… is so much better than the Classic camera! Thank you for listening to the fans!
I had begged for this in every survey and thread since the beta and am pleased to report that it does actually make for a significantly more pleasant experience. In fact, the whole game feels a little more like AOE2DE with this camera angle, so therefore it also automatically feels more familiar and approachable.
Now, since we all know that the Essence Engine in CoH2 and CoH3 let’s you get in real close to admire your units and take cool screenshots from various angles, I wonder if that’s the next enhancement that could be considered. With that said, for now, I think the zoom conversation is finally put to rest.
This was a really good change.
It felt a bit weird at the start, but i got used to it quite quickly and can’t see myself playing at the old zoom level now
I like the new panoramic zoom more than the “classic” as well, but I can’t shake the feeling that I’m “falling into the game".
The camera angle is too steep, it’s almost a drone-like perspective or a board game. Devs confused further back with higher up. I would have preferred the same panoramic zoom we have now, but angled lower. That would have helped see further into the horizon as well.
The thing that’s telling, for me, is the COH3 promo images are all from a lower angle. I can’t explain this any other way than they KNOW it looks much better. So why are we stuck with this awful overhead angle in AoE 4?
I think we go back again to the eSports and readability focus that the game has. Lower angles make units obscured by buildings a more common occurrence. The almost straight top down view that we have now is better in that sense.
So I’m in a weird spot and I’m sure a lot of us are too. I don’t want to go back to the “classic” zoom since panoramic is much better, but panoramic still feels weird in its own way. I would love for the content editor to allow us to fine tune the exact zoom and angle via a mod.
Yes, though that would be an argument for it having a higher angle at all zoom levels. Also, unlike 2, the game allows you to rotate the view if units being obscured by buildings is a particular problem at some point in the game. If we could control the vertical angle of view, people could choose for themselves whether they prefer to look downwards more, or to have a lower angle and potentially more need to rotate the view around the z-axis as they play.
And also, I can’t think of any reason at all, apart from the development effort, to not have much more control over the camera when watching replays, so people can create cool pictures and video clips. Any arguments around e-sports/readability/balance/performance fairness don’t apply to watching replays.
I’ve always wondered about the reason behind a locked camera in replay playback; it doesn’t really make for easy viewing and is especially disheartening for those wanting to make videos or take screenshots.
Age of Noob made a video playing with the content editor and the capabilities of the Essence engine, and at least for AoE 4, the reasons why there is no free camera in any mode are evident:
There is nothing rendered above the horizon, so you must always block any angle showing the sky (strangely enough, the cloud shadows you see on the ground are generated by “real” clouds, except the whole thing is not aesthetically pleasing or intended to be viewed).
The excessive amount of fog/haze seen at distance blocks your view anyway. I’m guessing the devs tried to mask ugly geometry/texture pop-in or improve performance. Remember those very old games that had a fog slider to reduce FOV? Something like that.
Stills taken from AoN’s video:
Extreme default haze at distance + god rays rendered in real time from clouds in next screenshot:
Searching for images, though, it’s easy to find good looking images from a lower angle that have somehow been created. I’m not saying you’d want to play a game from some of these angles, just that it seems to have been possible to create these images:
Yeah, I remember those screenshots from X019. All of those are probably crafted scenarios for the trailer.
Screenshots 1 and 3 definitely have specially made mountains in the background. Hard to tell if they are baked into the background itself or are actually 3D objects.
Screenshots 2, 4 and 5 are something that devs could give us access to, since they only show terrain and not the horizon or skybox.
All screenshots clearly have reduced fog when compared to the actual game we have. I would love to play from the angle/perspective of the last screenshot. That’d be my ideal zoom/view.
