Automatically follow unit with camera

This may be a bit advanced, but I thought I’d just suggest it anyway, perhaps for a ways down the road. I think it would be neat if we could set the camera to automatically follow a given unit (citizen or otherwise) by selecting them and perhaps clicking some button or pressing a hotkey (similar to Dwarf Fortress or the small camera in the original Majesty: A Fantasy Kingdom Sim). This would be very nice during the dead moments while you’re waiting for certain tasks to be completed, when you’re just looking around anyway. I find myself frequently getting the camera down to about eye level and moving backwards to attempt to keep the footman or other citizen in view, to give an example.

It would be particularly nice if you could still move the camera around and zoom in and out, only the focal point would be set. Very useful way of getting a closer look at entities that move around a lot, that way, as well.

3 Likes

so, not the oft requested “first person mode”, but rather a camera that floats (closely) above/behind a unit?

1 Like

Well, yes, except that as I suggested in the last paragraph, I think it would be nice if it wouldn’t be a set distance/orientation, just following a point from whatever distance or angle you’re looking at it. That way you could get up close and circle a unit to study them as they move, or zoom out a bit to look at the lands your trapper traverses on their way to their trapping area and back, etc.

But with this, wouldn’t it be possible to have an almost perfect first-person mode anyway by zooming in?

I suppose so, if you sort of placed your camera inside the character. Well, it would depend a bit on what part of the model the camera would be focused on how well that would work, I think. If done right, you could see my suggestion as a sort of superset of the first person mode suggestion, then :slight_smile:

I just think being able to see your town as if you were a settler yourself would be really neat and easy to implement if your idea was used.

That’s true, I would definitely enjoy that as well. Well, let’s hope they do something like this, then! It actually seems to me like it shouldn’t be all that difficult to implement.

1 Like

This could be a very useful “debug” sort of feature as well, when expanding your settlement and you already have a lot going on. With this, you could watch the routes your settlers are taking, see if there are any hindrances to your units’ paths, or if there’s a particular reason your villagers seem to keep antagonizing all the hostile mobs in an area while you’re busy elsewhere… You know, like wander into a goblin camp because it’s the shortest route. That would be bad.

Was about to suggest this too, but I found this topic, so I guess I will just revive it.

I’m so used with this function in other games, that the first times playing SH I thought it was possible too.

I expected to click on the name of one hearthling (or select it at the therapist) and the camera would follow it until you move the camera yourself. Right now, when we do this, the camera focus on the character, but don’t keep following him.

1 Like

Quite an idea I wouldn’t mind seeing. I like seeing where individual hearthlings go and wander just as much as watching them build the building I do, when they actual start them that is (for the ones I have found out they refuse to).

All in the life of a hearthling to at least have maybe a follow button in the way that was described. No need for first person, but not against that either. Just simply a button to press to focus and follow the specific one selected at current camera view/angle; maybe even adjust as they move along, and have to click the button again to release follow mode. Might be best with a shortcut maybe to toggle the mode.

simple in theory, but might be a littler more to it in the code. Especially to have specific functionality to it. Granted it is not as advanced as AI, so I personally don’t see why not, as it isn’t taking control; it is merely following the AI around… Although if I was a hearthling, that would be a bit creepy like food that talks back or stares at you constantly… (muppets reference)

3 Likes

That is not hard to code at all, we already have the focus into a hearthling, when he is selected or when we click on his name at the lower ui. To follow him, the game just need to repeatedly call that function every frame. We can already do it manually simple spamming the mouse click on his name.

3 Likes

Never said it was hard… besides that is a subjective term…

Just saying it may have more to the coding then may appear if more complex things are to be done with it.

A repeated call for each frame might be a bad idea depending on how the camera works already.

The camera itself already has the function, but bound to keys. Movement could simply be updating camera position to align with the hearthling movement. Kind of like a looking at it as a level plane, as it would be a static setting by default. As in the angle/zoom the toggle was left in. From that have it follow where the hearthling goes.

I mean isn’t the camera setup like this is a 3D environment as it appears? Might not be understanding what you mean by calling the function, as I only know so much of programming. Novice and Hobbyist at best. More of an understand in programming theory than the actual programming, even that only to a degree.

If camera is indeed setup as a 3D environment, than it would be quite simply be just moving the camera along an axis or plane. Just keeping pace with the selected hearthling.

Now the extra thing I was talking about is being able to as well change the angle at whim according to user input. The right mouse button and wheel as it already does. However still keeping pace with the hearthling at the same time. After all following a hearthling sometimes might need an adjustment to angle depending on obstruction. That could be a manual input separate from the general following the camera would do with the hearthling position.

I hope I explained that correctly… Well is my thoughts in the way I see it, since I am not completely familiar with all the technical terms or actual coding terms. Since each bit can be theoretically changed, but of course with each language there is some standardization, and I have only touched on a little bit of C/C++ along with a few of the scripting languages…

Just saw one of the last twitchs (Twitch at 1:06:00 mark) and Tom mentioned he wants it but it is low priority and “nobody is asking for it”. So… we want it! :stuck_out_tongue:

5 Likes