Poll: What do you think about Over the shoulder Cameras?

I am developing a RPG that will use the over the shoulder camera view. I realise this can be hard to do combat with, but I am trying to get a certain point of view to display the graphics and let the player fully explore the world I am creating. There will be a way to get out of this view, a map mode I am doing, so you can go back and look at areas (but can't control your character), so you won't be stuck in it forever. I am also considering the possiblity of other top downish camera modes to help with the combat, but overall, I am wanting the over the shoulder view to be the main and most commonly used view.

Can people bear with it? Or is it something only 3 people out of thousands enjoy?

Thanks for your time.

The thing you need to consider with 3rd person cameras is that do detract from the players abilty to interface with the world, combat is more difficult and simple movement is often made considerably more difficult.

If the terrain is simply that beautiful that it counters these disadvantages then i supouse it could work, however, surely cinematics could also display these wondeful locations without the degredationof overall playability.

Last time i played a map with a 3rd person camera, (warchasers II) i was on the verge of throwing up by the time i was done.

I dunno... It looks really cool, and ToS managed it really well, but it's hard to turn round to run away...

Allow a camera change and all will be happy :D

Ya, I was thinking how ToS did it. I was also thinking of some different camera views that would give better area coverage for casting spells and maybe an easy system to change them. I am not going to sacrifice gameplay for graphics, but I do plan on having both. :)

I love 3rd person cameras. I have vertigo, but I dont really get sick or dizzy with them. The only thing I dont like about the third person cameras is the way it dissorients your sense of direction and when it gets in the way during combat. If you could fix this by making the camera zoomable like in WoW I would like it even better.

I've just decided to incorporate an over the shoulder camera in a map I'm making, so I wanna share my opinions with you:
1) Above all else, leave them able to see a little bit of the ground BEHIND their hero, otherwise they won't be able to do 360-degree turns.
2) Remember, if you're locking the camera to a unit like that, think about what'll happen when they die.
3) You've probably already thought of this, but if the camera's locked to a single unit, NO MERCS AND NO SUMMONS!
4) The scenery WILL get in the way of the camera. That's inevitable, and there's next to no way of stopping it, however: you can minimize the problems by upping the scale of doodads like trees (so the camera goes UNDER the branches.
5) Make sure to set the camera smoothing factor to 2.00 or something quite high, or it'll be unplayably jerky.

As long as i can take off the camera lock I dont mind.

But i hate it. Take "We were snipers" for example. Very respectable map, but they fucked it with the camera.

Warchasers, they didnts fuck anything up its just a camera lock to keep you from looking ahead.

Horse racing..... i can understand why they did it, and it was cool, but you moved with the arrows instead of the mouse and in mostly a straight line so it was fine.


I guess if the terrain is linear and straight forward, it would be fine..... but dont do it.

Its not like the wc3 engine has any superb percs of third person view....

There good if you have the right movement system. If your using Warcraft III's movement system where you right clikc an area to mvoe to it, it makes it absolutely horrible. It's very hard to control and very difficult to see things when the camera is constantly moving.

if the terrains great go for it..makes an rpg amazing i think..i was thinking though...why not use the mouse wheel as an advantage...

make camera that when you scroll (zoom) in like you can in wc3, make it so you can see the enviroment..hat way you can scroll out for combat to default game view..then for walkin round you can zoom down.

Rinpun, listen to terrainer666, he knows what he's talking about.

If you could get the right efect, you could possibly make it work. I wouldn't use the Warcraft III movement system, as player's would be focusing on trying to move the right way instead of exploring the world.

god, I hate 3rd person cameras.
Xcept, Is saw one good one. Goblin Exosuit map. You move with arrow keys and it works so beutifuly, not jerky or anything.

wth. my rep got fucked while i was away.

I finally solved the problem! Right:
Do you agree that the MAIN time you have problems with a third person camera is when you're in combat, and there's a tree or something in the way? Because your camera is locked to the facing of your unit, and your unit won't face in a different direction because it is already trying to face the unit it's attacking, you can't see much. The camera isn't really that much of a problem while you're walking around, as the view is normally only obstructed for a short time as you run past, am I right?
I have solved it! I've made a camera that you can lock to the facing of your character by pressing the up arrow, or you can rotate independantly of the unit using the left and right arrow keys. It even rotates properly, constantly moving while you hold the keys, and ceasing to rotate when you release them. I'm also going to add an "escape" function to the down arrow, so that when you press it, it makes your unit run a short distance in the direction of your base, so if you do have problems, it'll let you run away easily. The whole system is even multiplayer! (I hope...)
Anyway, I'll release the triggers for this at a later date, when I've either finished making, or given up on finishing, the map I'm making using it.