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[hairrorist]

I've been playing in dev mode to test various things and have become absolutely addicted to the camera control freedom it allows. I'm begging you to give us the devmode camera in future releases.  I understand that you want to avoid the RTS vibe, but I assure you that this is not lost when I am allowed to zoom.  75% of the time  I play zoomed in, but that style of play simply does not work for support oriented ships.  The orders system will  prevent this from ever losing the feeling of controlling one specific ship of a fleet in combat.  I also understand that you want people to see the detail of the sprites, which is certainly valid because they are exceptional, but I've found that while playing in dev mode I nearly always stay zoomed in when directly engaging in an assault.

At the minimum, world map zoom is essential.  Constant clicking gets old, and so does constantly hitting tab to bring up the map to make sure that my course is still correct to catch a fleet that is moving offscreen.

[Hopelessnoob]

Yes for the campaign map zoom, my mouse holding down button is getting tired holding it down all the time to keep moving.

[Alex]

The campaign map, I think, will get better in other ways (such as possibly being able to select a movement destination from the actual map). Also, I just added a key to speed up time 4x (still experimenting with it, but it certainly takes care of any travel-related tedium!).

but that style of play simply does not work for support oriented ships

Can you elaborate? And also, are you aware you can target an enemy ship and press 'z' to switch your view to it (useful for weapons like the Tachyon Lance, in particular).

The main problem is that zooming out more *really* impacts performance. I don't want to just punt on that and say "well, if your computer is slow, don't zoom out as much" - that seems lame to me. I'd rather focus on making the UI good enough to make the game work within a less extreme zoom range. Besides that, how it looks does deteriorate - not just because you can't see all the detail, but because there are artifacts introduced by the zoom level.

[hairrorist]

Hmm, performance is indeed an issue.  I have a monster rig so I don't notice it .  Ships with longer range weapons could really use a zoom boost.  When using really long range weapons with range hull mods my weapon range can extend to just beyond the visible screen.  Also, at least to me, any larger ship makes the tight zoom feel a little claustrophobic and restrictive.  I don't know what else to say other than that it feels wrong and uncomfortable.  I think a 20-25% increase in zoom capabilities would go a long way toward making it feel better, but I do not know what impact that would have on performance.

I'm aware that you can lock the view to a target, but that has its limitations as well, namely, you're unable to see whats going on around your ship.  Its handy for the Tachyon for sure, but for those weapons that have just a little too much range when you're in a ship that can and does need to maneuver, locking your view onto something other than your ship will get you killed quick.

So I dunno.  If the extreme camera freedom in devmode causes noticeable slowdown, at least a small increase in zoom would be very nice.

[Alex]

So I dunno.  If the extreme camera freedom in devmode causes noticeable slowdown, at least a small increase in zoom would be very nice.

Cruisers and capital ships got an increase in zoom in 0.5a. I think that's where it's going to stop, though - it's a slippery slope, because I heard a lot of "a small increase would be nice" sentiments before this release, too

[hairrorist]

Is it possibly a variable that can be modded?  There's probably a way for everyone to be happy

[Alex]

Hmm, yeah, it most likely will be. Right now it's not, but there are all sorts of internal settings like that I'd like to make available for mods. One of those things that's not hard, but is time-consuming.

[Avan]

There's a devmode? How do I enable this? Why didn't I know of this before?

[hairrorist]

In your starfarer directory, go to core\data\config and open up settings.jsp.  Change devmode=false; to devmode=true; save and close.

Start Starfarer.

K gives money, there's a new menu at the intro screen that lets you play with the default loadouts, bunch of other commands.  Just play around with it. 

[Paul]

How about making a zoom level option? That way folks with high end computers can set it higher, and folks who don't can set it lower. It would default to the current levels.