Action Cam + Thief = Issues

Action Cam + Thief = Issues

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Posted by: Kageseigi.2150

Kageseigi.2150

I just entered the game for the first time since the update. I managed to get the Action Cam working, and really enjoy the concept.

From just playing with it a few minutes, two things seem to happen with Heartseeker, though my lag really kept me from telling if it is working as normal…

1. A second Heartseeker can be performed in a different direction immediatly following the first. There’s no need to give a slight pause between them. That’s the good news.

2. The bad news… pointing the camera down does not shorten the Heartseeker’s leap, making it much more difficult to jump inside Black Powder multiple times.

Can anyone else confirm this with the Action Cam on? I REALLY want to love it, but the second issue makes me second guess it. Thanks!

EDIT:
Has anyone found any other issues with the Thief’s Action Cam? Please share.

Suggestions to overhaul the Thief…

* * * Thief Trait Shakeup * * *

(edited by Kageseigi.2150)

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Posted by: AlCojester.4316

AlCojester.4316

There’s also a also problem with steal, it goes on full cooldown when you’re out of range and infiltrator’s strike does not work most of the time (to clarify, when you target someone, it conducts the skill as if you had no target so it’s just an awkward stationary infiltrator’s strike) even if you’re in line of sight.

(edited by AlCojester.4316)

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Posted by: Kageseigi.2150

Kageseigi.2150

Interesting. Thank you.
I just changed the topic title to reflect issues with the Thief in general.
Maybe we’ll get more reports.

Suggestions to overhaul the Thief…

* * * Thief Trait Shakeup * * *

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Posted by: Doggie.3184

Doggie.3184

There’s also a also problem with steal, it goes on full cooldown when you’re out of range and infiltrator’s strike does not work most of the time even if you’re in line of sight.

Steals been buggy regardless of cam for me lately. Pathing is extra messed up again and been putting my Steal on full CD w/o shadowstepping me in both normal and action camera while IN range for me, with enemy targeted of course. Line of sight has always been horrible anyways ever since they added the restrictions.

My main gripe with action camera atm is not being able to aim at my feet. I wanna Vault Goomba Stomp in place lotta the times, especially when fighting bosses pve.

| Fort Aspenwood (NA): Sylvari Daredevil Thief Main: All Classes 80. |
Please Remove/Fix Thief Trait: “Last Refuge.”
“Hard to Catch” is a Horrible and Useless Trait. Fixed 6/23/15. Praise Dwayna.

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Posted by: AlCojester.4316

AlCojester.4316

@Doggie
Really? kitten … I was in HotM just then testing on dummies and 10/10 times on normal camera is just a 5 sec cooldown for out of range steal for me. I think I’ll be using normal camera until they’ll fix these issues.

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Posted by: Doggie.3184

Doggie.3184

HotM is generally flat terrain in that area. Tiny changes in elevation or small pebbles will cause Steal to pull out a tiny dagger and seppuku.

| Fort Aspenwood (NA): Sylvari Daredevil Thief Main: All Classes 80. |
Please Remove/Fix Thief Trait: “Last Refuge.”
“Hard to Catch” is a Horrible and Useless Trait. Fixed 6/23/15. Praise Dwayna.

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Posted by: Kageseigi.2150

Kageseigi.2150

Tiny changes in elevation or small pebbles will cause Steal to pull out a tiny dagger and seppuku.

I so want that animation!
Surely, it is more honorable for Thief to die by his own blade than that of his enemy!

Suggestions to overhaul the Thief…

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Posted by: Adinay.2589

Adinay.2589

Normally: When you have a target selected and you are running away (facing away) and you use Shortbow 3 (disabling shot) your character performs an animation that is quickly turning and shooting back at your target but evades in the direction you were running (away from your target).
With Action Cam: When you lock a target (right click) and run away from your target and use shortbow 3… you just awekwardly shoot in front of you and evade backward toward your target.

I hope this makes sense to everyone as I know most people don’t even realize thief can normally do this, but it is VERY helpful and action cam stops it from working.

EDIT: I found that using the “look behind” hotkey before using SB 3 allows it to work properly, but that’s almost to difficult to be worth it. Very clunky feeling and can not see where you are going. Useful to do it this way only if the target is too far away to see what you need to evade (long distance projectile)

(edited by Adinay.2589)

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Posted by: SoulSin.5682

SoulSin.5682

Normally: When you have a target selected and you are running away (facing away) and you use Shortbow 3 (disabling shot) your character performs an animation that is quickly turning and shooting back at your target but evades in the direction you were running (away from your target).
With Action Cam: When you lock a target (right click) and run away from your target and use shortbow 3… you just awekwardly shoot in front of you and evade backward toward your target.

I hope this makes sense to everyone as I know most people don’t even realize thief can normally do this, but it is VERY helpful and action cam stops it from working.

EDIT: I found that using the “look behind” hotkey before using SB 3 allows it to work properly, but that’s almost to difficult to be worth it. Very clunky feeling and can not see where you are going. Useful to do it this way only if the target is too far away to see what you need to evade (long distance projectile)

Thats intentional actually.

Following anet logic, you are not supposed to use skills behind you. (even tough they always worked that way.

On a note, “Rever Withdraw” trick doesnt work with action camera.
Since your character is on a permanent free camera state.

Tough, you can use withdraw to run away. Assuming you are facing the opponent and holding S to run, withdraw will always send the player “in the direction of the screen”.

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Posted by: Joel Helmich

Joel Helmich

Gameplay Programmer

Next

Thanks for the reports.

There’s also a also problem with steal, it goes on full cooldown when you’re out of range and infiltrator’s strike does not work most of the time (to clarify, when you target someone, it conducts the skill as if you had no target so it’s just an awkward stationary infiltrator’s strike) even if you’re in line of sight.

I assume you are aware of this given your question, but just in case or for the sake of other folks, there are some hidden features of action camera. One of these allows you to use enemy-targeted shadowstep skills from outside of their range by aiming at the target (this and some other features are described in this thread). You won’t see a circle crosshair, just the X shape, but the skill will still target the enemy.

There is unfortunately a bug with this where the out-of-range allowance does not work if you have autotargeting turned off and are instead manually locking targets. I have a fix for this locally but can’t give an ETA on when it will go live.

Steal has some extra issues on top of this, regardless of action camera. It can be fired without a target, but goes on full cooldown if you do so. If fired on a target that is out of range, it goes on interrupt cooldown. These things come from content rather than code (roughly, design rather than programming), but I can ask around to see what’s up. It’s quite possible that there’s a legitimate reason I’m not aware of.

pointing the camera down does not shorten the Heartseeker’s leap, making it much more difficult to jump inside Black Powder multiple times.

The behavior you want is almost certainly a bug in the first place, so I’m not sure what to tell you.

My main gripe with action camera atm is not being able to aim at my feet. I wanna Vault Goomba Stomp in place lotta the times, especially when fighting bosses pve.

As vault is ground-targeted, if you are also using snap ground targeting, there is a secret interaction with action camera where if you aim the camera straight down, you will ground target right at your feet. This might get you what you want.

Normally: When you have a target selected and you are running away (facing away) and you use Shortbow 3 (disabling shot) your character performs an animation that is quickly turning and shooting back at your target but evades in the direction you were running (away from your target).
With Action Cam: When you lock a target (right click) and run away from your target and use shortbow 3… you just awekwardly shoot in front of you and evade backward toward your target.

There is actually a bug with the animation for shortbow 3 (also true for Ranger shortbow 3, which shares the same animation), and it shows up even without action camera, though in a different form. If you stand so that your target is pretty far off to the side, but not behind you, and you use skill 3, your character will jump straight back from their current facing direction, NOT away from the target as it supposedly should (also the arrow will fire sideways and look all janky). This happens because the animation is flagged so that the skill doesn’t try to aim you at the target; as far as I can tell the reasons for this are lost to history, but there it is all the same.

With action camera, specifically when you don’t have/are out of range of a target, things get extra funky. Because the skill isn’t allowed to change your facing, if you start running toward the camera and then use skill 3, you’ll jump away from the camera/toward your target, though usually only after you’ve previously used a skill. It’s all quite magical and clearly incorrect.

As far as I can tell this should be fixable, but as before I can’t give an ETA on when such a fix will be live.

On a note, “Reverse Withdraw” trick doesn’t work with action camera.
Since your character is on a permanent free camera state.

I’m assuming you mean using Withdraw as an advancing move? You may be able to get use out of the About Face keybind, which does now work with action camera (and regular right-mouse-held-down mouse look, too).

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Posted by: fluidmonolith.3584

fluidmonolith.3584

Thanks for the details Joel. I just tried turning on auto-targeting and shadowsteps (Infiltrator’s Signet and sword’s Infiltrator’s Strike) now work fine. They did not work with auto-targeting off. Steal, as others have mentioned, does not work either way.

I also tried Revenant’s Phase Retreat, and it does not work regardless of whether auto-targeting is turned on – it simply fails to activate and says that a target is needed. It works when action camera is turned off.

Does anyone know what happens with Guardian shadowsteps (Judge’s Intervention and sword #2)? Are there any other targeted shadowsteps I am forgetting?

Maguuma
Astaxanthas (Revenant), Hepaticus (Engineer), Eosinophus (Thief)

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Posted by: Joel Helmich

Previous

Joel Helmich

Gameplay Programmer

Regarding Phase Traversal, I just made a post about that on the revenant forums: here

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Posted by: Kageseigi.2150

Kageseigi.2150

Ah, thank you so much, Mr. Joel… for everything you’ve done! I’m really enjoying the Action Cam!

If I may ask, would you consider implementing an option where the camera actually follows/tracks the target (keeping the target centered) like some flight sims have? While we can do it manually, it would be wonderful to have it done automatically with a key toggle.

pointing the camera down does not shorten the Heartseeker’s leap, making it much more difficult to jump inside Black Powder multiple times.

The behavior you want is almost certainly a bug in the first place, so I’m not sure what to tell you.

Oh, interesting. Thank you.
Yeah, in case you’re not aware, with the normal camera, Thieves can point the camera straight down to cut their Heartseekers very short… as long as there is no target selected. It allows us to leap through Black Powder up to 4 times, allowing us to extend our Stealth duration for a few more seconds… which we really do need just to survive. It becomes second nature to point the camera down, it seems.

Suggestions to overhaul the Thief…

* * * Thief Trait Shakeup * * *

(edited by Kageseigi.2150)

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Posted by: Doggie.3184

Doggie.3184

I used the Snap to Target function for a while but in the end didn’t like it because it was making it harder to hit moving enemies at range. Any chance aiming straight down could just be added without having to snap to target? ;/

| Fort Aspenwood (NA): Sylvari Daredevil Thief Main: All Classes 80. |
Please Remove/Fix Thief Trait: “Last Refuge.”
“Hard to Catch” is a Horrible and Useless Trait. Fixed 6/23/15. Praise Dwayna.

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Posted by: Quadox.7834

Quadox.7834

I used the Snap to Target function for a while but in the end didn’t like it because it was making it harder to hit moving enemies at range. Any chance aiming straight down could just be added without having to snap to target? ;/

As far as i know there is a key bind for snap ground target. Hold down the keybind, look at your feet, spam use vault, there you go.

Yaniam [Mesmer]

^ Usually only characer that i play on

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Posted by: Zodryn.4216

Zodryn.4216

Ah, thank you so much, Mr. Joel… for everything you’ve done! I’m really enjoying the Action Cam!

If I may ask, would you consider implementing an option where the camera actually follows/tracks the target (keeping the target centered) like some flight sims have? While we can do it manually, it would be wonderful to have it done automatically with a key toggle.

pointing the camera down does not shorten the Heartseeker’s leap, making it much more difficult to jump inside Black Powder multiple times.

The behavior you want is almost certainly a bug in the first place, so I’m not sure what to tell you.

Oh, interesting. Thank you.
Yeah, in case you’re not aware, with the normal camera, Thieves can point the camera straight down to cut their Heartseekers very short… as long as there is no target selected. It allows us to leap through Black Powder up to 4 times, allowing us to extend our Stealth duration for a few more seconds… which we really do need just to survive. It becomes second nature to point the camera down, it seems.

If it’s really a bug, it hasn’t been addressed since launch, and it shouldn’t be. If you change it, it’s a huge nerf to an already suffering class.

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Posted by: Torkable.9378

Torkable.9378

Joel, I believe the problem with infiltrator signet AlCojester is describing is the same as I described in the other/wrong thread

It normally teleports towards the target regardless of the direction the character is facing, with action cam it does not.

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Posted by: Doggie.3184

Doggie.3184

I used the Snap to Target function for a while but in the end didn’t like it because it was making it harder to hit moving enemies at range. Any chance aiming straight down could just be added without having to snap to target? ;/

As far as i know there is a key bind for snap ground target. Hold down the keybind, look at your feet, spam use vault, there you go.

Umm, no. That just wastes time on a class that can’t afford to waste time in combat when 1 hit can kill you. They could just patch it to let me aim down normally and problem solved.

| Fort Aspenwood (NA): Sylvari Daredevil Thief Main: All Classes 80. |
Please Remove/Fix Thief Trait: “Last Refuge.”
“Hard to Catch” is a Horrible and Useless Trait. Fixed 6/23/15. Praise Dwayna.

(edited by Doggie.3184)

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Posted by: Sir Vincent III.1286

Sir Vincent III.1286

Action Cam is not for Thief IMO. It’s unreliable and it makes my game play messy.

However, with my Ranger (and perhaps with other ranged professions) it is working flawlessly.

One thing I would like to see is the ability to chance the crosshair — the dot is nice but I prefer a circle.

http://sirvincentiii.com ~ In the beginning…there was Tarnished Coast…
Full set of 5 unique skills for both dual-wield weapon sets: P/P and D/D – Make it happen
PvE – DD/CS/AC – If that didn’t work, roll a Reaper or Revenant.

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Posted by: Doggie.3184

Doggie.3184

Action Cam is not for Thief IMO. It’s unreliable and it makes my game play messy.

However, with my Ranger (and perhaps with other ranged professions) it is working flawlessly.

One thing I would like to see is the ability to chance the crosshair — the dot is nice but I prefer a circle.

Depends on YOU personally. For me I feel 100% faster, a lot more accuracy and response time, easier movement, etc. I am using Staff and P/P though so haven’t tried it with D/P exploit play a whole lot if that’s the reason it suffers for some. I did however find heartseeker more reliable for dropping target and creating distance w/o accidently flying in wrong direction. Now if they’d just fix my one need for it I’ll be happy.

| Fort Aspenwood (NA): Sylvari Daredevil Thief Main: All Classes 80. |
Please Remove/Fix Thief Trait: “Last Refuge.”
“Hard to Catch” is a Horrible and Useless Trait. Fixed 6/23/15. Praise Dwayna.

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Posted by: Sir Vincent III.1286

Sir Vincent III.1286

Action Cam is not for Thief IMO. It’s unreliable and it makes my game play messy.

However, with my Ranger (and perhaps with other ranged professions) it is working flawlessly.

One thing I would like to see is the ability to chance the crosshair — the dot is nice but I prefer a circle.

Depends on YOU personally. For me I feel 100% faster, a lot more accuracy and response time, easier movement, etc. I am using Staff and P/P though so haven’t tried it with D/P exploit play a whole lot if that’s the reason it suffers for some. I did however find heartseeker more reliable for dropping target and creating distance w/o accidently flying in wrong direction. Now if they’d just fix my one need for it I’ll be happy.

I used Staff+P/P too and vaulting with ActCam on is messy. I can’t vault to the right to force my target to turn, for example, while facing my target since I have to move the camera. In general, ground targetting is a mess.

In comparison, the game Smite has the best Action Camera because while the crosshair remains at the center, you can move the ground targetting along the line between you and your target. Less clunky and less messy.

http://sirvincentiii.com ~ In the beginning…there was Tarnished Coast…
Full set of 5 unique skills for both dual-wield weapon sets: P/P and D/D – Make it happen
PvE – DD/CS/AC – If that didn’t work, roll a Reaper or Revenant.

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Posted by: Doggie.3184

Doggie.3184

Action Cam is not for Thief IMO. It’s unreliable and it makes my game play messy.

However, with my Ranger (and perhaps with other ranged professions) it is working flawlessly.

One thing I would like to see is the ability to chance the crosshair — the dot is nice but I prefer a circle.

Depends on YOU personally. For me I feel 100% faster, a lot more accuracy and response time, easier movement, etc. I am using Staff and P/P though so haven’t tried it with D/P exploit play a whole lot if that’s the reason it suffers for some. I did however find heartseeker more reliable for dropping target and creating distance w/o accidently flying in wrong direction. Now if they’d just fix my one need for it I’ll be happy.

I used Staff+P/P too and vaulting with ActCam on is messy. I can’t vault to the right to force my target to turn, for example, while facing my target since I have to move the camera. In general, ground targetting is a mess.

In comparison, the game Smite has the best Action Camera because while the crosshair remains at the center, you can move the ground targetting along the line between you and your target. Less clunky and less messy.

It doesn’t take much to turn your camera toward the location though. I have pretty high mouse sensitivity and camera speed so I haven’t had a problem with aiming vault any direction or doing a full 180 to retreat.

| Fort Aspenwood (NA): Sylvari Daredevil Thief Main: All Classes 80. |
Please Remove/Fix Thief Trait: “Last Refuge.”
“Hard to Catch” is a Horrible and Useless Trait. Fixed 6/23/15. Praise Dwayna.

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Posted by: Sir Vincent III.1286

Sir Vincent III.1286

Action Cam is not for Thief IMO. It’s unreliable and it makes my game play messy.

However, with my Ranger (and perhaps with other ranged professions) it is working flawlessly.

One thing I would like to see is the ability to chance the crosshair — the dot is nice but I prefer a circle.

Depends on YOU personally. For me I feel 100% faster, a lot more accuracy and response time, easier movement, etc. I am using Staff and P/P though so haven’t tried it with D/P exploit play a whole lot if that’s the reason it suffers for some. I did however find heartseeker more reliable for dropping target and creating distance w/o accidently flying in wrong direction. Now if they’d just fix my one need for it I’ll be happy.

I used Staff+P/P too and vaulting with ActCam on is messy. I can’t vault to the right to force my target to turn, for example, while facing my target since I have to move the camera. In general, ground targetting is a mess.

In comparison, the game Smite has the best Action Camera because while the crosshair remains at the center, you can move the ground targetting along the line between you and your target. Less clunky and less messy.

It doesn’t take much to turn your camera toward the location though. I have pretty high mouse sensitivity and camera speed so I haven’t had a problem with aiming vault any direction or doing a full 180 to retreat.

Yeah, it might take time to get used to it and I like the fact that it’s optional.

http://sirvincentiii.com ~ In the beginning…there was Tarnished Coast…
Full set of 5 unique skills for both dual-wield weapon sets: P/P and D/D – Make it happen
PvE – DD/CS/AC – If that didn’t work, roll a Reaper or Revenant.

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Posted by: Torkable.9378

Torkable.9378

After playing around a bit, it basically comes down to:
I love how ground targeting works with action cam,
I hate how targeted skills work with action cam.

If I had full control over the set up, I’d turn mouse look and quick cast on so I don’t have to hold the mouse button, give myself a little dot cross hair for aiming ground target skills and targeting players, and everything else would work the exact same as in normal mode.

All the aiming stuff with the crosshair gets in the way and screws with how skills work and target the wrong player. If I’m “locked” on to a player, I expect to be locked on, not change targets because I’m not looking at them… Currently locking on to someone basically does nothing, its not what I would call locked anyway. It will change targets anyway…

tl;dr: action cam does too much

(edited by Torkable.9378)

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Posted by: SoulSin.5682

SoulSin.5682

I also have a conplain about the whole crosshair stuff.

If I have a target locked I want attack the locked target ONLY.
Or I wouldn’t had bothered selecting it at all.