How do you expect to be able to move the camera in a 3D game, let's say an RTS? In your opinion, what is the most intuitive? I think arrow keys and mouse are very natural. But I can't decide whether the mouse should scroll the screen or rotate it. RTS gamers are used to being able to scroll the screen by moving the mouse to the edge. But in a 3d game, might they prefer that it rotate the view? (Note that I'm not talking about a 3D view that is essentially 2D, like in WarCraft 3 and Empire Earth, I'm looking at something more like Homeworld or Black and White where the camera is able to go anywhere). Black and White's controls were original, but not that great. I found myself using the arrow keys instead of the mouse movements. Homeworld's controls were good, but required the camera to be "focused" on a ship. (Homeworld2 supposedly doesn't require this, but I havne't played it so I don't know what it's like).

I'd say let the user customize the controls to their liking. Personally, I like the camera to scroll or rotate as the mouse cursor touches over the edges of the screen, but this may be annoying for other users. Let them bind camera controls to keys, use mouselook, screen edges, an on-screen widget or whatever else you can think of.

I'd say the standard top down view is probably the most useful for an RTS, and the most important controls would be moving around the map quickly. Fancy camera controls like being able to zoom in on a single unit and look straight up at the sky are largely useless to the actual gameplay, and are little more than eye candy. It's hard enough to control all your units in an RTS game without having to wrestle with a complicated camera as well.

I'd therefore suggest something like Warcraft III's camera. The basic movement about the map is easy and intuitive. There are other controls, but you don't *need* them to play the game, they're just nice for eye candy.

Ground Control had a more complex camera, which worked fairly well, but was a bit too complex in my opinion. I ended up playing most of the game from a standard perspective anyway.