First Person, Third Person, your opinion?

[Sifer2]

Hello all, since no one else has mentioned this that much I figure I would bring it up. In the original Planetside it was primarily an FPS. But allowed you to go into third person if you wanted. Which while it was ok for vehicles it did create some exploit tactics indoors allowing you to see around corners. Which makes me wonder how it will work in Next.

Personally I would like it to be exclusively First Person view. From the time you log in to your character you see it from their view. Even when entering vehicles you would see a FP animation of opening the door an climbing in an then drive, pilot the vehicle from that view. Such as looking out over the dashboard of a jeep or viewing through a monitor like driving tanks in Battlefield. I think it would make the game more immersive an put everyone on the same playing field.

I even think that if your not wearing armor you should have no HUD. When you put armor on then your holographic display helmet would kick in an show your statistics. And to reach inventory, map an game menu's you would use a hand held PDA device. An of course if you look down you should see your feet. I can't believe that's not a standard feature in FPS yet lol.

Of course that's just my opinion. I imagine there are some out there that would scream at having to drive vehicles in first person view since they are so used to the easier third person method. An some probably even would not mind having the whole thing third person now that games like Uncharted an Gears make it popular. But I would prefer the more fair an consistent FP view across the board. What do you guys think?

[Kumoblade]

I love first person. however, I do like the idea of an Over-the shoulder view like in Gears. The reasoning behind this is that while in 1st person, Depth Perception is horrible. While having an Over the shoulder option, you can see how you relate to your surroundings and have a better depth perception.

If its close enough to the shoulder then you don't have to worry too much about Corner exploiting. however, there should be sticky cover and the ability to lean around a corner to see.

I think vehicle options should be both first person and 3rd person. The reasoning for this is transports without windows. You'll be stuck staring at the interior of a vehicle (which would have to be modelled, and vehicle interiors are a way Modellers cut corners.

[DviddLeff]

Got to be first person all the way.

Third person exploiters who sit at corners with HA using third person combined with lag to get essentially free kills is one of the main reasons I left the game.

As for vehicles its a tougher one, but I would honestly prefer to have a first person view.

Immersion is the way forward, and having everything appear to be either on your HUD in your helmet, or on hand held devices would be perfect. For example why not put hacking, healing and repairing bars on the support tool rather than have them pop up in the world?

PS2 is an opportunity to do things right from the start, and removing third person is one "sacrifice" that must be made.

[Kumoblade]

Both have their pros and cons.

The con to 3rd person is that when people come up behind you they can block your line of sight.

The con with 1st person is that its tough to gauge distance, perception, etc.. as well as your tail end when you're in vehicles.

It would take a rediculous amount of work to add mirrors and such to vehicles that you can use to see where your ass end's at when it comes to driving, etc..

Also, if you're forced to first person while in vehicles, when you're down in the bay controlling a gun thats up top, it'll be even more work to set up a remote visual to know where the guns firing.

While I'd love if they could make 1st person just that much more Immersive, i don't know if SOE is willing to put forth the effort.

[Tikuto]

1. Only First-Person View when as Infantry, MAX or whatever.
2. Alternate between Third-Person and First-Person when driving. Cannot rotate camera around (like Liberator belly-camera view). - This allows the spatial awareness of your character. When driving in-game, by looking left and right can greatly mess-up gameplay whereas by just having a Third-Person View saves all that trouble.

[ANaKeR]

Infantry

• First-person view ONLY

Vehicles

• First-person view with the ability to look 90 degrees to either side (180 degree of view from the seat) and the a mapped key to look directly behind the vehicle.

• Third-person view that's 'dragged' behind the vehicle (not locked directly behind the vehicle like in PS1)

Radar shows a topographical view (with contour lines) of the surrounding terrain with objects showing up (trees, rocks, bridges, base structures, vehicles, etc.).

Additionally, a ~30 second instant replay from a directors point of view with the ability to display in slow motion

[Tikuto]

Originally Posted by ANaKeR

Infantry

• First-person view ONLY

Vehicles

• First-person view with the ability to look 90 degrees to either side (180 degree of view from the seat) and the a mapped key to look directly behind the vehicle.

• Third-person view that's 'dragged' behind the vehicle (not locked directly behind the vehicle like in PS1)

Radar shows a topographical view (with contour lines) of the surrounding terrain with objects showing up (trees, rocks, bridges, base structures, vehicles, etc.).

Additionally, a ~30 second instant replay from a directors point of view with the ability to display in slow motion

Anaker wins this thread.

[Sifer2]

Well in regards to vehicles not being able to see their ass end. In the future I would think most vehicles could come equipped with those rear view cameras. With maybe ATV's an Jeep's being the exception since your character just looking backwards would be enough. Thing is I like the idea of first person driving just because it takes more skill from the player an makes sneaking up on someone in a vehicle more viable.

Also I don't really have problems with depth perception in first person. I am not really sure what people mean by that. I mean if the object is taking up your entire monitor screen then its right in front of you lol. First person for infantry is great since it means you can't watch your own back someone else has to. Encouraging teamwork an of course it means you can't see around corners without being exposed.

[DviddLeff]

Thats the thing; I want to be able to attach boomers to an enemy vehicle and blow it up; no chance of that if they are in 3rd person mode.

[Kumoblade]

Originally Posted by DviddLeff

Thats the thing; I want to be able to attach boomers to an enemy vehicle and blow it up; no chance of that if they are in 3rd person mode.

Touche.

I almost forgot that's one of the BIG features I wanted.

I wanted Anti-Vehicle to be more hands on and less spammy. Same with regular vehicle fire.

Boomers/Remote charges planted on vehicles was one of the big ones I wanted for urban combat.

[DviddLeff]

How did the battlefield games do it?

I definitely remember sticking C4 on people vehicles and laughing manically as I ran to get out of the blast area with the detonator in my hand, but I also remember 3rd person in vehicles... did they just have no cross hairs in third person? Or it may have also been that 3rd person was reasonably close to the vehicle, and that they couldn't turn the view point?

[Furret]

Infantry

First person all the way. No questions asked.
About not having an HUD, If they were to have armor affect your HUD, they should have helmets as a separate entity. Personally, I'm more of a hardcore gamer, and I'd like to see only certain guns have crosshairs, and if you're using a shotgun or sniper rifle, you probably shouldn't have crosshairs.

Land Vehicles

The driver should have first person view only, with radar for topographical features, and a rear view camera. Gunners would have first person only, while passengers have free rotational cameras. These cameras would function visually as guns do, but obviously would not be able to fire. These cameras should also be destructable, and if an enemy shoots a camera, the camera is broken until the vehicle is repaired.

Air Vehicles

Air vehicles ought to have third person, although it's unrealistic, for people that would want to fly in formation, it would be a necessity. I haven't played in forever, and I don't recall if Air Vehicles had first person. I don't think they did, but they should.

[Implacable]

Infantry should stay in first person: it really breaks immersion to have it any other way. I likewise prefer first person in ground vehicles, at least in the gunner's spot, but I understand if pilots require third. And as to air vehicles, third person seems necessary, although some sort of guidance-via-arrow-keys/move-your-head-around-with-mouse hybrid might work.

Originally Posted by Furret

Infantry
Air Vehicles

Air vehicles ought to have third person, although it's unrealistic, for people that would want to fly in formation, it would be a necessity. I haven't played in forever, and I don't recall if Air Vehicles had first person. I don't think they did, but they should.

They did, I think: I believe I remember haplessly trying to dogfight in Mosquitos while in 1st.

[Furret]

yeah, although first person might be interesting for Reavers and their missiles

[Sifer2]

I don't think you really NEED third person for air vehicles. In battlefield I flew the helicopter in first person just cause it was default view and I got used to it first. For formation purposes I assume air vehicles would have a radar an you could just line up with other squadron members on it. So long as the radar was a good one an made it clear what altitude a target was at.

Really though I think first person only air vehicles could potentially make dogfighting much more fun since third person makes it so much easier to constantly keep your opponent in sight an maneuver against him. In first person only that would open the door for doing sneaky moves that cause your opponent to totally lose track of you at least for a moment.