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My thoughts on camera distance and mod debate
Keldor837
Member UncommonPosts: 263
As I was responding to the article posted by Suzie on the camera distance debate that's ongoing. I found my comment was turning into an opinion piece. So I'm posting it here instead of leaving a wall of text in the comment section.
I think this is a good idea, but to late to implement....ten years to late. As someone else said, the raid bosses alone often require you to use this command (/console CameraDistanceMaxFactor 4). I learned of it after joining a raid group long ago when they asked if I was using it due to me missing adds while standing under the boss near the back of the room. The people that need to know this command, are primarily the ones who need to use it. In pvp it adds far less value and advantage than it does in PvE. Also, as others have said, addons give far greater advantage in PvP than camera view distance for what spacial awareness gives (though it does give an advantage).
While I use a great number of addons to enhance my gameplay. It's for convenience as well as for staying at equal levels with other players. I have long felt that Blizzard needs to remove addons entirely. And instead dedicate a better team to the ui which encompasses many of the features provided by the most desirable and used addons. And in this way, they could then prevent those that they feel are unfair and simply provide more clarity than intended. DBM for example. A large handful of progression players beat their heads against the wall figuring out a fight. The group with the best strategy "wins" and it's factored into DBM for average joe to then use. Why bother with the time and effort that puts on the community needlessly? Put it in the game's ui and be done with it or don't allow the addon entirely and have players figure it out and learn to pay attention. That was half of the thrill in playing FFXIV was learning, remembering, and paying attention in fights.
Battleground timers....why are these not part of the game ui? There's no reason other than laziness on Blizzards part. Same with DPS meters, bar customization and hud elements.
Those are all things that should be made available through the client for everyone. Not those with the time and resources to make, use, and/or run them. For an example of addons we shouldn't have. A list on screen of all enemies showing their spec, ilvl, and active health bars....that's complete crap. Or macro's that remove the human element of timing your skill chain. Just smash this one button to deal damage and chain-cc the target while you dance back and forth since you're free to mess around while hitting the one button on your mouse. Or seeing what a person is casting as a big icon and have the name beamed across the screen with sound effects telling you to silence/interrupt the target. No, that needs to be something the player learns to anticipate and account for themselves. I see this a lot when I play my warlock in PvP. Very rarely does anyone interrupt my fire spells. But they almost always interrupt my Chaos Bolt. Perhaps some pick up on the small animation color difference. But more than likely it's because their addon allows them or even warns them that a Chaos Bolt is incoming and to prevent it. PvP was once a measure of skill with the highest having real talent and bragging rights. Now, not so much. Yes, skill is still required. But when the systems can largely be automated and made transparent to the player. It takes a lot away from it all.
I think this is a good idea, but to late to implement....ten years to late. As someone else said, the raid bosses alone often require you to use this command (/console CameraDistanceMaxFactor 4). I learned of it after joining a raid group long ago when they asked if I was using it due to me missing adds while standing under the boss near the back of the room. The people that need to know this command, are primarily the ones who need to use it. In pvp it adds far less value and advantage than it does in PvE. Also, as others have said, addons give far greater advantage in PvP than camera view distance for what spacial awareness gives (though it does give an advantage).
While I use a great number of addons to enhance my gameplay. It's for convenience as well as for staying at equal levels with other players. I have long felt that Blizzard needs to remove addons entirely. And instead dedicate a better team to the ui which encompasses many of the features provided by the most desirable and used addons. And in this way, they could then prevent those that they feel are unfair and simply provide more clarity than intended. DBM for example. A large handful of progression players beat their heads against the wall figuring out a fight. The group with the best strategy "wins" and it's factored into DBM for average joe to then use. Why bother with the time and effort that puts on the community needlessly? Put it in the game's ui and be done with it or don't allow the addon entirely and have players figure it out and learn to pay attention. That was half of the thrill in playing FFXIV was learning, remembering, and paying attention in fights.
Battleground timers....why are these not part of the game ui? There's no reason other than laziness on Blizzards part. Same with DPS meters, bar customization and hud elements.
Those are all things that should be made available through the client for everyone. Not those with the time and resources to make, use, and/or run them. For an example of addons we shouldn't have. A list on screen of all enemies showing their spec, ilvl, and active health bars....that's complete crap. Or macro's that remove the human element of timing your skill chain. Just smash this one button to deal damage and chain-cc the target while you dance back and forth since you're free to mess around while hitting the one button on your mouse. Or seeing what a person is casting as a big icon and have the name beamed across the screen with sound effects telling you to silence/interrupt the target. No, that needs to be something the player learns to anticipate and account for themselves. I see this a lot when I play my warlock in PvP. Very rarely does anyone interrupt my fire spells. But they almost always interrupt my Chaos Bolt. Perhaps some pick up on the small animation color difference. But more than likely it's because their addon allows them or even warns them that a Chaos Bolt is incoming and to prevent it. PvP was once a measure of skill with the highest having real talent and bragging rights. Now, not so much. Yes, skill is still required. But when the systems can largely be automated and made transparent to the player. It takes a lot away from it all.
Comments
Having a community create mods has hugely improved the overall interface of MMO's thanks to Blizzards mods. People are very creative and there is more creativity in a 10 milion players then in any possible development team
What Blizzard did is good, they took the modding community and added or restricted possibilities where it went to far or not far enough.
A community will need those tools they think they need, both for convenience as well as for making the game easier. You cant have one witotuth the other..
I raided in Vanilla and other MMO's witouth DBM and even then we read up on the forums to find out how to defeat a certain boss... it was timeconsuming and many people could not handle this... There is just a very very small group of players that can handle progression raiding witouth mods, but then this is the part they like of the game, they wouldnt want it any easier. Most others they just want the archievement and the loot and dont care how to get there, for those players there are mods like DBM... If Blizzard changed this situation many people in both camps would be unhappy
So now back to your orriginal point... camera position zooming out. Why did Blizzard change this? what will the game win and what will it loose? And will people actually leave the game or go and play different content?
Maybe its part of the ActionCam addition which adds a lot of immersion to solo gameplay...
Best MMO experiences : EQ(PvE), DAoC(PvP), WoW(total package) LOTRO (worldfeel) GW2 (Artstyle and animations and worlddesign) SWTOR (Story immersion) TSW (story) ESO (character advancement)
I meant to state that those mods which have become intrinsic to the game (DBM and Threat Meter for example) should simply be incorporated directly by Blizzard. And increased restrictions on mods outside of UI customization. As I gave an example of. There's a mod that allows you to see the name, spec, ilvl, and current health of all enemies in a BG/Arena. Which you can then set targeting macros so that you and others instantly target certain individuals. Anyone without this mod will have to wait until they see the enemy in action to know what to expect. This gives the team who has more people using that mod an advantage upon the initial clash. And allows them to carry an early advantage. You can also have premade groups which macro a focus target assist. Which will allow one individual to coordinate all DPS in the group to a single target. Just like a multi-boxer having all toons target a single person for instant deletion. If that's not allowed but the alternate addon and premade can do the same thing. Then it defeats the purpose all together I think. Things such as this, when used against individuals who are queing up solo is incredibly lop-sided.
My main gripe with all the mods rests with PvP to be direct. As I also said, several classes can create a macro string that allows them to spam a button on their mouse while moving about and focus their attentions on their surroundings and position. And then have to pay zero attention to ability activations and global cooldowns. Not to mention not having to mouse to or move your hands to reach buttons and skills that are not conveniently reached. If I can macro all my basic skills into a single button press. I can then place my extraneous skills to more accessible buttons and shortcuts. This is most helpful for classes with a lot of ability clutter such as Shamans.
Basically, I'd like to see a more hands-on approach by Blizzard to incorporate the must-have mods. And to cut out the mods that create unfair advantages in PvP. Having a premade group on VOIP is advantage enough. Giving them additional tools to increase the gap further from solo quo or those who don't run the same mods. Just creates a more exclusionary game environment where you're forced to take those addons and run in groups. Or forever be at a disadvantage and not likely to participate.