Do you agree? I haven''t seen this done in games in quite awhile, but I''m curious about your gut reaction. Let''s say you''ve got the ability to fly around over a city, then the ability to walk through that city. Fly-over is 3rd person point of view, close up behind your aircraft, but when you land, the view switches to nearly top down or 3/4 isometric view, with the character always facing up and a screen that rotates around him/her. The fly-over mode is arcade-like, involves alot of shooting and dodging, has nice skybox background, and doesn''t really allow for altitude shifts. You can spin the camera 360'' around the aircraft (in order to look behind and shoot behind via turrets). The walk-around mode involves entering structures, crashed aircraft, gunfights, character interaction, etc. The only reason to switch is because of scale and level of detail constraints in dealing with a huge city. Thoughts? -------------------- Just waiting for the mothership...

This gave me a flashback to a great game on the amiga. In it, you played a bi-plane pilot in WWI, performing various missions.

The POV was based on the type of mission, for strafing, it was 3/4, with left and right controlling tilt and forward and backwards controlling the throttle. Escort and patrol missions were 1st person (biplane), with forward and backwards controlling altitude. Didn''t bother me in the least. Very defined and logical POV switches (with loadout/briefing screens in between).

Now Ultima IV... Top down when above ground. "First Person" (dungeon master/Eye of the Beholder style) the second you went underground - but wait. If you get into a battle while underground, you switch again to top down. Ugh! Too much switching back and forth, with the switchovers lacking any form of warning (stupid wandering monsters). Without this "feature" this game would have been more enjoyable (later incarnations switched to purely 3/4 - Ultima 6 and the Worlds of Ultima titles - won''t speak for 7/8/9 or underworld).

The point? POV switches are ok, within reason. Major "modes" with POV switches that the player has some control over are a plus. Switching without warning, random/rapid switches are a minus.

The camera in any game should be positioned to provide the player with all the information they need to know and none that they don’t. Now if it was just this easy then all our camera worries would be over. But because we are seeing the merger of game play types within games we need to have different camera views depending on the play style.

Lets say we had a RTS which had breaks in it in which you had do search though nooks and crannies in a dungeon. In RTS mode you want something where you can easily control all your troops and click on points on the other side of the level. Where your searching the nooks and crannies you want something that allows you to look at the details of everything close up.

Multiple POVs are not bad. The poor choice of which type of camera to use is bad and you don’t need multiple camera angles to choose a bad angle.

Multiple POV''s are used in the FPS game Battlefield 1942. By default you always view through first person but as you can drive jeeps, tanks, airplanes and even aircraftcarriers you have the option to play in third person while inside a vehicle.. and it works really good and gives you the overview you need to maneuver...

Multiple POV''s are good when they are not forced on the player but rather available as an option.

::aggression is the result of fear::

quote: Original post by pwd
This gave me a flashback to a great game on the amiga. In it, you played a bi-plane pilot in WWI, performing various missions.

The POV was based on the type of mission, for strafing, it was 3/4, with left and right controlling tilt and forward and backwards controlling the throttle. Escort and patrol missions were 1st person (biplane), with forward and backwards controlling altitude. Didn''t bother me in the least. Very defined and logical POV switches (with loadout/briefing screens in between).

I think it was called Wings?

Personally I don''t like the POV changes in games. They detract from the immersion, which is one of the key things I go for.

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