however, is "technically" solved by another thing: not having a target; you can attack down, but you can also attack up. This lack of a target combined with the ability to aim vertically is something that in theory could make action camera aiming give the player a massive amount of agency regarding where they want their shots to go exactly. But... Targeting and autotargeting: The game runs certain skills on the premise of having a target, because why wouldn't you. The most glaring issue this displays is the inability to use certain skills without an enemy listed as a target on your UI, which clearly differs from "I'm looking at my target and my crosshair is on it". In this situation I would not be able to use the dagger ambush that untamed has, as it requires a targeted enemy and will refuse to activate if you do not have a target (or an autotarget on your UI). In this one I enabled autotargeting, as shown by the change in the crosshair and the circle beneath the golem, and my attacks will turn that golem into a soft target. The problem with that is the projectile direction mentioned on the previous point, and it becomes a solution that leads into another problem, which is no solution at all. Another issue on both is that the game actually does not give targeted information unless the player manually targets the enemy or starts attacking, as prior to that it won't display the enemy's information at the top of the screen. Oh my sweet Mother Theresa, spare me from this zoom: I cannot stress how much the action camera's zoom out function aggravates me. It's easier to show: When zoomed all the way in in action mode, it behaves normally and the crosshair is lined up to the center of the screen. When zoomed all the way out in traditional mode, it still works in the same way and the camera had no... intriguing changes. I have received 30 stacks of torment and I don't think I have a cleanse equipped, and am wondering why the camera went up as well as the crosshair, when that is clearly not the case in traditional mode. The lines speak for themselves, and this is the lowest the action camera goes, so you cannot make it reach the same angle. * A little epiphany I had in the middle of writing this: the Vertical Position Far slider has had, since I started playing all the way back in high school (which was some 10 years ago), a tendency to reset itself to the middle value seemingly randomly. During testing today I have figured out that the difference in height between traditional and action on the far zoom on the third image is exactly that half that resets itself, but that wrong half is only working for the action camera, as shown above. My suggestions: A checkbox that disables player projectiles going through the center mass of the enemy when targeted. The objective of this is to allow players using the action camera (or even the normal one?) to manually aim their projectile attacks without any sort of projectile magnetism towards the target. This will help hit vertical shots that were otherwise missed due to said magnetism. A checkbox that enables enemy information to be displayed atop the screen on mouseover, as if it was already a soft or hard target. This does mean that it would start having a convulsion if you looked around at a pack of pocket raptors, but that's why checkboxes can be (or remain) unchecked. The pros to an option like this is instantly knowing which information an enemy has by glancing at it with the mouse, while ideally it would not infringe on the normal targeting system (specially not on locked targets, this should never override a locked target). An option to set crosshair height or simply keeping it consistently centered across zooms. I'm pretty sure the Vertical Position Far thing resetting itself is a bug and fixing it would enable the traditional and action cameras to have a consistent height across all values of the slider (which they do for the right half, but not the left). In case it's WAI (how, why), just please make traditional and action have consistent heights across all zooms and we gucci.
