Guild Wars 2

Hi,

Could you consider giving us an option to phase out the player character when taking screenshots?

pros:

• Since we’d see the results only outside of the game it wouldn’t break immersion within the game like a toggle fpp option would be.
• Lets you compose while seeing the character and it would also take a regular screenshot.
• No camera height adjustment for the different races, since the camera stays in place
• No new/adjusted animations
• Usable only out of combat, outside of dialog & not available during personal or living story, one can always revisit those places (some) for screenshots.
  -> Since fighting always indicates a direct interaction with the world originating from the player, the 3rd person perspective is justified I believe
• You could make it an item, like a camera or a turtle sitting in a cloud. Charge for it and create overpriced hipster bundles. Or a dedicated key, like stereoscopic screenshots
• Enables us to create screenshots for an audience to project their own ideas instead of forcing associations with the character displayed.

cons:

• Can be mistaken for official screenshots?
• People could say you are charging for something that is free. Easy fix -> don’t charge

I’d also like to ask you to revisit the decision made two years ago regardless of this proposition. I’m sure you had a more comprehensive list of pros and cons and if possible could you re-examine those if it is feasible to do so.
If you come to the same conclusion with additional/new reasons, can you communicate those with the players?

There are two ideas clashing I believeo

• the world being persistent and existing regardless of the presence of the player character and thus should be possible to be viewed “naturally” without the schizophrenic nature of the 3rd person perspective
• and two, the idea that within Guild Wars 2, the player character is the most valuable asset and/or best feature in the game and should be displayed at all times.

Tl;dr

give camera or option to create fpp screenshot, doesn’t change angle/perspective, compose with character in picture, save 2 screenshots with/out pc, prevents immersion breaking fpp toggle option, hipster bundle, it’s not that long go read it plz

Please not all devs at once, your presence in the forums is obnoxious!

Thank you and have a great weekend and anniversary!

Simpler suggestion:

1) Turn it on.
2) Trust players to be able to zoom out if they can’t see properly.

Not happening..

CrashTestAuto.9108:

Simpler suggestion:

1) Turn it on.
2) Trust players to be able to zoom out if they can’t see properly.

The simplest solutions are usually the best!

CrashTestAuto.9108:

Simpler suggestion:

1) Turn it on.
2) Trust players to be able to zoom out if they can’t see properly.

It’s not about seeing properly and more about skills and effects not being displayed the right way. You could also examine every texture up close and their visuals are optimized for a certain viewing distance, I suppose. This wouldn’t change for instance even if you run up close to a wall, the camera would still be behind the invisible you (only in the screenshot of course, the character never disappears in game).

what you have suggested is pretty much what players have been saying the last 2 years, I figured I take a different approach.

Hamfast.8719:

The simplest solutions are usually the best!

Thank you, I agree. Using a true first person perspective and subsequent changes to skills and effects would be lots of work, phasing the player out for screenshot would not.

Guys, the camera need to be positioned on characters head not lower back. Try to zoom and you will see nothing of beautiful graphic because we can only see back of our character model all over the screen. The camera focus need to be on the head. That is number one. Number two, we need FOV slider. And that’s it. Thanks.

First person view, I don’t see much of combat advantage tho, mostly it’s gonna give you disadvantage of limited visibility during combat.

What’s there more to first person view?

There’s the option to move your camera positioning to left or right, I keep it on right, so that my character isn’t all infront of me, tho it hasn’t mattered much.

FrostSpectre.4198:

First person view, I don’t see much of combat advantage tho, mostly it’s gonna give you disadvantage of limited visibility during combat.

This is exactly why the Devs have said that they don’t see it happening anytime soon.

But what we want them to understand, is that many of the people asking for First Person View are not interested in using it for combat. They don’t want to turn the game into a First Person Shooter.

We want the ability to mouse-scroll our viewpoint all the way in and out, just like in GW1. We want to do that for big characters with low ceilings. We want to do it for screen caps without our toons in the foreground. We want to do it for looking UP and not having our toon block our view.

And the nice thing is that they ALREADY HAVE THIS! First Person View was there during the betas at one point, and the Devs have been monkeying around with it periodically ever since. It is HERE, but they aren’t releasing it to us because of the combat issue.

We want them to understand that combat is NOT an issue for everyone. We DON’T all want a First Person Shooter. Give us what you have, and it will be enough. If we get into combat while zoomed in to First Person, all we need to do is scroll our mouse wheel to zoom back out.

There’s nothing hard about this at all. Just enable it for us and emphasize that it is not a recommended mode for combat. We’ll love you for it.

The only reason I’d use first person view is for Jump Puzzles/Platforming. Especially on Charr/Norn. Their camera angels are so terrible that, for me, first person view is basically necessary.

I would be happy if they kept it as a toggle option in the menu, and when you selected it, a pop-up appeared saying that first-person mode would put you at a disadvantage in combat, and that spell effects may not appear correctly (if that is indeed the case).

No one who wants first-person view wants it for combat (that I have heard of), and this would alert other players that it would be a bad idea to use it in combat.

I don’t think it is a big enough deal to need that sort of disclaimer, as dozens of games have allowed it, and there has never been an uproar about problems associated with it. But if Anet thinks it is a big enough problem, this will eliminate the need to support it for combat, which is currently their stated objection to it.

FPV is almost a necessity for many jumping puzzles.

ipan.4356:

FPV is almost a necessity for many jumping puzzles.

I wouldn’t say necessity, especially on Asura. But I got through every single jump puzzle on my Sylvari with no camera issues, and FPV wouldn’t have helped much on my Sylvari. (For me personally). But on my Charr and Norn characters, platforming is a pain, especially when there is a lot of stuff for your camera to get caught on.

Like in Skyrim: enable FPV by scrolling close. Checkbox no-FPV/yes-FPV in options menu would be very bad idea.

Place enable toggle for this feature to menu for us (me) for testing. I posted other screenshots related feature suggestions recently, and they could be tested as well.

When scrolling close, don’t fade the char out too soon. I would like to take close screenshots of my char.

In vista and jumping puzzles, the char mostly does not fade invisible enough, when the environment pushes the camera closer. Only what I see, are teeths and eye balls. That should be adjusted too.

Skyrim has a FPV camera mod which can be used to see own hands and weapons better, or the like.

AnniMira.2506:

Like in Skyrim: enable FPV by scrolling close. Checkbox no-FPV/yes-FPV in options menu would be very bad idea.

I would tend to agree with you, but first-person view is already implemented using this check box. I have seen it in the game engine itself. I therefore know it would require no extra work for them, because I have used it and I know that it works exactly the way i would expect a first person view to in an MMO.

If they did this, they would only have to add the warning message so players did not think first-person view was a good idea for combat.

If I had my personal preference, it would be for the camera and the first-person mode to function in the same way it does in literally every other MMO I’ve ever played. But that is not how the camera is designed in this game, so far as I can tell.

Having the check box would give the vast majority of players what they want, which is a way to take screenshots or do machinima without having their own character in the way of the shot. Obviously it isn’t as ideal or as elegant a solution as simply scrolling, and players might miss some opportunities because of the time it takes to make the selection, but there is a key advantage. The option I suggest is already in the code, and is therefore much more likely to be a realistic possibility. The devs have made it clear this is not a priority, and they don’t want to put a lot of work into making it function in the way that seems most natural to us. I would rather have the option at all, than ask for the perfect solution, and get nothing.

If they make camera like in The Secret World it would be great.