Matrix Games Forums

Enjoying the game so far. Not very good at it tho ...

Thought I would mention just a quick few points;

Any chance of having an option to control the 3D camera as in say GalCiv II.

That is scrolling and paning by left clicking (on empty space) and draging the mouse. This has the advantage of smooth and fine control of 3D camera movement during close-in vanity shots as well as seamlessly allowing large scale movements during battlefield overview. It also allows the mouse pointer to stay "central" close to the action instead of dragging it off the screen edge.

Also is it possible to have an optional slider to change the speed of zooming with the mouse wheel (perhaps a logarithmic scale). As it stands it just takes too long to zoom in and out with it. I use the number keys 1 2 & 3 far more frequently for this reason.

I run 1280 x 960 which is a supported resolution, however for some reason the option never "sticks" in the start options menu (it always defaults back to something else). Strange as every other option stays selected between games.

The save / load / exit menu has text on the buttons which is not centered but rather oddly spaced [&:] I know I know rather anal retentive and OCD, but it is incredibly easy to fix [:D]

Is it possible to have an option to change the clipping distance especially for machines easily capable of pushing it. Seeing trees constantly pop in an out does tend to interrupt ones suspension of disbelief.

And finally a question which was not answered in the manual, what do the targeting descriptors poor, average and good actually refer to? Is it the chance to hit or the chance to penetrate? Initially and intuitively I thought "to-hit", but I have seen the descriptor change depending on what ammo I was using from the same tank so does it mean penetration ?

I think the camera is good, but I would add a slider to adjust zoom wheel speed. They have sliders for other stuff, just add one more. The zoom takes too long with my mouse also.

I like the camera controls, the only gripe I have is I wish you could asign a "hotkey" to "lock" the camera in your favorite view, this way you could quickly zoom out of any situation and restore the camers to your favorite angle and zoom level. I like the zoom in kill feature but don't use it do to the fact I have to reste the camera manually after every kill..
 
Mind you the camera is still top notch !!

That is scrolling and paning by left clicking (on empty space) and draging the mouse

One way to do this is to 'drag' the mouse over the minimap. that will quickly move the camera around the map. Don't forget that you can use the minimap to quickly relocate or 'scroll' the camera.

And finally a question which was not answered in the manual, what do the targeting descriptors poor, average and good actually refer to? Is it the chance to hit or the chance to penetrate? Initially and intuitively I thought "to-hit", but I have seen the descriptor change depending on what ammo I was using from the same tank so does it mean penetration

this tip is only on adjusted chance to hit the target, it does not take chance to penetrate or destruction into account.

The camera is good.

Even if it was never touched, it is still very serviceable [8D]

But I think it could be better with a very small tweak which wouldn't change the function of the camera as it now stands or be very difficult to implement.

For example, I assume most people use a combo of keyboard (arrow keys) and # 1 2 3 plus the mouse to control the camera + zoom. Nothing wrong with that, but would it not be even better if the whole thing could be done just with the mouse alone.

Imagine you want to zoom down to max detail (there is some very fine details up close in PzC [X(]) and do a unit or formation orbit ... a very common thing to do. Now what if the unit is not exactly centered on the screen? You will need to use the arrow keys or move the mouse to the side of the screen to center it. That's ok but at this level of zoom you won't be able to do that smoothly unless you have set a very slow scroll speed.

Now the converse, you want to pan over the entire battlefield ASAP to find those lost units. If you have set the camera scroll speed to some intermediate value it will take a while to go anywhere. Yes you could use the mini map, but it is more intuitive to use the main map as it is likely rotated to your prefered orientation (the mini map is fixed north)

That is where the beauty of click and drag lies. It doesn't invalidate the current camera implementation but allows you to modulate camera movements with the flick of a wrist to the most appropriate scale. A simple slider for camera scroll speed is fixed for all scales.

If this where done, I think I could then comfortaby just use the mouse for the whole game [:D]

ORIGINAL: koiosworks

And finally a question which was not answered in the manual, what do the targeting descriptors poor, average and good actually refer to? Is it the chance to hit or the chance to penetrate? Initially and intuitively I thought "to-hit", but I have seen the descriptor change depending on what ammo I was using from the same tank so does it mean penetration

this tip is only on adjusted chance to hit the target, it does not take chance to penetrate or destruction into account.

I my battles I often targeted units with poor chances and got hits and kills.