Guild Wars 2

(tl;dr towards the post’s end)

Hiya guys,

I’ve taken a rather long hiatus from GW2 after getting used to Action Camera-style MMO play in Champions Online. GW2 just felt way too slow, too clunky in comparison after having played CO that way and I never really got back into GW2.

Today, I heard about the new Action Camera mode for the first time and immediately rushed to get online and try it. At first, I was overjoyed: The mode seemed to be exactly what I had hoped for! In CO, I was able to configure Tab Targeting in a way that Tab always targeted the enemy closest to the cross-hair, which can be done using the right mouse button in GW2’s implementation. Perfect! Optional snap-in ground targeting plus a hotkey allowing you to temporarily disable it or vice versa, depending on your global setting. If that hotkey was a toggle rather than “keep it pressed to switch modes”, again perfect, but even in its current form: wonderful! Time to dive back into GW2 and explore all the new stuff with wonderfully dynamic combat!

Or so I thought until I went and tried. The first thing I realized was that in Action Camera mode, the maximum angle that could be between my character’s walking direction and the selected (i.e. locked-on) enemy while permitting targeted abilities to hit was significantly smaller. That alone didn’t discourage me yet, though.

What really discouraged me was the realization that, if an enemy gets between the cross-hair and my targeted enemy, the attack would not only ignore my selected target, but target the enemy now closer to the cross-hair (or sometimes miss both of them, depending on the state of the Autotargeting settings). In other words, the so-called target lock doesn’t lock properly. This gets even worse if you want to use the “Look Behind” key to really just look behind you while still auto-attacking the target you locked on: Only the camera turns, but then the character shoots, stabs or slashes into the direction of the cross-hair, which will then be behind the character, completely ignoring whatever target you selected.

The way it is right now, Action Camera is a nice gimmick, but it lacks the necessary precision to be considered an actual alternative to the classic control schemes. One to two little details would redeem the whole Action Camera immediately, though:

tl;dr: If you use Action Camera mode and lock on a target, whether by right-clicking, tab targeting or even click-targeting before enabling Action Camera, creature-targeted skills should actually be directed at the target you locked on, ignoring the cross-hair. That’s what locking onto a target means, after all.
Since right-clicking while neither allies nor enemies are in the cross-hair is the only way to clear the selection during Action Camera play, this may require the implementation of a hotkey for clearing the currently selected target other than ESC, otherwise this might become another deal-breaker especially in scenarios where free space is hard to target.

Even with only the first of these two changes implemented, ideally just as an option for the sake of those who prefer the Action Camera as it is right now, I’d be all over GW2 again. Please, please, pretty please make it happen.

Aironfaar

EDIT: changed “single-target attacks” to “creature-targeted skills” in the tl;dr section

Very good points and very well written. I’m having the same issue but couldn’t have said it any better. Thank you.

Same here.
With some tweaking of the stated issues, the action cam could become a real alternative.
I would really like to see that.

Thanks for pointing it out in such an appropriate way!

Best regards,
VC

How does one use said action camera?

F11 -> Control Options -> Camera -> Toggle Action Camera

Bind a key to it – done!

flies away

Thank you for the kind words! It’s good to see that I’m not the only one with that issue. Let’s hope this also reaches the devs.

Also on the subject of improving the “Action Camera”.

The position of the gunsight crosshair needs to be adjustable. It is presently stuck in the center of the screen. Combat action almost always happens in the lower 1/3 of my screen, not the center.

The gunsight crosshair should be changed to a different symbol. A gunsight scope looks out-of-place in a fantasy game. A simple circle would suffice.

Aironfaar.6218:

If you use Action Camera mode and lock on a target, whether by right-clicking, tab targeting or even click-targeting before enabling Action Camera, creature-targeted skills should actually be directed at the target you locked on, ignoring the cross-hair. That’s what locking onto a target means, after all.

I think you misunderstand the point of action camera. The whole goal of it is your aiming with crosshair. Your skills are supposed to go the crosshair. Lock onto target in action camera is more show me this persons stats and this is my prefered target.

The only other way I can describe it is think of a fps. A lot of them you can lock onto a target, but your bullets don’t home in on a locked target you still have to actively aim for it. That’s the intended functionality here.

What your looking for, is closer to the base aiming in the game using free camera while holding right click and having snap ground target at current target enabled.

Aironfaar.6218:

What really discouraged me was the realization that, if an enemy gets between the cross-hair and my targeted enemy, the attack would not only ignore my selected target, but target the enemy now closer to the cross-hair (or sometimes miss both of them, depending on the state of the Autotargeting settings).

This only happens when autotargeting is enabled. I do exactly what your trying to do with druid all the time, I target an opponent behind a stack of opponents and beam away hitting all of them. This only works on skills that pierce or cleave.

Aironfaar.6218:

Since right-clicking while neither allies nor enemies are in the cross-hair is the only way to clear the selection during Action Camera play, this may require the implementation of a hotkey for clearing the currently selected target other than ESC, otherwise this might become another deal-breaker especially in scenarios where free space is hard to target.

We have this its mislabeled as lock auto target. The intention of the button is it holds the current target for as long as you press what ever its keybound to. Taping this drops the target completely.

Aironfaar.6218:

The way it is right now, Action Camera is a nice gimmick, but it lacks the necessary precision to be considered an actual alternative to the classic control schemes

I completely disagree. Action camera works almost perfectly fine. Either auto targeting is getting in the way, or you lack precision to be able to follow a target or want your skills to home in on targets (which none of the camera modes do).

My only complaint with action camera is that right click + left click makes you run forward and does neither intended action (attack or select target).