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  1. #1

    Legion - Max Camera Distance Reduction

    Legion - Max Camera Distance Reduction
    The latest Legion build reduced the amount you can zoom out with the camera.


    Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
    This is one of this changes that we realize will be intensely unpopular with the group of players that has used console/WTF CVars to increase camera zoom beyond what the UI slider permits. For everyone else, they probably won't see what the big deal is, since it's removing a hidden option that most never used. But for those who are accustomed to an increased max zoom, it's changing the way you're experiencing the game in a way that feels restrictive and simply worse. So why would we do that?

    In a broad range of gaming genres (from RTS to Action RPG), being able to zoom out and see more of the world around you provides an objective advantage in the form of information. Due to that competitive advantage, camera-unlocking or increased zoom distance are features commonly found in third-party hacks for a variety of games. Whatever the maximum allowed, that's what competitive players will use in order to maximize performance, even at the expense of the game's overall look and feel.

    We strongly believe that there needs to be parity in this area between players who are using the default UI and those who have addons or knowledge of hidden console variables. One option was certainly to just allow the in-game slider to go all the way up to the CVar hardcap. But that scale is beyond the one around which the game was designed at its core. The development team builds the world, its art, its combat mechanics, and other interactions, around the base UI experience and scale. At the 3.4-CVar zoom level, your heroic Warcraft avatar takes up about as much screen-space as one of the dozens of marines you might control in a game of Starcraft.

    Basically all of us started out playing WoW at the UI-enabled zoom level, and fell in love with that world enough that we now find ourselves here posting on an expansion beta forum discussing its future. At some point, we saw a raid video and wondered how they could see so much of the field at once, or we saw a forum post or got a helpful tip from another player, and learned that if you typed "/console CameraDistanceMaxFactor 4" you could zoom out way more, and we never looked back. But was that original experience bad, or have we just grown accustomed to something different?

    There may also be a bit of hyperbole in the discussion around the change. This is a screenshot I just took with the max UI-selectable zoom settings in the current Legion build: http://i.imgur.com/e8vFT6t.jpg

    I'm not sure it's fair to say that this level of zoom entails your character dominating the screen, or removes any awareness of nearby threats.

    Finally, why did this happen suddenly now, late in the beta cycle, seemingly without any communication? Honestly, the intent was for the change to have been in place from early alpha onwards. I believe that what happened was that one of the CVars (CameraDistanceMaxFactor?) was clamped from the start, but a second CVar (CameraDistanceMax?) was overlooked. That issue was entered and tracked as a bug, and was just fixed recently. As a development team, at this point we're fixing up to 2000 Legion bugs a week, and it's not always obvious which player-facing build will contain a particular one of those fixes. This clearly wasn't something we ever imagined could just be swept under the carpet.

  2. #2
    Why not have "/console CameraDistanceMaxFactor 4" build in the slider? Why limit down and not expand up?
    Atoms are liars, they make up everything!

  3. #3
    Legendary! The One Percent's Avatar
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    Fucking retarded.
    You're getting exactly what you deserve.

  4. #4
    By far the most idiotic and stupid decision ever made. And his arguement.......... i have no words. If they want to kill of raiding and raiders in general and make wow into facebook game they are doing a great job. Now ill wait the thread with 1000 pages and complains about ppl having headaches and illness by the 4k graphics of wow (sarcasm off)especially if u are tank or melee.

  5. #5
    Not happy. I've actually always used this, even when I was new

  6. #6
    Stood in the Fire Firen's Avatar
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    At first I though 'Ah who cares', but now I realize that this will probably ruin this great Dynamiccam addon for the action camera :< was so looking forward to seeing big bosses at full size

  7. #7
    Worst change in Legion (so far)

  8. #8
    Quote Originally Posted by Kryos View Post
    Why not have "/console CameraDistanceMaxFactor 4" build in the slider? Why limit down and not expand up?
    It's to make the game more immersive and to give stuff size again. This goes along to help make the action cam better for those who will use it. They have made this great expansive game and for people to be zoomed out to the point where there character is a mere pixel on the screen seems a bit dumb, doesn't it?

  9. #9
    There's going to be so much salt flowing that I need to get some blood pressure medicine.

  10. #10
    Diablo 3 = Awful Close Camera.
    Warcraft 3 = Awful Close Camera
    Starcraft 2 = Awful Close Camera
    Heroes of the Storm = Awful Close Camera
    and now WoW...
    What's next? Max Resolution 640x480? hey it worked 20 years ago for Diablo so why not now...
    Why they keep forcing those horrible close cameras in all of their games. It's not funny anymore.

  11. #11
    Warchief Tucci's Avatar
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    Honestly, this seems unnecessary and just takes away more control. The vast majority of people were probably only using it to take screenshots or to get a better view of a zone, not for a "competitive advantage".

    This is especially stupid when combined with the new draw distance.

  12. #12
    Elemental Lord Spl4sh3r's Avatar
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    I can only see this as an issue on things like the middle screenshot on the examples. You would want to see everything of a mob and not just the legs without being forced to put the camera angled upwards. But other than that I mostly just use it on boss fights to see what everyone else are doing. For me it isn't really an issue that they are removing this since it puts me closer to my character, which is the one I am actually playing. I am not playing the world with a character in it, I am playing the character in a world.

  13. #13
    Having No as the top option almost threw me off for a second but then I remembered those polls are randomized each time it loads, probably better that way

  14. #14
    Quote Originally Posted by Thunderi View Post
    It's to make the game more immersive and to give stuff size again. This goes along to help make the action cam better for those who will use it. They have made this great expansive game and for people to be zoomed out to the point where there character is a mere pixel on the screen seems a bit dumb, doesn't it?
    Try and tell me all the above when u will play tank in mannoroth. Also try and raid lead as well while enjoying being inside its model seeing absolutelly nothing but a bunch of low polygons.

  15. #15
    Quote Originally Posted by Thunderi View Post
    It's to make the game more immersive and to give stuff size again. This goes along to help make the action cam better for those who will use it. They have made this great expansive game and for people to be zoomed out to the point where there character is a mere pixel on the screen seems a bit dumb, doesn't it?
    Isn't that up to the user how they enjoy the game? Make it at least available in raids and battlegrounds where the graphics don't matter and you want good overview and good fps.
    Atoms are liars, they make up everything!

  16. #16
    Annoying decision. I'd be fine with it though if it meant they'd decorate their raid/dungeon maps better. Nothing's worse than having your camera suddenly jammed up your toon's rear because you panned past where a tree or banner or alcove or pillar was. Some level of transparency with scenery and the character would be invaluable.

  17. #17
    Titan Al Gorefiend's Avatar
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    Hope they make bosses smaller then. I couldn't begin to imagine how a fight like Garalon would work when the maximum distance allowed by the UI brings you up to his foot.

  18. #18
    Quote Originally Posted by fattbeard View Post
    There's going to be so much salt flowing that I need to get some blood pressure medicine.
    And rightfully so. It's a stupid backwards change. They should have added /console CameraDistanceMaxFactor 4 to be the new max distance with the slider. Not remove something pvp players and raiders are used to for 10 years now.
    Atoms are liars, they make up everything!

  19. #19
    I don`t think that the reduction in camera distance is really that bad of a thing.
    Most boss encounters are fought in closed rooms where the camera was limited thanks to the ceiling anyway.
    It is still possible to zoom out far enough to watch the whole raid.

    What I personally find astonishing is the amount of hatred and toxicity in the answers to the post.
    Are people really believing that attacking watcher and calling him an idiot will make blizzard revert the change?

  20. #20
    Epic! Tryuk's Avatar
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    Gonna be honest, I thought the console commands became obsolete when they introduced the max distance slider in MoP? Thought the slider allowed for the max camera distance that you previously needed to change with CVars

    That said, I've always played with my camera all the way zoomed out in raids (at least in Wrath and Cata) because it's objectively better, I hated it aesthetically though. In the end I don't really care, makes bosses look bigger /shrug. It really isn't that big of a deal

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